Eligibility and admission requirements

ELIGIBILITY


Applicants to the official master’s programme must meet one of the following requirements:

  1. Hold a Bachelor’s degree, Architecture degree, Engineering degree, Technical Architecture degree, Diploma, Technical Engineering degree or Master’s degree, or another qualification expressly declared to be equivalent
  2. Hold a foreign university degree issued by a higher education institution within the European Higher Education Area that entitles the holder to access master’s programmes in the country of issue.
  3. Hold a foreign university degree equivalent to the Bachelor’s degree in Spain which has not been validated by the Spanish Ministry of Education but entitles the holder to access postgraduate study in the country of issue.

APPLICANT PROFILE


This master’s programme is aimed at holders of Engineering degrees or Bachelor’s degrees related to Information and Communications Technology (ICT), as well as professionals who are already working in the ICT sector and wish to specialise in security.

Applicants to the master’s programme must have a good knowledge of IT. As well as technical knowledge, applicants should also have

  • Solid training in programming and networks.

  • Extensive knowledge of databases.

  • Solid training in basic sciences, numerical and abstract reasoning, mathematical calculation.

  • Ability to tackle and resolve typical problems in Engineering.

  • Critical reasoning. Ability to analyse and synthesise information. Decision-making skills.

  • High level of commitment and dedication to their studies, desire for personal development and consistency in their work, as well as creativity, ingenuity and observation skills.

  • Ability to work in multicultural teams.

  • Thirst for knowledge and ability to identify different ways to solve problems, as well as a keen desire to inform themselves of the latest developments.

  • Oral and written communication skills in the languages commonly used in the international scientific community.

APPLICATION PROCESS


Applicants should fill in the electronic form provided on the Andalusian Single University District website by the stipulated deadline, listing all master’s programmes of interest to them in order of preference. While filling in the form, the system will allow you to provide any documentation required for your specific master’s programme in PDF format. If you are awarded a place, you will have to present the original documents to the centre when you enrol to allow the veracity of the PDFs to be confirmed.



ADMISSION PHASES AND QUOTAS


Phases:

The admission procedure is divided into three phases during which universities can allocate the total number of places available for each master’s programme. The first phase is intended exclusively for students with a foreign qualification, with or without validation by the Spanish Ministry of Education. The phases are as follows:

  • Phase 1: Foreign students
  • Phase 2: General
  • Phase 3: General

In the event that no places are reserved for foreign students in Phase 1 or that these students participate directly in Phase 2 or 3, their applications will be assessed on an equal footing with the rest of the applicants in the general phases.



EVOLUTION OF PLACES AND APPLICATIONS


  • Evolution of available places
  • Regardless of the number of places allocated by the university to each master’s programme in each phase, any remaining places will automatically be carried over to the next phase. Places will not be carried over from Phase 1 to Phase 2 if the university has distributed the places for the master’s programme between Phase 1 and Phase 3.
  • Evolution of applications
    All requests for master’s programmes made by applicants who have not obtained a place and have been put on a waiting list will be automatically carried over to the next phase, where they will be given equal weight to those who made their application during this phase. This means that applicants do not miss out if they are not accepted in the phase they applied in. They remain on the waiting list for that phase in case any spare places emerge and do not need to submit a new application in subsequent phases in order to be considered for admission during these phases. Equally, applicants in the first phase reserved for foreign students will be placed on a waiting list and automatically carried over to the next phase to be considered as part of the general quota.

SORTING OF APPLICATIONS


Applications will be processed for each master's degree in the corresponding phase and quota in accordance with the specific admission criteria for each degree.

Applicants may only be allocated one place, which will correspond to one of the master’s courses they have requested. They will be placed on the waiting list for all courses that appear above the course they have been allocated a place for on their list of preferences and will not appear on the waiting list for courses below this course on their list or those that are excluded for any reason. However, an applicant may be admitted to two master’s programmes if they have requested parallel studies and places remain available at the end of the process.

Applicants who have been granted a scholarship or other funding for the master’s course in question under national or international agreements between universities or calls for funding from the Andalusian Regional Government will be given preference over other candidates competing in the same phase.



ENROLMENT AND COURSE RESERVATION


There are two or three allocations of places in each pre-enrolment phase.

  1. In the first allocation, applicants must follow the instructions listed below:
    • Applicants admitted to their first preference course will complete their enrolment (or, in the case of foreign students, pay the relevant enrolment fee) for the master’s course in question within the deadline set by the university. They will not be considered for any other master’s course with a waiting list.


    • Applicants who wish to study the master’s course they have been allocated and prefer not to be placed on the waiting list for their higher preferences will complete their enrolment for the master’s course in question within the deadline set by the university.
    • Applicants who wish to be placed on the waiting list in the hope of obtaining a place on one of their higher preference courses must reserve the place they have been allocated currently. They can do so on this website.
    • Applicants who have not been allocated a place must wait to be placed on the lists for their requested courses and enrol once they have been allocated a place, as indicated in the previous sections.


  1. In the second phase of allocations, or the third in the case of foreign students, all applicants who have been assigned a place must enrol compulsorily, although if places later become available on higher preference courses and their score allows them to be admitted, they will be informed and can switch their enrolment to the new master’s course.


  1. In all cases, the IT system will notify applicants when they can enrol or reserve their place.

You can find specific information from UJA about the procedures for pre-enrolment and enrolment, deadlines, fees, etc. here.

ADMISSION AND SELECTION


In line with Article 17 of Royal Decree 1393/2007 of 29 October, modified by Royal Decree 861/2010, all aspects relating to admission (admission criteria, organisation conducting the admission process and its composition, criteria for assessing merit and admission tests, etc.) are set annually by the Department of Economy, Innovation and Science of the Andalusian Regional Government via publication of the corresponding agreement approving and publicising the procedure for managing admission to master’s courses at public universities in Andalusia.

Applicants for the master’s course must hold one of the official Spanish master’s degrees / bachelor’s degrees / engineering degrees / technical engineering degrees listed below, or another similar qualification issued by a higher education institution in the European Higher Education Area that enables the holder to access master’s courses in the issuing country.

Holders of the following qualifications will be given HIGH preference for admission:

  • Master’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Engineering degree or Technical Engineering degree in any branch of Computing.

Holders of the following qualifications will be given LOW preference for admission and must demonstrate training equivalent to 48 ECTS credits in one of the following fields via their academic transcript: Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computing, Information systems, Information Technologies:

  • Master’s degree, Bachelor’s degree or Engineering degree in any branch of Telematics or Telecommunications.
  • Master’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, Engineering degree or Technical Engineering degree in sciences linked to Computing.

Graduates from education systems outside the European Higher Education Area with similar qualifications to those listed above will be eligible without validating their degrees once the university has checked that they have completed an equivalent level of training to the corresponding official bachelor’s degrees in Spain and that their degrees enable access to postgraduate study in the issuing country.

Candidates will be ordered within each group of preferred qualifications on the basis of their academic transcripts. Once the candidates have been ordered according to the aforementioned assessment criteria, as many applicants as there are places will be admitted by strict order of preference. In the event of withdrawals, candidates who were not initially selected may be admitted by order of merit.

With regard to linguistic requirements, students enrolling on this master’s programme must demonstrate linguistic competence in English at B1 level or higher under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as a prerequisite to enrolment.

SUPPORT AND ADVICE SYSTEMS


The University of Jaén website is regularly updated with information of interest for new students (http://www10.ujaen.es/alumnos). At the start of each academic year, the University of Jaén organises Welcome Days aimed at new students where they receive information about the following aspects:

  • General information about the university's structure and functioning
  • Presentation of the tutors for each course
  • Specific information about the course (timetables, classrooms, laboratories, etc.)
  • Services for students (http://www10.ujaen.es/conocenos/organos-gobierno/vicest)
  • Assistance for disabled students
  • Assistance for students with learning difficulties
  • Assistance for gifted students
  • Volunteer centre
  • Work placements
  • Careers guidance
  • Entrepreneurship support

Before classes begin, the master’s coordinator will organise a welcome session aimed at new students to introduce them to the resources, tools and materials offered by both the University of Jaén and the master’s programme. They will also receive detailed information about specific aspects of the master’s course (lecturers, tutors, coordinators, content, timetables, methodologies, work schedules, materials, use of the virtual platform, teaching spaces, etc.).

Under Organic Law 6/2001 of 21 December on Universities (Article 46.2.e), students are entitled to “guidance and assistance from lecturers and tutors in the determined form”. The law acknowledges the importance of tutoring and guidance within the current university system. As a modern university committed to social outreach, we are aware of the need to provide resources to assist and interact more closely with students. The master’s programme offers curricular tutoring and personalised academic support, as well as careers guidance.

The traditional tutoring system will be expanded, incorporating different figures and activities to ensure that students receive comprehensive support. The following resources will be provided for this purpose: tutors, module coordinators, subject coordinators, dissertation supervisors, mentors and evaluation committees. Tutors will be appointed from among the most experienced lecturers on the course. They will be responsible for a group of students, providing them with personalised guidance on an ongoing basis, observing their achievements and progress, and addressing any queries or practical issues they may have. To this end, regular meetings and group tutoring sessions will be held. More technical questions raised by students will be passed on to other professors or experts. In short, tutors facilitate students’ integration into the programme as a whole. Subject coordinators will be appointed to standardise the theoretical and practical content of modules taught by several different lecturers. They will also participate in specialised tutoring as part of the module coordination. Dissertation supervisors are responsible for addressing any practical issues that students experience while preparing their dissertations. They will be selected on the basis of the topic and the students’ interests. All interactions between students and lecturers required under these roles will take place in tutorials. These will be scheduled, with a set time and place.

Meanwhile, the master’s coordinator will provide support and seek to improve students’ integration and academic progress. To do this, they may need to set up individual or personalised tutoring programmes and this will be subject to each school's decision. In order to offer careers guidance to students, the coordinator will inform themselves of possible career opportunities open to graduates through studies of graduate outcomes conducted by the university and pass this information on to students. Here, their role will largely be to encourage and advise.

Finally, in order to allow non-Spanish speaking students and students with partial knowledge of Spanish to study our master’s programmes and to facilitate promotion of the Postgraduate Study Centre, all modules on the master’s programme will be available in one of the formats offered by the Tutoring and Assistance in English for Foreign Students Programme (PATIE) in coordination with the Modern Languages Centre at the University of Jaén, allowing students to opt for additional training in Spanish while they complete their master’s programme with support in English. To encourage students’ gradual immersion in Spanish, the language in which the master’s programme will be taught, all the modules will be available under Format 1 of the Tutoring and Assistance in English for Foreign Students Programme (PATIE), which requires lecturers to provide tutoring in English, supply literature and materials in English and permit students to write exams, essays and other academic tasks in English. Some modules will follow Format 2 of the programme, which, in addition to the measures in Format 1, also requires lecturers to deliver seminars in English.

Sub-Directorate of Students: The Higher Polytechnic School has a Subdirector for Students who is tasked with coordinating relations with the Student Council and the school’s cultural associations. The Sub-director for Students at EPS-Jaén is responsible for:

  1. Liaising between the EPS management team and the students enrolled at the school. Providing students with personalised information and guidance to help them make decisions directly related to their curricular training or referring them to the team member best placed to address their queries and concerns.

  2. Coordinating the necessary teaching mechanisms to facilitate the integration and social inclusion of students with special educational needs enrolled at EPS-Jaén.

  3. Encouraging and promoting students’ participation in university life.

  4. Helping students’ associations linked to the school to organise activities of interest to the overall development of the school’s students.

  5. Organising and coordinating meetings and events directly related to the school’s students: Welcome Days, representatives’ meetings, scholarship awards ceremonies, etc.

  6. Informing potential students who show an interest in applying to the school about our structure and the courses we offer, as well as answering any other queries or concerns they may have.

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