ANR: 515691
Name: Loes Jacobs
E-mail: L.jacobs@tilburguniversity.edu
Loesjacobs_@hotmail.com
Exchange semester: Spring 2015
Academic year: 3
Study: Communication and Information Studies
Host University: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Country: Spain
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Universitat Pompeu Fabra is set in Barcelona. The university has different campuses
throughout the city, which are all in pretty central locations. My campus was the
Communications campus, which was located in the business district Poble Nou. However,
most studies are taught at Ciutadella, for example economics, management, marketing,
politics etc. This campus is most ideal of all since it’s approximately 200 meters walking
distance to the beach.
Since UPF is only 25 years old, the university is really modern. However, some of the
buildings are situated in old buildings such as factories and a water reservoir. All university
campuses are easy to reach by public transport or are on walking distance, depending on
where you live in the city. I only had to walk for 20 minutes to go to my campus, for example.
UPF offers various faculties: Communication, Economic and Business Sciences, Health and
Life Sciences, Humanities, Law, Political and Social Sciences, Translation and Interpretation
and the Polytechnic School.
The thing that is the most different from Tilburg University is that at UPF, the academic
year is divided into 3 trimesters. The students there are expected to get 20 ECTS per trimester.
This means that if you want to gain 30 ECTS at UPF, you either have a lot of workload if you
want to do everything in one trimester, or you have to stay for two trimesters. I stayed two
trimesters: from the beginning of January until the end of June. In that way you have less
workload per trimester but of course you have to want to be in Barcelona for six months (please
do!) and you start earlier and finish later than your fellow exchange students.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before I left
I received information from UPF about my exchange period one to two weeks before arriving
in Barcelona. They offered the possibility to get a language partner to practice speaking the
language you want to learn but also to get a mentor who shows you around on the university.
They are both students. I subscribed to both and used them a lot in the beginning, but after
some time you don’t really need them anymore. Furthermore, the ESN of UPF contacted me
if I wanted to participate in the introduction activities, which I did.
Arrival
My arrival in Barcelona was just on my own. I arrived on Monday and had to start on
Wednesday. In this way I could get to know the city a bit on beforehand. On Wednesday, there
was a big introduction meeting where staff members from UPF told us about the possibilities
within the university, for example how the libraries work, how you can subscribe to language
courses, workshops, sports but also information from the police, which was all very useful.
After the meeting we got a guided tour on the campus your study is located at, which was for
me Poble Nou. On Thursday, we met someone from the Mobility and Welcome Office who
explained how we could add and drop courses and more practical information specific for
Communications.
Housing
The university doesn’t provide any housing, but it does give you suggestions where to look,
although those are mostly residences. These residences are super expensive, so you’re better
off looking on the internet yourself. Finding a suitable room in Barcelona is not that hard and
also not that expensive. You just have to be picky in the beginning and careful with trusting
landlords. The best advice I can give you is to use your common sense. The agency I used
was happycasa, which was ok but not the best you can get. I booked my room in advance, but
a lot of people say that you can better just come to the city, book a hostel and then start looking
for a room. I’m too stressed for that but if it works for you, it’s maybe the best you can do. It
was my first time Barcelona so I didn’t really know in which district to look either, but now I
know. The districts Eixample (even though it is huuuuuge), El Born, El Gotico and maybe
Gracia are the best locations if you ask me. El Raval is not the safest area I heard, but in
Barcelona in general you have to be careful with your belongings since pickpockets are literally
everywhere.
Websites you can try to look for housing are:

http://www.habitatgejove.com/

www.studentmundial.com

www.erasmate.com

www.studentmundial.com

www.roomming.com

www.happycasa.es

www.llogo-bcn.com
 www.resahousing.com/eng
Living Costs
I had no problems financing my exchange period, mainly because I have worked pretty hard
the last couple of years and saved enough. My parents gave me some money for my groceries
every month, which were cheaper than in the Netherlands I think. Most of my money I spent
on dinners and going for drinks I think. It’s just a pity to stay in for dinner when there are so
many great (cheap) restaurants in Barcelona. Furthermore, trips are also highly recommended.
The table below is just an estimation of my expenses per month. Especially Miscellaneous
varied from month to month.
Housing
410
Food
150
Transport
20
Books
0
Miscellaneous
200
Academic calendar
As I mentioned earlier, you stay in Barcelona from the beginning of January until the end of
June if you stay for two trimesters. My first day of the semester was on January 7th and the last
day of the exam period was June 26th. If you spend two trimesters, you of course have two
examination periods. Between the two trimesters, I had a break of approximately two to three
weeks because my exams were really early.
International Office
There are international offices in the campuses of Poble Nou and Ciutadella. I don’t know if
the other ones also have them. They are open to any question, I used them a couple of times
before I came and during my stay. You can reach the international office on the e-mail address
oma.incoming@upf.edu.
Social activities
The university has a thing called Voluntariat Lingüístic, which organizes trips in and around the
city each week. You can participate if you want to, there are no obligations. The only minor
thing about the Voluntariat Lingüístic is that they sometimes only provide the tours in Catalan
and Spanish. This means that you either need a friend who speaks one of the two languages
or you go only to look around. Sometimes someone still translates the language that is spoken
into English, but not always. Furthermore, there is the Erasmus Student Network for UPF.
Especially in the beginning it’s nice to participate in a lot of things since almost nobody knows
anyone else so it’s a good way to meet a lot of new people. Later on I did a lot of nice things
with my friends, not really with ESN. Through group work I met some local students who were
really nice but of course they already have a lot of friends so you often see that exchange
students hang around with other exchange students. Now I have friends from Ireland,
Germany, Finland, India, Greece, Scotland, Portugal, Canada and Australia.
Because Barcelona is a huge cosmopolitan city, every week a lot of things are
organized. This means that you can easily amuse yourself within the city but of course I also
travelled a bit around. I visited Madrid, Girona, Costa Brava, Mallorca and Sitges. It’s also quite
easy to visit Morocco, Ibiza, Menorca, Southern France and cities such as Figueres and
Valencia.
Culture and Language
I didn’t experience a culture shock when I arrived in Barcelona. Things aren’t that different,
aside of the relaxed mindset. If class is supposed to begin at 12:30, the teacher will arrive
around 12:45, together with all the students. Also, where people in the Netherlands have their
lunch around 12:00, in Barcelona it’s around 15:00 or 16:00. Same for having dinner.
Barcelona is located in the region Catalonia and the independence debate is hot right now. I
didn’t think it was that serious before I arrived. The Catalan language is even better spoken
than Spanish, something else that surprised me. Catalan is more related to French and
Portuguese than to Spanish, so it’s nothing like a dialect. I learned to appreciate everything
and even though the first days I really had to get used to everything, it’s really nice after a
week. You often see that things are translated into Spanish and Catalan, but not into English.
Some of the staff members don’t speak a good word of English, but if you put some more effort
in it, you still get what you need. I didn’t follow a language course during my exchange period.
All my courses were taught in English and the language course clashed with another course I
wanted to follow so it was fine to me like that. If you really want to expand your Spanish, you’re
better off in Madrid than in Barcelona.
Personal Development
Going on exchange really helped me in a lot of ways. You get to see things from a different
point of view and because I arrived all by myself, I had to open myself up to other people in
order to make friends. In the beginning I was insecure nobody would like me, but of course
that doesn’t make sense at all. I think I’m less narrow minded after my time in Barcelona, which
will definitely help me in the future. Especially my friends taught me that the way things are
done in the Netherlands, are not the only right ways. I don’t think I would have done things
different if I could. Maybe I would have travelled more, but I still had my best time ever. I think
my best experience was the day of my birthday. My roommates and friends made an amazing
breakfast with all those things I really like. They gave me presents they clearly thought about
for a long time, which I appreciated a lot. That shows that it doesn’t make sense how long you
know someone, they can still mean a lot
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at host university
The courses at UPF are taught in English, Spanish and Catalan. I took only English courses.
To me, it felt like the courses I took were less difficult than the courses of Tilburg University.
However, I gained more practical skills than ever, so the courses are just different. What really
surprised me is that I didn’t have to use Google Scholar once and the reference-style was
never clear either. Other exchange students fully agreed on this one, the academic level is just
not as high as in Tilburg. The level of English was in some courses better than in others, but
in general it was fine. The amount of time I spent on my courses was higher than I was used
to, but it was definitely less difficult. The teaching style is primarily practical I think. The teaching
method is mixed in all courses I took: presentations, case studies, individual projects, group
projects, essays etc. Furthermore, in all courses the classes weren’t bigger than approximately
30 students. This makes the relationship between the teacher and the students closer, some
teachers actually knew my name. I only had two exams in Barcelona, in each trimester one.
The other grades were determined by projects, which was fine. Luckily, I didn’t have to re-sit
one. The exams were not that hard if you ask me.
2nd trimester
Course
ECTS
Analysis
of 4 ECTS
Interactive Media
Messages
Code
20366
Grade
7.7
Risk and Crisis 4 ECTS
Communication
20515
9.5
News Agencies
4 ECTS
22094
9.0
Your articles
3rd trimester
Strategies
for 4 ECTS
Social Action
20517
9.0
Design, Graphics 8 ECTS
and
Internet
Production
Workshop
21367
8.5
40%
attendance,
40% group project,
20%
individual
project
You have to produce
3 videos/interactive
features
Journalism
Specialized
International
News
21373
7.7
Total
4 ECTS
in
28
ECTS
Grade determinants
3
group
assignments, group
project and final
exam
Case studies and
group project
Review
Pretty
interesting
course.
However, I found the group
assignments vague and annoying.
The teacher had an horrible
Spanish accent and didn’t teach
me anything at all. However, it is
really easy to get a good grade.
Really interesting course with a
fantastic teacher. You have to
translate Catalan news articles
into English for the Catalan News
Agency
(www.catalannewsagency.com). If
you were lucky, they actually got
published on the website. I learned
a lot of practical skills but quite
some workload due to the use of
google translate.
Really enthusiastic young teacher.
I’m not sure if I learned a lot, but it
was still interesting.
It was from the beginning on clear
that the exchange students had
way less experience in producing
things than the local students.
That made the course pretty
complicated from time to time but
the teacher is really nice and
understanding.
Preparation/participa I think this is the best course I took
tion, essay, final at UPF. The same teacher as
exam, presentation News Agencies. We talked about
and reading tests
all kinds of international journalism
(war correspondence, foreign
correspondence,
history,
transnational issues etc.). It’s a
course you could never take at
Tilburg University but is still super
interesting. I highly recommend
this one.
My tips
First of all: GOOOOOO!! Please, don’t hesitate. It will completely change your everything, in a
good way. Maybe having a boyfriend scares you of going away for a couple of months, but
really, it’s fine. I survived, we survived. I made friends for life and I have never regretted it for
one second. I also highly recommend Pompeu Fabra. It’s a great university with an high
ranking based in a beautiful city. What do you need more?
One thing I really recommend is to do an extra course before you go to Barcelona since English
taught subjects are limited in the Communications field. I did that and that took away a lot of
stress other students had. This is also the reason why I only took 28 ECTS instead of 30.
During my exchange, I wrote a (Dutch) blog: liefsuitbarcelona.tumblr.com
If you need any more information about either the city or the university, please contact me.
Good luck!