Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also known as the ULPGC ("Spanish" Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) is a Spanish university located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the capital city of Gran Canaria island. It consists of five campuses: four in Gran Canaria (Tafira, Obelisco, San Cristóbal and Montaña Cardones) and one in the island of Lanzarote, with Tafira being the largest and most important. The University was created in 1989 after many years of petitions from the people of Gran Canaria. The university was incorporated through the University Reorganization Act of 1989. ULPGC was created as the aggregation of the teaching centers of former "Universidad Politécnica de Canarias", focused on engineering (civil, electronics and computer), and the centers from neighboring Universidad de La Laguna that were located in Las Palmas province.

ULPGC is publicly funded by the Canary Islands regional government. According to a popular newspaper ranking, the ULPGC placed 36th out of 37 ranked universities (El Mundo newspaper study) [ [http://aula2.elmundo.es/aula/especiales/2007/50carreras/concertados.html 50 carreras | elmundo.es ] ] .

Academic programs

The university offers 55 grade titles, 19 Master, and 41 Ph.D. programs to over 24,000 students. [ [http://www.ulpgc.es/index.php?pagina=presentacion&ver=datos_globales ULPGC - Datos globales ] ]

The fields offered are heavily focused towards technical and engineering studies (Civil Engineering, Architecture, Software Engineering) but also include health-related grades (Medicine, Nursery or Veterinary medicine) and Humanities (History, Law, Social Sciences). ULPGC was one of the first universities in Spain to offer a specific title in "Sea Sciences".

The university has a Moodle-based virtual campus giving service to all traditional classroom-based teaching and specially to 5 fully on-line grade titles and 4 post-graduate programs. [ [http://www.campusvirtual.ulpgc.es ULPGC - Campus Virtual ] ]

Teaching and research staff

The majority of university teachers with doctoral degrees have completed both undergraduate and graduate work at the ULPGC (a tradition not looked badly upon in Spain [ [http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/2006_07_14/the_angst_of_ramon_y_cajal_researchers/(parent)/68 Ramón y Cajal, tenure, tenure-track ] ] [ [http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/profesores/universitarios/fueron/unicos/candidatos/ocupar/plaza/elpporsoc/20060619elpepusoc_3/Tes/ El 70% de los profesores universitarios fueron los únicos candidatos para ocupar su plaza · ELPAÍS.com ] ] ) and which only exacerbates endogamy, a recognized problem at the ULPGC [ [http://club.la-provincia.com/acto.jsp?pIdActo=158 Club Prensa Canaria ] ] . Particularly problematic is the disproportionate number of permanent teaching staff lacking doctoral degrees, and the university administration's willingness to place on permanent contract underqualified teachers as a cost-saving measure.ULPGC counts with over 2000 teacher/researcher staff, 58% on permanent positions (tenured) and 42% on temporal contracts, many of whom lack higher degrees. [ [http://www.ulpgc.es/hege/almacen/download/7049/7049498/31pdi_2005.pdf 3.1.PDI 2005.cdr ] ]

The university conducts research in several fields, especially in biomedicine, electronics and computer sciences, and marine sciences. [ [http://www.ulpgc.es/index.php?pagina=investigacion&ver=inicio ULPGC - Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación - Investigación ] ] Since 1989, research groups at ULPGC have been awarded approximately 2000 research grants (competitive funding from Spanish government and from international sources, mainly EU Science programs, a living testament to its academic achievement). As a result, the university has produced more than 3000 articles in peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed journals (a startling rate of 0.10 articles per year, per professor since the university's inauguration), as well as a number of books and magazine articles. [http://www.ulpgc.es/hege/almacen/download/7049/7049496/24resultados_de_investigaci.pdf]

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