As the academic year draws to a close, the start of the university pre-registration period for bachelor’s degrees, which will take place between 2 and 26 June, is right around the corner. Now, more than ever, we need to emphasise the importance of quality assurance in every type of university education. The range of degrees on offer in Catalonia is vast. Students can choose from more than 1,500 official programmes, including bachelor’s, master’s and PhD levels.
These degrees are offered by the twelve public and private universities that are part of the Catalan Higher Education System (Catalan HES), affiliated centres or arts schools. Yet amid this abundance, students will also encounter non-official qualifications, known as títols propis or institution-specific degrees. There are roughly another 1,500 of these, awarded either by Catalan universities and centres or by foreign institutions whose degrees cannot be recognised as official qualifications in Catalonia.
With such a crowded marketplace, the 90,000 or so students starting university this September need to know exactly what they are signing up for. The choice between an official and a non-official degree carries weighty consequences, both in the immediate term and for years to come. The short-term impact is felt during the course itself: the calibre of the teaching staff, the resources and facilities available, and the rigour of the curriculum. The long-term effects, meanwhile, unfold throughout the graduate’s career.
What does an official degree actually mean?
Firstly, official degrees are recognised in Spain and throughout the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). That official status is a prerequisite for most categories of public-sector employment, for entry into regulated professions such as law, medicine, architecture and industrial engineering, and for admission to doctoral study, none of which is possible with an institution-specific degree. Spotting an official degree is straightforward. It will be listed in the Register of Universities, Centres and Qualifications (RUCT) and appears on both the University Channel and EUC Estudis [EUC Educational Programmes] portals. If a Catalan bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or PhD degree shows up in these databases, it is official. The EUC Estudis portal goes further, supplementing the bare fact of official status with data on graduate employment rates and satisfaction levels for each programme.
The strength of official degree programmes lies in their design. From the outset, they are subject to external quality control by assessment agencies such as AQU Catalunya. That external scrutiny means an official qualification will always offer stronger guarantees, both in the training you receive and in your professional prospects, than a programme that has never been independently evaluated.
Having taken a look at the key features of the official degree programmes, what distinguishes the non-official alternatives? For starters, institution-specific degrees do not count towards the entry requirements for public examinations or civil service recruitment, although they may be accepted as continuing professional development. They also lack recognition within the EHEA. Admissions criteria are set by each individual centre, making them more flexible but less standardised.
Two key caveats
One. Look carefully at how a programme is branded on the institution’s website. Programmes starting with the designations “Grau en...” [Bachelor’s degree in], “Graduat/ada en...” [Graduate in] “Màster universitari en...” [University master’s degree in] and “Doctorat en...” [PhD in] are official degrees. Non-official programmes cannot legally use these exact designations. Instead, you will typically see labels such as “Grau propi” [Institution-specific degree], “Màster” [Master’s degree], “Màster en formació permanent” [Continuing education master’s degree], “Títol de màster” [Master’s qualification] and “Diploma d’especialització” [Specialisation diploma] and others.
Two. If you are considering an institution-specific degree, verify that the centre delivering it is an official institution listed in the Register of Universities, Centres and Qualifications (RUCT). Centres in the register fall into three categories:
- Institutionally accredited centres: endorsed by a quality agency with the highest level of guarantee.
- Authorised centres: assessed by a quality agency and meeting basic standards.
- Centres not listed in the register: non-official institutions offering the weakest quality assurance since there is no prior evidence that their provision has been vetted.
Further details are available here.
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