Systems of Higher Education in an international Comparison: Spain<title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../CSS/2col_leftNav.css" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <div id="masthead"> <h1 id="siteName"> Systems of Higher Education in an international Comparison: Spain</h1> <h1 id="subTitle"> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia</h1> <div id="globalNav"> <a href="../educationalsystem/school.html">Educational System</a> | <a href="../universitylife/living.html"> University Life</a> | <a href="../work/internship.html">Work</a> | Madrid | <a href="../valencia/valencia.html">Valencia</a>| <a href="../authors.html">Authors</a></div> </div>  <div id="content"> <h2 id="pageName"> UPM - La Facultad de Informática </h2> <div id="breadCrumb"> <a href="#facts">Facts & Figures</a> | <a href="#fields">Fields of Study</a> | <a href="#campus">Campus</a> | <a href="#erasmus">Erasmus</a> | <a href="#courses">Course Offers</a>| <a href="#extra">Extracurricular Activities</a></div> <div class="story"> <h3> Facts & Figures<a id="facts"></a></h3> <p> Currently there are about 170 professors and around 2000 students at the faculty. There are around 200 places for international exchange programs and 30 places for a double degree. Besides there is a library at the campus with over 200 reading / study places and over 28.000 books and papers. </p> <h3> Fields of Study<a id="fields"></a></h3> <ul> <li>Architecture and technology of computer systems (Arquitectura y Tecnología de Sistemas Informáticos)</li> <li>Artificial Intelligence (Inteligencia artificial)</li> <li>Languages and computer systems & Software Engineering (Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería de Software)</li> <li>Languages applied to science and technology (Lingüística aplicada a la Ciencia y a la Tecnología)</li> <li>Applied mathematics (Matemática Aplicada)</li> </ul> <h3> Campus<a id="campus"></a></h3> <p> The following map shows the campus of the ‚Facultad de Informática’, the so called ‘Campus Montegancedo’ situated outside of Madrid. Besides parking lots, the bus station and the highway connection you can see the UPM buildings on the campus.</p> <p> <img src="images/upm_campus.jpg" /><br /> Figure: Campus of the Faculty for Computer Science (<a href="http://www.fi.upm.es/images/como_llegar.gif">Source</a>) </p> <p> Installations: <ul> <li>Supercomputer</li> <li>Historical Museum</li> <li>Library</li> <li>Administrative Block</li> <li>Five ‘Study’ Blocks</li> <li>Planetarium</li> <li>Study Rooms</li> </ul> </p> <h3> Erasmus<a id="erasmus"></a></h3> <h4> Facts & Figures</h4> <p> Of the 5000 students UPM graduates each year, about 20% of them have taken part in an international exchange program. At some UPM centers this number even goes up to 50%. The diagram below shows the distribution of applications for the Erasmus program by center / faculty. </p> <p> <img src="images/erasmus.png" /><br /> Figure: Students applying for Erasmus by faculty (<a href="http://www.upm.es/rinternacional/ari/est_erasmus.html">Source</a>) </p> <p> As you can see the faculty for computer science accounts for the fifth strongest demand among all UPM centers being surpassed only by aeronautics, architecture, telecommunications and industrial engineering. </p> <h4> Oficina Internacional – International Office</h4> <p> There is an international office that takes care of anything related to incoming as well as outgoing students. It’s located at Block 3, D.3102 and it’s open two to three times per week for a few hours. Here you get everything, from your student ID to meal coupons. Changes to the learning agreement, etc. can be done here, too. </p> <p> Note: At the beginning of the term, there are usually a lot of students with a lot of concerns, which leads to long queues of students in front of the international office and waiting times of up to a few hours. </p> <h4> Support, Student Collaborators, Activities</h4> <p> Those local students which have been to a foreign country or are planning to go to one during the course of their studies are asked to take part in a so called ‘collaborators’ group. A group that takes care of incoming students in what concerns the search for an apartment, getting along in Madrid and at the university campus, getting the right tickets for public transport and finding your way to the computer science campus outside Madrid, etc. Furthermore they usually plan a few activities, parties and / or trips throughout the course of the term. Former activities cover an Erasmus Christmas dinner, a stash hunt throughout Madrid covering the most important points of interest and a trip to Toledo. </p> <p> Besides all that they’re your first contact at the new university and can help you with almost every problem you may have. </p> <h3> Course Offers<a id="courses"></a></h3> <p> The faculty for computer science offers about 270 courses at the field of computer science, categorized in the five categories corresponding to the centers mentioned before, though language courses are not faculty specific and get organized separately. Besides the ‘standard’ computer science lectures, of which almost any contain practical projects or papers to be delivered in addition to a written or oral exam (or even exclusively) to pass the course, there are projects categorized as ‘Sistemas Informáticos’. These are practical projects of about 15 ECTS credits, usually aimed at developing some piece of software. Quite often it’s a bigger project distributed among a group of students. Furthermore it’s quite common that a project documentation as well as a short presentation has to be delivered at the end of such a project, which usually covers two terms, i.e. a whole year. </p> <p> Last but not least, one should mention, that unlike at most German universities, nearly all the courses take place in smaller, class room like halls and the average number of students in the courses is closer to German school classes than university courses in Germany. </p> <h3> Extracurricular Activities<a id="extra"></a></h3> <p> At the faculty there is a theater course in which students can take part and a small sporting ground with a soccer field and a gym. Nevertheless, there are more sporting grounds at other UPM locations and more extracurricular activities offered there, too. Usually at Ciudad Universitaria. Last but not least there usually is a barbecue at the lake near the faculty for computer science every summer, organized by students. </p> <div id="Div1"> <em>Author: <a href="http://www.juergentreml.de/">Jürgen Treml</a></em></div> </div> </div>  <div id="navBar"> <div id="sectionLinks"> <h3> The City of Madrid</h3> <ul> <li><a href="geography.html">Geography, Population & Administration</a></li> <li><a href="sights.html">Sightseeing</a></li> <li><a href="living.html">Living in Madrid</a></li> <li><a href="work.html">Working in Madrid</a></li> <li><a href="universities.html">Universities</a></li> <li><a href="free.html">Free Time & La Marcha </a></li> </ul> <h3> Universidad Carlos III</h3> <ul> <li><a href="carlos_general.html">General Information</a></li> <li><a href="carlos_geography.html">Geography</a></li> <li><a href="carlos_technicalcampus.html">Technical Campus </a></li> <li><a href="carlos_thedegree.html">The Degree </a></li> <li><a href="carlos_communication.html">Communication</a></li> <li><a href="carlos_comparison.html">Comparison</a></li> </ul> <h3> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid</h3> <ul> <li><a href="upm_history.html">History</a></li> <li><a href="upm_facts.html">Facts & Figures</a></li> <li><a href="upm_locations.html">Faculties & Locations</a></li> <li>Faculty for Computer Science</li> </ul> </div> <div class="relatedLinks"> <h3> Related Links</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.upm.es/" target="_blank">Politécnica de Madrid</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.fi.upm.es/" target="_blank">Facultad de Informática (UPM)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.tum.de/" target="_blank">TU München</a></li> </ul> </div> </div>  <div id="siteInfo"> (C) 2008, Stefan Edbauer, Arno Scherhorn, <a href="http://www.juergentreml.de/">Jürgen Treml</a> </div> <br /> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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