The University of Oviedo will offer 10 new degrees with bilingual paths and 23 master's degrees with teaching in English. The academic institution will increase up to 260 the number of subjects which will taught in English, if we count degrees, postgraduate studies and studies about to extinguish.

The vice-rectors for the Campus of International Excellence and Internationalization, Mª Paz Suárez Rendueles and Ana Mª Fernández, respectively, presented a programme of bilingual paths in an event which also was attended by the general manager of Universities, Miriam Cueto.

More than 600 students will have the opportunity of executing bilingual studies –degree and university master's degree-, a figure that the Asturian academic institution trusts it will increase in the following years with the incorporation of more studies to the bilingualism plan and even with the offer of some degrees specifically teaching in English.

After the experience of the current year, with the teaching of some subjects in English in some Degrees, the University, through its Campus of International Excellence, has reinforced its support to bilingualism with a wider a more complete programme that counts with two modalities of bilingual studies:

• Studies completely done at the University of Oviedo. The student must study a minimum number of 120 ECTS credits in subjects that will be taught in English at the University of Oviedo during the four years of their Degrees. This can be done in the following degrees: Business Administration and Management, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Industrial Electronics and Automatics Engineering.
• The second modality is the one which corresponds with a path completed through a stay in a foreign university or institution which have signed a cooperation agreement with the University of Oviedo. Students, in this case, will complete the necessary credits until they get the 120 ECTS credits which are essential in the stays abroad. This is the case of the degrees in Economics, Accounting and Finances, Commerce and Marketing, Tourism, Industrial Chemical Engineering and Computer Engineering- Software.

In order to access to the bilingual studies, candidates must reached a minimum mark of 7 in English when doing the Entrance Tests for University (PAU). Those who want to access through other ways, they will have to prove a B1 level in English.

The vice-rector for the Campus of International Excellence has explained that the prevision of the Asturian academic institution is "to increase the number of bilingual degrees" and "be able to offer degrees exclusively in English as soon as possible". This is a "strategic bet for the future". In order to offer degrees exclusively in English, as it already happens in four university master's degrees, "teachers must show their cooperation, enthusiasm and boost since they have to adapt their subjects to Bologna Plan and the additional effort of teaching in English must be appreciated as well", reminded Suárez Rendueles.

Teaching skills and zero courses for students

The University of Oviedo has just organized six courses aimed to students to support teachers so that they can teach in English efficiently. Until now, there are 70 teachers who are collaborating with this programme..

Those students who want to join bilingual studies will be supported with a zero course, previous to the beginning of the lessons. These courses will be done during the first fifteen days of September and they aim to approach students to the specific vocabulary of the degree they have chosen, apart from preparing them for the oral understanding to follow the lessons in English.