History
The Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona was established in 2008, through the merging of the former Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences with the University School of Business Studies. The new Faculty combines the strengths and continues the legacy of the two former centres, building on their history to forge its own future.
The Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences
A law of 17 July 1953, ratified by decree on 16 June 1954, created the Faculty of Political, Economic and Commercial Sciences. First year teaching began in the academic year 1954-1955 and an additional year out of the five that made up the pre-EHEA degree (llicenciatura) was implemented every subsequent year.
Initially, teaching took place in the afternoon in the classrooms of the Humanities Quadrangle of the Historic Building. The faculty's own building was designed by the architects Subías, Giráldez and López Íñigo and inaugurated 28 September 1967.
From the academic year 1972-1973 it was named the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences. At that time, the pre-EHEA degree in Economic and Business Sciences was made up of four compulsory courses and, in the fifth year, students chose their specialization between General, Business Economics and Insurance. In that academic year, the course curriculum was modified so that only the first year was compulsory and students chose their specialization from their second year: General Economics, Business Economics, Public Administration and Sociology.
Subsequently, several modifications were introduced to the course curriculum, such as those of 1976-1977 and 1980-1981, up to the changes of 1992 and 1999 that led to the creation of three complete pre-EHEA degrees (Economics, Business Administration and Management and Sociology), two second-stage pre-EHEA degrees (Actuarial and Financial Sciences, and Research and Market Techniques) and a Pre-EHEA diploma (diplomatura) in Statistics.
The first doctoral thesis was read at the Faculty in the academic year 1963-1964 and the production of theses has increased ever since.
The University School of Business Studies
In the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, the Junta de Comerç de Barcelona promoted political economic studies and accountability and bookkeeping studies, which is the direct antecedent of the first institutionalized commercial studies, first in the Escola de Comerç (1850) and the Escola Superior de Comerç (1887), later transformed into the Escola d’Alts Estudis Mercantils.
At that time, the Escola d’Alts Estudis Mercantils de Barcelona was already very important, as can be seen from the fact that there were more than 1,000 enrolled in 1902.
The new building on the Diagonal campus was designed by the architects Carvajal Ferrer and García de Castro and built in 1961.
Lastly, in 1971 the Escola was integrated into the University of Barcelona as the University School of Business Studies, and a trial run of the Diploma in Business Sciences was implemented. In the academic year 1974, a course curriculum that was kept for nearly two decades was implemented, and in 1992 the new curriculum was approved.
The Faculty of Economics and Business
The combination that resulted in the new Faculty of Economics and Business was carried out right before the approval and implementation of the new programmes that stemmed from the adaptation to the European Higher Education Area. The new bachelor's and master's degrees were created with the aim to build a project that gathered the collaboration of all the agents involved, with a desire to collaborate and share and the certainty that people are the most valuable asset of an institution and knowledge is the fundamental element of its value.
Ten years after its foundation, the balance is very positive. Integration into the new Faculty has taken place satisfactorily and the former centres are not referred to any longer. The size of the new Faculty and the promotion of its diversity were key in the combination.
Bibliography:
- Pont Clemente, Joan Francesc. Memòria d’un sexenni renovador 1992-1998. Barcelona: Escola Universitària d’Estudis Empresarials,1999.
- Pascual, Jordi. «Petita història dels ensenyaments d’Economia i Empresa». A: La Universitat de Barcelona: Història dels Ensenyaments (1450-2010). Barcelona: Publicacions i Edicions de la UB, 2010.
