A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

94

July 2019

On 15 May the Vives Network of Universities presented the results and findings of the Via Universitària project (2017-2019), a survey study in which more than 40,000 students from twenty universities in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Andorra took part. Anna Prades, project manager at AQU Catalunya and technical director of the project, gave the presentation.

The aim of the Via Universitària programme is to better understand the quality of life among university students in Catalonia, their study conditions and environments, their connection with university as an institution, their cultural habits, their economic constraints, together with their expectations, values and beliefs about higher education.

In order to place the study in an international context, the results and findings are in line with those of the Eurostudent survey, which collates similar data from twenty-eight countries on the social dimension of higher education in Europe.

More specifically, the Via Universitària programme is a survey of the following seven groups of issues:

• Social composition and access and progression pathways
• Time devoted to studies and leisure activities
• Financial well-being and accommodation for students
• Teaching and assessment methodologies
• Institutional participation and activities offered by the university
• Gender differences
• The situation with master's programmes

The survey study was carried out a group of more than thirty experts from different backgrounds and fields of knowledge, ranging from sociology and pedagogy to economics, statistics and mathematics, resulting in a robust study with a multidisciplinary vision.

The results and findings of the study show that there is room for considerable improvement in the university system in Catalonia. With regard to each issue covered by the survey, the report found that: