The autumn has arrived with thousands of local and international students returning to the lecture halls of Barcelona’s universities. The study spirit is in the air, and the brain cells are slowly adjusting to work. And like a snapshot I recall last winter, when I made touristic steps through Barcelona streets and came face to face with a crowd of protesting students, blocking traffic with posters and noise, attracting as many Bombers as a terror act.
Army of students
They were in the streets to show their anger towards the Bologna process that will not only integrate all Europe’s higher education system into one, but also incredibly increase the tuition costs and cut scholarships starting year 2010.
Regardless, we’re not too far from 2010 but lecture halls are still filling. And just out of curiosity, I decide to catch a glimpse of what my options would be, if I was about to study this October.
A sea of opportunities
A popular destination for students from all over the world seems to be the Iese Business School of Barcelona which offers Masters in Business Administration degree. With 80% international student body, a promising carreer fair and a free chance to participate in student Bombay Film Club, the MBA fee with included accommodation is only EUR70,000… On the other hand, the Masters in Architecture and Urban Culture degree at Metropolis looks attractive for my creative soul, for only EUR6000. Or maybe for the same price I should finally learn how to express myself in future tense with intensive Spanish Course at Olé Language School ?
The reality check
I cannot make up my mind. What skills or knowledge do I need in this time of increasing unemployment and globalization? Is a degree a guarantee to a better career? Or should I study purely to enrich my mind and soul? The man who serves me pizza just off La Rambla tells that back home in Iraq he used to be a surgeon and saved lives. Moreover, the girls who clean the toilets in a nightclub turn out to have a degree in financing and had been working in one of the biggest banks back home in Latvia. Strange, I would think that banks would be full of vacancies for student loan collectors…
Study hard, party harder
It seems that for many people the reason to study in Barcelona is the chance to get out of their home town. The Erasmus Program and many Scandinavian governments that continue to sponsor generous scholarships for exchange programs are the first to thank for keeping Barcelona’s bars and dancefloors wild and oozing with pretty young things. They definitely help the language students to practice the good old rule that hooking up with a local is the best lesson ever. One more caña please!
The courses at the Escola de Clown Barcelona seem to teach many skills useful to compete in today’s job market. Two month professional course with accommodation costs EUR3000, and the description states:
” We will work through the various stages of the Clown process: openness, pleasure, humility, freedom, craziness, ridiculousness, imbalance… types of intelligence or stupidity,… relationship with other clowns and audience, failure and success… How to speak as Clown, How to dress as Clown, How to think as Clown…”
After all, I have decided to save up this year, and enter the Professional Clown Course next autumn.
Stay In The Loop!
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