University Carlos III of Madrid: an inside overview
Carlos III is a Spanish university situated in Madrid. The university’s main campuses are located in Getafe, those are Humanities and Social sciences campuses. Getafe is basically inhabited by middle-low income population, immigrants and some students since house rents are inexpensive. Other than the campuses in Getafe, Carlos III has campuses in Colmenarejo, located in the NE side of downtown Madrid focuses on social sciences, and in Leganes which is fairly near of Getafe, which is the technical campus of C3.
Even though C3 offers pure science degrees, the university is remarkably better in economics fields, such business, statistics. It has been classified as one of the best suppliers of economics and business administration undergraduate degree programs in Spain.
C3 also was the first university in Madrid (and presumably in Spain) to adopt the new Bologna process which supposes an integration of European superior education. The process ends in 2010 for Spain, so by 2010 all universities must have switched to that new plan, thanks to this early adoption advantage, c3 has received a high level of application these last couple years, raising grade points. So that is, a student willing to study economics related degrees must have an average of 7 – 8 points out of 10 to be able to access and be registered for the degree.
After the early integration into the new system, the university also has adopted full English courses, meaning that a student may attend all subject lessons in English language, even for elective subjects, something that none of the Spanish public universities have. This is really a very innovative feature (I personally think they should have done this much earlier) given the low bilingualism of Spain.
C3 university is also famous for their labor as researchers. The university has a huge network of teaching staff from permanent teachers to many post graduate and visiting teachers both national and international. Because most of the professors are experts in research, they are used to applying the theory more than studying the theory giving students a more real-life-based learning experience.
Furthermore, the quality of teaching is carefully controlled through student assessment tests and statistical inferences using students grading, class attendance and other input data.
Apart from teaching, the university has wide and varied collection of bibliographical resources. The library has main textbooks, specialized reference books (most surprisingly is that they have lots of books in English, most American), research databases that contain journals, scientific articles, online magazines, research papers and more. In addition you have internet connection in the whole campus (though very slow and restricted for academic use) as well as lost of computer rooms scattered all over the campuses. You also can read everyday the financial times in the library.
Today, the university uses a web-based platform to arrange its the administration. Information, course registration, class notes, all the information you can think about is stored in the website (which is also something really innovative to be Spanish), so if you are thinking to apply to this university you should check the website from head to toe and deep if you want to find specific information, sending e-mails or calling will not be as fruitful. For courses information (class slides, assignments, presentation…) they are using the open source platform Moodle (impressive huh, they are really up to date).
I guess I should also comment on the ambiance. Teachers usually are passive, so if you are not his or her preferred student you will not get the attention you need, some teachers are averse to receiving e-mails with questions, others just care about finishing their class and others are a bit more caring. Students, as you may presume, are mostly Spanish, so that will mean that in class chances are that it will be filled with blah blah blah.
The thing I love the most is the green decoration. At least in Getafe campus, you will find lots of trees, and something very thoughtful – few flowers!. When a green space is impregnated with flowers people just cannot stay there with all the bugs and smells particularly in spring and summer. However a place with some trees and very few flowers will make it look good and feel good. So is that campus. Just when you enter you will see wide green areas gracefully fit between the buildings.
With all said, I hope you have the chance to meet this charismatic university.
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