The UPF Language Volunteering programme aims at helping international students to become familiar with Catalan reality and at promoting internationalization and language learning among Catalan students. To achieve this two-fold goal, the Language Volunteering programme organizes its activities around two axes: the  programme of visits and guided tours  and the conversation exchange programme (language tandems).

Programme of visits and guided tours

During the 2012-2013 academic year the Language Volunteering programme has offered twenty-seven guided tours and activities around Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia.

During the first term the schedule included five tours around Barcelona -Park Güell, gothic quarter, Eixample, a tour around the Barcelona of 1714 and a Christmas traditions tour- and three tours in the rest of Catalonia -Tarragona, Girona and Vic.

During the second term the schedule included five tours in Barcelona -film-settings in Barcelona, a visit to the Institute for Catalan Studies, a tour around Montjuïc, a tour about Barcelona legends and Raval quarter- and five other tours outside Barcelona: four in the rest of Catalonia -Vilafranca del Penedès, Figueres, Manresa and Sitges- and a touristic, cultural and ski trip to Andorra.

During the third term the activity offer also included five tours in Barcelona -George Orwell's Barcelona, Picasso's Barcelona, a visit to the Parliament of Catalonia, a visit to Tibidabo and film-settings in Barcelona- and four more tours in the rest of Catalonia -Montserrat, Ripoll, Hostalric and Núria valley.

Language tandem programme

During the 2012-2013 academic year the Language Volunteering programme has matched 458 language tandems: 242 in the first term, 144 in the second term and 72 in the third term. These 458 tandems have been done matching the 457 applications received from international students and the 588 received from Catalan students. Moreover, 20 additional language tandems with no linguistic exchange have been matched -that is, tandems in which a Catalan student teaches Catalan to a Spanish-speaking student. Most of those joining the language tandem programme are either undergraduate or postgraduate students, but staff members and lecturers also participate to some extent.

This year 16% of international students applied for Catalan only, whereas 24% applied for both Catalan and Spanish and the remaining 60% applied only for Spanish. Regarding Catalan students, the most requested languages have been the following: English (67.93% of all requests), French (12.8%), German (10.75%) and other languages, such as Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch or Japanese (which accounted for the remaining 8.52%).