How is going to the university? 🏫

In this small article, I will try to explain my opinion about the university and the future of education.

My background

Before understanding my point of view, I think it is important to know my background and circumstances:

I am a 21-year-old student who has been studying Interactive Communications for 4 years at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
During my lective years, I have completed 3 differnet Erasmus+ Exchange programs in 3 different countries.
I have done almost half of my degree working with a full time job contract, and my complete university career has been paid by myself with this job + previous ones (part times in different retail shops and restaurants).
I have an amazing group of friends who I have met during my university years. But I'm not a party animal, I don't like to go out every weekend and I don't like to drink alcohol/drugs.

My University years talking about education

I have always been a good student, liked to learn new things and I have always been curious about the world around me.

That doesn't mean that I have always liked to have the best marks, I never overworked myself to get the best marks, and I don't remember of any exam that I have studied for more than 5 hours.

My degree, Interactive Communications

My choice of degree was based on my interests, I wanted to learn about interfaces, design and code.

This degree (Interactive Communications) was a complete new degree in my university and in whole Spain, and it was a mix of different degrees that were already taught in the university (Computer Science, Journalism, Audiovisual Communication, Advertising and International Bussiness, etc.).

I have always been interested in technology, and I have always been a creative person, so this degree was perfect for me.

About the University, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

My experience in the UAB has been quite good, I have always felt comfortable with the atmosphere and the people around me. The UAB is a public university, and it is one of the best universities in Spain, or at least one of the biggest. It is located in the outskirts of Barcelona, and it is a campus university, so no cars sounds, no pollution, no traffic jams, etc. It is a really nice place to study. It has a lot of vegetation, and it is a really big campus, you can lay down on the grass and relax between classes with the sun on your face.

The buildings, in my case, the Communication Faculty, are not the best, but they are not bad either, it has arround 50 years. The classrooms are big enough, and the facilities are good enough except for the plugs, there are not enough plugs for all the students, so you have to be lucky to find one or you have to bring your own extension cord.

I know that around Barcelona you have really nice choices as well, like the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra or the Universitat de Barcelona, and some of them has a more professional approach, but if you are searhcing a spacious and calm place to study, or you are an Eramus student for just 6 months, the UAB is a really good choice.

About the courses

In the one hand, I have to say that I have enjoyed around the 60% of my courses that I have done, but in the other hand, also remember that my degree was completely new, so the first years were a bit chaotic, and some of the courses were not really well organized, I have friends that have done the same degree as me, but later, and they have told me that the courses were much better organized.

Homework was well charged, but not too much, and the exams were not too hard, but not too easy either, so I think that the balance was good most of the times (some test were really easy, and some others were innecesarily hard).

The good

They were general knowledge about different things, it's not super focused. That aims students to be more open minded and touch different topics where you can then choose your path by yourseld (or pherhaps you can choose a master degree that is more focused on a specific topic).

That was an incredible option for me because I enjoy makeing more hours in home by practicing and going deeper in the topics that I like the most, and I don't like to spend too much time in the university in things that I find unnecesary. Then I don't need to attend hours and hours of classes that I don't like.

The bad

Maybe you are a person that need to attend classes to be focused and learn, then I won't recommend you to do this degree, because you will have to do a lot of work by yourself if you want to go deeper.

For example, I did a course about Communication law, topic that I'm not really interested in. But at the end it was a really interesting course, and I learned a lot of things that I didn't know. So interesting point: I touched different subjects where I didn't know I was interested in. Bad point: I didn't go deep in the topics that I liked the most so if I want to have any laboral future in that topics, I will have to do a master degree or learn by myself (that's what I did).

About the teachers

My experience with teachers has been surprisingly bad, 85% of them where not even interested about their own subject, and they were not really good at teaching. Most of them had a 10 years old presentation that they were just reading, and even I found sometimes that they were not even able to answer questions about the topic.

But otherwise, I have to say that I have had some exceptionals teachers and they changed everything about my bad experience in the beginning. I really thing that it's a general problem about regular old universities where teachers are public workers and they don't have any motivation to do their job well because it doesn't matter if they do it well or not, they will get paid the same.

Also, in the Swedish university where I did my Erasmus and the one in Salamanca, I had a really good experience with the teachers, they were really good at communicating. Maybe my luck in UAB has been not the best with teachers.

Despite all this, I want to highlight a few teachers that I have had during my university years in UAB and they have changed my mind about the teachers in this institution:

@Julian Del Amo Teacher of Web Design during my second year.
@Ramon Voces Merayo Teacher of Advanced Coding in Web during my third year.

University is not only about education, it's also about social life, and it's crucial to have a good social life during your university years for your correct development.

You will know a lot of people with different backgrounds, eventually some of them will become your friends, and it's quite common to form a group with them. I know that it's not the same for everyone, desafortunatelly some people don't have a good social experience in the university and they don't have the oportunity to open theirselfs to new people.

If that's your case, I recommend you to join a student association, there are a lot of them, and you will find one that fits your interests. You will meet new people and you will have a good time with them with some common interests, I joined one about the TV and Radio of the campus and was a really good experience.

Some of this friends group will maybe be your mate to start some type of business in the future, or maybe you can join interesets and create something interesting together.

'Parties'

Here is where I found a really big difference between the Spanish and the Swedish university😅. Neverthless, I have to say that I have enjoyed both of them in different ways. I'm not an usual party enjoyer. I thing I just went twice or so during my whole degree (pubs and that, I joined another activities with friends) and this point will differ a lot depending on your personality.

I found the beauty of the university as a big highschool where you can invest your time to follow what you like the most, or find that. If you are a party animal, go for it, use these years to enjoy and have fun, but if you are not, don't worry, you will find a lot of people like you, and you will have a lot of other experiences to enjoy, like my case.

University has been for me a place to meet lovely people, to discover what I like and master it (outside classes, not inside) and to have a good time with friends and remembers to make just before entering the 'real world' completely.

Also keep in mind that during the last 3 years I have been working full time, so my point of view is a bit different than the usual student.