University of Cantabria: The exchange experience

It's midterm exam time at the University of Cantabria; a good time to look at the exchange experience and report on Corin's findings so far.

This blog post will focus on assessment, university life, and advice for future exchange students.  A separate post discusses text books.   (Plus I've thrown in a couple of pictures for good measure).  

Right:  The port, Santander.



Assessment:

One of the first things Corin noticed is that grading in Spain is different.  This includes the grading scale, the grading calculations, and the final exam schedule.

Grading scale:  The percentage or letter grade system is not used in Spain.  The chart below shows how the grading scale is different between the USA, England (where I went to university), and Spain.  

Country	Number scale	Letter scale	Excellent	Good	Pass	Fail
USA	Up to 100	A-F	A:  90-100	B:  80-89	C: 70-79	D/F: <70
England	Up to 100	None	70-100	60-69	50-59	< 50
Spain	Up to 10	None	7-10	6	5	< 5

Final grade calculation:  In Spain, the most important grade is the final exam.  Although in most classes there are other tests, the grades are not counted if the final exam grade is higher.  If a student fails the final exam, he/she can re-take it (the exam, not the class) the following semester.  The chart below shows how the grade is calculated for Corin's four classes:

Class	Grade calculation
Physics	10% lab, 40% tests, 50% final.  The final exam grade over-rides any lower test grade.
Partial differential equations	45% midterm, 55% final.  If you fail the midterm, the final counts for 100%.
Statistics	40% midterm, 40% final, 10% participation, 10% homework.   Final exam grade over-rides lower midterm grade.
Spanish for engineers	This class is pass/fail or students can choose to take the final exam and get a grade.

I think I like this system.  It could represent the best of both worlds.  In my field, language teaching, it makes sense to assess students based on their proficiency at the end of the semester rather than using the 'averaging' system.  What does it matter if they struggled in the beginning as long as they have arrived where they need to be by the end?  Of course, I also appreciate the argument for continuous asssessment: that basing a semester grade on one exam is stressful for students and having 'a bad day' can unfairly penalize an otherwise strong student.  That's why I like the Spanish system, where the final exam grade is the class grade if it's as good as, or better than, the cumulative grade.  Otherwise, the cumulative grade counts.

Left:  A windy day in the Bay of Santander. 

Revision and final exam schedule:  The spring semester classes at UC end on May 31 and then the exams start on June 3 and continue until June 22.  This is a much longer exam period than in the USA or England.  In England there is a 'revision week'  following the end of classes for students to study for the exams, then the following week is 'exam week.'  In Spain, the exam period lasts three weeks, with revision time included.

Below is a chart showing the difference in the scheduling of revision time and and final exams in the USA, England, and Spain.

Country	Revision period	Exam period
USA	None:  Final exam week follows final week of classes	One week
England	1 week between final week of classes and final exam week	1-2 weeks
Spain	Included in exam period	Three weeks

There is one more difference related to assessment; it's the way professors give students their test grades.  There is no expectation of, nor option for, privacy.  The results are announced in class and posted on the door, together with the students' names.  Nobody minds, that's just how it's done here.

University Life:

Studying:  There are no group study rooms in the library; it is a place for independent, silent study, and this is enforced.  Instead, students go to one of the many cafés on campus when they want to work together.  Some Americans aren't going to like this, but, just like everywhere else in Spain, there is alcohol available in the campus cafés.  The legal drinking age in Spain is between 16 and 18, depending on the region.  All types of alcohol are available, but most students drink beer, coke, or water.  It's cheap; for 2 euros (less than 3 dollars) you can buy a beer and a snack. The cafés are part of the university; not run by a for-profit company.

Student ID:  The university has an agreement with Banco Santander to provide students with a student ID that is also a debit card.  With this high-tech, multipurpose card they can  access university computers and print documents (there's a chip terminal on the computer keyboards so they don't need to enter a username and password, just a four-digit PIN).  They use the same card to make purchases in and out of the university, and as a bus pass for the city of Santander urban transportation system.  One card, many uses!  The picture shows the #4 bus, which goes from the barrio pesquero (where we live) to the university.  

Some advice for future students:

No matter how well you have prepared, you will need to be able to tolerate a level of uncertainty when you first arrive.  Pre-departure orientations tend to focus on 'being a good tourist', warning you about pickpockets, educating you about cultural differences.  That's fine as far as it goes, but what you really need to know when you get here is how to register for classes before they are full, where the classes are, what buildings to go to, and how to communicate with the school about schedule changes. Don't expect everything to run smoothly, there will be mixups, schedule conflicts, and schedule changes.  These are things you cannot foresee or prevent, and there are things you cannot fix until you arrive because you need information that you can only get once you are here.  So just be patient and stay in touch with your advisor at your home university.  Classes here start in February, so schedule changes happen too late to meet the home university add/drop deadline.  This means that your home advisor will need to do some over-rides for you.  Also, because classes here finish in June, your home university will not be able to report that you have successfully completed your classes by the end of the spring semester in the USA.  This will throw a spanner into the works of financial aid and scholarships, and, again, will require over-rides.  Knowing that these things will happen, and that there is a system in place to correct them, is important for your peace of mind.  

Textbooks: University of Cantabria, a different model

It's midterm exam time at the University of Cantabria; a good time to look at the exchange experience and report on Corin's findings so far.

Note:  This post is about textbooks.    (A separate post discusses other aspects of the exchange experience).  


One of the first things Corin noticed was that there is no bookstore at the University of Cantabria.  No textbooks to buy.  Instead, professors write course materials and post them online, supplementing them with texts that they list in a 'bibliography' (the last item on the syllabus).  These texts are available in the library; enough copies for everyone taking the class.  Students aren't required to use these books, but they are available for those who want to review the information from a different source or do further reading.  The library books are old; for example, the statistics book is from 1998, but the students' text book cost for most classes is zero.  Nor are there any 'access codes' to buy for 'online homework.'  See the chart below for details of the texts for Corin's four classes.

Class	Language of instruction	Number of students	Text
Physics	Spanish	35	Professor e-mails a pdf chapter (written by him) every 2-3 weeks, as well as worksheets.  Text books available in library.
Partial differential equations	Spanish	50	Professor posts link to his website where the materials are available.  Text books (one of which was written by him) are in the library
Statistics	English	10	Professor provided pdf format of a book (written by him).  Text books available in the library.
Spanish for engineers	Spanish	10	The professor wrote the textbook and students buy it from him for 20 euros.  He also gives them worksheets.

Not wanting to base this blog post solely on the experience of one exchange student, or limit it to math/science classes, I next spoke to Carmen.  Carmen is a student in the physical therapy program, in her third year of four at the University of Cantabria.  She's currently on internship with my physical therapist, so we've had plenty of opportunities to chat.  Today, we chatted about text books.   She told me that in three years, she has only bought one text book, Anatomy, for 100 euros (about 130 dollars).  She said that this purchase was optional; she chose to buy the newest edition.  Many of her classmates bought older editions for as low as 10 euros, and others haven't bought a book at all;  they use the ones available in the library.  The library books are older, but as she pointed out, the human body doesn't change every two years, so why should the textbook?  Other than this one (optional) purchase, she has spent no money on textbooks in three years.  Instead, like Corin, she uses the books in the library and prints the materials that her professors write and post online.

I thought about how a similar system might work at Valencia.  I teach EAP reading, writing, speaking/listening, and grammar.  As I would guess is the case in other disciplines, there are some materials I can find or write myself and post online (for example, reading passages), and others that would be more difficult and time-consuming to generate (for example, grammar exercises).  However, grammar, like the human body, doesn't change too much.  Therefore, a starting point for a discussion on textbook policy might be a model where professors find or write materials for topics that need to be up-to-date, while having class sets of older edition textbooks available in the library for topics that don't change much over time.

Which brings us to pricing.  In the library at the University of Cantabria, some books are available in English and Spanish.  In these cases, the English language editions, like the one pictured here from Corin's statistics class, are marked 'international edition' and 'not for sale in the USA' It looks like what is happening, then, is that publishers print two identical, or almost identical, English language versions of a text book.  One is the 'international edition', not for sale in USA, and the other is the USA edition (the latest edition of the UC library book pictured here is currently available on Amazon for $230).  Here's another example:  There are 50 plus copies of Corin's physics text book available in the UC library; a later edition of the same book is being used at UCF and costs $278.   Looks like there's a lot of money to be made in text books, then, depending on what country you live in.  And large profit margins leave plenty of room for 'middlemen' to come in and take a piece of the pie.  Only this week I received an e-mail from a 'book buyer' wanting to buy my inspection copies in order to resell them.  Read this debate on the issue; the 'no' side explains how many links in the supply chain profit from this practice.  The 'yes' side argues that publishers can afford it.  Either way, the students pay, through higher textbook prices.  

Carmen told me she has friends enrolled in other degree programs at UC, and that their text book experience is the same as hers and Corin's.  'If we had to buy textbooks', she shared, 'we wouldn't be able to go to university.  It wouldn't be possible.'

UPDATE, May 9, 2013:  Today I spoke with Juncal Garcia Martínez, professor of English at the University of Cantabria.  The university doesn't have an official text book policy, it's up to each individual teacher, but in most cases, there are no text books.  Instead, 'students take notes.'  Her 'Legal English' class is an exception; there is a text book that costs 30 euros (about 38 dollars).  This is considered to be very expensive, and it's understood that it would be difficult for students to afford this book.  Therefore, the university has purchased copies of the newest edition and placed them in the library so that students don't need to buy it.  

COMING SOON!!!

Check back starting in January 2013 for posts about:

• ESL/EAP lesson resources   
• Life in Santander, Spain
• Sabbatical research related to international education (UK and Spain)
• Engineering exchange with the University of Cantabria

In the meantime, here's a picture of Santander.  I think we're going to like it there -- what do you think?