B-UIC 17

Anna Akhmedova
Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
The faculty open to the world
25 years ago, a new university was named the Universitat Internacional de
Catalunya (UIC Barcelona, International University of Catalonia), almost by
chance, as senior colleagues recall. As you name the boat, so shall it float, says
the Russian proverb, suggesting that name shapes destiny, guiding the boat
through ’the embrace of the waves.
Indeed, 25 years later, the two campuses are home to 108
different nationalities as the university has 380 mobility
agreements signed with institutions from fifty countries around
the world. Moreover, about 30 % of undergraduate and graduate
students and 10 % of the teaching staff at UIC are from abroad .
Consistently, UIC Barcelona is named among the top 10 places
to study abroad globally . Notably, FCES is at the forefront of the
Internalization at UIC, in terms of numbers and in terms of spirit.
The spirit
At the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, internalization
runs deep in our core. Our faculty members come from different
countries: Italy, Greece, Iran, Russia. Some faculty members
have international teaching experience in the UK, Italy, Japan,
the United States, Belgium, Mexico, Colombia. The faculty is
also actively involved in international research and teaching
programmes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon with partners from
all over the world, participating and organising international
research conferences. For us, internalization means a lot:
openness, tolerance, flexibility, profound respect for different
opinions, cultures and traditions; but also means a wealth of
opinions, fairer solutions that better accommodate and respect
different stakeholders, and ultimately forging a world with fewer
conflicts, a world that is fairer, a world that is more united.
The numbers
Among the 13 faculties at UIC Barcelona (Barcelona and
Sant Cugat Campuses), the Faculty of Economics and Social
Sciences stands out in terms of the number of incoming and
outgoing students, as shown in figures 1 and 2, accounting for
up to 40% of the total mobility at both campuses. Predominantly,
incoming students come from Germany, Mexico, Italy, and
France. Meanwhile, the prominent destinations for outgoing
students include Italy, the United Kingdom, the USA, and
Canada.
Figure 1. Incoming students received by our Faculty (ADE) (as
% of all mobility at both campuses) by type of mobility and by
academic year (%)
Source: UIC Barcelona, based on internal data (as of
31/7/2023); double bachelor’s degrees not included
International Student Mobility. At this faculty, international student mobility has three main categories: (1) Erasmus+, for studies
within EU and associated countries; (2) bilateral exchanges, for non-EU partner universities or non-EU sponsored exchanges; (3)
free mover for autonomous foreign university mobility.
1
https://25anys.uic.es/es/uic-barcelona-celebra-25-anos-con-la-mirada-puesta-en-el-talento-la-innovacion-la-investigacion-y-la-internacionalizacion/
2
https://www.educations.es/study-abroad/universitat-internacional-de-catalunya/ or https://www.uic.es/es/universidad/uic-barcelona/portal-de-transparencia/resultados
B-UIC — 17