Undergraduate Degree in Agricultural Engineering

Overview

The Undergraduate Degree in Agricultural Engineering will commence at the USAL in the academic year 2010-11 , once it has been fully approved, and will replace the Bachelors Degree in Technical Agricultural Engineering. Specialisation Agricultural holdings.

This programme is intended for those wishing to pursue the regulated profession in the Agriculture engineering profession (Regulation of the National Secretariat for Universities - 15th Februrary 2009, BOE 29/1/2009) and provides the students with exclusive training to become Technical Agricultural Engineer and work for a company or as freelancers. The graduates of this programme can find employment throughout the Engineering industry, as other professionals may do. Those are some examples of such activities: technical management of agricultural holdings, management of agricultural cooperatives, parcel valuation and measuring, agricultural insurance valuation, production of pesticides and fertilizers, gardening, irrigation or project management, rural building projects, stockbreeding facilities projects, land administration, property registry, activities linked to the fields of reasearch and teaching, etc.

The course structure has been shaken up in accordance with the Regulation CIN/323/2009 - 9th Februrary which establishes the requirements that a university degree needs to allow the graduates of such programme to become professionals in the area of agriculture engineering (BOE 19/2/2009).

The degree takes 4 years to complete (60 ECTS per year, 240 in total) and consists of semester long modules, except for m¡Mathematics and Agriculture management and assessment which are taught throughout the first and third year respectively. The elective modules (18 ECTS which include the work placement i.e. 9 ECTS) are taught during the third and fourth years, and the final year project (12 ECTS) is scheduled for the last semester. Basic and cumpulsory modules (60 + 150 ECTS) are mainly delivered during the first three years.

The course content is structured in 5 modules: 1) Introduction to Agriculture and Forest Engineering, 2) Common to the Agriculture Branch: specialised areas such as: Fundamentals and general techniques for plant production, animal production, Topography, Basic rural engineering, etc; 3) Specific Technology: Agricultural holdings; 4) Elective modules; and 5) Final Year Project.