Semester across the Mediterranean: Spain to Cyprus
Host Institutions
UAB
Founded in 1968, the
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona is one of Europe's best public academic institutions, known throughout the region for its exceptional teaching and research capabilities.
The university currently offers 77 undergraduate courses, 90 doctoral programs and 328 postgraduate and continuing education classes in a wide array of disciplines such as humanities, social sciences, medicine, health sciences, experimental sciences and engineering. Overall enrollment exceeds 43,000 students and the staff consists of 4,200 faculty members and administrative staff.
The UAB consists of three separate campuses: the Sant Pau in downtown Barcelona; the Bellaterra in Cerdanyola del Valles, roughly 30 minutes outside of Barcelona, and; the Sabadell campus, home to the Business and Computer Science schools.
Study abroad students will take their courses at either the Sant Pau or Bellaterra campus.
The Sant Pau campus, only a stone's throw away from Gaudi's Templo de la Sagrada Familia in downtown Barcelona, is home to the UAB's
study abroad programs for visiting international students. Courses are held at the Casa de Convales`encia within the grounds of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and which represents one of Catalonia's latest samples of the region's Art Nouveau and Modernist movements. Here, visiting students will take courses in Spanish language and electives taught in English on business, Spanish culture and civilization, and art history, to name a few. Starting in January of 2009, the EUSS Sarri campus, which is located in a wealthy neighborhood of the city only five minutes away from Plaza Catalunya by train, will also host many business content courses taught in English.
Located among nature, the Bellaterra campus hosts most of the UAB's regular students. Visiting students with an intermediate-to-advanced level of Spanish may opt to take courses here in a wide array of academic disciplines with regular Spanish students. Designed as a US-style campus with integrated academic, cultural and social activities, Bellaterra also offers everyone a full range of services and facilities; libraries, a language-learning center, cultural and sports activities, restaurants, gyms, bookshops, and other retail establishments are available to its students.
Accreditation
The Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona is one of Europe's best public academic institutions. It is recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science as a degree granting institution of higher learning.
The University of Nicosia provides the academic curriculum, faculty and facilities for this program. Classes are taught at the University of Nicosia's main campus in Nicosia and students receive a University of Nicosia transcript upon successful completion of their coursework.
The University of Nicosia is a well-known international institution and the largest university in Cyprus with over 5,000 students (including 1,000 international degree-seeking students) enrolled at three campuses in the three largest cities in Cyprus. The University of Nicosia is accredited at the bachelor's and master's level and has particular strengths in business, international relations, engineering, computer science and some areas of the social sciences. The University of Nicosia has more than 200 faculty, over 80% of which hold the rank of assistant professor or higher.
All of the classroom buildings in Nicosia were built over the last decade and match modern American facilities in terms of design, comfort and information technology. The University of Nicosia is designed on the American semester model and uses US standards for grading, contact hours and credit hours. All University of Nicosia courses, for local or international students, are taught in English.
Accreditation
The University of Nicosia is fully accredited at the bachelor's and master's level and approved at the doctorate level by SEKAP, the Cypriot accreditation board appointed by the Ministry of Culture and Education and the Council of Ministries.
University of Nicosia Page on the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture WebsiteFacilities
The University of Nicosia has campuses in the three major cities in Cyprus. Its facilities include 71 classrooms, 13 amphitheaters, 5 conference rooms, 25 computer labs and several other specialized labs servicing the needs of its design, communication, TV and radio, music, language, engineering, culinary arts, hotel management, life and health sciences, psychology and education programs.
The Nicosia campus where GLS students are based, consists of eight buildings totaling 300,000 square feet and includes a 70,000 volume library. It is located in a high-end residential neighborhood in Nicosia.
The campus is also equipped with a restaurant, 2 cafeterias, an open-air amphitheater, a bookstore, a copy-center, a movie-theater, a games room and a gym that is open daily and is free of charge for all students. The cafeteria and Training Restaurant offer meals, drinks, snacks and recreational facilities and are also a congenial place for students to meet between and after classes.
The University of Nicosia's movie theatre, Cine Studio, is one of the best theaters in Nicosia, with comfortable seats and a state of the art film projector and stereo system. It shows art-house films for students and staff and is also open to the public at large.
The University of Nicosia has a distributed LAN-based computing environment and WiFi service is available in many parts of the Nicosia campus. Computer labs also are available for student use.
