With the constitution of its first Senate, the 30th of October 1979 marks the birth of the University of Cadiz (UCA). However, their College of Medicine dates back to the XVII century and the School of Engineering is among the oldest in Spain being founded in the middle of the XX century. The University of Cadiz is located in the south of Spain, in a key geo-strategic area connecting Europe and Africa through the Gibraltar Straight, and Europe and Latin America through its historical and commercial links. More recently, UCA has become the University of Spain with more ties to Universities in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union countries. Committed to the highest intellectual, moral and cultural standards, our University strives to produce principled and competent graduates. It nurtures a service-oriented and environment-conscious community which seeks to contribute to the advancement of the global society. The academic offer of UCA is served by its four campuses that allow the University to be present in the entire Cadiz province. Bachelor, Masters and PhD degrees are offered in all branches of knowledge: Arts and Humanities, Business, Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences, and Social and Legal Sciences with a total of 47 Degrees; 52 Official Master Programmes (2 Erasmus Mundus) and 16 Doctorate Programmes. UCA has more than 22,000 students, near to 1,700 Staff/professors, 700 members of non-academic staff, and around 1,800 scientists distributed across more than 130 Research Groups. It has 700 Erasmus incoming students from Europe, 200 Erasmus incoming students from other countries, and 400 visiting exchange students. The studies in UCA have to include the gender issues as a transversal knowledge; besides, there are specific subjects in some degrees related to gender. Specifically, in the Institutional framework, the University of Cadiz has an Equality Unit linked to the Department of Labour Law and Social Security Law. Regarding gender issues, the UCA offers a master in “Gender, Identity and Citizenship” (in the School of Philosophy and Literature). Students who have obtained this Master’s Degree will have acquired professional competences that will prepare them to detect manifestations of sexism in different fields of society, and allow them to transform and eliminate these manifestations through the development of public and private activities. The aim of this Master’s programme is to educate the students to understand gender equality issues and to enable them to implement their knowledge in different professions and fields of work (in any field of social intervention and/or economics that should include the gender perspective), to promote gender equality by raising awareness inside and beyond the university environment, and to stimulate the introduction of gender action plans into Academia. Focusing on research, the students who graduate from the “Gender, Identity and Citizenship” Master’s Programme will have acquired investigation oriented competences that will prepare them to develop conceptual and methodological instruments that allow them to understand, analyse, deconstruct and transform the social inequalities derived from gender identity; to examine and analyse different disciplines through a gender perspective. Additionally, to suggest research projects that, with a multidisciplinary perspective, deal with essential aspects that allow the comprehension of gender relations in the present context, and to manage social investigation techniques in work with women. In the Doctorate of Arts and Humanities there is a specific line of research related to Gender, Identity and Citizenship. The University as a transforming agent of social reality in terms of gender equality (funded by the Andalusian Agency for Development Cooperation of the Junta de Andalucía), lead the proposal of the Latin American Network for Research and Transfer of Social Studies and Social Practices. UCA and USAC have maintained a close relationship for several years that has manifested itself in various actions. In 2005, they signed a collaboration framework agreement, ratified in 2015, and since then they have been planning and deciding on joint lines of action. This project includes the creation of the Latin American Network for Research and Transfer of Gender Studies and Social Practices (GENRED) whose goal it is to coordinate the Equality Units or Institutes of Women of the Central American universities of Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico and Santo Domingo, and the Equality Units of the public Andalusian universities on a joint project dedicated to equality of opportunities, in order to address the gender issue and make it more visible, and lead the processes of change in matters of equality as agents of knowledge. UCA participated in the Erasmus KA103 and Erasmus KA107 exchange programmes. UCA is also participating in cooperation projects within Erasmus CBHE and Strategic Partnerships, and in joint research projects: H2020, PRIMA, Poctefex and other European and non-European calls. The UCA should provide a complete perspective of the public policies in Spain related to gender. We have some important Master programmes and research lines regarding gender issues. We could offer our expertise in organising International congresses and events in this area, and inserting a transversal gender perspective in legal matters. For the University of Cadiz, the gender perspective is crucial in the Institution policy, and a significant portion of the rules is dedicated to preventing the gender gap and violence against women. Additionally, the fact that it is located near the Strait of Gibraltar gives a particular perspective to gender problems about migrating women.
