Adargoma Hernández: We want the university to keep growing in Fuerteventura

It is not about creating a traditional campus immediately, but about generating conditions for the university to establish a greater presence. In this line, Hernández highlighted that steps are being taken to launch new undergraduate programmes on the island and to construct a building that will house higher education, he said in an interview on the program La Voz de Fuerteventura on Radio Insular, together with José Miguel Álamo, Vice‑Rector for Culture at ULPGC.

The island council is already working on the creation of a new multipurpose building for higher education, planned for the area of the Fuerteventura Technology Park, near the building that houses the stratoport.

The infrastructure, valued at around €13 million, is being designed with the idea that it could host university degrees, master’s programmes, or even incubators and start‑up labs. Talks are already underway with the two public universities of the Canary Islands and, additionally, with several private universities.

“We are in the financial‑economic phase, looking for funding; the intention is to submit it to European funds,” he said, aware that the university needs stability to launch programmes.

The building will feature modular classrooms, a library, an auditorium and open spaces linked to the technological environment, with the aim of connecting education, innovation and the productive fabric.

“It’s not the same to say a building will be constructed and then decide what goes inside, as to already have degree programmes planned,” Hernández pointed out.

Therefore, knowing that the new building will take several years to materialise (the construction period, once the contract is awarded, will be about 24 months), the council is seeking alternatives to avoid delaying the launch of any new degree, still to be defined.

The ULPGC campus in Fuerteventura is located in the Training and Congress Palace.

The Nursing degree serves as the growth engine and currently enrolls around 200 students on the island.

Building on that experience, the council and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are working on possible programmes that combine the health sector with technological or social fields. The aim is to avoid isolated offerings and to build pathways that are coherent with the island’s reality and linked to real labour‑market demand.

Hernández also indicated that the possibility of offering PhDs to hospital professionals is being considered, to meet the current training demand and ensure academic continuity.

“We must guarantee financing for the four years that a university degree lasts, especially if it is introduced as a pilot project. We cannot start a degree one year and drop it the next. Funding must be secured,” Hernández insisted.

The calculations already envisage cohorts of 30 to 50 places, a scale that fits the university model envisioned for insular territories.

Success of the Summer University: Relevant Topics and Current Issues

While degree programmes are being defined, the island recently launched a new edition of the Diploma in Canary Gastronomy Studies aimed at adult learners. This year the programme is being expanded to two academic years.

In addition, the registration period for the Summer University, which will run from 22 to 26 June, has opened. Free of charge, enrolments can be made through www.univeranofuerteventura.es.

Education, mental health, artificial intelligence and, this year, information, fake news, democracy and disinformation form a line that seeks to foster critical thinking and an academic community.

“The project has been consolidating,” the councilor said, acknowledging that the first editions were launched amid doubts about acceptance.

For his part, José Miguel Álamo, Vice‑Rector for Culture at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), praised the “relevant and current topics” chosen as the core of the four editions of the Summer University in Fuerteventura.

“A space for reflection, training and critical spirit that has already become established,” he emphasized.