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What will be the new university degrees 2026? What career opportunities are most in demand? Find out all about the new university degrees 2026 and the new trends in the labor market in our blog.
List of new university degrees 2026 in Catalonia
Universities are constantly innovating, adapting to demand, social changes, and new technologies. Each year, they submit reforms to existing degrees and proposals for new degrees to the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency. For this reason, over the years new qualifications emerge, and it is possible to follow the forecast of new university programmes for the upcoming 2026–2027 academic year.
University of Barcelona (UB)
- Labor Relations and Human Resources: this degree allows students to learn how to manage human talent in companies, from recruitment to the resolution of labor conflicts. With a practical approach, students will obtain the essential tools to manage labor relations in such a changing environment.
- International Hotel Management: Tourism continues to evolve and students in this degree will be able to master hotel management on a global level. In addition, students will learn about management, marketing and sustainability with a specialized focus on the international hotel industry.
- Marketing, Events and Entertainment: this degree combines marketing and events from a unique background. From campaign management to creating unforgettable events and experiences, the degree will prepare you for a very dynamic sector.
- Tourism + Digital Business and Innovation in Tourism: do you love tourism and technology? From destination management to digital innovation applied to the tourism sector, the degree will provide you with essential skills in such a competitive sector.
Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
- Double Degree in Psychology and Criminology: This is a six-year programme that combines the study of human behaviour with the analysis of crime and the judicial system. Its aim is to train professionals capable of understanding, preventing, and intervening in situations of risk, violence, and conflict. You will acquire knowledge that enables you to specialise in areas linked to the judicial environment, social intervention, and support for victims and offenders.
- Degree in East Asian Studies: This is not a new degree; rather, Korean has been added as a language option alongside Japanese and Chinese. It is a programme that provides in-depth knowledge of China, Japan, and Korea, combining intensive language learning with subjects on culture, history, economics, politics, and society. Its aim is to train profiles capable of understanding and managing international, cultural, and economic relations with this region.
- Degree in Humanities and Cultural Management: This is a reformulation of the former Degree in Humanities, updating its curriculum to adapt to the new challenges of the cultural sector. It combines knowledge of history, art, thought, and culture with skills in cultural management, preparing students to design, organise, and lead cultural projects and events in a sustainable and inclusive way.
- Degree in History: Within the already existing degree, the range of optional subjects has been expanded to strengthen career opportunities in areas such as the design of social responsibility policies, heritage management and conservation, archiving and documentation, and education.
Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) & University of Barcelona (UB)
One of the major new developments this year is the partnership between the UPC and the UB to offer two new university degrees in 2026.
- Technologies and Management of Telecommunications Companies: In response to the major technological advances of recent years, this university degree is designed to train hybrid professional profiles who understand technology in depth but also know how to manage companies, projects, and digital business.
- Technologies and Management of Agri-Food Companies: In line with the need for innovation, this degree combines engineering, agricultural sciences, and business management to train professionals capable of analysing, optimising, and managing companies in the agri-food sector.
Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC)
- Double Degree in Environmental Engineering and Marine Sciences and Technologies: Over five years, you obtain two degrees, learning to analyse, prevent, and solve problems related to ecology and the sustainable management of natural and marine resources. You will integrate technological tools, data analysis, and environmental monitoring.
University of Lleida (UdL)
- Degree in Geography and Global Challenges: Throughout the degree, students learn to interpret data, use technologies such as GIS and remote sensing, and understand the relationship between climate, society, and the economy. The aim is to apply this knowledge to territorial planning and to solving real-world problems from a sustainable perspective.
Pompeu Fabra University (UPF)
- Applied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: This degree combines the study of artificial intelligence with robotics, placing particular emphasis on interaction between machines and people, also known as social robotics. Its aim is to train professionals capable of developing innovative solutions in areas such as industry, healthcare, services, and automation, responding to the growing demand for specialists in AI and applied robotics.
Ramon Llull University (URL)
- Applied Mathematics: Unlike pure mathematics, this degree has a practical and technological focus, preparing highly sought-after profiles for sectors such as Industry 4.0, research, finance, and the development of solutions based on artificial intelligence.
Abat Oliba University (UAO)
- Medicine: From the beginning, the programme integrates contact with hospitals and healthcare centres, innovative methodologies such as clinical simulation and problem-based learning, and content linked to emerging fields such as digital health and artificial intelligence.
International University of Catalonia (UIC)
- Journalism: This degree incorporates a new specialisation in Corporate Communication, focused on the management of communication in companies and institutions, including strategy, reputation, internal communication, and media relations.
- Audiovisual Communication: This degree also incorporates a new specialisation in Production and Direction, aimed at providing more practical and specialised training in the development of real audiovisual projects, with subjects focused on filming, industry formats such as news programmes, series, music videos, and sound, as well as direct experience in the industry.
University of Manresa-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC)
- Law: Throughout the degree, students work on interpreting and applying the law through the analysis of legal texts, real cases, and simulations. It includes internships in law firms and companies, providing direct contact with the professional environment. The programme prepares professionals for legal practice, legal consultancy, corporate work, or entry into public administration.
What are the university degrees with the most professional opportunities at present?
According to the U-Ranking promoted by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research and the BBVA Foundation, the university degrees with the best career prospects and the highest demand from companies are the following:
- Medicine: this is the university degree that leads the ranking in the top 1 of university degrees with the most professional opportunities. Most students manage to work in something related. However, this degree is neither fast nor easy and requires a very high cut-off mark.
- Nursing: with a high demand for health personnel, this degree is a safe option, although it is very demanding and normally not very socially recognized.
- Dentistry: this degree has a lower volume of students, but with a high labor market insertion. Most students manage to work in private clinics, practice on their own or collaborate with insurance companies.
- Industrial organization engineering: this degree is not very well known, unlike the other engineering degrees. However, it offers a high employability of its students, as it combines technical and managerial knowledge, ensuring work in logistics warehouses, production or strategic management.
- Software and Applications Development: digitalization and technological development is changing everything. For this reason, this degree has one of the most promising options for students. Many companies demand hybrid profiles or value experience even above the degree. Currently, it is a sector with a very high demand.
- Pharmacy: the degree in pharmacy continues to be a good option in the science sector for students to enter the labor market quickly.
- Electronics engineering: it has a very high labor market insertion, thanks to the application in different sectors such as automotive, renewable energies, home automation or industrial control systems.
- Electrical engineering: this degree offers a high insertion in large companies such as consultancies or companies specialized in renewable energies.
- Telecommunications engineering: students of this degree design, manage and maintain communication systems, networks and mobile technologies, so the demand in this sector is still booming.
- Energy engineering: this is a lesser-known university degree but with a future projection that is booming with renewable energies and the need for a more sustainable energy model.
New trends in the labor market
The development of technology and artificial intelligence has brought about many changes in society and in the labour market. We are already seeing how these skills are entering the job market, and as a result, new university degrees are emerging to adapt to them.
Also, in recent years, new trends have been appearing in the labor market that both companies and workers will have to know how to adapt to. The following are the most important trends in the labor market:
- Training and adaptability: companies are starting to require workers trained in transversal skills such as leadership, critical thinking, communication, change management and digital skills. This training will allow workers to adapt to the different types of work, changes and demands of the sector.
- Digital transformation: companies need to digitize their work processes and automate work. As a result, some jobs will disappear and new jobs or new skills and ways of working will appear in which workers will have to know how to adapt.
- Elimination of routine and repetitive jobs: with the rise of new technologies and artificial intelligence, companies will have to make decisions in which many jobs will be replaced by machines and the skills of workers will be very important.
- Temporariness and outsourcing: many companies will require freelance workers, so new employment will be rare.
Flexibility: because of the global pandemic of 2019, telecommuting was instituted, something that has already been established for many companies. In addition, flexible schedules will allow workers to better combine personal and family life from work.
With these new trends in the labor market, there will appear professional competencies that workers will need to have such as:
- Critical thinking
- Communication skills
- Digital competence
- Adaptation to change
- Learning capacity
- Initiative
- Results orientation
- Availability for professional mobility
- Language skills
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