Annual Program Review CIEE Study Center at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Business and Culture Program 2005 CIEE Program Director: Catharine Scruggs, cscruggs@ciee.org CIEE Resident Director: Dr. Antonia Ferriol CIEE Academic Consortium Board Program Evaluation: www.ciee.org CIEE Academic Consortium Board Monitor: N/A Each summer, program directors write a Study Center Review for each CIEE Study Center program commenting on the previous academic year. The program director writes the review based on input from the CIEE Academic Consortium Board members, resident directors, sending institutions, and student evaluations. Each report is made public on the CIEE website at www.ciee.org. Program Goals The Business and Culture program aims to help business and economics students develop skills and competency in the Spanish language (reading, writing, listening and speaking) while studying issues related to contemporary business issues in Spain and European Union. Based on the recommendations of the Academic Consortium Board, which evaluated the program in spring 2005, and also to meet the needs of business students with all levels of Spanish, the program, beginning in spring 2006, will be open to students of all language levels, with a 3.0 GPA and three semesters of micro-or macroeconomics, accounting, finance, management, marketing or statistics. The goals have been altered to reflect this change in prerequisites. Academic Program The CIEE Business and Culture (BC) program completed its second year. Although the program was conceived for students with an elementary/intermediate level of Spanish, the program has continued to receive students with levels that have varied widely. Fall 2004 As planned and announced the required CIEE language courses were offered at the International House for the first time in Fall 2004. The maximum number of students in these classes was 12. The BC language courses consisted of four intensive and four semester length courses, plus one elective, with the following number of enrollment: Intensive Beginning I / Semester Beginning II: 4 students; Intensive Beginning II / Semester Intermediate I: 6 students; Intensive Intermediate I / Semester Intermediate II: 11 students: Intensive Intermediate II / Semester Advanced: 11 students; Spanish for Business: 7 students. 1
Spring 2005 There was no intensive session during the Spring semester, but for the first time there were two sessions of intensive language Spanish during orientation. The semester classes were distributed with the following enrollment numbers: Beginning I: 7 students; Beginning II: 11 students; Intermediate I: 11 students; Intermediate II: 10 students; Spanish for Business: 6 students. There were some complaints from the students regarding the language placement exam because some thought the level where they were placed was too low. The RD and CIEE language professors discovered that many times the problem was not really about the placement, but rather the need for the student to receive credit for the higher level course. This issue was addressed on a case by case basis. Evaluations of these classes were positive. The only negative comments were about not understanding the syllabus. During spring 2005, the Resident Director worked closely with the language professors to develop new syllabi for all language classes. For fall 2005, syllabi will present clearly the assignments and expectations, and divide per weeks the content taught during the semester. CIEE Special Courses, Core Courses, Elective Courses In spring 2005, CIEE offered business course electives taught in English. Originally designed for two major sending institutions, these courses ended up being popular options with all BC students: International Marketing with 21 students; and International Management, with 18 students. Both classes were positively evaluated, particularly International Management which for most of the students was described as the best class they had while in Spain, or the best one ever. Both professors were well evaluated. International Marketing worked well for the students without a background in marketing who chose it, although it is designed for students with a previous marketing class. International Management, on the other hand, from now on will recommend previous coursework in Accounting, Finance and Microeconomics. Students did comment that even when they did not have the background, the professor gave them the necessary tools to do extra work and be able to follow the class in the case they had not. Regarding the culture courses (previously called core courses ) for the BC program, since they were opened to all U.S. students at UPF, there have been more problems with registration. Many students could not enroll in the required culture class they needed so CIEE opened enrollment into any culture classes offered by UPF. For this and other reasons, beginning in spring 2006, CIEE will organize its own culture courses. During fall 2005, CIEE will supplement the UPF offering with two cultures courses: Past and Present in Barcelona and Visions of Spain and Catalonia Through the Arts. In Fall 2004, BC students seemed satisfied with the electives that were available to them at UPF, ESCI (Escola Superior de Comerc International), and Cursos Hispánicos. In the Spring, they had even more options with the addition of two CIEE business courses to the program. 2
UPF changed its registration system during the summer resulting in a difficult fall registration process. In the spring, the CIEE staff found inventive ways to adapt to the new system and it went more smoothly, except for the aforementioned issue of culture classes being oversubscribed. Registering students at ESCI was a smooth process for both semesters. CIEE staff simply emailed the students choices to the ESCI Course Coordinator and he informed us by email if courses were full. ESCI courses received mixed reviews depending on the professors during fall and spring. It was the first time that this happened. The RD kept the ESCI course coordinator informed about CIEE students complaints. Despite information provided in orientation, students seemed to be frustrated with the Spanish lecture style, especially in classes where the professor could not command the attention of the class while speaking in English. UPF business and economics courses are considered extremely difficult because of their mathematical approach to economics and few students choose them. In the spring, Cursos Hispánicos hired several new professors and not all of them were wellreceived by students, generating a series of complaints. Direct Enrollment During the fall semester, 27 out of 32 BC students (84%) enrolled in least one direct enrollment course. During the spring semester, 23 out of 40 BC students (58%) enrolled in at least one direct enrollment course. The students enrolled in the following direct enrollment courses: Economic Theory II Electronic Commerce (New Economy) European Integration I Financial Accounting I Financial Economics International Trade II Marketing Management I Microeconomics I Strategic Management I Non-academic Features Orientation Orientation began with a two-night stay in a central Barcelona hotel after which students moved into their housing, but orientation activities continued. During the fall semester, students complained that the information was repeated too much and there was too much commuting between various sites. In the spring, more Guardian Angels were utilized to help so students could be divided in smaller groups. Power point presentations accompanied each orientation session, which made it easier to keep the sessions focused and on topic. Many presentations were held at the hotel so that there so there was less movement. In spring, two Spanish classes were given since there was no intensive session. Representatives from a company that rents cell phones, were invited to present at the orientation. Students and CIEE staff were not satisfied with the company s services and CIEE will no longer promote any particular company s services. In the spring orientation, the host families came to the hotel to pick up the students, which seemed to be much more reassuring for them. In addition, Nicola Heath, the Housing Coordinator, prepared and 3
hung a map of Barcelona with a labels showing each student where he and she was going to live. The addition of a new Cultural Activities coordinator, Núria Rodríguez, allowed for more people to be fully involved during orientation. Over the past year, the Assistant Resident Director, Cara Hardy, has worked to develop the Guía de Estudiantes (Student Guide), mainly by adding a great deal of content. In the future, staff will continue to improve the design and layout of the guide, in order to make it more user-friendly. CIEE cultural activities, field trips and excursions: Fall Day excursions: Girona, Penedés, Figueras and Besalú Weekend Excursions Madrid, Mallorca Guardian Angel Activities: Tapas, Flamenco, movie projection L Auberge Espagnol in Sala Zelig Thanksgiving dinner Farewell Party Spring Day excursions: Tarragona, Penedés, Colonia Guell (third trimester students only), Museum of History and City and Fundació Miró Weekend Excursions: Costa Brava Ampurias, Cadaqúes, Figueras, Besalú; Madrid Guardian Angel Activities: Tapas, Flamenco Farewell Dinner NEW for the Spring Cine Club at Sala Zelig (a small theatre in the Raval area) Company Visits: clothing store MANGO, the Port of Barcelona, the City Hall, the Stock Exchange, main Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia. Participation in some of these visits was disappointing because since it was not required, students felt no obligation to maintain their compromise and even though they had signed up for it, many times they did not show up for the event. Cross Cultural Workshops (one on cultural adaptation in orientation by CIEE staff, a second one on non-verbal communication and a third one re-entry, both by a person hired specially for these two workshops). The Boletín Cultural was sent more regularly starting Spring 2005. The Great Gincana: the Cultural Activities Coordinator created a set of different activities that students had to accomplish and spread them throughout the semester. It was tremendously successful, almost all students participated and competed with a lot of enthusiasm. Recommendations by the ACB were that the Guardian Angels use as much Spanish as possible with students in both programs and that the program might consider ways to maximize what the students are learning through the company visits, through the CIEE business courses and/or through the language courses. 4
There were significant improvements in the cultural offerings during this academic year. Since Núria Rodríguez was hired as part-time Cultural Activities Coordinator, many more activities were organized and students could be better assisted. Guardian Angels were more involved with the students and were urged to speak only in Spanish with students. Cultural activities and excursions were linked to the language classes by giving the list of excursions to the language professors so they would plan some of their activities in class as a preor post- exercise to the excursions organized by CIEE. For example, in the fall, the final projects for each language class were related to the excursion to Mallorca. Volunteer Opportunities A couple of new volunteer organizations (mainly related to working with children of immigrants) were identified by the RD during the year, but there were few students who expressed interest. The Cultural Activities Coordinator has been assigned to research more options for next year and prepare a brochure to advertise them to the students so they are encouraged and can sign for them from the beginning. One of the main problems we face is that organizations require that the student keep attending all the semester though many times students are not consistent in the energy they dedicate to the volunteer work or stop doing it when they start traveling. It is, therefore, difficult to maintain a good relationship with the organizations. Housing, Health and Safety: During the fall, all BC students lived with host families. During the spring, one yearlong BC student lived in the Residencia. One BC student had independent housing. Several new families were found to accommodate increase in enrollment and to replace some families that could not host students this semester. There were not specific changes in regard to health and safety. The UPF Intercambios program was difficult to manage. In the fall, UPF did not give CIEE students language partners. Efforts were made to improve communication with the Intercambio coordinator for spring. Some students received partners but instructions were not clear so many students did not complete the form saying they wanted an intercambio. Because of this situation, CIEE will start its own intercambio program for the coming year. The ACB recommended more information on Catalan language and culture be shared with students at the outset. The Cultural Activities Coordinator has developed presentation on Catalan and Catalan Culture that will be delivered for the first time during summer 2005. Students Enrollment Gender Semester 71 Male 40 Academic Year 2 Female 33 Average Student GPA 3.3 5
Top Enrollments by Major Business & Management Economics Economics Finance Marketing Communications Top Sending Schools University of Colorado at Boulder University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of Arizona Portland State University The University of Texas at Austin Future Directions Based on the Academic Consortium Board recommendations after the evaluation in spring 2005, the Business and Culture program, beginning in spring 2006, has been reorganized to accept students with a background in business (defined as 3 semesters of micro or macroeconomics, accounting, finance, management, marketing or statistics) at all levels of Spanish. Due to changes at the host institutions in Barcelona, the program will offer direct enrollment courses in business (in English and in Spanish) at the Escola Superior de Comerc International (ESCI). All students must take at least one ESCI course, both to focus students on business, and to ensure a degree of integration within the Spanish University. As mentioned above, CIEE will now teach the culture courses in English and at two levels of Spanish. Beginning in the fall of 2005, CIEE will initiate its own intercambio program. A session on Catalan language and culture is presented to students during the orientation. Because of the change in the prerequisites, residencia housing will now only be available to those students with four or more semesters of college-level Spanish. A new residencia option has been added to expand this type of housing. In spring 2006, John Lucas will replace Antonia Ferriol as Resident Director of the CIEE Study Center in Barcelona (and Antonia Ferriol will move to head up CIEE s new Study Center in Palma de Mallorca). 6