Studying in Spain: Join a public university in Spain.

The main constraint that you will encounter if you are planning to study at a university in the public system in Spain, is the difficulty of accessing information in order to implement a correct and timely application.

Indeed, information and deadlines can change depending on the region, the university chosen within a region, but also on the course itself. The information can also change from one year to the next (e.g. in 2020 you were not required to have Spanish certification and in 2021 this requirement appeared "at the last moment" in some universities)

This is why knowledge of the terrain and regular follow-up are essential when considering such a study project in Spain.

The second difficulty is due to the fact that the selection process to study in a public university in Spain is very important (especially in the health field). The selection is based on the student's academic record.

Entrance to public universities in Spain is evaluated on the system called the "Nota de Corte".

If you have been looking for information about higher education in Spain, you have inevitably heard about the "nota de corte". But what is it really?

It is a grade, quantified out of 10 (plus 4 points that can be obtained through complementary tests), taken into account to enter the public university system in Spain.

It is calculated for each student based on his or her academic performance in the last two years of high school and the university entrance exam. The "nota de corte" will be the individual average of the "lowest" student admitted to a given public university, in a given year, on a given course of study.

Quite often, the students who contact us, although they consider that their academic record is not bad or even good, are far from having the grades that will allow them to enter the public university of their choice.

Sometimes they are even VERY far from it: the student's average on 20 points is indeed sometimes close to the one needed to enter...but on 10 points! When you want to enter a program in a university that traditionally has a "nota de corte" of 12.5, you can't present a baccalaureate with an average of 12/20 because you are just, more or less, half of what you need....

As in the example above, you can frequently find "notas de corte" higher than 10/10 and up to 14/10 since Spanish students take exams (the EVAU) to improve the individual weighting of their applications. Students who do not come from the Spanish education system do not take the EVAU but can register for tests called PCEs.

The results of these exams can add up to 4 points to the individual grade, which allows them to apply with a file valued at more than 10/10.

We do not hide the fact that, for example, in the field of health or engineering, no public university will have an access grade, "nota de corte" lower than 10/14.

In this case, additional tests or equivalents are required for foreign students who wish to study in the health field (veterinary, medicine, physical therapy, nursing, dental, etc.) or in certain engineering fields at a Spanish public university.

A foreign student can therefore also increase his or her grade through various means (PCEs exams or, for some public universities, through grade recognition).

The "nota de corte" is not the only selection criterion in Spanish public universities. There is another parameter, and this one is certainly the most important and also the easiest to obtain before even thinking about applying to a public university in Spain: a good level of Spanish!

Most of the students who contact us with the objective of entering a public university in Spain are extremely confident about their excellent Spanish...

Unfortunately, 90% of them are not at the level they thought they would be!

Where does this difference between the real and the fantasized level come from?

Many times messages passed in their high schools in France have misled students who have good academic results in Spanish and to whom the French educational system passes the message that they have a B2 level. A student at the end of his or her final year of high school, even if he or she is "good" in Spanish, is most often at the end of the acquisition of the B1 level, but very rarely will he or she really master the B2 level of Spanish.

In fact, we only rarely see a B2 level (the most commonly required by public universities) acquired at the end of high school.

What's more,the vast majority of the 10% of students who actually have the level of Spanish required by public universities do not have official certification. These candidates, who do have a sufficient level of Spanish, may not even be able to start an application until they have this official certification (DELE or SIELE) https://www.feeduc.eu/blog/comment-faire-certifier-son-niveau-despagnol-pour-etudier-en-espagne/

Therefore, if you want to be selected to join a public university in Spain, you must redouble your efforts in Spanish (face-to-face Spanish courses in France or through distance learning, language stays in Spain, etc.) to reach a good level of Spanish (B2 minimum) and have it certified early enough to apply!

Attention: it is not uncommon that nothing on this point is indicated on the admission procedures (for some public universities it is so obvious that they "forget" to mention it) and that at the last moment the application file of a public university is not admissible because the student cannot provide an official certification. If you have one, you will be able to respond to any application, even if it is added at the last minute by the university. There is only one way to prepare for any eventuality: anticipate!