The waiting list for admission to the Biology degree program at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Valencia stood at 1,867 applicants without a place at the beginning of the 2025/2026 academic year. For the Biotechnology degree, the waiting list rose to 1,996. But for Biochemistry, the number of applicants without a place reached 2,184. It only dropped to 639 for the Environmental Sciences degree. These figures have been consistent for years, and the University of Valencia has acknowledged the need to expand the facilities of the Faculty of Biological Sciences on the Burjassot Campus.

Ismael Mingarro, Dean of Biological Sciences, welcomes the planned investment of 40 million euros to construct a new 17,000-square-meter, six-story building that will allow for the reorganization of the facilities under the faculty's jurisdiction and meet its current needs. However, the building is not expected to open until 2029, if everything goes according to plan.

Mingarro celebrates the University of Valencia's commitment and shows the warehouse and the temporary building that houses some of the current faculty's facilities, which will be replaced by "one of the most complex buildings on the entire campus." "In the late seventies, when the Burjassot campus opened, six buildings were erected here: two for Physics, two for Chemistry, and, for the first time as an independent entity, two for Biological Sciences," explains Mingarro. "Today, the Faculty of Biology has twice as many students as the Faculties of Physics and Chemistry combined."

The dean recalls that the Mathematics building was later constructed, how the various faculties shared another newly built building financed with European funds for research, how the University of Valencia's Natural Science Museum was initially housed in the cafeteria shared by all the faculties once a new one could be built, how he moved his office to another shared building to set up another laboratory, and so on. “We don’t have enough space, and it’s a real hassle for students to have to go from one building to another,” explains Mingarro.

The project is ambitious and reveals the growing interest in Biological Sciences among students, but the expectation is that it will only cover current needs, and little more. The dean suggests that it might be worthwhile to seek private sponsorship to address future needs. “In the United States, it’s very common for large research centers to have a specific name; a major industrialist might decide to promote biochemical research and donate laboratories on the condition that they bear his name,” Mingarro points out. “Here, we still cling to a culture of strictly public funding, which perhaps isn’t very in tune with the times.” For now, the dean doesn’t hide his enthusiasm for the public investment earmarked to improve the experience of future biologists.