Hey you, Pot keetle and black springs to mind..

OK I accept that I am now officially classed as an "undipo" as opposed to a "dipo"

So it was a stupid question to discuss you mean?

It'd be interesting to find out if there's as much concern about dumbing down in Spanish schools as in the UK. For a long time employers have been saying that school leavers and even graduates in the UK don't have the necessary skills for the workplace. The poster TheLostPhotographer also mentioned this point on another thread

Are Spanish Universities churning out Media-Studies graduates? I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing - maybe in these days of Internet start-ups we need the imaginative student more than the "literate" one? Of course all students in the UK now have to be extremely imaginative in order to pay the 7k per year tuition fees..

Afaik you cant get a degree in Media Studies in Spain.

They offer only the traditional subjects, a bit like the subjects you could study at Oxbridge.

I know lots of people who have gone to uni in Spain, and some who did half their course in the UK and half in Spain. They all say getting a degree in Spain is more difficult. The failure rate is high in Spain, you have to attend more hours of lectures (my OH had 5 hours per week in the UK and 35 hours per week in Spain), the degrees take longer (5 years in Spain, 3 in the UK).

However, there is very little original research at Spanish unis which make them poor for the sciences - and a lot of subjects you have to learn parrot fashion. So often doesnt make for encouraging original thought. For example in a Spanish essay you are not allowed to state your opinion (which is worth nothing) but must source all your opinions from verified sources, while in the UK you are encouraged to give your own opinion.

All this makes things like engineering, law and language degrees very good in Spain, but the creative and science degrees not so good.

My OH did a one year degree in UK

I've never heard of a 1 year degree. What qualification did she get?

BSc 2nd Class Honours,
Community Health Care Studies

hi there i am quite new to this forum and so far i have not found it very helpful in settling into spain apart from a few helpful people there seem to be quite a few people who just want a rant and patronise others that are seeking real answers to real questions.

On the schools subject my daughter who is 6 and my son who is 3 are at a city centre school in Vitoria and have been attending the school for nearly two years....they are both happy there and it seems they use the time out method of discipline for minor bad behaviour and send them into the classroom for teenagers for more serious bad behaviour. When my daughter has lunch at the school i have heard they are discouraged from talking have to eat everything and occasionally my daughter has had her hair and ear pulled by the dinner lady....which to me is totally different from the school she was in the UK......i have seen the parents be fairly hands on with their children if they misbehave for example they have smacked them around their head, pulled their hair and ear.....for me i find it shocking....i do find it old fashioned....

i´m afraid i dont know anything about discipline for the older children.....