The nerves that these days are affecting the more than 40,000 students who are taking the university entrance exams (PAU) in Catalonia this week do not correspond to the reality of being excluded from the degree requested in public schools. Nerves may represent another kind of test, perhaps initiatory, but not a test of knowledge level (the teachers have already graded them with the high school mark). PAUs order students' access to universities based on their grades.
Selectivity is usually approved by between 95 and 97% of those presented and statistics indicate that the majority access the requested degree. In 2022, in the first allocation of places, 30% of the courses (159 out of 538) did not require any entry grade. Mostly, they are the arts and humanities, social and legal sciences and quite a few engineering courses. With a 5 they had enough.
With a grade between 5 and 10 there were 210 degrees, and between 10 and 12, another 148. The greatest pressure is usually felt by degree programs that ask for a grade higher than 12 or 13, which requires a good high school diploma and some PAU, with electives, of high grade. But even in this highly competitive range, the latter have a cut-off mark in July and a different one in October, the month of the last allocation.
From July 12, when the cut-off marks are known, the first place allocation process opens. The student who gets the first preference has no problems, he enrolls. On the other hand, the student assigned between the second and eighth preference has two options: either enroll or wait for the second assignment to see if it improves (and a place is reserved). From the third assignment, even if you have enrolled in the second, you can activate the "Continue in the process of assigning places" alert. The list goes on and on with resignations and vacancies until the end.
The most striking case of difference in points is that of Biomedical Engineering at the UdG, which started with 11.067 and ended with 5.894, a difference of more than five points. The same formation at the URV dropped 4 points. ADE and Law of the UAB and Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing of the UB also head the list of losses (as seen in the attached graph). Biomedicine, at UVic, with a grade above 11, also fell by more than 3 points.
The greatest pressure is naturally between the highest notes. With a grade higher than 13 there were only 7 degrees last year: three doubles (Physics and Mathematics from the UB and from the UAB, and Computer Engineering and Mathematics from the UB), three medicine (UB Clínic and Bellvitge and UPF ) and Mathematics from the UPC. All careers are part of the areas of science, health sciences and engineering and architecture. And they ask for centers in Barcelona. Of these 7 degrees, only one did not lower the cut-off mark throughout the assignment process: UPC Mathematics, which asked for a 13.254 and all students accepted immediately. Only 55 students enter this “excellence” degree.
Those who did not succeed had the option of choosing between the same training at the UAB, the UB or double degrees with Data Science or with ADE. And, of course, other faculties outside Catalonia or similar degree programs.
The remaining six degrees dropped grades, including Physics and Mathematics at the UAB, the highest grade of all Catalan degrees, to which only 20 students (from 13.536 to 13.486) are admitted. This is bordering on enrollment in high school and PAU. But of these seven top degrees, three ended up requiring grades below 13 in the last assignment. These are the three public medicine schools in Barcelona (UB, UAB and UPF), which offered a total of 319 places in 2022.
This year, students who want to study Medicine next year have increased their options because more places are offered. Catalonia has increased the offer by 12% and has reached 1,340 first-year places, of which 1,100 are from public universities, and 230 from the University of Vic (Uvic) and the International University of Catalonia (UIC) .
If there are studies in high demand, as is the case with Medicine, the double degree in Physics and Mathematics or Psychology (which this year is losing half a hundred places from the UB, which wants to reduce groups to improve quality), for why aren't new places opening? With four more chairs...
The Interuniversity Council of Catalonia points out that not only chairs are needed. There are aspects such as labor demand, the degree dropout rate and the university's ability to deliver a degree.
Each degree goes through a verification of the studies that evaluates specific data to be able to teach the given degree, such as the capacity of the classrooms available at the university, the number of professors (in different categories), the necessary laboratories or workshops, as well as the confirmed internships in companies, necessary to hold the studies.
In general, students leave the degree between 15% and 25% during the first year. There are races that overcome this dropout, so it would not be optimal to increase the slots just for initial appeal.
Finally, any increase must be approved by the AQU quality agency. A system that guarantees quality, but remains flexible.
