The CEU Beato Luis Belda makes the long stay in an event with institutions and collaborators

PalmaThe Beato Luis Belda University Center, affiliated with CEU San Pablo, has inaugurated the academic project in an event at the Son Serra Parera estate, which was attended by institutional collaborators, the healthcare sector, future professors, and representatives of the Administration. Among others present were the President of the Government, Marga Prohens; the Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera; the Minister of Labor, Public Function, and Social Dialogue, Catalina Cabrer; the Minister of Health, Manuela García; the Mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez; and the Rector of the UIB, Jaume Carot. The ceremony served to officially launch an initiative that begins with the objective of establishing a university campus in Mallorca specializing in Health Sciences, and which will begin operations with the first class of Medicine already filled.

The center's roadmap foresees the start of full academic activity in the 2026-2027 academic year, with the progressive implementation of degrees in Medicine, Nursing, Physiotherapy, and Psychology. One year later, in 2027-2028, Pharmacy and Dentistry will be added, thus completing a training offer focused on the biosanitary field.

During the project's inauguration event, the rector of CEU San Pablo, Rosa Visiedo, highlighted that the new institution arrives in Palma with the intention of contributing over half a century of experience in the field of Health Sciences. As she explained, the center is born with the objective of expanding the university offering in the Balearic Islands, increasing the number of available places, and contributing to retaining young talent so they do not have to leave for other communities or abroad to train. Visiedo argued that the project aspires to become a benchmark university model, closely linked to Balearic society, capable of training professionals who are excellent from an academic point of view, but also committed to ethical values and service to the community.

For his part, the Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, emphasized that the establishment of CEU in the Islands will represent a significant expansion of the university offering in the health sector and will facilitate more students being able to pursue their studies without leaving the Archipelago. Vera remarked that the Government's priority remains public universities, but he positively valued the arrival of a prestigious private institution that, as he said, will complement the Balearic university system and help retain students.

The chancellor of CEU San Pablo, Alfonso Gullón de Mendoza, thanked the support received from Majorcan society and the regional Executive, to whom he attributed having facilitated and accelerated the establishment process of the new university center.

The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, has framed the inauguration as the start of a project oriented towards the future and the generation of new educational opportunities for the youth of the Islands. Prohens recalled that this is the first project declared of strategic interest promoted by her Executive and particularly highlighted the center's commitment to placing the person at the heart of training. In this regard, she advocated for the value of humanism in a context marked by the advancement of artificial intelligence, and defended that human intelligence will continue to be irreplaceable. She also rejected the confrontation between public and private universities and assured that the University of the Balearic Islands, the University of Mallorca, and CEU can mutually enrich each other for the benefit of a shared objective: to promote knowledge, educational excellence, and the creation of opportunities to transform the Balearic Islands. We believe that, for the Balearic university landscape, it is a way to expand the offer and the number of places, to prevent talent from leaving for other autonomous communities or outside the country.

The Beato Luis Belda University Center, affiliated with the CEU San Pablo University, is launching its project in Mallorca with the first major step already completed: all places for the Medicine degree have been filled before the start of the course, scheduled for next September. In total, 55 students will begin this first cohort, with a strong local presence, as more than 80% are residents of the Balearic Islands, mostly from Mallorca.

Accelerated processing

The center is born with the objective of consolidating a new private university hub on the island in the field of health sciences, in a context marked by the structural deficit of health professionals and the difficulty of retaining talent trained in the territory. This bet, however, has not been without debate: the implementation of the project has generated distrust in part of the academic and political community of the Islands, especially due to the entry of a private university actor in a field traditionally linked to the UIB, as well as for its position within the Balearic educational map.

The processing of the implementation has also been criticized. The private faculty obtained the requalification of the land and the authorization in a record time of only nine days. The Universidad San Pablo CEU had acquired the Riskal building months before, at a time when the details of the decree-law to accelerate strategic projects were not yet known, which later allowed the operation to be streamlined during the period it was in force before being repealed in Parliament.

The deployment of the center has taken place with institutional participation, in a context in which the Government has defended the need to expand the training offer in the health field due to the shortage of professionals. This balance between public collaboration and private initiative has placed the project at the center of the debate on the university model in the Balearic Islands.

Two adjoining buildings

In this first stage, hematologist Antònia Sampol, head of the Hematology and Hemotherapy service at Son Espases hospital and associate professor at the UIB, joins the center's management team, a signing that strengthens the link with the public and academic healthcare sector of the Balearic Islands. Regarding facilities, the project is initially structured between the Son Serra Parera estate, recently acquired and used provisionally for academic purposes, and the old Riskal building, which will be renovated to become the main nucleus of the campus. In this first phase, Son Serra Parera will mainly house administrative and support spaces, while the laboratories will already begin to function as a key element for practical training. The reform of Riskal foresees a comprehensive transformation with criteria of sustainability and urban integration in Palma.

The global project foresees a biosanitary campus with capacity for nearly 2,000 students, with specialized facilities such as advanced laboratories, a clinical simulation center, and a university dental clinic with an also healthcare and social vocation. The stated objective is to reinforce practical training and simulation-based learning, in line with innovative teaching models.

Regarding teaching and professional integration, the center highlights a network of agreements with health and professional entities, including Juaneda Hospitals, the College of Physicians of the Balearic Islands, the Official College of Psychology, and the College of Pharmacists, in addition to other organizations from the private and sports sectors.

The CEU Beato Luis Belda project lands in Mallorca with an accelerated launch and strong initial demand, but also amidst a fundamental debate about the role of private universities, the planning of healthcare offerings, and the collaboration model between public administration and private educational initiatives.