Language uses and rights at the UPC
What are language transparency and language safety?
- Students have the right to know what language a subject will be taught in before they enrol.
- The language stated before enrolment is a commitment that brings language safety to both the professor who teaches the subject and the students who enrol in it, in the face of individual requests for a change in language.
- The UPC’s Governing Council approved the Protocol on Language Use in the Classroom (Governing Council Decision CG/2022/02/32) and the framework of the 2022-2025 UPC Language Plan (Governing Council Decision CG/2022/02/33), in which the commitments on language transparency and safety are established.
- Teaching materials, generally, and exams, specifically, must be in the subject’s language of instruction. The SLT offers free revision and translation of teaching materials in Catalan and English when the materials are not available in the stated language of instruction
University system agreements on languages in teaching
- In 2022, the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) is promoting the Plan for Strengthening the Catalan Language in the University and Research System of Catalonia and the Plan for Improving Foreign Language Competencies in the University System of Catalonia
- A proposal has been made for a common framework to guarantee language transparency and language safety in the use of languages in university teaching, and the indicators on languages in teaching included in universities’ variable funding have been updated.
- In June 2021, universities belonging to the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) signed the Commitment against the Crisis in Education, the third priority of which is to halt the declining use of the Catalan language in teaching and research at universities. The aim of reaching 80% of teaching in Catalan was established.
- In May 2021, the Ombuds Officer of Catalonia addressed the universities to propose measures on using Catalan in teaching, maintaining the stated language of instruction and making channels available for raising complaints regarding language rights.
- In March, the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) approved a decision on guaranteeing the language of instruction, in which it reaffirms its commitment to language transparency and safety and to fostering Catalan as the teaching and administrative language that is normally and principally used in the university system.
- In 2021, the CIC’s Language Policy Committee worked on the language indicators established in 2010, which are linked to university funding, to improve the completeness and reliability of the data on language use in teaching.
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