Masters

Structure of master’s degrees

Validated master's degrees

The studies pertaining to university master’s degrees are intended to facilitate students’ attainment of an advanced training directed towards academic specialisation, professional specialisation or initiation in research activity. The official qualification obtained on finalising these studies is that of university master’s degree in T awarded by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in which T is the title of the master’s degree.
 
Depending on the participation or not of other universities or research centres, the master’s degrees may be:

• Master’s degrees wholly organised and taught by the UAB.
• Inter-university master’s degrees organised jointly by the UAB and other universities. As regards these master’s degrees, particular attention should be paid to the Erasmus Mundus master’s degree, organised by universities within the EU Erasmus programme.

 Admission to official master’s degree studies requires:

• An official Spanish university degree, or
• A degree awarded by an EHEA higher-education institution that would, in the awarding country, provide admission to master’s degree studies, or
• A degree from an educational system outside the EHEA, without the need for prior official recognition of that degree, provided that it can be shown that the studies taken in such a degree are of a level equivalent to official Spanish degrees and that they would provide admission to master’s degree studies in the awarding country; admission through this path does not imply any approval or official recognition of the said degree, even though the master’s degree to which it provides admission has full official recognition.

Additionally, admission to a master’s degree programme is dependent on fulfilling the specific requirements and criteria determined by each master’s degree.

Depending on the student’s previous studies, the coordinator of the master’s degree may require the candidate to take additional background credits (up to a maximum of 60 ECTS)
 
Credits and structure of the master’s degree programme

To obtain a master’s degree, students must successfully complete—as a general rule—a total of 60, 90 or 120 credits, distributed over 2, 3 or 4 semesters, respectively. Master’s degree are structured in modules of 6, 9, 10, 12 or 15 credits and culminate in a project (dissertation) representing between 6 and 15 credits, which must be publically presented and defended.
 
The structure of the master’s degree contemplates 15, 18 or 30 obligatory credits (excluding those corresponding to the dissertation), for master’s degrees of 60, 90 or 120 credits, respectively.
 
The master’s degree may consist of different areas of specialisation. In such a case, in addition to the common obligatory credits (15, 18 or 30), the master’s degree includes 9, 12 or 18 obligatory credits for each specialisation (excluding those corresponding to the dissertation), for master’s degrees of 60, 90 or 120 credits, respectively.