The Rector of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Carles Solá, and the Vice Chairman of Sol Meliá, Sebastián Escarrer, have formed a strategic alliance with the primary objective of jointly developing projects to improve the university education of students aiming to pursue careers in the tourism and hospitality industries. 

The agreement includes co-operation in the preparation of content and materials at all levels in the educational cycle up to postgraduate studies, combining both practical and theoretical instruction. One of the features of the agreement is that all of the students attending the Catalonia Hotel School will receive practical training in the hotel located on the university campus, which will now be managed by Sol Meliá.

This alliance between two leading experts in the field aims to benefit from the synergies created to build a modern and global model for tourism and hospitality education supported by the use of the most advanced technology. This is expected to improve the quality of the education provided to better respond to the needs of the international and Spanish hospitality industries, currently experiencing growing demand for more qualified employees at all levels. The agreement also includes an objective to extend the use of the educational model to other countries, in line with the growing globalisation of the industry and making use of the international network of Sol Meliá.

According to Carles Solá, �this alliance will allow us to reinforce and integrate our programme for tourism and hospitality education while also attending to the needs of an increasingly global industry". 

Sebastián Escarrer explained that �this strategic agreement is another demonstration of our policy of working closely with public administration and co-operating with institutional partners. We now have agreements with several universities, particularly with the Balearic Islands University, and we have also participated recently in projects with the University of Wisconsin-Stout (USA)�.

The agreement between the UAB and Sol Meliá also includes the creation of a joint venture that will lead the Hotel School, with its hotel being managed by Sol Meliá. The Meliá Confort Campus is located in the same building as the Tourism and Hotel Management faculties. Once its current extension is completed, the hotel will provide 103 guestrooms, two restaurants, a bar and more than 2,500 square meters of meeting space in 10 meeting rooms able to host congresses and other events with up to 1,000 participants.

The Tourism and Hospitality programme was created by the UAB in 1993 along with the Catalonia Hotel School. The Tourism faculty was added four years later. The programme allows a high degree of specialisation and is unique to Spain, with similar programmes only available in very few locations in other parts of the world. The UAB has gained a reputation as a pioneer in education and has also decided to strengthen its programme in a sector that is of such vital importance for the Spanish economy. The programme is currently attended by more than 800 students, with its success being recognised by the award of the ISO 9002 quality certification, the only University to have achieved such a feat.

Sol Meliá is the leading hotel company in Spain and the second largest hotel chain in Europe. As one of the company�s priority objectives is to improve product and service quality, Sol Meliá is actively seeking opportunities to promote training within the industry through co-operation agreements with universities such as the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Balearic Islands University and the University of Wisconsin-Stout (USA). Sol Meliá currently operates more than 260 hotels in 27 countries on 4 continents.