Origin of the Master's Degree in Experimental Techniques in Chemistry

The origin of the Master's Degree in Experimental Techniques in Chemistry is described below, indicating the references of the official documents of their approval.

The continuous advance of scientific instrumentation enables the continued development of a large number of experimental techniques, the application of which is capable of providing very detailed information on the intrinsic characteristics of chemical compounds and their reactions. These advances in experimental techniques allow us to meet the new demands of today's society in the various fields in which chemical analysis and/or characterization of compounds is required. For this reason, the Master's Degree in Experimental Techniques in Chemistry (TEQ Master) from the University of Valencia (UV) is dedicated to learning these techniques.

The TEQ Master's Degree has an interdepartmental nature, since the teaching staff of the Department of Analytical Chemistry and the Department of Inorganic Chemistry participate in its teaching, as well as teaching staff from other UV departments and external teaching staff, including specialists from the industrial fabric of the Valencian Community, for the acquisition of transversal competences by students.

The Responsible Body of the Master's Degree is the Department of Analytical Chemistry, attached to the Faculty of Chemistry.

The TEQ Master's Degree has its origin in the previous experience acquired by the teaching staff of the two departments mentioned above in the old Doctoral Program with a Mention of Quality also called "Experimental Techniques in Chemistry", from which it comes. Currently this Doctoral Program has been adapted to the subsequent legislation (within RD1393/2007 modified by RD 861/2010), being verified positively by the Verification and Accreditation Commission of Study Plans of the Council of Universities in its session of February 23, 2011, as an Interuniversity Doctoral Program since in addition to the two departments of the UV, previously mentioned, the Department of Chemistry of the Polytechnic University of Valencia has also been incorporated into it. Since its inception, the UV's Doctoral Programme "Experimental Techniques in Chemistry" has provided excellent results in: number of Doctoral Theses defended, Extraordinary Doctoral Awards, Doctoral Theses with European Mention, scientific publications in internationally prestigious journals derived from the Theses, predoctoral and postdoctoral stays in international centres and current situation of the graduates, among other indicators. In fact, the training received has allowed some of the graduates to join companies in the sector, official organisations and universities.

With the change in the Doctorate regulations, all of the above demanded and supported at the same time the creation of the studies leading to the TEQ Master for the training of graduates interested in acquiring the skills derived from the in-depth learning of chemical analytical and characterisation techniques. For this reason, the proposal for the implementation of the TEQ Master was made to the Valencian Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assessment, which evaluated the proposal favourably (RD 31/2007 of March 16, DOGV March 21; Resolution March 26, 2007, DOGV May 9).

Subsequently, the request for verification of the official Master's degree was made to the Council of Universities, through the abbreviated procedure (which corresponds to degrees implemented according to RD 56/2005). The Council of Universities, through the Commission for the Verification of Study Plans, and once it received the favourable evaluation report from the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), resolved to positively verify the degree proposal (session held on July 15, 2009). Subsequently, the Council of Ministers, at its meeting on 30 July 2010, adopted the Agreement establishing the official status of certain Master's degrees and their registration in the Registry of Universities, Centres and Degrees, among which is the Master's Degree in Experimental Techniques in Chemistry from the University of Valencia (Resolution of 7 September 2010 of the General Secretariat of Universities, BOE of 29 September 2010, Annex).

Since 2009-2010, the TEQ Master has been taught uninterruptedly. The curriculum was partially modified for improvement, increasing the level of experimentation, in the 2011-2012 edition.

Furthermore, during the 2011-12 academic year, the Master's Monitoring process was carried out for the first time by the Valencian Agency for Evaluation and Prospective Studies (AVAP) and on June 25, 2012, the TEQ Master's Degree received the corresponding report, which indicates that the implementation of the degree is being carried out in an appropriate manner and is complete and satisfactory.

In April 2019, the TEQ Master underwent the process of its second renewal of the accreditation of official degrees from the Valencian Agency for Evaluation and Prospective AVAP and received the favourable report for its renewal. In the report the organization and development of the degree, information and transparency, academic staff, support staff, material resources and services, and learning outcomes were satisfactorily assessed. For all these reasons, the TEQ Master's Degree continues to be taught as an official degree since then. In 2021, a substantial modification was made that did not affect its nature or its objectives, in which the affiliation of the master's degree was modified, which until then was linked to the Department of Analytical Chemistry, so that the "requesting Center" was the Faculty of Chemistry (Governing Council of the University of Valencia, ACGUV 122/2021) for the institutional accreditation on which the University of Valencia is working.

In 2024, a non-substantial modification was requested for the affiliation of this official university degree to a field of knowledge, in accordance with the provisions of the Fifth Transitional Provision of Royal Decree 822/2021, of September 28. Specifically, the affiliation of the degree to the field of knowledge of "Chemistry" was requested.

Over the last years, the master's degree has developed satisfactorily, having a very good reception by students, both from the University of Valencia and from other Spanish and foreign universities. The fundamentally practical nature of the master's subjects, with more than 80 % of practical classes in the laboratory, is considered one of its main strengths, since students acquire very specific practical skills on experimental techniques in chemistry. This type of theoretical-practical training in experimental techniques is highly valued by students and it is in high demand by the industrial sector of the Valencian Community. This industrial sector actively participates in the teaching of the master's degree, both by providing a wide range of curricular and extracurricular internships specific to the training of the master's students, and by participating in the Transversal Competencies subject of the study plan, partially taught by external teachers.