Service Science Education: The Spanish Case

Since the Bologna Declaration, Europe has been involved in the process of creating the so-called European Higher Education Area (EHEA for short), characterized by two principal agreements: the adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees among European countries and the adoption of a system based on three cycles (grade, master and PhD). The result of this process is a system very close to the Anglo-Saxon model but very different from the continental one. Focusing on the Spanish case, the adoption of such scheme has meant the end of a long standing tradition of centralized definition of degrees, both in their names and in a large part of their contents but also a deeper change in pedagogical methods, from teaching methods to learning methods. In addition, for various reasons (out of the scope of this article), Spain has been among the last countries in the EHEA adoption, starting the master's level in 2006, and the undergraduate's level in 2008. Taking into account the described context some questions arise: Is this a good context for the introduction of Service Science studies? If so, at which level of studies, at bachelor level, at masters level or at both levels? After a general description of the ongoing initiatives and actions in the Spanish University system related to the design of Service Science studies and more specifically, in the UPC, this paper discusses these queries in order to appraise the current situation of Spanish higher education system and the demands of professionals coming from its labor market. The article concludes with recommendations of the authors for introducing this discipline into the Spanish system.