This summer three Study Abroad programmes will take place in the month of July. North-American professors will carry out a summer course in Spanish at the Catalunya campus, and students from the Northeastern University of Boston will do a course in Chemical Engineering at the CTTI and visit locally-based chemical companies. On 20 July students from the University of Cairo and the British University of Egypt began courses in Engineering and Chemical Engineering

The last to arrive were the students from Egypt. This Study Abroad programme began on 20 July and is being run for the third time by the University of Cairo and the URV. The 26 students are from the University of Cairo and the British University in Egypt and are following two different courses. The first is Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems and Electrical Vehicles, which is being led by the head of the URV’s School of Engineering (ETSE), Domènec Puig, and will run until 7 August. The second is Advanced Process Simulation and Control, and is being led by School of Chemical Engineering (ETSEQ) professor Allan Mackie from 20 to 31 July. The students have been joined by Professor Hana Kirolous. The courses and technical visits are during the morning and in the afternoon they are given introductory classes in Spanish. The programme also includes leisure activities such as guided tours of Roman Tarragona and Modernist Reus.

On 20 July the students attended a welcome ceremony held in the Conference Room of the ETSE and the ETSEQ with the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation, Mar Gutiérrez-Colon, the director of the Lifelong Learning Centre of the URV Foundation, Charo Romano, and the URV professors Domènech Puig and Allan Mackie, in the presence of Professor Fatma Ashour, head of the Department Chemical Engineering of the University of Cairo.

Another Study Abroad programme is the Summer Course in Spain for American educationalists, which is held at the URV from 9 to 31 July at the Catalunya campus. The course is organised by the Council for Education of the Spanish Embassy in the USA and the Centre for Hispanic Studies of the URV. It is attended by Spanish teachers from America who come to do a specialised programme in Spanish teaching organised in two main thematic blocks: the first is Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (E/LE) through the cultural relations between Spain and the United States: Inter-Culturality and in literature, history, art, cinema and business; the second is ICT applied to the teaching and learning of Spanish language and culture. The classes are from 9:30 to 14:00 at the Catalunya Campus, and there are cultural activities on Saturdays. The programme is led by Esther Forgas, director of the Centre for Hispanic Studies, and is taught by URV teachers. The programme can be found here.

The third Study Abroad programme is Process Safety and Chemical Engineering Abroad, which is being attended by over 20 students from Northeastern University (Boston, USA) from 6 to 31 July. The students attend classes by Professor Ron Willey from their own university at the Centre for Technology Transfer and Innovation of the URV Foundation. Technical visits are organised by URV professor Magda Constantí, from the School of Chemical Engineering (ETSEQ). The students have already visited BASF and Repsol and will also visit Dow Chemical Ibèrica. On Saturdays they can take part in cultural and leisure activities.

All the students are staying at the Sant Jordi Residence in Tarragona. The Lifelong Learning Centre of the URV Foundation is responsible for managing their visit and providing for their needs.

The Study Abroad programmes enable foreign students to carry out short study visits at the University. This promotes the internationalisation of the URV, increases collaboration with foreign universities and boosts the international projection and visibility of the URV.