Actors made up as cats that resemble celebrities theriansFormula 1 cars, chocolate fountains, music booths where you can create your own song, and agents of all kinds in eye-catching uniforms. Entering Hall 2 of the Education Fair and not being entertained for a while is almost impossible, and perhaps all these attractions explain—in part—the change the educational guidance fair has undergone to reach its current state: this year, for the first time, there are more exhibitors of vocational training (FP).

For decades, universities have emphasized one concept: specialization. Their classrooms have produced economists, political scientists, philosophers—defined profiles trained in disciplines with clear boundaries. However, it is increasingly difficult to address major contemporary debates from a single perspective. A multitude of challenges arise: how to regulate artificial intelligence without stifling innovation, how to guarantee economic growth without exacerbating inequalities, how to govern society in a context of polarization and climate crisis… The degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics is based on this observation: complexity is not addressed by fragmenting knowledge, but by doing.

In Spain, universities operate under a "single district" system: regulations allow students to access any university in the country, regardless of the autonomous community to which the institution belongs or where the applicant completed their secondary education and university entrance exams. However, some sectors have long argued that this homogeneity creates inequalities among Catalan students. One example is medicine, where in recent years there has been an increase in the percentage of students from other regions enrolling in Catalan medical schools. Now, the Council of the College of Physicians of Catalonia (CCMC) and some deans of medical schools have submitted a proposal to the Catalan Government to modify the admissions process for this degree and thus "guarantee fair and equitable access."

The figures are striking: almost 37% of Catalan university students currently live with a mental health diagnosis, primarily anxiety disorders (15.4%) and depressive disorders (7.1%). Looking at their lifespan, nearly half of the students have been diagnosed with a mental health problem at some point. This is compounded by a high level of emotional exhaustion: more than a third of students report feeling emotionally drained every day. These data are taken from...Study on mental health in the university system of Catalonia (2023), promoted by the Department of Research and Universities, and prepared with the participation of Catalan universities. The report goes further and the conclusion is clear: this emotional distress does not only affect the student body, but stress and burnout are common to all workers in the university community.

A significant change is coming to the university admissions process in Catalonia. Starting in 2027, the extraordinary sitting of the University Entrance Exams (PAU) – for those who did not pass the June exams or wish to improve their scores – will no longer be held in September but in July. This Friday, the board of the Inter-University Council of Catalonia (CIC) – the coordinating body between the Catalan Government and the twelve Catalan universities – agreed that 2026 will be the last year in which the PAU resits are held in September. With this change, Catalonia aligns itself with the rest of Spain's autonomous communities, as it was the only region that still held the university entrance exams in September. According to a statement from the Department of Research and Universities, the measure follows the same approach already applied to other educational levels (primary, secondary, and upper secondary), where extraordinary exam sessions are not held in September. In fact, nowadays, university degrees don't offer resits in September either. Furthermore, the government also argues that one of the main positive effects of the agreement is that it will allow pre-registration and September course assignments to be brought forward by a few weeks, and therefore, university enrollment can be finalized earlier. In addition, one of the most important changes will be that all students will be able to start university at the same time – in mid-September – regardless of whether they passed the first or second sitting of the university entrance exams. Finally, the CIC also argues that, if students take the resit exams, they will have a much more recent understanding of the subjects because they will have taken the entrance exams just a month before, and "this temporal proximity can contribute to better academic performance." In the last extraordinary sitting of the University Entrance Exams (PAU) in September, 8,237 students registered, representing 18.5% of the total number of students registered in the ordinary sitting in June, in which 44,388 students registered. Peace 2026

Regarding next year's university entrance exams (PAU) – those of 2026 – the regular session will be held on Tuesday, June 9, Wednesday, June 10, and Thursday, June 11, while the resit session will take place on Wednesday, September 2, Thursday, September 3, and Friday, September 4. As for the content and marking criteria, there will be no changes; they will remain the same as those used in the last exams.

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The Catalan government has taken an important step to improve the working conditions of PhD researchers in Catalonia: from now on, those employed by the Generalitat (Catalan government) will have four-year contracts instead of the three-year contracts that have been in place for the past twenty years. The measure, announced by the Department of Research and Universities in a press release, fulfills one of the key objectives of Salvador Illa's government's term. The contractual change involves an investment of €21.1 million to hire a total of 243 predoctoral researchers through the Joan Oró grants. Although this expenditure is only for this year's call for applications, the department emphasizes that, from now on, the government's grant programs for young researchers (Joan Oró-FI and FI-SDUR) will always include a fourth year of employment. However, it should be noted that this change will not affect doctoral students in industry. The measure, approved this Monday, had been long demanded by Catalan doctoral students, as many of them saw how the work to write a doctoral thesis could take up to four years, but in Catalonia, grants only covered the cost of the first three.

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This is the main fear of the tens of thousands of students who take the entrance exam each year: Not obtaining the grade that would open the doors to studying the university degree they wantNow, however, a report has quantified this fear: last year, almost half of the university students in Spain did not gain admission to their first-choice degree program. Specifically, according to the study by the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CyD), 245,226 places were offered for undergraduate degrees at public universities in the 2024-2025 academic year, an offer that received 474,319 applications. Therefore, last year, 229,053 students across Spain were unable to access their first-choice degree program. Behind these figures lie two key factors, also highlighted in the report. On the one hand, the document points out that the number of university degrees offered by public universities has remained stable in recent years, and on the other, that the demand for access to degree programs has grown by 26% in the last decade nationwide. Public universities offering in-person instruction show a mismatch between supply and demand: while applications for degree programs have increased by 25.9%, the number of available places has decreased slightly (-0.6%)," the study's authors report.

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The rector of Ramon Llull University (URL), Josep Antoni Rom, passed away early Saturday morning at the age of 62 from a heart attack. "It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of our parish priest, Josep Antoni Rom Rodríguez. We keep him in our prayers and extend our deepest condolences to his family during this time of grief. May he rest in peace," the URL stated in a press release. Rom had served as rector since September 2022 and was recognized as a leading figure in the field of advertising strategy and creativity. Born in Barcelona in 1963, the rector held a degree in contemporary history from the University of Barcelona (1987) and a doctorate in advertising and public relations from URL in 2004, where he was a professor and chair. In 1994, he joined Blanquerna-URL, where he co-founded the Faculty of Communication and International Relations, served as Vice Dean of Technology and Equipment (1998-2016), and directed the degree program in advertising, public relations, and marketing (2016-2020). Before becoming Rector of Ramon Llull University, from September 2020 to September 2022, he was part of the Rector's team as Vice Rector for Research and Innovation. He was also a member of several scientific committees for national and international conferences and journals. Tripods, Graph and Advertising IssuesHe has also been the director of the Master's programs in Advertising Strategy and Creativity and in Art Direction for Advertising at Blanquerna-URL. Finally, he has also served as the director of the Design and Publications Department at Blanquerna-URL.

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With a GDP exceeding €280 billion and more than eight million inhabitants, Catalonia would be positioned at the center of the European Union. Its human and economic dimensions invite better use of the capacities distributed throughout the country, which presents internal realities with a size and potential comparable to those of many European regions that promote their own innovation and smart specialization strategies (RIS3). It is necessary to bring out the endogenous and differentiated capacities of each Catalan region so that, with the involvement of their economic fabric and the support of at least one university, they can become knowledge regions responsible for their own development policies.

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The 21st-century university resembles a puzzle where a key piece, gender equality, doesn't quite fit. This is demonstrated by the latest Vives Network report on the gender perspective in teaching, published this September. For those not familiar with this network, it's the association of universities in the Catalan language and culture regions. The report in question compiles data from 20 universities, and the authors, María José Rodríguez Jaume and Diana Gil González, as well as collaborator Julia Cimas Sánchez, are from the University of Alicante.

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In the first chapter of Catalan nationality (1906), Enric Prat de la Riba warns against the danger of becoming a province, otherwise, there is a risk of losing one's own personality by submitting to the criteria and motto of others: "Chosen souls always preserved the memory of the past and maintained a passive protest against the present, but they passed silently, isolated, and in silence, and isolated, and in silence, isolated, and in silence; the reflective conscience of the community was erased, leaving only, with special accentuation, the same unconscious feeling of the masses."

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That when the professor addresses the student, they should use the name they prefer and respect the gender with which they identify. This objective, which at first glance might seem easy, until a few years ago involved a high level of bureaucracy for university students who, for whatever reason, do not identify with the information reflected in their official documents such as their ID or passport. However, public universities are now making it increasingly easier to make these changes. However, these modifications will only be valid in the strictly university setting and will not be reflected in official degrees.

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Four out of ten university students do not get into the degree program and institution they chose as their first choice. This proportion, which would be alarming in educational stages such as vocational training (VT), is a trend repeated in the Catalan university system. In 2025, in the July pre-registration period, only 58% (27,927) of the students assigned a place obtained a seat at the degree program and university they had chosen as their first preference. In the July pre-registration period of last year, 62% of university students were able to study where they wanted, the same percentage as those who did so in 2023.

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29% of university students in Spain need financial support to continue their studies, according to data from the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports published in 2024. Since 2021, the "la Caixa" Foundation's Undergraduate Scholarship program has promoted equal opportunities in access to university education. The program, which combines academic excellence and social equity, has enabled 255 talented young people with limited financial resources to access university in its first five years.

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I just bought a recipe book. At the end, there are some blank pages for writing down your own recipes. I decided to write my own so I can cook up the UNESCO report for you. Women Lead for Learning (Women Leading Through Learning) published May 20.

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The anecdote, which I know firsthand, is strictly true. In the mid-1960s, historian Jordi Nadal, professor of economic history at the University of Barcelona, ​​failed a student because, on the exam, she had written foreign with g. Nowadays, a student in the Faculty of Economics failing an exam due to a spelling mistake would seem exaggerated and might even provoke a minor scandal. The question, naturally, is why? Why can't every university student be required to write correctly? Why do some people argue that spelling rules aren't that important? The answer is that spelling is merely a symptom, a manifestation, of something much deeper and more transcendent: mastery of the language, which includes grammar and vocabulary, and spelling, of course.

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On the occasion of the 2025 graduation ceremonies, the current Harvard pastor said the following: "My hope for you is that you continue to be comfortable with being uncomfortable [stay comfortable being uncomfortable]". What does this phrase mean in the context of the cultural battle between Harvard and the Donald Trump administration, and what lessons can we draw for our region?stay": to remain in discomfort, that is, in the debate of ideas, doubt, and speaking. This tendency of university culture, so difficult to carry out when society experiences a radical polarization that sometimes makes any possibility impossible, not to say of dialogue, but of listening to what we would not like to feel, but today clashes with the positions of democratic societies through the agencies designated for this purpose. On the one hand, extreme right-wing positions, both in Europe and the United States, defend the purity of a supposed truth that must be established with other points of view. Students take note of everything the professor says, even if it fools them; they become cannon fodder for any slogan posed as a guarantee of security. Trump hates Harvard because it represents the best thinking leaders, not precisely the richest but the smartest, in the sense, in this case, of someone who wants to talk to those who think differently, to compare perspectives even if it hurts. of that world, but of what must come and that depends on our responsibility.

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The UNPORTAL platform and the ARA (Argentine University of Catalonia) offer you the cut-off marks for the first allocation of places for the 2025-2026 academic year, which you can consult along with the updated offer of university courses to be taught at the 12 Catalan universities (the 8 participating in the pre-registration system and the 4 not).

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Catalan universities are leaders in STEM studies in Spain. This is indicated by the results of the latest annual ranking compiled by the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CYD). This ranking focuses on STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and, without a doubt, the best-performing universities are Catalan universities.

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The University of Barcelona (UB) has sanctioned a professor (DV) with 18 months of suspension from employment and pay for taking advantage of his position within the institution to have sexual relations with students. During the investigation into the case, which began in September 2023, eight complaints were filed, two of which were past the statute of limitations. The UB has sanctioned the professor for a very serious offense: using his civil servant status to obtain an undue benefit. This measure can still be appealed and conflicts with the favorable court rulings the professor had.

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