For the fourth year in a row, UPF is organizing the Barcelona International Summer School (BISS), a programme of advanced courses that aims to enrich students’ CVs with interdisciplinary subjects taught in internationalized classes. The courses are open to students from UPF and from universities in other countries. Classes will be held from 5 to 30 July.

The BISS is a fundamental programme in UPF’s international outreach strategy. Since its inception, it has consolidated its innovative and interdisciplinary nature, inspired by the principle of internationalization at home.

Seventeen courses are available, each lasting between one and four weeks. The subjects taught in previous years dealing with issues such as social justice, innovation, Brexit, sustainability, audiovisual project creation and artificial intelligence are complemented this year with new areas of study. The catalogue of courses has been extended with subjects exploring global health and wellbeing, the relationships between ethics and sport, music seen from the perspective of neuroscience, innovative outlooks on the economy and law, and the use of citizen science.

At present, some of these courses are expected to be held face-to-face on the Ciutadella campus, while the rest will be held online. The subjects are recognized with free-elective cross-disciplinary training credits (ECTS) and will be taught in English or Spanish.

“We offer advanced training in the University’s academic strong points and it involves distinguished members of the UPF faculty who will share their current research lines with the participating students”

As the vice-rector for internationalization projects, Isabel Valverde, explains, “the BISS offers advanced training in the University’s academic strong points and it involves distinguished members of the UPF faculty who will share their current research lines with the participating students”.

Moreover, Valverde highlights that “the more than 600 students who have taken part in the BISS since its first edition in 2018, agree that the experience has invited them to reflect on the topics covered in each course, from new standpoints, enriching them with the perspectives of other disciplines and of different academic cultures contributed by students from other countries”.

Places are limited and applications will be dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis. UPF students can apply via the free-elective cross-disciplinary training enrolment, on 9 and 10 March and from 15 April to 15 June 2021. Students who are not from the UPF community can register from now until 15 June 2021. Briefings are also planned at the beginning of the third term.