Adaptation and Implementation of the European Higher Education Area

Adaptation and Implementation of the European Higher Education Area

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid was the first Spanish public university to adapt all of its undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies to the EHEA, which has meant a tremendous effort in adapting its degree programs and teaching model.

The implementation of the new degrees began in the 2008/2009 academic year and after project Campus Carlos III was awarded Campus of International Excellence, the University has continued to progress in the development of a new teaching model, designing and approving norms for: (i) support for Continuous Evaluation; (ii) regulation of studies taught in English and enrollment and evaluation of students in such courses; (iii) the tutoring system for the different degree program studies; (iv) organization and evaluation of the subject “Final Degree Project”; and (v) the regulations regarding external internships in the Bachelor degree program.

In addition, during the 2010/2011 academic year, the University has continued adapting its classrooms to the EHEA model. Along the same lines, the UC3M library has also been carrying out organizational and structural changes over the last three years, following recommendations, suggestions and national and international regulations in this regard. This new model conceives of the library as an active work center that provides information and logistical support to the new undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs and the European Area of Higher Education. In the postgraduate area, over the 2009/10 academic year, 100% of our Master and Doctoral programs were adapted to the European Area of Higher Education.

One of Campus Carlos III’s strategic dimensions of is internationalization and in this sense, it has made enormous strides this past academic year to promote international mobility among all the collectives which make up the university community. Thus, in the 2010/11 academic year, 900 places at European universities were offered to our students, a 30% increase in offer over the previous year. 97 places were also offered for universities in the United States, Canada, Australia and Asia, which represents a 59% increase over the year before. All of this enabled more than 800 students to study outside Spain for one or two terms, a 38% increase over the previous year.

UC3M students going abroad per academic year and mobility program

In this same way, CCIII welcomed 650 students in exchange programs, which means a 33% increase over the previous academic year, in addition to the nearly 350 received in the Hispanic Studies Program. Furthermore, 46 professors carried out a mobility stay during the 2009/10 academic year within the Erasmus Program (an increase of 460% with respect to the previous year) and for the first time, the Erasmus Program for Personnel and Administrative Staff was put into action, allowing 17 people to carry out a stay at different European universities. Currently CCIII has mobility agreements with students from 285 European universities in 29 different countries and with 73 non-European universities in 19 countries on 3 different continents. These agreements allow the University to offer its students more than 1,500 international mobility places for academic year 2011/12, possibly the highest rate among students enrolled in Spanish universities.

Universidad Carlos III is the Spanish public university with the highest number of degrees taught in English, bilingual degrees or degrees with some subjects taught in English. As can be seen in the table included in Appendix II, this academic offering has increased considerably during this new academic year.