The University of Córdoba

I'm now going to tell you about the University of Córdoba, a place which really interests Erasmus students, or at least should do. Many of you come to Spain only thinking about the parties and not much about the studying, but if you do, you're very mistaken. Spanish universities are known for providing high quality education, and though they don't appear on lists of top universities around the world or in Europe, places on Spanish degree programmes are fought over as students leave them very prepared for the world of work, which is not the case in many other countries. Our study timetables are very demanding, and passing a class is a difficult thing to do - you have to study hard and do this throughout the whole course. The University of Córdoba is one of the best universities in Spain, and is unofficially the oldest in the country: Salamanca is usually said to be the oldest, but it's actually just the oldest in Christian Spain, whereas the first university to be built on the Iberian Peninsula was the one in Córdoba. This makes a lot of sense since Córdoba is one of the oldest cities in Spain, and perhaps even one of the most important in the world for several centuries.

You can choose from many different courses of study at the University of Córdoba, divided into 11 faculties and schools in the province. The faculties are:

• Nursing
• Medicine
• Veterinary Science
• Science (Biology, Biochemistry, Environmental Science, Physics, Chemistry
• Humanities (English Philology, Hispanic Philology, History of Art, Translation and Interpreting)
• Law and Economic and Business Science (Law, Business Administration and Management, and the joint honours degree which includes both subjects)
• Educational Science (Child Education and Primary School Education with possible specializations: Physical Education, Modern Foreign Languages, Special Needs Education, Music Education, and Psychopedagogy.
• Work Sciences (Tourism, Work Relations and Human Resources, and Work Sciences)

The different schools are:

Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y de Montes Escuela Politécnica Superior de Córdoba (which offers Technical Engineering with seven specializations: Electronics, Industrial Electronics, Mechanics, Management Computer Science, System Computer Science, Automatic and Industrial Electronics, and Computer Science) Escuela Politécnica Superior de Bélmez (Civil Engineering, Mine Technology and Public Works Technology) There are also two private centres affiliated with the UCO: ETEA, a Jesuit centre where Administration and Company Management is taught, and the Magisterial Centre 'Sagrado Corazón', where Child Education and Primary Education are taught.

On this page, you can find information on all the different faculties if you click on the name of each one: http://www.uco.es/centros/facultadesyescuelas/

Every faculty, school and centre has its own webpage where you can find information on all the courses they offer (such as the programme of study, the timetable, the exams, conferences, information on libraries, etc. ).

In every centre, the following services are provided:

• Cafeteria with an affordable daily menu for breakfast, combined dishes, sandwiches, snacks, etc. These are usually open from early in the morning until around 7pm.
• Reprographics, a service offered by the company Don Folio, where you can photocopy, print, scan or bind your work. They also edit your work for you, and professors often leave notes, returned pieces of work and activities at reprographics and students come here to pick them up.
• Library, where you'll find all kinds of books related to the courses taught in this faculty, school or centre. There are also newspapers and other books for consultation (you can take out books using your university card and loan them for up to a week. You can then renew them online, and can also reserve books online. If you return them late however, you'll be penalized and won't be able to borrow books for a specific period of time. )
• WiFi is provided in all areas, and you need a personalised account and key to log onto it, given to you by the university.
• Computer rooms, which vary in size and quality depending on which centre they are in. In the Arts Faculty, there are only 35 computers, but there are more scattered around the building and on the Rabanales campus there are lots of computer rooms since most of the faculties are located there.
• Additionally, there are many other faculty-dependant services, like the veterinary clinic, work guidance offices, study rooms, image treatment rooms, laboratories, language laboratories, interpreting cabins, etc.

The different faculties, schools and centres in Córdoba are located in different areas. For example, the Nursing and Medicine Faculties are situated in the 'medical quarter', next to the Córdoba hospitals, while the Faculty of Arts is in the middle of the Old Town, two minutes' walk from the mosque. However, there is a large university campus which unites many of the faculties into one: Rabanales.

Rabanales is on the outskirts of the city, 10 kilometres from the city centre, and can be reached using a special train, by bus or by car, though you can also cycle there along a green path. Rabanales is an American-style campus, with lots of buildings scattered throughout and allowing the faculties to intermingle, very different to the normal European style. There are several cafés in Rabanales, a Greek amphitheatre where plays and concerts are performed, lots of places to study, gardens and green areas, a university hall of residence, a lake, a former church turned into an assembly hall, a veterinary hospital, a waste incinerator, an area for the animals (such as horses), the sports area, etc.

The University of Córdoba has two sports areas: the Menéndez Pidal sports area and the Rabanales. The former is located near to the Nursing and Medicine Faculties, right next to the Educational Science Faculty; the latter is located on Rabanales.

In the Menéndez Pidal sports area there are:

• Tennis courts
• Paddle tennis courts
• Table tennis
• A sauna
• Volleyball courts
• A sports pavilion

In the Rabanales sports are there are:

• Tennis courts
• Paddle tennis courts
• A sports pavilion
• A multi-sports court
• Table tennis
• Saunas
• An athletics court
• Artificial football pitches
• Natural football pitches
• An indoor and an outdoor swimming pool (you can use the latter in the summertime as as a leisure pool. but they also run swimming classes for adults and children). In both pools, they run tennis and aquatic sports classes, such as aqua fitness classes.

On this webpage, you can find more information on the UCO's sports facilities: http://www.uco.es/deporteuniversitario/index.php/instalaciones/mas-informacion-sobre-las-instalaciones-deportivas

Here's a link to the page where all the university services are listed: if you click on each one, the page for this service will open, for example, libraries. http://www.uco.es/servicios/

You may also be interested in taking a quick look at the International Relations Office webpage: http://www.uco.es/internacionalcoopera/ All information for foreign students is posted here, in addition to information concerning work exchange and volunteer programmes, international co-operation and solidarity, etc.

Last but not least, here's the link to the main UCO website. I recommend you take the time to explore and familiarize yourself with it, since you're sure to find lots of things which interest you on it, such as film clubs, book clubs, etc: http://www.uco.es