Entry requirements

The entry requirements for the METM are those established by the Royal Decree 1393/2007, which regulates official university postgraduate courses. In this way, applicants must hold one of these options:

• The equivalent to an Honours Bachelor's degree from a Spanish higher-education institution.
• The equivalent to an Honours Bachelor's degree from a higher-education institution within the European Higher Education Area, valid for admission at the master's level in the country issuing the degree.
• The equivalent to an Honours Bachelor's degree from a higher-education institution outside the European Higher Education Area. In this case, degree homologation will not be required, but the university will check that the background education of the student is equivalent to the required technical background knowledge of the official university degrees of the Spanish system. In addition, the degree has to be valid for admission at the master's level in the country issuing the degree.

The master is fully taught in English. For this reason, all candidates must be in command of the language skills equivalent to the B2 level in English.

Admission criteria

All applications meeting the requirements will be evaluated by the Admissions Committee on the basis of the following admission criteria:

• Nature of degree held (between 0 and 3 points). Although preference will be given to applicants with a degree in Economics, Business Administration or Tourism, other degrees in the fields of Mathematics, Engineering or Environmental Science will be considered. Applicants will be evaluated according to the appropriateness of their previous education.
• Performance and average mark in the undergraduate degree (between 0 and 6 points).
• Professional experience in the fields of economics and/or tourism (between 0 and 1 point).

The Admissions Committee of the master will determine to what extent the background of the candidate corresponds to the profile of requirements and will submit an advisory form recommending admission/rejection to the directors of the master.

The "Master in Economics of Tourism: Monitoring and Evaluation" (METM) is an advanced education program aimed at training specialists in economic analysis applied to the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of projects and polices. The master provides analytical and quantitative tools on M&E, integrating theoretical knowledge and its application to real economic problems, to address today’s economic challenges faced by economies highly specialized on tourism.

In a world that is increasingly uncertain and competitive, tourist destinations must adapt and react faster to the changing conditions of supply and demand, leveraging their strengths and the opportunities derived from the global environment. Nowadays, the fast transformation of the international environment where the tourist product is exchanged, requires destinations and stakeholders to undertake monitoring tasks to guarantee their competitiveness, not only from the traditional view of market share preservation, but also from a more dynamic approach oriented towards improving the level of well-being of society. At the same time, competitiveness is associated to the capacity of a destination to satisfy the expectations of tourists, as well as to guarantee the satisfaction of the needs of the society independently of the time frame considered. As such, both competitiveness and sustainability have been jointly considered as the master’s keystones.

In this context, it is essential to train specialists with skills and competences in the M&E of projects, programmes and policies within the framework of tourism. These professionals will be ready to identify the challenges and structural weaknesses of the destination and provide all the necessary information to improve decision-making processes and, in this way, optimize the performance of private and social projects and policies. Only in this way it will be possible to ensure the international positioning of the destination and, consequently, the prosperity of those societies.

Master's degree in Economics of Tourism: Monitoring and Evaluation programme graduates are expected to go on taking a PhD, working at research institutes or pursuing careers in the public or private sectors. The master will give the necessary qualifications to take up positions such as:

• High level specialist in the public administration or in a company
• Project manager for R&D or strategic management departments in private companies
• Researcher for R&D or strategic management departments in private companies and public institutions
• Researcher/Professor at a university or business school
• Assistant researcher in public and private institutions
• Freelance consultant on strategic project management
• Freelance consultant on design of policies and projects
• Expert in M&E of projects and policies for international institutions (WTO, European Union, etc.)
• Expert in M&E of projects and policies in a private company in the tourism sector

The programme consists of 60 Credits (ECTS), equivalent to 1500 hours of study, offered over two semesters (September-January and February-June) and distributed as follows:

• Compulsory Module
  Common to all students, worth 21 ECTS (7 courses worth 3 ECTS each).
• Specialization Module
  Students must choose between the specialization in:
  • Specialization Module: Monitoring techniques applied to tourism
  • Specialization Module: Evaluation techniques applied to tourism
  worth 15 ECTS each (5 courses worth 3 ECTS each).
• Complementary Module
  Students must choose between 5 optional courses worth 3 ECTS each in a total of 15 ECTS or 3 optional courses worth 3 ECTS each in a total of 9 ECTS plus the External Practice worth 6 ECTS.
• Final Master's Project
  It consists of the Master’s Thesis worth 9 ECTS

All students must produce a dissertation (Master's Thesis) in the last term of the master where they will apply the learned skills to a project of their choice. The student, that will be supervised by one professor teaching at the master, will have to write up the Master's Thesis and publicly defend it in front of an examination board. Students will be required to pass all subjects from the compulsory, specialization and complementary modules before undertaking the public defence of the Master's Thesis.

All subjects of the master will be evaluated following a continuous assessment procedure on the basis of the recommendations of the European Higher Education Area. The assessment criteria of each subject will be announced in the study guide published in the webpage of the master at the beginning of the academic year.

Dr. Ángel Bujosa Bestard

Dra. Helena Isabel Ferreira Marques