Universidad Europea has taken a further step forward in establishing its presence in Asturias with the signing of the agreement to purchase the plot of land on which its future campus in Gijón will be built. The site, covering more than 10,000 square metres and located in the La Pecuaria area, within the Knowledge Mile Special Plan, will enable progress in the development of Centro Universitario Universidad Europea Asturias, a project designed to expand higher education opportunities in the region and strengthen the city’s ecosystem of knowledge, innovation and health.
The event was attended by the Mayor of Gijón, Carmen Moriyón; the President and CEO of Universidad Europea, Otilia de la Fuente; Elena Gazapo, Rector of Universidad Europea de Madrid; Pedro Mateu, CFO and COO of Universidad Europea; and the Municipal Secretary of Gijón, Inmaculada Fernández, amongst other institutional representatives. The signing formalises the sale of the land and paves the way for the launch of an academic project which, once the necessary approvals have been obtained, will commence operations with a programme focused on Health Sciences, offering degrees in Medicine, Dentistry, Psychology and Pharmacy, to which Nursing, Biomedicine and Physiotherapy will be added at a later stage.
With this move, the institution is reinforcing its commitment to establishing a strong presence in Gijón through a long-term initiative that is rooted in the local community and aimed at expanding opportunities in Asturias. Otilia de la Fuente summed up the project’s purpose as follows: “We are here to contribute to Asturias”. The President and CEO of Universidad Europea has described the institution’s arrival as “a commitment to complementing the existing university provision and strengthening the region’s higher education ecosystem”. For her part, the Mayor of Gijón, Carmen Moriyón, thanked Universidad Europea for its commitment to the city and emphasised that this venture represents “much more” than the sale of a plot of land, as it brings a leading educational institution to Gijón, with the capacity to train over 2,000 students and the potential to create more than 300 jobs, as well as reinforcing the educational and business fabric and consolidating the city as a benchmark in northern Spain.
Universidad Europea is giving concrete form on the ground to a project that had already begun to take shape in Asturias. The future campus, which will be built in the La Pecuaria Science and Technology Park and developed in phases, will incorporate teaching spaces and laboratories in line with the institution’s theoretical-practical academic model. From now on, the project enters a new phase: the construction of a campus set to become a new hub for attracting talent, knowledge and opportunities for Gijón and the whole of the Principality. As Otilia de la Fuente has pointed out, “this agreement is not a point of arrival, it is a point of departure”, the start of a phase of collaboration with the city and the region to transform that trust into opportunities, knowledge, employment, talent and a future.