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What are the differences between an official master's degree and a UB-specific degree?

  • 26 October 2023
  • 3 minutos
  • Blog

Do you want to refocus your career or specialise in an area? Discover our range of in-house degrees

The more competitive your profile is, the more job and salary opportunities you will have in your professional future. One of the ways to achieve this is through master's degrees, expert degrees, advanced programmes or courses.

When deciding what to study, we give importance to credits, requirements, duration, timetables, etc. One of the modalities that raises the most doubts due to the wide and varied offer that we currently find are the Master's degree programmes, and in particular the Master's degrees or lifelong learning programmes. Do you know the differences between an official Master's degree and one of your own?

What is an official master's degree?

It is a course of professional or academic specialisation in a specific area or discipline, which can only be taken by university graduates with a bachelor's degree. It is accredited by ANECA, the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation, which is attached to the Ministry of Education.

It is therefore an official course, validated at European level and recognised as such in the European Higher Education Area. This type of programme also allows students to undertake research or even a doctorate .

They usually last one or two years, depending on the number of credits (ECTS). In addition, a Master's thesis must always be completed.

What is a UB-specific degree?

It is a continuing education course offered by a university or university school, approved by the centre that offers it and endorsed by the prestige of the institution. They usually last a few months, one or two years depending on the programme, and depending on the degree, the number of credits and access requirements vary.

The degrees are designed to adapt to the needs of society and the demands of companies and organisations and, therefore, are more oriented towards the world of work and specialisation .

Categories of own degrees

Within the offer of lifelong learning there are different typologies: own master's degree or lifelong learning, university specialist course, university expert degree and micro-credentials. The first three require a previous university degree, while the last one is open access.

Each of them is designed to broaden previous knowledge, deepen skills and specialise in a specific area.

Enhance your professional profile at UDIT

UDIT, University of Design, Innovation and Technology is committed to specialisation with a varied and up-to-date offer of its own master's degrees, university postgraduate courses and advanced programmes in the areas of design and technology. 

If you want to know all our offer in the fields of marketing, graphic and audiovisual creation, animation and video games, fashion, user experience and artificial intelligence, find out more!

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