Universities in Spain

The U.S. reaffirms its position that it is necessary to continue maintaining educational funding targets acquired.

This international association of universities released a report that reveals some clues of the impact of the crisis in higher education institutions, severely affected in terms of funding by the downturn.

According to the Report of the U.S., some countries have made serious cuts in university funding. Latvia is the worst stop leaving this aspect, with dramatic decreases in investment in education, some arising from recommendations of international bodies like the World Bank.

Another example is the case of Italy, which has decreased public spending between five and ten percent in the last three. At these rates also move for example Ireland, United Kingdom Lithuania, Romania and Estonia.

Very few countries, the report said, have continued to promote education as a key element to new investments, including France and Germany. Other nations (especially Nordic) have not made direct cuts, and some governments have changed their forecasts to increase funding for Spain.

Not only in public spending down the report. As cited in the report, the cuts in private investment in universities (which is becoming increasingly present in the model of long-term financial sustainability of the centers) has also been felt in institutions of higher education.

The autonomy, finally, was another major hit by the crisis. Spending cuts and have more control in some cases curb the freedom of universities.

Examples in Spain

In Spain, the powers relating to education are transferred to the Autonomous Communities. Some universities, such as the Community of Madrid, and have gone through problems in terms of regional financing and expressed their dissatisfaction through the media and events for the regional government to comply with their commitments.

Source: European University Association.

It sounds like a joke but its official: The University of Alicante is offering a course in video games creation (!). Starting from 2011 the University of Alicante will offer the course. The objective is to train students in all aspects of professional video game development, from tools to advertising, through the creation of scripts, working with graphics engines, as well as various components of the platforms upon which the games will be built.

The courses will focus on the practical aspects combined with theory and will also entail the creation of a project throughout the course with the aim to create a complete game. Students will work with professionals like Unreal Engine 3, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, with emphasis on the design and creation of the different contents of which games are made up of: script, graphics, animations, characters, scenarios kinematics, typography, sound effects and music.

All this with great teachers of the university and other professionals who will share their experiences with students and guide them in the sector and how to find work.

Pre-registration is now open to the course, which will be a presence course. All information is available on the official website of the course.

The game is to correctly answer the maximum number of questions to get the highest score, and so enter a ranking of the “wisest.”

IE University has created an application for Facebook called “Trivia Challenge” which allows network users to measure their knowledge of Biology, Architecture, Communication, Law, Art History, Psychology and Tourism. The goal is for young audiences, accustomed to the use of new technologies and the use of the Internet, in a playful approach to the disciplines of knowledge that are held on the campus of IE University.

The implementation is challenging: it is a trivial structured in four levels, each of them equivalent to one year of college, and each level consists of eight questions related to the degrees offered at IE University. The game is to correctly answer the maximum number of questions to get the highest score, and so enter a ranking of the “wiser.”

IE University is committed to the new environment created by social networks and application of technologies to the educational landscape. In this sense, the academic institution considers to be an essential tool to connect with students and thus have profiles on YouTube, Tuenti, Facebook, Myspace and Flickr, among others. It is recalled that IE University recently launched a “site” mobile, allowing hundreds of thousands of users access and interact through the portal http://ie.yoc.com, where they find information about the University, their bachelors, their networks social and strategic game.

Next month, 20 universities from nine countries will compete in Madrid to construct ‘the most sustainable house possible’ using solar power. Representatives from universities in China, Brazil, US, Finland, Spain and the UK will each build a solar house in the enormous showrooms next to Madrid’s Royal Palace and the River Manzanares.

‘Solar Decathlon’, which is expected to attract more than 100,000 people, has only previously been held in Washington, DC. At every previous event, a significant number of new patents were generated. It has therefore attracted great interest from businesses around the world which have sought to exploit cutting-edge university research into solar power.

The event is being organised by the Polytechnic University of Madrid in collaboration with the Town Hall of Madrid. The Ministry of Housing is contributing EUR5 million (US$6 million) to the costs and the central government a further EUR2.3 million.

Source.

The University of Navarra has been ranked the best non-state University in Spain according to rankings released by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

The rankings published by El Mundo look into the best colleges and schools amongst the fifty most in demand careers. Ahead of the University of Navarra are public universities in Madrid and Barcelona.

In the ranking, nine degrees of the University of Navarra are among the five best in Spain, in particular the careers of Journalism and Human Nutrition and Dietetics, earning the top spot.

In second place come Audiovisual Communication and Nursing and in third position, Medicine, Architecture, Advertising and Public Relations, Medicine and Mechanical Engineering.