Spain from Re.ViCa

The Spanish Academic Landscape

Domingo Sánchez-Mesa Martínez, University of Madrid

The potential of new technologies in the complex but crucial itinerary to the European Higher Education Area was stressed, in a national context in Spain, by the well known and polemical Bricall Report, one of the basic preparatory documents for the subsequent Ley Orgánica de Universidades (L.O.U., 2001). In spite of the most critical aspects of this law, the fact is that the whole chapter IX was devoted to the potential of ICT and its consequences for the next future of the Spanish university within the all pervading horizon of the European convergence. Since then, a number of documents have pointed at the potential of eLearning, while the development of distance learning programmes and units almost everywhere in the academic environment and beyond, coincide with a series of important processes for the Spanish universities:

• An increasing tendency to bring the academic world closer to society (as the proliferation of the number and relevance of the University-Enterprise foundations shows), including the general concern towards the need of an improvement of linguistic, communicational and computer-related competences within the university community;

• A clear invitation to shift the traditional teaching-oriented paradigm to a more flexible learning-oriented one;

• A determined will to reform the system of postgraduate studies and foster its importance in the education and better qualification of the professionals;

• The stress on the role that virtual education is to play according to the prospects of a lifelong learning kind of society.

That chapter also stressed the integration of ICT and the need to trust international cooperation through university networks, casting additional interesting arguments under the conviction that “Society expects from the new university graduates an awareness of the influence of the various forms of management of these technologies in their respective disciplines, as well as the requested knowledge and qualification to make use of these technologies” (Bricall 2000, 454). The three wide areas of the university environment where the impact of ICT was to be perceived were:

• the production and distribution of contents, both in education and in research,

• the teaching/learning models, and

• the organisational model.

Among the most symptomatic issues and observations raised by this text, we would like to underline the following:

• The ‘pressure’ or competition from the non-academic providers of ICT in higher education, become increasingly intensive in these organisations;

• The many actions taken by traditional universities concerning the integration of ICT, are not well supported by explicit and clear institutional general policies. In this sense, it is very much recommended to have a clear educational policy, based on the screening of addressees and the identification of the goals and the choice of the kind of technology to be used;

• The strong resistance of teaching and administrative staff to the introduction of ICT in the academic pedagogical and organisational model;

• The recommendation of the search for models combining traditional face-to-face teaching with distance learning modules (blended formulas);

• The prospects of future growth for higher education will emerge from the continuous professional education needs;

• In order to maximise the investments needed in this process of innovation, the engagement of universities in larger networks or consortiums with other universities in an international framework, and/or with public institutions and/or with private organisations was promoted. ICT is perceived as a means to facilitate the organisation and implementation of international ICT based courses. The idea of a virtual Erasmus is already into motion and one of the major challenges in this process.

Spain's University system

There are 51 public and 21 private universities in Spain. They are distributed throughout the country but the cities with the highest number of universities are Madrid (13), Barcelona (8) and Valencia (4).

Madrid has the highest number of private universities located there. These universities are very interested in the admission of foreign students to a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs.

There are four different types of university establishments in Spain:

• university schools (escuelas universitarias), where ‘short-term’ three-year courses are offered;

• university colleges (colegios universitarios) where the first three years of study leading to a licenciado is completed;

• faculties (facultades) where long-term courses are offered in all academic disciplines (except technical courses) and

• higher technical schools of engineering and architecture (escuela superior de ingeniería y arquitectura) where long-term technical courses are completed.

The Spanish university system is rigidly structured and students must choose a fixed curriculum and aren’t permitted to change universities during their studies.

Undergraduate university studies are divided into different stages known as cycles. There are three types of programs:

• Single-cycle programs (or short-cycle studies): These studies do not continue to the second cycle and degrees awarded are the Diplomatura (Bachelor degree). These are normally three-year programs.

• Two-cycle studies with an intermediate diploma: The first cycle leads to the award of the Diplomatura (Bachelor), or Arquitectura Técnica and Ingeniería Técnica (Bachelor degree in Architecture or Engineering), and students have the option of continuing to the second cycle for the award of the degree of Licenciatura (Masters degree), or Arquitecto and Ingeniero (Architect and Engineer). These are five or six-year programs.

• Two-cycle studies without an intermediate diploma (or long-cycle studies): These studies are divided into two cycles but it is necessary to complete both to be eligible for the award of the Licenciatura(Masters Degree). These are four or five-year programs.

In addition to these official degrees or diplomas, each university offers a wide range of unofficial degrees (Maestrias) as well as graduate programs in a wide range of subjects that qualify for the award of the degree of Doctor (Ph.D.). The unofficial degrees are typically one or two years and usually require having attained an undergraduate or graduate degree and are widely recognized for their labour market value, as these qualifications are highly practical in scope and geared to specialized sectors of the different professions. Spanish universities' offer of doctoral degree programs typically require four years of study and research.

The universities cover the whole spectrum of official degrees offered in Spain with the official recognition of its Ministry of Education, as well as a wide variety of non-official degrees in a large number of professional fields.

Virtual learning initiatives

• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

http://www.uoc.edu

• Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

http://www.uned.es http://www.uned.es/webuned/areasgen/info/english2.htm (English)

• La Universidad a Distancia de Madrid

http://www.udima.es/

• Asociación Nacional de Centros de e-Learning y Distancia

http://www.anced.es/

Sources

Bricall, J. Informe Universidad 2000. (Report commissioned by the CRUE, Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades Españolas). Available at <http://www.crue.org/informeuniv2000.htm>.

Sánchez-Mesa Martínez D.,Virtual Education and the European Accreditation System. In: Boonen A. & W. Van Petegem (eds.). European Networking and Learning for the Future. The EuroPACE Approach. 2007, Garant, Antwerp-Apeldoorn. p. 137-146.

http://www.tostudyinspain.com/ http://www.expatica.com/es/survival/education/higher-education-in-spain-1896.html

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