Great expectation for the International Joint Master in Innovative Leather Technology

On Monday 17 October an online workshop was held to present the International Joint Master in Innovative Leather Technology. The workshop was a resounding success in terms of attendance, with almost 150 students from all over the world connecting.

This new international master’s degree arises from the LEATECH project led by A3 Leather Innovation Center of the Universitat de Lleida, under the Erasmus Mundus programme, whose purpose is to coordinate and prepare a group of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) active in leather science with the aim of implementing a joint European master’s degree in innovative leather technology.

Erasmus Mundus master’s degrees are integrated, high-level university study programmes taken in an international setting, promoted by higher education institutions from different countries around the world that design and deliver the programmes. Other partners may also take part in the consortium, whether or not from the field of education, with specific experience and interest in the field of study in question. What makes these Erasmus Mundus programmes so special is that they are joint programmes, offering the best teaching from different universities and disciplines.

Along these lines, A3 Leather Innovation Center-UdL, together with ITECH (France), EGE University (Turkey) and CIATEC (Mexico), are collaborating to combine their academic strengths and offer a 120-credit leather master’s degree that will qualify graduates for high-level positions in the global leather industry and its international value chain. The master’s degree will be taught in English across the various HEIs and will focus on innovation, circularity and sustainability.

The EU funds these programmes, as well as competitive scholarships that offer the master’s degree to the best students from around the world who apply for them, students who under the programme will live for a year and a half between Igualada, Esmina (Turkey), León (Mexico) and Lyon (France).

Leather Cluster Barcelona, together with other business organisations in the leather sector such as AcexPiel, the Asociación Española de la Indústria de la Piel para el Comercio Exterior, and the Confederation of National Associations of Tanners of the European Union, COTANCE, supports the new international master’s degree.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting and transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.