The UIC Barcelona Interdisciplinary Centre for Thought (CIP) is already working on the catalogue of optional subjects that will become part of the Cultural Foundations module. This module will be offered this next academic year to third- and fourth-year students studying bachelor’s degrees in the faculties of Law, Humanities and Economic and Social Sciences.

The Centre, which was launched in the 2020-2021 academic year, has been working since it was created in the configuration and progressive implementation of the curriculum. Anthropology was incorporated in the 2021-2022 academic year as a cross-disciplinary subject with 6 credits, common to all bachelor’s degrees. And this 2022-2023 academic year, Ethics has been incorporated, and in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years (third and fourth year, respectively), the Cultural Foundations module will be taught and will have two optional subjects worth 3 credits each, which students will be able to choose from the catalogue of optional subjects. In total, a student who has studied at UIC Barcelona, and began their studies this academic year (2022-2023), will have taken subjects taught by the CIP totalling 18 credits.

With these CIP subjects, the aim is to deepen the roots and values of our civilisation and offer tools to develop critical thinking in order to promote a true university dialogue, and to formulate relevant questions within the context of contemporary world challenges.

The CIP works together with the faculties in the implementation of cross-disciplinary subjects in all of the University’s bachelor’s degree programmes. The CIP appoints the faculty for each subject, but teachers will continue to be administratively assigned to their respective departments. In turn, the CIP coordinates and directs the teaching of general cross-disciplinary education subjects, and contributes to teacher-specific training through the exchange of experiences, the organisation of seminars and conferences and the preparation of teaching materials for the teachers who will be teaching these subjects.

Subjects that are part of the Cultural Foundations module last six-months (one semester), are worth 3 credits (2 hours per week) and the offer will be based on the campus. This means that the classes will be adapted to the students; the teacher, not the students, will travel to the respective campus where the different faculties are located to teach the subject.

A list of proposed subjects has been prepared by the Cultural Foundations Committees, which is comprised of representatives from all the faculties, schools and institutes on each campus. This next academic year (2023-2024), students on the Barcelona Campus will choose from this list for the first time. The range of subjects covers five areas: family and society; Christianity; society, science and culture; affectivity and sexuality; and great cultural works.

The CIP was approved on 8 September 2020 by the Governing Board and its governing council made up of Andrea Rodríguez Prat and Miquel Bastons, as director and assistant director, respectively; Íñigo Ugalde and Remei Agulles, as deputy directors; and Empar Lorda, as a centre manager.