UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

Address: Campus de los Jerónimos s/n. 30107 Guadalupe, Murcia, Spain
Website: www.ucam.edu

Strategically located in Murcia, Spain, with a Campus of 15,700 students and around 1,000 professors, UCAM is a private Higher Education & Research Institution with sixteen years of history which offers 26 prominent European official degrees studies, 45 Master programmes and 17 PhD programmes, among other relevant studies. With a strong international vocation (http://international.ucam.edu/), UCAM students have the opportunity to develop their global perspective thanks to the joint programs, scientific collaborations and exchange agreements with more than 160 universities all around the world, including UC Berkeley, UC Stanford, Università di Bologna, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), PUC – Rio Grande do Sul, Wuhan University & Beijing Foreign Studies University.

UCAM can be considered a center of excellence in the field of higher education and research. Its teaching method is based on a personalized attention with reduced students per classes and a personal tutor for each student. UCAM also offers a modern system of distance teaching. UCAM is strongly linked with work world through study plans adapted to market exigencies, obligatory internships in institutions and enterprises in every program and research programs in collaboration with big regional, national and multinational companies.

It has infrastructures and labs which provide both the students and professors/researchers with excellent facilities to learn and put into practice their skills. The goal of the University is to train professionals capable of transforming society, shaping inequalities and promoting improvements that enable the creation of a fairer world. Since it was founded the UCAM has been committed to teaching and research quality, developing and implementing active methods of teaching and learning: small groups, tutorial support sessions, teamwork, internship programs in all degrees, end-of-degree project, new technologies, WIFI network throughout the campus, virtual platform, and numerous computer stations. It has allowed both professors and students to quickly adapt to the European Higher Education Area. The UCAM has the positive verification of ANECA (National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain) and the Ministry of Education with regard to 17 graduate degrees.

The Faculty of Sport (http://www.ucam.edu/estudios/grados/cafd-presencial) consists of 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students, and 64 teachers (47 CAFD department, including 11 credited). In addition to the degree, it offers the Higher Level Training Course in Animation of Physical and Sport Activities, Four Masters (in the areas of Health and Physical Education, Sports Management, Sports Performance and Movement Arts), and two doctoral programs. Our student body has doubled in the past four years, from 9 groups, in 2008-09 to 20 in 20012-13. In this course, nearly 250 students will graduate as 1st graduating class (12th promotion since 1998-99). The Faculty of Sport Sciences belongs to the following professional Associations and/or bodies:

UCAM has 5 research groups on Physical Activities and Sport Sciences, which have developed several R&D projects in the fields related:

The Faculty of Sport has organized numerous national and international conferences since 2008, as well as a meeting about doping, one graduate training day, two meetings regarding Olympic issues, and several scientific seminars. We would like to remark a collaboration agreement between the Spanish Sports Council and UCAM to support Madrid Olympic Candidacy, signed on October 2013. Event planning experience:

  • First International Conference on Science for Sports UCAM, 2008.
  • V Basketball Iberian Congress, 2009.
  • II International Congress for Sports Sciences UCAM, 2009.
  • First International Athletics Conference UCAM, 2010.
  • X Conference Graduate Orientation CAFD, 2012.
  • National Days of Sport Psychology UCAM, 2012.
  • V Congress of Human Kinetics of the Euro-American Network of Human Motricity (REMH), 2012.
  • I National Olympics Day: Road to London 2012.
  • II National Conference on Olympics: London 2012 to Madrid 2020, 2012.
  • XI Conference on Graduate Orientation CAFD, 2013.
  • IV NSCA International Conference, 2014.

UCAM has also a Sports Center which hosts a biomechanics research lab, whose technological equipment and infrastructure is composed of high-speed cameras, a 3d motion analysis system, radars, rotary linear encoder, photoelectric cells, force platforms, contact platforms, Electromiograph (EMG), isokinetic dynamometer, dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), gas analyzers, vibratory platforms, etc. From this technology, we can get to know the validity and reliability of different devices and training methods used in the practice of sports and physical activities. The point is that many of them are applied without verifying whether they are fit and suitable for the improvement of health and sport performance, as vibratory platforms, force protocols, and resistance methods, so we carry out studies to investigate these and disseminate our conclusions. The Sports Center holds 4 fully equipped rooms for the practice of several physical activities, conducted by qualified trainers, which can be structure in four categories:

  • Cardiovascular activities
  • Body and mind activities
  • Rhythm and choreography
  • Force and resistance

The Bachelors Degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, in our opinion, describes and represents an area of knowledge that plays an important social role. As an academic discipline, it represents a pedagogy system of the motor behaviors which are the common denominator of all physical and sports activities. From another perspective, the huge ever-growing diversity of forms and activities of body practices results in the generalized concept of sport, which is made up by sports in the context of leisure, recreation and tourism, school and university sports, performance sports, entertainment sports and professional sports. We would like to highlight some facts that we consider as most relevant to our sport success:

  • Students get plenty of personal attention by young professors (50 professors), highly qualified (over 60% doctors) and dedicated to the students’ training.
  • Sports tutors who watch over harmonizing the academic and sport life.
  • Our experience of 14 years (10 classes, more than 1,100 graduates). We are the first to offer both the bachelor’s degree and the EHEA undergraduate degree in the Region of Murcia.
  • Students coming from related fields (e.g. Physical Education) will gain the recognition of credits obtained in their previous studies.
  • High demand for students to come to study the degree with us (360 in the first year).
  • UCAM Sports Center, the largest gym in Murcia, with modern facilities.

The research background, with more than 60 master’s thesis, 14 doctoral thesis defenses and more than 45 research projects.