The rector of the University of Alicante, Amparo Navarro, has held a working meeting with the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, on the project of the future Gastronomic Campus UA-Dénia. An "ambitious project that will require many collaboration synergies and with a clear social projection", Amparo Navarro has affirmed.
The initiative aims to "create a teaching environment where, in addition to the teaching of university degrees, events, cycles of conferences and seminars are organized, as well as other activities of an informative nature." The study proposal is a determined bet to turn the UA-Dénia Gastronomic Campus into an international benchmark defined by excellence.
Boosting the current campus would mean providing Dénia in the short and medium term with an offer of continuous training throughout the year through its own degrees in gastronomy that the institution already has and those that are in process procedures -seven in total-, training activities related to the degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and continuing training courses such as specialization actions, workshops or seminars.
Navarro highlighted that the proposal put on the table by the University of Alicante has a "marked international character" in which "students and professionals from different countries will be able to interact through the Erasmus program, initiatives such as the double degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts that the UA has formalized with the University of UNIVALI and the possibilities offered by the UNESCO network of Creative Cities of Gastronomy and of which Dénia is a part ”.
The rector has presented what would be the priorities so that the next academic year the Campus of Gastronomy UA-Dénia can “teach in Dénia the current postgraduate training offer and the one that is planned to be implemented immediately, as well as the training activities of the Degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts that until now had been taught at the CdT ”. These priorities would be “basically gastronomic classrooms, kitchen laboratories and sensory analysis classrooms”, which allow ensuring a teaching structure.
Among the training offer that includes the UA-Dénia Gastronomic Campus, the creation of a Gastronomic Observatory is contemplated that offers coverage to all research activities and knowledge transfer and creates a space for public-private collaboration in favor of the promotion and dissemination of knowledge about cuisine and gastronomy.
After the meeting held in the consistory, the delegation headed by the rector and the mayor, Vicent Grimalt, has gone to Torrecremada to visit the environment that will house the university facilities.
According to Grimalt, who has welcomed the proposal presented by the university delegation, the restoration and conditioning works of the building will be awarded in the coming months with the co-financing of the Department of Universities of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Grimalt has stated that “today's meeting is one more step towards the creation of the university campus. The future rehabilitation of the Torrecremada house will allow us to respond to the short and medium term training plan presented by the rector of the UA at the working meeting, which we hope to complete with the establishment of the degree in Gastronomic Sciences in the city ”.
In the coming weeks, a technical meeting will be convened between the institutions involved-Conselleria de Universitats, Ajuntament de Dénia and UA- to continue working on the development of the international Gastronomic Campus.
Own titles
In addition to the Degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts, the University of Alicante has a series of its own degrees that will be offered at the UA-Dénia Gastronomic Campus such as: the master's degree in rice and Mediterranean haute cuisine applied together with the title of expert in history, globalization and tourism around rice and Mediterranean haute cuisine and the title of specialist in culinary science and technology, pairings, rice dishes and Mediterranean haute cuisine. As well as the master's degree in Master Food City Design (in collaboration with the University of Parma, Bergen and Mid Sweden University).
In addition to this offer that is already in operation, the University of Alicante plans to incorporate new own titles related to gastronomy that are currently in the process of being processed, such as the title of expert and / or specialization courses in technological cuisine ; the title of expert in sustainable gastronomic tourism and local development; and the title of expert in artisan ice cream production.
