UMU and UPCT to receive more CARM funds in the CMN call for Teaching through English

The Regional Ministry for Education, Culture and Universities is collaborating with the University of Murcia and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena to broaden the number of bilingual degrees offered. Regional minister, Pedro Antonio Sánchez, the Chancellor of the University of Murcia, José Orihuela, and the Chancellor of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, José Antonio Franco, today signed an agreement in which both institutions will receive extra funding to promote bilingual education.

Pedro Antonio Sánchez underlined the importance of integrating language teaching in higher education and of extending the offer available under an initiative known as ‘+Idiomas’. According to Sánchez, “universities have to respond to the demands of today's scenario with its growing tendency towards European convergence and student mobility”.

The Regional Ministry for Education is to provide a further 50,000 euro to improve the language levels of university teachers, contract support teachers for classrooms and so progressively increase the number of quality bilingual degrees offered by the two universities.

32,000 euro will be for the University of Murcia  with the remaining 18,000 going to the Polytechnic University of Cartagena. The agreement is part of the actions of the ‘Mare Nostrum 37/38’ International Campus pf Excellence, one of whose aims is to promote teaching through English.

The minister highlighted that “One line of action will be to work with the university language services as of the next academic year, as well as offering support in other ways so that teachers can improve their language and methodological skills”.

In the same meeting the issue of increasing the offer to university members of the two university language services, which have yearly more and more participants in the activities they organize.

There are currently 8 bilingual qualifications offered by the two state universities: at the UMU the degrees in Primary Education and Business Administration and Management, the Masters courses in Biology and Technology of Mammal Reproduction and New Technologies in Computer Science, and at the UPCT the degree in Business Administration and Management, the Masters in Advanced Innovation Techniques and in Agrarian and Food Development. This year the Polytechnic is set to  incorporate bilingual degrees in Telecommunication Systems and Telematics Engineering.