Three new private universities in Malaga are already taking applications for 2025-26 academic year

This year, 2025, will see three new private universities start operating in Malaga - at least that is their intention. They are Alfonso X El Sabio and the European University of Madrid, both sited on land awarded three years ago by Malaga city council in the areas of La Térmica and El Cónsul respectively, and the Atlantic-Mediterranean Technological University (Utamed), which will be the first online university in Andalucía. All have set September and October as the months in which their first classes will commence, and they have already begun to receive applications from prospective students interested in enrolling on the courses they offer.

Once approved by the Junta to operate in Andalucía, the Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio and the European University maintain their intention to start teaching within nine months, an objective that seems somewhat utopian in the case of the former, as it still does not have the building permit to construct the first of the buildings on its campus, planned on land in the area of La Térmica, where new developments of luxury flats are also being built.

More advanced in its plans is the European University project on a plot next to Calle Navarro Ledesma, between El Romeral and El Cónsul, which has a surface area of 22,412 square metres. Designed by the architect José Seguí and with construction company Sacyr in charge, work has been underway since last summer on a site that will fill the large void that has existed until now between Calle Eolo and Calle Carmen Laforet, where the workers are hard at it to give shape as quickly as possible to the buildings that will house the first classes.

Speaking of first classes, the European University of Andalucía - as it is expected to be called - has opened the admissions window for the following degrees: Dentistry (the most in demand so far), Biomedicine, Psychology, Physiotherapy, Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, Business Administration and Management, Marketing and Computer Engineering. For all of them, 6 October of next year has been announced as the starting date for classes, a start date that has not yet been activated for the degrees in Primary Education and Early Childhood Education.

This project involves an investment of 16 million euros to build a campus with two faculties and a polytechnic school which, when fully operational, will be able to accommodate some 4,000 students. The buildings will be fairly low-rise, with a ground floor plus two more floors and will have 236 parking spaces. The European University will pay a fee of 67.6 million euros to Malaga city council for the concessionary use of this land for a period of 50 years. In addition, this educational institution will offer a total of 400,000 euros per year for scholarships for students from Malaga.

As for Utamed, chaired and founded by the businessman Paco Ávila and whose main shareholder is the Unicaja Foundation (with 40% of its initial capital), also plans to start up in September of this year and has already begun work on its headquarters on a seven thousand square metre plot located in Calle Marie Curie, in Malaga's TechPark. Designed by the Malaga-based architecture studio Flow81, work on the building, which won a prize at the Architectural Design Awards in New York, is expected to be completed in April.

Utamed, approved by the Junta de Andalucía back in September 2023, offers on its website degrees in Digital Communication and Journalism, Digital Marketing, Law, Digital Economics and Business Intelligence, Finance and Accounting, Primary Education, Early Childhood Education, Computer Engineering, Industrial Organisation Engineering, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, and Psychology. This university, which has already received dozens of applications from prospective students interested in the degrees it offers, will focus on the new digital subject areas, around which it intends, in the words of its promoters, "to contribute to job creation and attracting talent." To this end it will prioritise applied research and promote student contacts with mentors and investors who will be responsible for tutoring and financing the projects cultivated by the students.

As for the third university, Alfonso X El Sabio, its investors are still awaiting planning permission from Malaga's municipal urban planning department to begin construction of the first of the campus buildings on the land ceded by the local council between the Camino de la Térmica and the tennis court area of the Inacua sports centre. According to municipal sources consulted, this last authorisation could be granted in the first weeks of January, as a favourable technical report has been issued. However, only nine months would remain to meet the forecast that the first classes could start in September 2025, a somewhat tight deadline for such a reality to materialise.

This educational institution has given assurances that it is still "working to open in September" and that it maintains this date as a feasible option for the start of its educational business in Malaga. However, they recognise that this can only be achieved as long as "the planned milestones are achieved" and no circumstances arise that could lead to "a standstill".

While waiting for work to begin on the Alfonso X El Sabio Mare Nostrum University (full title) campus on a 27,623 square metre plot of land, designed by the Madrid studio Luis Vidal+arquitectos (with the prior approval of the local HCP studio that will be overseeing the build), work has already begun on the adaptation of the institution's other premises in the Alameda Principal as an information office. It is the ground floor that used to house the Antonio Handbags shop, on the corner with Calle Tomás Heredia. It will open its doors between January and February "to attend in person to all those interested in our training offer", according to a university spokesperson.

This institution has also begun to receive applications from prospective students interested in enrolling in some of the degrees it will offer, although it has provided no data on how many pre-enrolment offers it has registered, nor on fees. On its website it announces that classes will start in September 2025 for the following degrees: Dentistry, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Biomedicine, Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Pharmacy, Business Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Computing, Video Game Design and Industrial Design and Product Development.

However, the start of all these courses for the 2025-2026 academic year will depend on how quickly the first of the campus buildings is completed, planned for the area closest to Avenida Imperio Argentina, already connected to where it joins Calle Pacífico as a result of the construction of some 300 luxury flats in the area of El Pato II. In the rest of the plot Malaga council has not yet completed the demolition of some old buildings that remained on this land. The Alfonso X El Sabio University will pay the city council a fee of 60 million euros in total for the 50-year concession to occupy this space and will make 2.4 million euros in grants available to city hall.