Building the new Faculty of Pharmacy in Santiago will mean more for the Galician capital than providing students of this career, who travel the campus for nine years, with a building that brings together all their facilities again. The same construction is proposed to house, in related modules, the Faculty of Nursing, laboratories and a health sciences research center. The pharmacy will be the first slab to be planted in the Cité de la Santé, a project designed by the University of Compostela (USC) that, in the longer term, also includes the rehabilitation of the Faculty of Medicine or the redevelopment of the campus and the square of the Seminario de Estudos Galegos, among other actions. The idea of the USC is not new and has existed for years, but its implementation is now being prepared with a mixed investment of 24.5 million euros. It will be put out to tender this year, so that construction can begin next year and in 2027 it will be operational.
The first phase therefore consists of creating a new faculty to replace the current one, which is inoperable due to problems of fuel and diesel pollution, in addition to structural integrity problems. In 2010, decontamination work began, but the reference values have never been recovered; In 2015, USC ordered it closed and in 2019 he stopped the restoration work, deciding in 2020 that It would be installed in the new Ciudad de la Salud complex, close to CiMUS and the University Clinical Hospital. In the meantime, his teaching was dispersed across various faculties in the surrounding area.
The City of Health proposes the opposite: centralize – or better connect – the installations linked to the health school. And the new Faculty of Pharmacy This will be the first of the modules that will make up the building of Health Sciences, the flagship of the same architectural project that provides for the redevelopment of the Estudos Galegos Seminar Square and the reorganization of mobility in the city at the service of the University, connecting the urban fabric of the campus with the green space located in its surroundings.
“Each volume is organized autonomously, independently, like a piece in itself, but They all connect and work with each other,” The team of architects in charge of the initiative explained this Tuesday, in a presentation that was also attended by the Galician president, Alfonso Rueda; the Minister of Education, Román Rodríguez; and the rector of the USC, Antonio López. The experts illustrated in words the image they intend to create: “A single volume has been arranged, in a very simple order, which connects the two plots and gives unity to the entire complex: it is the classroom, with an estimated area of 12,000 m2. Connected to this main volume, by underground corridors, are three boxes that, among the trees, in the context of a forest, will house pharmacy and biomedical research laboratories, as well as practical nursing classrooms.”
As reported by the USC, the amount of 24.5 million euros that will carry out the first phase of the works is composed as follows: 12 million that the Xunta is injecting through its Infrastructure Plan; another 9.6 that the University will have by renegotiating its bank debt – an operation already authorized by the Galician Government; and 2.9 that the USC is initially contributing with its own funds.
“Courageous” decision
In Tuesday’s presentation, after the approval on Monday by the Xunta Council of the investment of 12 million euros planned by the autonomous entity, Alfonso Rueda stressed the importance of the “good financial management” of the USC when it comes to giving the initiative a solid base. And he recognized the rector of Compostela the “Complicated” and “courageous” decision to stop work on the old faculty and opt for a new building. “When someone is responsible and has a vision of the future, I think it is worth making courageous decisions (…). If a university seeks excellence, it must have a good infrastructure, a good human team and a student body that also aspires to this excellence,” stressed the Galician leader.
Román Rodríguez agrees with Rueda and highlighted the “investment effort” on both sides, but he also highlighted the importance of “clearing the financial path” for the university, as the Xunta has given it the green light to renegotiate its bank debt and, therefore, I still have 10 million. And, in the words of Antonio López, Monday was “one of the happiest days” since he took the reins of the institution in 2018, because means making “the most important project of the university, from an infrastructure point of view, a reality”, more necessary and more urgent.”
While “everything” is ready to undertake the project, the next step will be to launch it by call for tenders, which they plan to do “before the end of the year”, and to build it over “18 months”, during half of 2025 and all of 2026, reports Ep.
