Advantages/disadvantages of attending university abroad (Spain)

[KatyMac]

I imagine there are lots; this has been raised as a possibility for my DD.

It's very speculative & there are loads of things I don't know but:

Advantages
It's Spain!
It's Barcelona!
It's exciting!
She'll learn about another counrty
She'll learn another language (properly)
It's amazing!

Disadvantages
No UK student finance
Presumably no Spanish finance
It's miles away - travel costs
Living in a big city
Another language - GCSE Spanish probably won't cut it
She won't build up the contacts in London that she would build up in the UK

Questions
Would she need health insurance?

umm so I guess it's a heart vs head thing but what haven't I thought of?

Poor degree quality
Large (200+) class sizes
No student accommodation
No student type lifestyle
Not understanding a word of the lecture for the first year.

What would be the point of going to Spain exactly?

Brilliant things I hadn't thought of

It's a British degree, awarded by a good (solid) British University
Small vocational classes
They have their own hostels
Small number of international students hosed together (that could be bad)
Classes all held in English

They want her?

I think the problem is I don't know what questions to ask

If they want her , wouldn't others also . Is it the ultimate of its kind ? Assuming it is also vocational you need to look at its track record, alumni and how the experience of performance there might give her any edge.

I think that answered it, I guess - it's new

But it's nice to be wanted (as I will remind her)

You'd probably want to check what qualification she would get and how well recognised it is in the area of work she's aiming for.

It might have changed - but I knew a spanish girl (from Barcelona actually) who came to Scotland to do a masters. She was not impressed with the spanish system. She said there were three shifts of classes - morning, afternoon, evening. Very large classes, and she said the standard wasn't particularly high.

Plus side - spanish is quite similar to English in terms of vocabulary and structure, plus obviously a great life experience.

I went to France for 6 months with my masters - it wasn't a taught course (research easier to handle in a second language), but it was great to meet people from many different countries (although the native English speakers gravitated together).

How long would it be for ? How keen is she ? How self reliant is she ? (It can be very lonely until you get into a friendship group).

These are all things I hadn't thought of

It's basically a British college abroad (I think), loneliness is an issue

If they were to fund her - it would be a way of obtaining a degree

I think that is the main attraction

I did allmy studies abroad as I'm not British. This is the issues I've encountered:

• the degree might not be recognised fur what it's worth in the uk. This will depend on the degree and the industry.
• the way and what she will be taught might be very different from what students are taught here. Hence discrepancy and the feeling she doesn't know what she us doing by future employers.
• she will have spent 3 years abroad, learnt a new language, proven she is independent. Again depending on the subject, it can be a real BIG advantage.

Questions to ask yourself:

• what value does that particular degree have in Spain? Is there any other more prestigious route to do that training? (Eg I. France, you don't go to university to be an engineer. You go to an engineering school. A degree will give you a job as a technician)
• anything related to the cost of university, accommodation ect
• how she is feeling about fitting in a different culture, learning a different language etc

Tbh my dcs are bilingual and I do consider sending them to my home country for university. Cost is much much lower BUT I also know there are some barriers because of 1- the language abd 2- the way of learning which will be different. She really needs to be very keen for it work IMO.

A English college in Spain??
I would be weary of that actually and I would be very careful in digging out how much recognition that degree will get in the uk.

I came here (UK) to do my degree. Language no barrier, at the time no fees (EU student same as UK). I came to follow "my vocation" in a way. But really my degree is not easily transferable to 'home'. The workplace is quite different here and there so I ended up staying here. (No regrets ) All quite different to your situation of course but it might be worth thinking beyond the course.

WHY exactly is this UK institution offering degrees in Spain? Subject related? Cost? Accessibility to non-UK students? What advantages do they cite - except the weather ?

We still lived in Spain when DS came to apply for uni. He wasn't interested in doing his degree in Spain, despite being a fluent Spanish speaker, for all the reasons listed above. He visited a couple of Spanish universities with the school and was unimpressed. He wanted a "proper" uni experience and felt that wasn't possible in Spain.

It wasn't easy going to open days - he went to 4 of his 5 choices despite this and his Spanish school were totally unsupportive of his choice (as it wasn't in Spain)but he got there and graduates this summer. He doesn't regret his choice at all.

From what you have said I can't really see the point in her doing it this way. Depending on the subject how about a course that includes a semester or year abroad to gain some experience/excitement of living in another country.

Fussychica - I PM'd you as I don't know anyone who lived in spain

Reply to your pm sent - not sure it'll help much though.

Thank you - it has helped

& I sent you a video of DD dancing

Thanks

Is it the Institute of the Arts Barcelona?

Have you heard of them? Are they any good?

I would encourage your dd to apply to the uk and do a year abroad on an Erasmus exchange - that way she gets to experience both

She wouldn't have the qualifications to apply for a degree here - she's auditioning for a 3 yr Level 6 Diploma

It can be topped up to a degree in a year

Hi KatyMac - no, I hadn't heard of them before but it was pretty easy to identify where you were talking about and to find it by googling. I work in HE but don't know anything about the performing arts side of things!

My first question would be does your DD need a degree if she's going to be a performer? Does a degree help to get work in the performing arts? Or would she be better served investing her time, effort and money in other forms of training?

My second question would be about IAB. It's very new - founded in 2013 - which isn't in itself a bad thing, but it does mean that there's no track record to look at, and also that the first cohorts of students are inevitably guinea-pigs.

You might be interested in this article from this time last year here about IAB. I noticed that the article indicates that degrees will be validated by Norwich University of the Arts but the IAB website says they are validated by Liverpool John Moores. This could all be perfectly innocuous but validating degrees is a long and painful process and it would be unusual for an institution to be planning to be validated by one institution in Feb 2013 and then to be actually validated by somewhere completely different a mere twelve months later.

I notice from IAB's website that they have week-long spring and summer open houses for students who have gone through the audition process successfully. It might be an idea for your DD to do one of those and see how she likes it, how well-organised it is, what the atmosphere is like.

None of this is meant to be negative - IAB looks like an amazing place and Sitges looks like a great location - I can certainly see the appeal! I know you and your DD will do your homework and come to a good decision.

She can do either the degree or a diploma, it all depends upon the funding tbh

She has been offered a place on the holiday school - but we are not sure yet of the possibilities

It's all too complicated

She just got an unconditional off - but I don't think she can go