Like Oxford and Salamanca, Granada can be considered a true University City. The original University “La Madraza” was founded in 1349 by the Moorish Sultan Yusuf I. The modern University owes its origins to the initiative of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Today the University's influence on the City is evident in all walks of life whose students and scholars contribute to the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
In recent years both Governments and Universities worldwide have recognised the importance of international activities and the need to develop them further. The University of Granada (UGR) has a longstanding tradition of international education and is at the forefront of bilateral agreements. Consequently the City is home to more than 3000 International students.
For many reasons, one being the increasing number of British people living in Spain, there is a strong impetus to learn English in Spain. UGR
recognises this and is continually making efforts to extend international activities with the UK.
On a brief visit back to the England I was honoured enough to be invited to attend a meeting between Jose Luis Ortega Martin the Vice Dean of International Relations at UGR and Dr Andy Pickard, Head of Education Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). The meeting was set up to intensify bilateral agreements between these two leading Universities by discussing and revising the established exchange programme known as the Erasmus Programme. Also present at the meeting was Pura Ariza Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages at MMU and Trisha Gladdis Administrative Officer for the Erasmus Programme, whose compassionate and caring reputation towards Erasmus students has earned her the well-deserved title “Mother Trish” throughout Europe.
Pura Ariza, Jose Luis Ortega, Dr Andy Pickard and “Maam Trish”
The Erasmus Programme is named after a Dutch Philosopher, Erasmus, who taught at various Universities across Europe in the sixteenth century. People in this century were not encouraged to think or reason for themselves. Erasmus spread and encouraged learning believing that education would turn ignorance about religion and daily life on its head. He felt that true knowledge would encourage higher morality and a greater understanding between people.
At MMU the scheme is long established running for fifteen years. Its main partners are the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Austria and Finland. The core programme which is both work and course based, sends students, for a term, to live, study and teach abroad and in exchange their foreign counterpart do the same at their University. MMU and UGR are intending to send 4 students each to spend a term experiencing teaching and life in the corresponding cities in 2008. The exchange programme is open to both graduate and post-graduate students.
According to Jose Luis Ortega the majority of his students would prefer to follow the Erasmus Programme at a university in the UK. This is mainly because of the language aspect but also he says because of the culture associated with British cities and towns. It is attractive not just the supportive staff, outstanding methodology and teaching styles at MMU, but it would be difficult to find a more cosmopolitan and vibrant city than Manchester and this according to the Vice-dean is why MMU a favourite destination for his Spanish Students! Spanish students want to work and grow as people and many take evening work in the growing number of Spanish Tapas bars appearing throughout the city. Unlike some students, who according to Trisha “Are not that keen on work!” The Spanish students enjoy life so much in Manchester in fact that many do not leave and reside permanently there.
This sentiment is at least mirrored with the students lucky enough to spend a few months experiencing life in the culturally and geographically diverse City of Granada. With one in four inhabitants of Granada being students and 3000 of the students being foreign, to spend three months here really is an opportunity not to be missed. Additional benefits on top of living in one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities is that students visiting UGR under the Erasmus Programme have the right to attend one of the free Spanish language courses organised by the University each year.
An integral part of Pura Ariza's postgraduate teacher training course with a language, is a four-week work placement at a university abroad. This programme has been running for 3 years with Granada University and receives very positive feedback from the participating students. The work-placement scheme, which is funded by the Teacher Development Agency, was set up partly to develop students language skills but especially within a classroom context. This happens very successfully as MMU's students return with deeper cultural understandings to do with Spanish children and the role of the teacher. These include some interesting differences between schools in Spain and the UK which students report back. For example, Spanish schools seem to have less formal regimes than the UK. The children do not have to wear uniforms, which is common across not just Europe but most of the world. It does seem strange that ten-year-old girls have to wear ties to school in the UK! Also children in Spanish schools call their teachers by their first names, something that is unheard of in the UK! A frequent comment expressed by Spanish students visiting English schools is how much they love assemblies, something that has never taken off in Spain.
Because of the mounting aspirations for the Spanish to learn English and the growing number of British children being educated in Spanish schools, in the South of Spain bilingual schools are currently being developed which make it compulsory to learn English at a primary level. In the UK by the year 2010 all Primary schools will have to offer some foreign language as part of the curriculum. Both the Erasmus Programme and the post graduate four week teaching course, allows teachers and students alike to “think outside the box” bringing an extra dimension to teaching in their own country.
Following government policies, which aim to operate in a multi-cultural world, the Erasmus Programme achieves this by placing academic tasks on an international level. Both MMU's and UGR's conscious efforts to increase international profiles mean they are on the road to creating the European Area of Higher Education. The growing presence of European teaching practices and relationships is evident with these two principal Universities. Having lived in Manchester for twenty five years and Granada for three, I could not image two more pulsating cities to participate in the Erasmus Programme, not just to teach but also learn about life and different cultures - which I am sure was Erasmus's intention.
Universidad de Granada
