The Barcelona International Summer School (BISS) will resume its face-to-face activities in its fifth edition to be held in the summer of 2022. It will see the return of international students to the classrooms and the practical aspect of the different modules of the programme.

In addition, this year new courses have been added to the BISS portfolio, which now offers a total of 26 face-to-face courses. The usual fields of knowledge, such as public health, the humanities, global justice, gender and artificial intelligence, will be joined by a strong commitment to audiovisual narratives.

The usual fields of knowledge, such as public health, the humanities, global justice, gender and artificial intelligence, will be joined by a strong commitment to audiovisual narratives.

Lucia Conte, UPF’s International Programmes director, explains that this return “allows the programme to regain its spirit and nature”. This will bring the focus back to the city of Barcelona as the backdrop to the training, which has been the intention since the beginning. “During the pandemic we continued to offer courses online”, she explains, “but now we will regain the focus on the city with which we have always sought to endow the BISS, through field trips, visits to museums, institutions, laboratories…”.

UPF students can register during the online registration modification period between 9 and 10 March and between 15 April and 16 June. UPF students will be able to enrol in BISS courses as part of the academic offer of free-elective cross-disciplinary training (FTLE) credits. For non-UPF students, the registration period is open until 15 June.

An internationalization-oriented programme

Conte defines the BISS as “one of UPF’s most strategic internationalization programmes”. “Both from the outside, because students from all over the world participate, and from the inside, because it allows us to bring the world to our campus, and make it easier for our students to live an international experience from here”, she adds. Previous editions of the BISS have received students from more than twenty countries around the world.

Previous editions of the BISS have received students from more than twenty countries around the world.

The courses give entitlement to recognized credits (ECTS) and will be taught in English, Spanish or Catalan. Structured into modules of different duration and intensity, they can be combined flexibly over periods of between one and four weeks. As Conte explains, this makes it easier to “make the curriculum of students more flexible, who will be able to take advantage of the summer to gain other knowledge”.

The BISS provides advanced training based on the University’s academic strengths. The courses involve renowned UPF faculty members who will share their current research with the participating students. The courses have been designed as an invitation to think and learn beyond the traditional disciplines, while approaching study topics from theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives.