IE University Official and Private Degrees

IE University is a globally prestigious institution committed to excellence in research and academics. It offers academic programs in various fields of knowledge, grouped into five schools: IE Business School, IE Law School, IE School of Science and Technology, IE School of Architecture and Design and IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs. IE University is authorized by Spanish authorities to grant official and private degrees.

IE University grants official undergraduate and graduate degrees (Master’s and PhD Degrees) and consequently grants Official University Degrees, approved and recognized by the Spanish government. The University is accredited in the Ministry of Education’s National Registry of Universities, Institutions and Degrees, while its curriculum has been adapted to the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process).

In addition, IE University offers Master’s degrees that are specially oriented towards the practical application of studies. Its training and curricula are constantly updated, all while maintaining IE’s standards for academic excellence. University Private Degrees, while they are unofficial and do not qualify graduates for doctorate programs, have the guarantee of being granted by an educational institution that is legally authorized to grant University Private Degrees. Private university degrees are provided by the Spanish law. 

University Private Degrees originated from IE’s commitment to respond to society’s needs and demands by offering innovative training and a holistic, unique learning experience.  They include those areas of knowledge that involve certain special conditions that make them much more difficult to carry out in the context of more traditionally regulated education. 

• Education in emerging fields of knowledge or in ones that combine interdisciplinary knowledge that requires adaptable teaching methods. 

• Programs in dynamic, rapidly changing disciplines that require rapid adaptation to the market as well as constant updates to materials and content. 

• Education that demands a highly flexible educational model, design and structure in order to implement new methods of integrating technologies, learning and evaluating. This may involve training companies and institutions in order to highlight the practical character of the material or allow for collaborative design and teaching in partnership with other globally prestigious academic institutions. 

• Education that requires a diverse and international faculty, or that requires professors who are recognized experts in the business world. These professors can transfer their expert knowledge of business trends, practices and knowledge to the classroom in practical ways. 

• Programs that are specially geared towards the application of studies to students’ profession or business, rather than to the research and continuity, as in a doctoral program or civil service exams. 

• When the duration of a program must respond to the needs of the material being taught, rather than to the established legal parameters of an official Master’s program. 

IE University is a pioneer in offering innovative programs that address areas of study from a distinct perspective.  Innovation flourishes in these flexible environments and helps students become adaptable, learn to think beyond established knowledge and acquire new skills essential for the next step in their education. 

The rules and restrictions that the regulation of the official degrees places on the adoption of new curricula, methodology, content, evaluations, duration and faculty profiles make it unfeasible to officially recognize a Master program that fulfills the conditions listed above. 

List of Private Degrees

All of the programs IE University offers are governed by unique quality standards according to the specifications of each degree, all while maintaining IE’s standards for academic rigor, instructor quality and selectivity. 

University Private Degrees are not subject to a governmental accreditation and monitoring process, but like IE’s Official University Degrees, they are subject to internal quality checks that are much more rigorous and precise than those for official education.  Quality control involves program heads, area directors and internal and external teams that evaluate faculty, current students and alumni. Businesses and institutions also participate in regular processes for continuous review, updating and improvement. 

For practical purposes, recognition of Master’s programs comes from the business community. IE University is internationally recognized as one of the leading educational institutions in the world. 

The quality of its programs is avowed by more than 55,000 graduates who hold relevant positions in companies or have created their own businesses. It is evident in the international quality of the institution, which attracts students from more than 125 countries and an international faculty made up of more than 500 professors. IE is considered an international leader in research and knowledge production, is top-ranked by the highest media outlets, including The Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, AméricaEconomía, The Education Times, Youth Incorporated, Forbes, Ideas: the Magazine of the Aspen Institute, QS and Design Intelligence. IE holds leading educational accreditation from international organizations (EQUIS, AMBA, AACSB and APSIA) and is a member of the top associations in its areas of specialization. It maintains agreements with more than 100 academic institutions across Europe, the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and develops programs in partnership with institutions including Brown University, Northwestern University, New York University, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Singapore Management University. The quality of its programs is also evidenced by the prestige it has achieved over the course of more than 40 years among international recruiters and leading companies in various sectors.