History
In August of 1903, the Industrial and Arts School in Cádiz was granted secondary school status. Aware of the importance and unquestionable significance of the event, the people of the city of Cádiz had finally reached the goal they had set more than a century before: the establishment of these university studies in the capital city.
According to the official documents of the Cádiz City Hall in 1852, the Industrial, Commerce and Nautical School of Cádiz was opened on October 1, under the sponsorship of the City Hall and the provincial government. The establishment of industrial studies was then postponed and became an important objective for the city.
Thus, the distinguished Mr. Vicente Rubio y Diaz, Industrial Engineer, honoured with a street named after him in the city and first director of the Columela Institute, obtained professorship in Applied Chemistry in the existing Industrial School during the decade of 1860, where he remained until his death in 1900. He did not live to see his Industrial and Fine Arts School become a secondary school. One of the institutions in Cádiz that worked most diligently to promote the establishment of industrial engineering studies in the city was the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Sailing, especially after 1900. Councilmen Adolfo García Cabezas and Fernando Portillo championed the petition. At last, a telegram addressed to the Minister of Public Education was read during the session of August 20, 1903, in which he was requested to affirmatively resolve the petition headed by the City Hall and the provincial government to declare the Industrial and Arts School in Cádiz an institution of higher learning, and the Minister’s response in favour of the petition was subsequently read. This new secondary school, the first director of which was Mr. Pedro Mayoral, included various sections in its programmes. As far as we are concerned, the most important were the Professional Studies for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Naval Construction Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Technical Architecture, as well as the programme for Metalwork in the Special Industrial Studies section. These studies were carried out successfully and, after a few years, the school became the School of Industry, Arts and Trades. In 1924, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the industrial programme was separated from the arts and trades. Two years later, the technical architecture programme came under the direct authority of the School of Architecture of Seville. Subsequently, with the advent of the Segunda Républica (Second Republic), the Industrial School became the Secondary School of Works. The School was located in the famous “callejón del Tinte” street in Cádiz and occupied the same building that housed the School of Industry and Arts since 1900. During the 1935-1936 academic year, when Mr. Manuel López González was director, study programmes were suspended due to the Civil War. According to an Order dated June 23, the programmes were reinitiated several years later, in 1945, and the School of Industrial Engineers and Industrial Mastership was established, headed by Mr. Germán Muñoz Beato until 1962. De 1943 a 1945, fue director Pedro Ogalla Torres, que ocasionalmente también lo fue, otras veces, en períodos vacacionales por ausencia del titular. En este último caso, estuvieron también Jesús Ágreda del Castillo, Carlos Llompart y Juan Carlos García de Sola, a finales de los años veinte. From 1943-1945, Pedro Ogalla Torres, who occasionally took over the roll of director during vacation periods or when the director was absent, headed the school. Substitutes also included Jesús Ágreda del Castillo, Carlos Llompart and Juan Carlos García de Sola at the end of the 1920’s. When the school was reopened in 1945, the only programme available was the Mechanical Engineering section, and the other programmes were sorely missed and solicited by the school, faced with the need to address the technical and business requirements necessary for the development of the region of the Bay of Cádiz. The re-establishment of the study programmes for Electrical and Chemical Engineering, available before the onset of the Civil War, was considered essential for the progress of the region’s naval industry, based mainly in the ship works at Cádiz (Astilleros), the factory at Matagorda and the national company Bazán, including the multitude of auxiliary companies that would appear as a result of the graduating classes of the School of Engineering. During Mr. German Muñoz’s directorship, the size of the student body progressively increased and the need to expand the classrooms, shared with the Industrial Mastership programme, became evident. The goal became the construction of a new school that would meet the needs of modern science. Mr. Muñoz’s efforts bore their fruit when, on November 5, 1962, the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Manuel Lora Tamayo, inaugurated the new School of Industrial Engineering building on 82 Sacramento Street, shared for years with the new School of Naval Engineering. That same year, Mr. Miguel Borrero Vázquez was named director and headed the institution for the longest period of time, until he retired in 1990. Taking his merits into consideration, the Faculty awarded him a plaque, which is currently located in the Faculty Room, to commemorate and acknowledge his tireless effort and judicious work. The plaque was presented during the inauguration of the new centre. According to the Technical Studies Act of 1964, the Engineering School became the School of Technical Industrial Engineers and the Electrical Engineering specialisation was created, including sections on Industrial Electronics and Electric Machinery. The Mechanical Engineering section was also expanded to include the Machine Construction section. Thankfully, the new centre was large enough to accommodate these new sections. During the 1968 academic year, the Industrial Structure and Facilities sections were added to the Mechanical Engineering specialisation. In 1972, a Royal Decree ordered that all university centres must be included within an established university. This led to our integration within the University of Seville and the school became known as the University School of Technical Industrial Engineering. In acknowledgment of Mr. Miguel Borrero’s accomplishments, the Faculty unanimously proposed the concession of the Order of King Alfonso X the Wise for teaching merit, as mentioned in the December 9, 1974, meeting minutes. On October 30, 1979, the School is integrated within the University of Cádiz, coinciding with this centre’s establishment. The following year, and continuing with the expansion of our study programmes, a new section is added to the Electrical Engineering specialisation: Stations and Networks. And during the first trimester of 1988, new study sections are added for degrees in Computer Information, including Management and Systems. Given the wide variety of study programmes now available in our centre, the school becomes known as the University School of Polytechnic Studies. After 28 years as director of the school, Mr. Miguel Borrero Vázquez reaches retirement age and is substituted by Professor Enrique Díaz Arozamena. Under Mr. Arozamena’s directorship and during the 1995/96 academic year, graduate level studies for Industrial Engineering are included in the academic offer and the school adopts its current name: the Graduate School of Engineering of Cádiz. Currently, and since 1998, the school is directed by Mr. Miguel Pastor Sánchez, who is industrial engineer and technical industrial engineer specialised in mechanical and electrical engineering, industrial electronics and computer information systems engineering. In 1994, the University of Cádiz implements the first Doctorate Programme to obtain the Ph.D. in Engineering. The Graduate School of Engineering participates actively in this programme. In fact, the first Ph.D. in Engineering presented by the University of Cádiz defended its thesis in our school. This new degree, along with the already existing research work being carried out in the school, promotes the development of various research groups that, in recent years, have been granted various publicly funded research projects, both by the national and regional government. The research work carried out in our school addresses the problems of our socio-economic environment. As such, the different groups within the school direct their attention to work that should be considered applied research within a framework of collaboration with companies located in the Bay of Cádiz and western Andalusia. Another one of the school’s important lines of social action also stems from this collaboration. For example, special attention is given to providing various companies with technological support. Currently, more than 45 small, medium and large companies benefit from this work. In the near future, the agreements signed with the Confederación de Empresarios de Cádiz (Association of Entrepreneurs) and the Fundación Universidad Empresa de la Bahía de Cádiz (University Business Foundation) will promote the expansion of these services so they may be offered to more companies. Similarly, we are now working to promote the transfer of technology developed in our school through the development of a project for the analysis of the viability of project patents, as well as another project to study the business opportunities that can help our graduates secure a job position. During the 100 years of the evolution of engineering studies, we can see how progress continues in the successive additions of new study programmes and degrees, as a consequence of the growing demand of the study body and commercial and business society. Today, we are experiencing a need for renovation in order to meet academic and professional needs. We hope that the new school in the University Campus of Puerto Real will constitute a much-needed reality that will successfully satisfy both professors and students.
