Pre-University Summer School

PreUni is a unique opportunity to broaden the horizons of students between the ages of 16 and 18 who are already thinking about their university studies by attending classes with world-class university professors. Students aged 15 who turn 16 in 2023 can also apply.

PreUni consists of the following courses, each of two weeks’ duration:

1. Skills course: Speaking and Writing Skills for Academic and Career Success (with a workload equivalent to 3 ECTS credits).

2. Academic content course: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Climate Change (with a workload equivalent to 3 ECTS credits).

The content course is an exclusive 2-week study program that offers a high-quality multidisciplinary course, taught in English by top professors of many disciplines (Art, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Economics, Engineering, Geography, Humanities, Law, Marketing, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology) and by top practitioners from the business world.

This course targets students keen to gain academic enrichment not only in their future discipline, but in many other fields through a multidisciplinary approach to Climate Change. Moreover, in case you have not decided yet what you are going to study at university, our course will greatly help you to decide what you want to study.

The skills course is a two-week study program, taught in English, where students will focus on important skills that they need to master to be successful university students, such as effective listening and reading, delivering presentations, and writing papers. Furthermore, students will also work in small teams to deliver a presentation to the wider group.

You will take PreUni not only with peers like you, but also with international and local university students. Additionally, the Program is complemented by social and cultural events, as well as academic field trips.

Course leader

Dr. Pedro García
See the syllabus for a complete list of professors and their biographies.

Target group

At the time of the start of the Pre-University Summer School, students applying for this program must have no more than 2 years of their preuniversity studies pending or may have completed their preuniversity studies. Therefore, the typical student applying for the program would be between the ages of 16 and 18, including 15-year-old students who turn 16 in the current year. There are no specific criteria in terms of subjects already studied in their preuniversity studies, but they must be a passionate and enthusiastic student.

Course aim

Objectives of the skills course:

A) Introduction

The SWSACS course is a 2-week study program, taught in English, where students will focus on important skills that they need to master to be successful university students, such as effective listening and reading, delivering presentations, and writing papers. Students will also work in small teams to deliver a presentation to the wider group, and they will practice their writing skills.

B) Objectives

Public speaking and presentation techniques are designed to prepare our students to make unforgettable presentations. They will learn communication techniques and how to connect with the audience. Similarly, writing techniques are designed to prepare students to write superb papers. They will learn planning for writing, drafting, and proofreading; sentence manipulation devices (presenting the information in a sentence level, register); cohesion and coherence (structuring, presenting, and linking ideas); and paper designing.

In particular, the objectives are:

• Acquire knowledge and skills necessary to make attractive and successful oral and written presentations.
• Acquire knowledge and skills to achieve efficient, transparent, and fluent communication with their audience and with their readers.

Objectives of the climate change course:

A) Introduction

Climate change is the main global environmental problem and one of the main economic and social problems facing humanity. And citizens increasingly perceive it as such. For example, the latest Eurobarometer survey, published in 2021 by the European Commission, shows that 93% of EU citizens believe that climate change is a serious problem, and 78% that it is a very serious problem. Moreover, compared to the previous Eurobarometer, published in 2019, climate change has overtaken poverty, hunger, and lack of clean water as the most serious problem facing the world.

On the other hand, climate change is a multidimensional problem that must be studied from all disciplines of knowledge. However, our curricula do not usually offer a multi- or interdisciplinary understanding of the problem. Furthermore, although the population perceives it as a very serious problem, there is a notable lack of knowledge about its nature, effects, possible scenarios, policies, and responses to the challenge it poses for humanity.

B) Objectives

The main objective of this course is to alleviate the shortcomings of our curricula and the lack of knowledge of a large part of the population mentioned in the introduction. To this end, the course offers a multidisciplinary and rigorous vision of the problem of climate change. Experts in each subject offer this comprehensive, university-level vision. Although academically rigorous, their classes are adapted to the necessary introductory level. This is necessary given the heterogeneous profile that students will have.

In addition to the main objective described in the previous paragraph, the course has other secondary objectives:

• To provide a first exposure to introductory level university courses from multiple disciplines, which can help students in their decision making about their future university studies.

• For non-native English speakers, to reinforce students’ academic skills in English, contributing to their training to study university courses in English.

• For students not residing in Spain, to provide an enriching “study abroad” experience, with all the benefits of academic, cultural, and personal enrichment that this type of experience provides.

Fee info

EUR 1399: The Program cost includes:
- Tuition fees for the courses.
- Cost of social and cultural events, as well as field trips included in the Program.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Travel, room, and board costs are NOT included.

Scholarships

Discounts of 200 € for Early Bird Registration (until March 31).