History

In 1982, the University School of Technical Engineering was renamed the University Polytechnic School, with the intention of offering a Diploma in Computer Science, which was first offered in 1983/84. This was the first Computer Science degree offered in the autonomous region of Andalusia. It served as an important wake-up call for the city, and was largely the result of the drive and determination of the Centre’s first director, José María Alonso Pedreira.

First offered in El Ejido, on the premises of the University Polytechnic School, the degree was the first of its kind in Spain. It was made up of three academic areas: Teleinformatics, Cybernetics, and the Planning and Development of IT systems. The first academic year of the degree was somewhat unusual, because a  large number of enrolled students already had a University degree, others were already in employment. What united them all was a desire to board the so-called technology train that was then Computer Science.

The idea of establishing a Computer Science Degree in Malaga began to take shape in the 1980s. Supporters of the initiative cited the high concentration of Electronic industries in Malaga as being key to the establishment of the degree.

The huge demand for the degree soon meant that the course outgrew the small building used for teaching on the campus of the Polytechnic, and plans were made for the construction of a new building. The project aimed to construct a large building to house all the Engineering departments of the University. And so the Teatinos campus was born, the new home for the degrees in Computer Science and Telecommunications. In 1995, the new building was opened. At the same time, important changes were happening in higher education at the national level. In 1994, the degrees in Computer Science were classified as a branch of Engineering, the Faculty was renamed School of Computer Science Engineering and the three-year degree in Computer Science was transferred from the Polytechnic to the new School of Computer Science Engineering.

All Computer Science studies came to be offered under the same roof. They consisted of two degrees in Technical Engineering, Management Computing and IT Systems and the degree in Computer Science Engineering. These changes were accompanied by new study plans, which remained in place, albeit with minor changes, until the recent introduction of the new degree programmes.

The most recent changes implemented aimed at creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and resulted in the switch from the old degree programmes to newer, more current degree programmes. Since 2010/11, the University of Malaga has offered Bachelor’s degrees in Software Engineering, in Computer Engineering, and in Computer Science Engineering. Since 2011/12, the breadth of programmes offered was expanded even further, with the introduction of the degree in Health Engineering, offered in conjunction with the University of Seville, in the framework of the International Campus of Excellence, Andalucía Tech.