TBS business school opens new campus in Barcelona with 1,100 capacity

The international business school TBS opened up its fourth campus in the world in Barcelona's 22@ business district on Wednesday. The opening will see the company's headquarters moved from the city center to the technological district.

The new school can welcome up to 1,100 students from all over the world and after a partnership with an accommodation company, 700 of them will be able to stay at a residence nearby the campus.

Located at 116 Veneçuela street, students will be surrounded by several business hubs, public institutions, and entrepreneur and innovation hotspots.

Barcelona's TBS is the fourth campus the company opens, adding to the ones in Casablanca in Morocco, and the French cities of Paris and Toulouse.

The idea to move to 22@ and leave their building near Plaça d'Urquinaona square was "pretty obvious," as this area is the one for "innovation, technology, and it has a hugely dynamic," Olivier Benielli, director of TBS education Barcelona told Catalan News moments before the inauguration act.

And in fact, one of the things made TBS considered to move is the "well-connected district" of the 22@, as it does not represent any problem for students who live in the city center, as it is just around a 20-minute metro ride from Plaça de Catalunya square and there are many companies beside as well.

At the inauguration, local authorities such as Jaume Collboni, Barcelona deputy mayor, and Catalan foreign minister Meritxell Serret, praised the work TBS has been doing in the city during their speeches to a large audience.

"Barcelona residents live this inauguration as our own," because today the city sees the new chapter of TBS business school, Collboni said. 

"The key to the innovative future of 22@ is that private and public institutions work together," the deputy mayor added before talking about the "historic transformation the district has been seeing" these last years.

TBS, based in Toulouse, is also a key part of the "Catalan and Provence connection," Serret said. In fact, both territories have "good historical, economical, social and cultural relations," she added.

"We have to be useful for citizens ahead of global challenges they are facing, and this educational center thinking in new generations is key, and education is very important for this," the ministry concluded.

The business school has been in Barcelona since 1997 after they landed in the Catalan capital as part of a partnership with another company.

After all these years, the education center considered they needed "more capacity, and have more space for the students," and to have a "unique space" where the company could "offer high-level services," which is why they decided to move to the business district.

22@, architecture and industrial heritage

TBS business school's new building is now part of the 22@ architecture history. The district is one of the upcoming areas in the Catalan capital and is well-known for its mix of architecture and old industrial heritage.

Some of the most renowned worldwide architects have taken part in developing this area in Barcelona, where the new TBS business school campus is located. 

To learn more about it, listen to the Filling the Sink podcast episode from January 30.