Maryland-in-Barcelona Summer Academic Overview

Summer Spanish Language, Culture, and Business at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

This overview provides information about the academic structure of the Maryland-in-Barcelona Summer program as well as information about UMD’s partner institution in Barcelona, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Refer to the UAB course equivalent list under “Course Offerings” for course descriptions and syllabi. Students should refer to the Course Offerings on UAB’s website for their respective term and compare them with the UMD Study Abroad Course Database.

Academic Structure
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Academic Policies

Academic Structure

The Maryland-in-Barcelona Summer program allows students to enroll in 6 credit hours of Spanish language, culture, and/or business through the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB).

NOTE: UMD credit will only be granted for language courses taken at or above the level of Spanish already received at UMD. Credit will not be awarded for repeated courses or courses at a level lower than that already received at UMD (i.e. a student who has received credit for SPAN203 may not earn credit for any 100-level equivalent course at UAB). Placement in specific levels cannot be guaranteed by UMD. For additional information on this policy, please refer to the UMD Academic Catalogue.

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

UAB is a well-known and highly regarded public Spanish institution of higher education. Courses are taught by local or international faculty who provide students with expertise in the respective discipline and often act as a cultural interpreter as students explore the socio-political and cultural aspects of their study abroad term.

Please take some time to review the information provided here and on the UAB website. See where the university campuses are located on the Maryland-in-Barcelona google map. Students take courses at the Barcelona campus: Casa Convalescencia. You will NOT be taking courses at the main UAB campus, which is outside of the city center.

UAB prides itself on its international focus, connections with the business world, high quality student services, and sense of social awareness. While attending UAB, UM students will take classes especially designed for study abroad students as part of the pre-established study abroad programme. The UAB study abroad campus serves international students and UMD students will not be in classes with Spaniards nor other local students.

Course Offerings

UAB's pre-established summer study abroad programme combines lessons of Spanish as a foreign language plus electives in business, economics, Spanish art and culture, and politics. Please click the Course Offerings link to review the available courses. When selecting courses, students should pay particular attention to the term a course is offered in.

Students may compare the course offerings to the Maryland-in-Barcelona Course Database so they can see if/how courses are acceptable for credit.

Campus Life

The UAB Barcelona campus is centrally located to UMD housing and public transportation.

The Barcelona Campus is located in the historic UAB-Casa Convalescència building, which is part of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. The building was renovated completely in 2009 and it has all the necessary facilities for teaching such as wireless Internet access, air conditioning, adapted facilities for people with special needs or free printing service.

Students will also have access to all UAB facilities and student services on the main campus in Bellaterra which is about a 30 minute train ride from downtown Barcelona. The Bellaterra campus provides a variety of services, including libraries, a language-learning centre, cultural activities, sports facilities, restaurants, a health centre, bookshops, and various other shops.

Academic Policies

All students are expected to adhere to the academic policies of UAB. Students are expected to attend all scheduled class meetings. Final exams are held at the end of the term and are mandatory for all students. Note that final exams typically carry more weight on students' final grades than the American system. Students are also held to the UM code of academic integrity while participating on this program.

Credit & Grading

The Maryland-in-Barcelona program is a hybrid credit program. This means that all students take a combination of resident credit (RC) and transfer credit (TC) while they are abroad. To see which courses are RC and which are TC, please refer to the Maryland-in-Barcelona Course Database.

Resident Credit: Courses that will show up on the UM registration and for which you will receive a grade that is factored into your cumulative GPA.

Transfer Credit: Courses that are not counted as resident credit will be accepted as transfer credit. Equivalents for transfer credits and applicability to degree will be determined by your academic advisor. While the grades for transfer credit courses are not factored into your cumulative GPA, the following conditions apply to all transfer credits:

(1) You may NOT take courses on a Pass/Fail basis.
(2) You must receive the equivalent of a C- or better (5.0 or above) in a given subject in order for the course credit to transfer to UMD. Please refer to the grading scale below.

At the end of the term, UAB will provide transcripts to Education Abroad for evaluation. EA will post any resident credit grades and evaluate transfer course for credit. While transfer credit grades are not factored into your UMD GPA, you will still have an official transcript from UAB, meaning that all grades are important. Should you be required to submit transcripts from all institutions you have attended in the future for graduate school applications, for example, you will need to include official transcripts from UAB along with your UMD transcript and transcripts from any other schools you have attended.

If you believe there has been an error with one or more of your grades, contact the EA advisor for the program who will be able to request a grade report from your host institution.

NOTE: UMD credit will only be granted for language courses taken at or above the level of Spanish already received at UMD. Credit will not be awarded for repeated courses or courses at a level lower than that already received at UMD (i.e. a student who has received credit for SPAN203 may not earn credit for any 100-level equivalent course at UAB). Placement in specific levels cannot be guaranteed by UMD. For additional information on this policy, please refer to the UMD Academic Catalogue.

Maryland-in-Barcelona Grading Scale:

Spanish Grade	US Grade	Spanish	US	Spanish Grade	US Grade
10 - 9.5	A+	7.4 7.0	B-	4.9 - 4.5	D
9.4 - 9	A	6.9 6.5	C+	4.4 - 4	D
8.9 - 8.5	A-	6.4 6.0	C	3.9 - 3.5	D
8.4 - 8.0	B+	5.9 5.5	C	3.4 - 0	F
7.9 - 7.5	B	5.4 5.0	C-	NP*	F
*If an NP is received, a grade of F will be applied unless there has been formal documentation of withdrawal from the course with permission of the students UMD academic advisors.