Madrid Approves New Digital Business Center Merging 700 Years of Academia With AI

\ A new partnership is linking one of Spain’s most historic universities to one of its newest in an effort to drive business education into the age of digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). 

According to a press announcement shared with Novobrief, the Community of Madrid has approved a new Centro de Educación Superior ISDI (Higher Education Center ISDI) which will be created by the University of Alcalá (UAH) and ISDI digital business school. 

The University of Alcalá — a spin-off of the Complutense University of Madrid which was founded in Alcalá in 1293 before moving to Madrid — brings centuries of experience training world leaders and business professionals. 

For its part, ISDI, which was founded in Madrid in 2009, focuses on transforming executive business education for the modern digital age. 

The new Center will aim to meld the powers of the two educational institutions into a modern, urban campus in the center of Madrid that will directly connect the University of Alcalá with Spain’s business and technology hub.

Focusing on research and education around innovation, digital environments and artificial intelligence, the new Center will also serve as a link to the capital’s wider startup, scale up and enterprise business ecosystems. 

“For centuries, the University of Alcalá has distinguished itself by training professionals with a solid humanistic and scientific foundation, prepared to face the challenges of each era,” said José Vicente Saz Pérez, Rector of the University of Alcalá. “With this agreement with ISDI, we take a decisive step toward strengthening our presence in the digital and technological fields, and thus training the leaders that 21st-century society demands.” 

Via the Higher Education Center, the two institutions will jointly develop new university degree programs including master’s degrees, microcredentials, and research and entrepreneurship projects that will respond to the emerging needs of the labor market and society.

One such degree will be the Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Business, designed to prepare students with the skills necessary to lead companies in a global digital environment, with a special focus on artificial intelligence and organizational transformation.

In 2020, Spain launched its Digital Spain agenda, which, among many things, aimed to encourage education and upskilling for the digital age. At the time, the government said it would allocate over 3.5 billion euros to train its citizens for the digital economy. 

“For ISDI, the creation of the Higher Education Center affiliated with the University of Alcalá represents the culmination of a process of institutional maturation and consolidation,” said Nacho de Pinedo, Founder of ISDI.

“Our capacity for innovation, our proximity to the digital ecosystem, and our practical approach combine with the academic excellence and historical prestige of the UAH to jointly build the best university offering in digital business and artificial intelligence in Europe,” he added.

:::info Sergio Ramos, Journalist, Novobrief

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