The Experience Campus of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona) is the first Catalan university to start an international mobility Erasmus programme for older students. A total of 36 students from the Experience Campus have participated in the Erasmus+ International Mobility Programme in Udine (Italy), Wroclaw (Poland) and Dublin (Ireland).
The project was based on a methodology of cultural and social exchange between students of different nationalities and cultures. During their stay abroad, students attend classes at the destination universities accompanied by a teacher.
The programme is designed so that students from both centres can participate in different activities such as art classes, history, cooking and board games. The aim is to work in different languages and enrich the experience of the students with cultural outings in different areas.
The European Union Erasmus+ agency granted UIC Barcelona the first accreditation for Adult Education in the period 2021-2027 in 2022. This accreditation allowed the Experience Campus to organise Erasmus mobility programmes for older students. Currently, UIC Barcelona is the second university in Spain to offer this option to its students over 50 years of age.
The first international mobility to Udine, northern Italy, began in April. Ten students of the Senior Programme of the Experience Campus were able to study at the Università della Terza Età Paolo Naliato. During the month of May another group was hosted by the University of Wroclaw (Poland) and a third group is completing their stay at Dublin City University.
The UIC Barcelona Experience Campus is an academic training project aimed at people over fifty. Older students study different subjects in the field of history, art, philosophy, literature or science, through continuous learning and group research. Theatre performances are also carried out by the students, where they are in charge of the entire production and staging. This year, the students performed the play L’hotel dels disbarats (Hotel Follies).
The objective of these courses is to give students the knowledge to participate actively in society and benefit from their new skills, in addition to cultivating interpersonal relations and continuing to build affectivity at this stage of life. This programme helps older students to remain active and improve their quality of life, contributing to their personal fulfilment and the appropriate adaptation to an environment that is constantly changing.
In the five years since it began, the Experience Campus already has 410 students spread across its different centres: Barcelona, Calonge, Penedés and Andorra. This year it was the first university in Catalonia to carry out a mobility programme with older students and the second in Spain.
