Bachelor’s Degree in Public Affairs & Governance

Public affairs is the professional field that connects public institutions, companies, and social organizations to influence collective decisions in a legitimate and transparent manner.

Governance refers to the processes of coordination, negotiation, and decision-making among these actors to respond to society’s challenges.

Studying Public Affairs & Governance means learning how public policies are designed, how the interests of different sectors are negotiated, and how effective solutions can be implemented in areas such as housing, health, sustainability, education, or technology. It is political science applied to the transformation of society.

Political Science degrees offer a foundation for understanding political systems, institutions, and political behavior. The Bachelor’s Degree in Public Affairs & Governance at Blanquerna places special emphasis on the professional application of this knowledge: negotiation, public policy design, management, regulation, and relations among institutions, companies, and social organizations.

No. The degree is not limited to party politics. It prepares you to work in public affairs, consulting, institutional relations, administrations, companies, and social organizations. It also provides a useful foundation if you aim to work on political advisory teams or in parliamentary institutions.

Yes. The Bachelor’s Degree in Public Affairs & Governance at Blanquerna is taught 100% in English and has an international orientation. Together with the Bachelor’s Degrees in International Relations and in Global Communication for Business Management, the new degree completes an offering of three official bachelor’s degrees taught entirely in English. The School of Communication and International Relations has a 30% international student body, positioning the center as an international academic benchmark in Barcelona.

The main career opportunities are in public policy, public affairs consulting, institutional relations, regulatory affairs, public management, social advocacy, and projects in international organizations and the third sector.

Barcelona offers a university and institutional environment from which to approach the challenges of governance, public policies, and relations among institutions, companies, and civil society. At Blanquerna-URL, you can pursue a degree taught entirely in English, with applied training and small-group seminars. Through the BQN-15 seminars, supervised by industry experts, you will develop key competencies, acquiring high-performance skills such as complex negotiation, public speaking, public procurement, and digital governance.

It can be done via the Application for admission button on the page for each degree, or directly from here, and requires:

1. Registering in the single registration system and creating a user account (if not done previously).
2. Making a payment of €50 (non-refundable) for admission rights and procedures. This can be done with a credit or debit card through a secure and confidential process with BBVA bank.
3. Uploading the documentation to the document repository before the deadline for the place application process.

• Identification document (DNI, NIE, Passport)
• Certification of university entrance qualifications (PAU (University Entrance Exams), CFGS (Higher-Level Vocational Training), International Baccalaureate Diploma, etc.) if available at the time of applying for a place.

It can be done at the School itself, by going to the Student Information and Guidance Service (SIOE), and the following must be submitted:

1. Photocopy of the identification document (DNI, NIE, Passport)
2. Photocopy of the certification of university entrance qualifications (PAU (University Entrance Exams), CFGS, International Baccalaureate Diploma, etc.) if available at the time of applying for a place.
3. Payment of €50 (non-refundable) for admission rights and procedures. This can be made in cash or with a credit or debit card.

Studies can be paid upfront and/or in interest-free installments. If payment by installment is selected, upon enrollment the student will have two business days to pay 50% of the total cost of the enrolled credits, using their chosen form of payment; this payment will not be taken by direct debit. The remaining 50% will be divided into nine monthly payments from October to June via bank direct debit from the account provided at the time of enrollment. Prices for each academic year are updated annually.

Each year, the Blanquerna Foundation will allocate to the Blanquerna Grants Fund any of the initial tuition payments that were received from individuals who, in the end, did not actually begin their studies. These funds are the non-refundable portion of the tuition fees, which, in accordance with the General Terms and Conditions and applicable regulations, have not otherwise been authorized for refund or held as credit towards a future enrollment. This allocation does not alter or limit students' rights, nor any financial or academic arrangements to which they may be entitled. This funding will be given in the form of a discount on tuition fees.

You can consult the General Enrollment Terms and Conditions at this link.

Once payment is made, the corresponding receipt of enrollment can be viewed in the student's Document Repository and via the student's portal.

Students must apply to the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) to obtain the credential certifying that they meet the requirements to access university studies within the state education system (UNED Credential). Therefore, they do not need to take the PAU (University Entrance Exams), but without the mentioned credential, they cannot enroll in our degrees.

The education systems that can be accessed through this pathway are: Germany, Andorra, Austria, European Schools (European baccalaureate), International Baccalaureate, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, China and Cyprus.

These students may access our degrees by submitting the homologation of the High School diploma from the Spanish Ministry of Education or from the autonomous communities with transferred competence, such as the Generalitat de Catalunya. Proof of application for convalidation will be sufficient for students to enroll and begin taking a bachelor's degree course, however full enrollment is conditional on convalidation being confirmed. Bear in mind that convalidating studies can take more than three months to complete, so this process should be done in parallel with the admissions process to our bachelor's degrees. If the convalidation resolution is not obtained in the terms requested by the interested party, the results of any exams taken, or the enrollment made as a result thereof, are rendered null and void.

The thesis is written during the fourth academic year and has its own seminar. The student decides the topic and type of thesis. To write the thesis, the student can decide to do a research project or design an intervention program that will be tutored throughout the academic year by a professor-tutor specializing in that area.

The topics may be related to any of the areas of the profession and, where applicable, may also be linked to the center where the student is doing the internship or to the School's research groups.

The project will be completed in groups and written in English. In every instance, it must feature an abstract in English.

The bachelor's degree thesis will last two semesters and will be supervised by a professor-advisor, both individually and in the Seminar space.

Within this space, the process carried out is shared in groups, guidelines are established, and the activity is organized. These Seminar sessions will be alternated with individualized follow-up/tutoring (in which each advisor will personally follow up on the thesis).

The assessment process will involve three grading methods and stages:

1. The designated advisor will oversee each project continuously throughout the academic year. During this time, students are required to submit progress updates. The advisor will suggest a grade based on the efforts in seminars and tutorials, constituting 70% of the total grade.
2. The final assessment will include a presentation and public defense before an evaluation panel, consisting of two professors from the relevant field, one of whom could be the assigned advisor. The grade will be agreed upon by consensus; if no consensus is reached, each panel member will assign a grade, and the average will be computed, making up 30% of the final grade.

There are two types of external internships: curricular and extracurricular.

Curricular internships are those that form part of our curriculum: these are compulsory internships that are taken in parallel to seminar VI during the second semester of third year and the elective ones taken during the first semester of fourth year. The seminar VI professor is the advisor who will supervise the evolution of the student in their internships and guide them throughout the process. In the fourth year elective courses, the internship coordinator will appoint a faculty member to conduct a follow-up of the student. In the company, students will also have an advisor appointed by the center who will supervise their learning.

Extracurricular internships are all others that the student can do electively outside the curriculum, although they also have an exclusively training and teaching purpose and will therefore be included in the European Diploma Supplement (EDS). In all cases, the internship must be compatible with the student's class hours. Internships may or may not be remunerated, depending on the company or institution.

In the following links you will find the program of the curricular internships.

1. Compulsory internships.
2. Elective internships.

Students also have the opportunity to do internships abroad through different agreements with companies via programs such as Erasmus+.

The curricular and extracurricular internships are regulated by point 17 of the school's academic regulations.

The student's advisor in the school will provide students with the criteria to follow to successfully pass the internship course and the parameters for drawing up the internship report. Here is the guide to writing the report.

This must be done by contacting the School's Internship Service.

• 2018 Final report
• 2018 Global Communication Management Report
• Report on the Degree in Global Communication Management

• Follow-up report

Center follow-up report

• 2013-2014 Follow-up report
• Center follow-up report 2014-2015
• Center follow-up report 2015-2016
• Center follow-up report 2016-2017
• Center follow-up report 2017-2018
• Center follow-up report 2018-2019
• Center follow-up report 2019-2020
• Center follow-up report 2020-2021

• Satisfaction indicators (students) for the 2020-2021 academic year
• Degree indicator table
• EUC indicators (employment rate, satisfaction, access, results)
• 2014-2018 Occupational integration studies
• Bachelor degree employment rate studies 2017
• Bachelor degree employment rate studies 2018
• Bachelor degree employment rate studies 2019

Student surveys

• Survey of student satisfaction with online education
• Report result of the student form on online academic activity and COVID-19
• Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations bachelor's and master's degrees student participation and satisfaction
• Survey of student satisfaction with School services 2019
• AQU preliminary report on graduate satisfaction 2019
• 2015 first-year student URL satisfaction
• 2015 fourth-year student URL satisfaction

Faculty surveys (research and teaching staff)

• Teaching and research staff satisfaction survey results tables 2019
• Teaching and research staff qualifications satisfaction survey results tables 2019
• Teaching and research staff survey participation results 2019
• Teaching and research staff satisfaction 2015
• Teaching and research staff satisfaction 2013

Administrative and service staff surveys

• Service staff survey (comparison of URL and Blanquerna results) 2015
• Administrative and service staff satisfaction survey summary tables 2019
• Administrative and service staff satisfaction 2015
• Administrative and service staff satisfaction 2013

Evidence relating to employer satisfaction

• 2019–2020 FCRIB Report on internship employer satisfaction
• 2017–2018 FCRIB Report on internship employer satisfaction

Job bank and careers

• Bachelor degree employment rate studies 2019
• Official master degree employment rate studies 2019
• Bachelor degree employment rate studies 2018
• Official master degree employment rate studies 2018
• Official master degree employment rate studies 2017
• Bachelor degree employment rate studies 2017
• 2014-2018 Occupational integration studies

URL Student mobility

• URL Erasmus Final Report

• Center self-report 2016/2017
• Center self-report 2018/2019
• Center self-report 2020/2021
• External assessment report 2017
• External assessment report 2019
• External assessment report 2021