INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE STUDENTS – INCOMING
If you are an international student interested in doing an exchange at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona, here you will find all the information to do so! According to the rankings, the University of Barcelona is one of the most reputable European institutions and, in addition, it is located in one of the best cities to study and live
The University of Barcelona
- The University of Barcelona is the most formidable public institution of higher education in Catalonia, catering to the needs of the greatest number of students and delivering the broadest and most comprehensive offering in higher educational courses. The UB is also the principal centre of university research in Spain and has become a European benchmark for research activity, both in terms of the number of research programmes it conducts and the excellence these have achieved.
- Its own history closely tied to the history of Barcelona and of Catalonia, our university combines the values of tradition with its position as an institution dedicated to innovation and teaching excellence: a university that is as outward-looking and cosmopolitan as the city from which it takes its name. And because of this, it plays a direct and active part in the urban fabric of Barcelona, becoming a hub of cultural activity for the city itself.
The UB campuses are spread out across the entire inner-city area, thus fostering a series of close ties between the institution of our University and the city around us. These ties contribute to the human and cultural environment present in certain parts of Barcelona and enables members of the university community to enjoy both the city’s services and those of the UB. - The University of Barcelona occupies a competitive position at national, European and worldwide levels in the most important ranking tables designed on a range of variables within different geographical areas. The QS World University Ranking 2021 ranked the University of Barcelona number 183 among all the universities in the world, being classified the first one among the Spanish universities.
In 2009, the Ministry of Education recognized the University of Barcelona in its first call of the program Campus of International Excellence (CIE) for the UB’s project jointly undertaken with the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), the Barcelona Knowledge Campus, or BKC. In the 2010 call, the BKC went on to receive additional financing to support its activities and to consolidate its position as the first Campus of International Excellence. In the 2010 call, the campus officially known as the Health Universitat de Barcelona Campus (HUBc) was also given CIE status. - The University of Barcelona was founded in 1450; it is the oldest university in Catalonia and one of the oldest in Spain. The UB is implicitly linked to the history of Barcelona and Catalonia and combines its historical dimension with its status as a leading, innovative educational institution. Its work contributes to the creation, transmission and diffusion of culture and of scientific, technical and professional knowledge, as well as promoting critical thought, freedom and pluralism. The UB offers a comprehensive range of courses adapted to the educational and professional needs of contemporary society, and has one of the largest intakes of students, professors and researchers from all Spanish universities.
If you want further information regarding our institution, here you can find some of the most remarkable facts and data about the University of Barcelona. We invite you to discover more about our institution, with its more than five hundred years of heritage, and to experience the University and the city by realizing your studies at our Faculty.
The Faculty of Economics and Business
The Faculty of Economics and Business is a leading centre for tuition in economics, business, sociology and statistics, and can claim to be the foremost faculty in these disciplines in Catalonia. It builds on the tradition established by the former Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, which trained the first class of economics graduates in Catalonia (1954-1959), and the University School of Business Studies, which provided tuition to many generations of business and business science graduates following its creation in 1850. The two centres merged in July 2008 to form what is now the Faculty of Economics and Business.
The Faculty is particularly notable for:
- Quality bachelor’s degree tuition in a wide range of subjects, focusing on strong, generalist preparation for professional life, in line with the principles of the European Higher Education Area.
- A commitment to internationalizing the learning experience, including a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree taught entirely in English, and a range of bachelor’s degree subjects with tuition in English.
- A focus on practical experience and entrepreneurial skills, offering students a variety of professional placement options and a unique collaborative working environment for the development of entrepreneurship projects.
- A broad range of postgraduate training options, preparing students for research and doctoral studies or leading to professional specialization.
- A commitment to international mobility options, with the widest selection of bachelor’s degree exchange programmes of any Catalan university (through Erasmus placements with European partners, the BCA Study Abroad programme with the United States, and specific agreements with institutions in Latin America and Asia).
- Quality research, with 22 groups receiving the official support of the Government of Catalonia, some 200 researchers, and three specific structures to oversee its research activity: UB School of Economics, UB Business School and UB Sociology.
- Catalan is the official language at the University of Barcelona, and is therefore used in all the University’s institutional and administrative affairs. Teaching is conducted in both Catalan and Spanish, which are Catalonia’s official languages. This matter makes it likely to hear both languages in and outside class. On the other hand, it is also true that the UB’s students and teachers may exercise their individual rights to use the language they prefer, for studying and for teaching, for written assignments and for all oral communication: a student may choose, for example, to write course assignments and complete exam papers in one of these two languages even while that student’s teacher has taught classes and given lectures in the other language. But while it seeks to guarantee its students the standardised use of Catalan, the University’s increasingly international involvement and its participation in interuniversity mobility programs have led it to adopt language policies that also foster the study and use of other languages, to consolidate the UB’s presence as a multilingual institution.
- At the UB, approximately 60 % of bachelor’s classes are taught in Catalan, 40 % are taught in Spanish.The dimension of the Faculty of Economics and Business guarantees that, for the majority of bachelor courses, there is at least one group in each of the two official languages. This fact allows the students to chose to follow the course in the language with which he/she feels more comfortable with. Normally, before the beginning of the academic year and for the benefit of new students, the university’s different faculties and university schools announce the language(s) of instruction for the different courses they will teach, and these courses will be taught in these languages for the remainder of the year.
- Moreover, our Faculty is increasing each year its offer of courses in English. Currently, three of our titles offer the possibility to follow the classes in English. Regarding the undergraduate degrees, the International Business Bachelor Degree is completely taught in English and the Business Administration and Management Bachelor integrates a group which receives all courses in English. At master level, both Master in Economics and Master in International Business are fully taught in English. Moreover, there are also courses offered in English in the Economics and Sociology Bachelor Degrees.
- So, in order to study at the UB, students are not required to have knowledge of both languages, although it is greatly advisable to have them. Finally and apart from this, the UB’s Language Services also offers visiting and non-Catalan-speaking students a wide range of opportunities to learn Catalan. Catalan, like Spanish, is a Roman language. Given the close proximity between languages in this group, students which have previously learned one are well equipped to take on another. Catalan has more than 9 million speakers across the world and is ranked as the 88th most spoken language in the world; being spoken by more people than Swedish or Danish. Moreover, the Catalan literary tradition dates from the medieval ages and its quality and high relevance have been greatly appreciated across the world. We invite you to discover more about Catalan and about the services offered by Serveis Lingüístics, including Catalan courses for beginners. Moreover, as well as offering Catalan language tuition, UB Language Services organizes a range of cultural activities designed to help you practise your language skills, meet new people and get to know more about Catalan culture and society: language exchanges, conversation groups, guided visits, etc. This is a particularly effective way to become involved in the University’s academic, social and cultural life; and of course it also makes it easier for students to get to know other students! Discover all the services they offer in the following link: Resources for students – Language Services.
