Kenya Juarez
As a first generation college student, access to higher education is something that is very important to me, especially since I am accumulating student debt. The national average in U.S. for student debt is about $27,000. When I had the opportunity to study abroad in Barcelona, Spain, something that caught my attention was how different the educational system is, which is why I compared the university I currently attend, Oregon State University, with another university called University of Barcelona (translated). I specifically focused on three primary components for my research: cost of tuition, what the university is like, and admission requirements to find key differences in them and what they have to offer.
Cost of Tuition
The cost of annual tuition at Oregon State University is roughly $10,296 for an in-state student. Since it takes students about four years to graduate from a university, the cost of tuition and fees will be about $41,184, and this doesn’t even include the tuition increase that happens every year. This accounts for a student pursuing a degree in Speech Communication (what I am doing) and completing a total of 180 credits.
The cost of tuition at the University of Barcelona is a bit different than it is in the U.S. For one, it is more affordable by credit. The cost of one credit at Oregon State University is about $287 a credit, although this cost decreases slightly the more credits a student takes. However, in Barcelona, to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication, 240 credits are needed and a student will take 60 credits a year in order to graduate in time. The cost of each credit is about 35.77 euros, which is currently about $40.05 converted into U.S. dollars. When multiplied by the amount of credits required for a degree (240), it ends up being about $9,612 for the four years. What it costs a student for one year of tuition at Oregon State University, students in Barcelona pay for their entire education! This does not include any "student fees", but given that students at the University of Barcelona don’t have as many amenities within their campus, I am guessing these costs would be either extremely low or non-existent.
One of the resources that I used for this section was information that I gathered from others while in Barcelona. Initially I was under the impression that the University of Barcelona was a school where people attended by going classes and did not get involved. In other words, I thought that there were academic buildings without much social life, since student unions or university libraries are not as common in Barcelona. After further investigation, I was blown away by the services the university provides for the students. According to their site, some of the services the university provides are: information services (tours), on-campus housing, mobility management, library services, technical services, places to eat on campus, job opportunities, translator services, health services, physical activity services, social services (volunteering), environment organizations, post office, banks, etc.
When compared to Oregon State University, there are more similarities between the two than I had previously anticipated. Oregon State University does have similar services, with the addition of more student housing, a student union, and over 400 clubs/organizations, but other than that, everything else is on par. It was interesting to learn more about the amenities and ways to get involved on campus in Barcelona.
Admission Process
The last piece that I compared was the admissions process. In order to get into the university in Barcelona, a student has to have a program that they know they want to study. For example, from an earlier age, students who are looking to pursue a bachelor’s degree have to have an idea of what they want to study. The reason for this is because they must take the PAU. What is the PAU? “It is a national exam taken by students in the 2nd year of Bachillerato or after secondary school, to gain admittance into Spanish University. The PAU comprises of a series of exams that are conducted in the months of June and September. These exams are set by the Public Universities of each independent Community". Depending on what a student wants to study, they will choose certain subjects they want to test in that are required of their university. For instance, if you are looking into pursuing a degree in Audiovisual communications, you would want to choose your additional subjects to test to be more humanities and culture, because that is of higher importance for your specific program to gain admittance. With that being said, if you do pass, you are in, which isn’t the case with students who are looking into attending Oregon State University.
The only similar part about the standardized test is that to get into any university in the US, an examination is also needed, but we call it the SAT or ACT. This is just a portion of what Oregon State University takes into consideration when applying. Rather than gaining admittance from one exam, OSU has a holistic approach. This means that OSU looks at your G.P.A., the difficulty of your curriculum, your extracurricular activities and your test scores. They also take into consideration improving grades and growth. You can even petition if you are not accepted into the school.
This was a quick look at some comparisons, but it was fascinating to learn more about the educational system in Barcelona. I had heard that their educational system was less expensive, but seeing just how large the gap is in cost surprised me. Something else that surprised me was the examination that they have to go through in order to be accepted into their university of choice. In the US if a student does badly on the SAT exam, they could still rely on their G.P.A., extracurricular activities, and more. I do see flaws in both systems, but the biggest flags for each system varies. For instance, in the U.S. I would argue that education is too expensive. For Spain, I would argue that their method of testing students might not be fair for those who are not good test takers. If I was to continue my research, I would try and find out how Spain is able to provide education at such an affordable price and how the U.S. can potentially mirror it; I would also investigate what students do in Barcelona, if they want to attend a university but are not accepted.
Edited by Laurie Bridges
