The Barcelona Program for Interdisciplinary Studies (BaPIS) constitutes the cornerstone of UPF’s strategy for internationalization and innovation: 

  • By convening students from different backgrounds, from UPF and other countries, the program offers a space of convergence between instructors and students to set up fruitful dialogue and communal learning.
     
  • By breaking down the barriers between knowledge areas, it promotes an interdisciplinary approach and the effective cross-fertilization of ideas and initiatives. With its hands-on approach and combination of STEM disciplines, Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences, BaPIS provides a unique environment for developing a crucial tool to rise to today’s challenges: CREATIVITY.

BaPIS has evolved from a previous study abroad program, the Hispanic and European Studies Program (HESP). After two decades of success and expansion, HESP has developed into a radically different project while maintaining its goal of promoting intercultural understanding in our increasingly interconnected world. Its new direction is aimed at local and international students, offering them a range of subjects to explore from a common perspective and in an exceptional intellectual environment. 

 

 

“Creativity: The Human Factor” is the axis of BaPIS. Under this motto, innovative courses promote forms of critical thinking, navigating across disciplines and building on crucial knowledge areas. From Ethics to Biology, from Artificial Intelligence to Humanities, from Legal systems to Politics and Society, from Economics to Design Thinking, courses at BaPIS aim to stimulate creative approaches to today’s big challenges.

 

 

 

The Barcelona Program for Interdisciplinary Studies offers an exciting opportunity for students to gain knowledge and experience in courses where the presence of students all over the world together with local students and a highly internationalized staff provide a multicultural environment. All instructors on the Program are high-profile UPF faculty with a distinguished research trajectory and proven international academic experience, who, together with the highly motivated students that participate, form the bedrock of a quality program.

 

 

 

 

The UPF Education Abroad Program encourages experiential learning through cultural activities in the BaPIS curriculum. It includes  hands-on-workshops, faculty-guided trips to relevant sites and institutions, course-related tours and company visits. If the sanitary circumstances require it they will be replaced by virtual visits, exhibitions and documentaries, seminars and sessions by guest speakers in which they share their expertise and perspectives.

 

In addition to content-based courses, BaPIS includes the option of supplementing students’ credits through language courses with different levels from beginner to advanced.The proficiency level prepares students for the Instituto Cervantes DELE (Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera) exam.