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January 11, 1999
Rodney B. Sangster
UC Education Abroad Program
The University of California's Education Abroad Program is pleased to announce new semester- and yearlong offerings at Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain. UC students with at least two years of Spanish will be able to attend, beginning in fall 1999.
The semester option at Carlos III is designed to introduce UC students to Spanish culture and society through course work in Spanish art, literature and cinema, modern Spanish institutions, the Spanish press, and the Spanish economy in relation to the new Europe. The program will also offer advanced training in Spanish language.
The Education Abroad Program (EAP) currently sends students for the full academic year to universities in Madrid, Alcala, Barcelona, and Granada. Carlos III University, one of Spain's leading institutions, was chosen for this new program because of the reputation it has earned in the ten years since its founding.
A pioneer in the reform of higher education in Spain, Carlos III has undertaken to create a special program in Hispanic studies for international students, and has invited the University of California to participate as an active partner in the academic design of this program. In addition to the semester option, UC students may attend regular classes at Carlos III University for the academic year. Students who attend the fall semester program may also extend their stay and take regular university courses during the second semester.
In creating these options, the Education Abroad Program is expanding the opportunities for UC students to polish their Spanish and immerse themselves in the culture of a country that has become a European success story.
The new relationship with Carlos III further extends EAP's list of programming options worldwide. Since its inception in 1962, EAP has sent approximately 30,000 UC students abroad. This year, some 1,850 UC students are taking advantage of EAP's diverse array of learning opportunities at 115 host universities in 35 countries around the globe.
At most sites EAP students are fully integrated into the academic curriculum of the foreign host university. Studying alongside local students and being immersed in their languages and cultures exposes UC students to different means of thinking that only study abroad can provide. EAP students have access to the vast new sources of knowledge available, to special pedagogical methods and field study opportunities, and to widely varying cultural, social, political, and economic environments. Incorporating such expansive learning opportunities into a UC education powerfully multiplies UC's comprehensive educational impact and provides students with a distinct competitive advantage in the global career marketplace of the 21st century.