Research seminars take place every weekday, often more than once a day

Before I get into the academic side of things, let me briefly introduce the host university. Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) is a relatively young institution, established in 1990 by the autonomous government of Catalonia. It is named after Pompeu Fabra, an engineer and linguist best known for standardising modern Catalan. UPF is considerably larger than TalTech and has a strong international profile, with a notable share of students coming from abroad. It offers a wide range of English-taught programmes, joint degrees, and international partnerships, including collaborations with universities such as Sciences Po in France, the LSE in the UK, and UCLA in the United States.

The Faculty of Economics is spread across several modern campuses near the sea, right next to Barcelona’s expansive Ciutadella Park. While the faculty buildings themselves are contemporary, the university library is located in a truly remarkable setting, a historic water reservoir known as the Dipòsit de les Aigües. Designed in 1874 by architect Josep Fontserè as part of the park’s original layout, the building also has a surprising link to one of Spain’s most iconic figures: a young Antoni Gaudí, then an architecture student, assisted in its design. Long before gaining worldwide fame, he worked under Fontserè on this very project.

From the very start, it was clear that UPF is a large-scale university, but even so, I was struck by just how vibrant academic life is there. Research seminars take place every weekday, often more than once a day. Mondays are typically reserved for seminars in macroeconomics and economic history. Tuesdays feature sessions in finance, applied economics, and econometrics. Wednesdays are dedicated to microeconomics, Thursdays to management and statistics, and Fridays to marketing. On top of that, there are frequent special seminars and workshops sprinkled throughout the week. Overall, it is a packed and stimulating schedule.

According to the local faculty newsletter, the Faculty of Economics and Business organised nearly 200 seminars over the past academic year, covering a broad spectrum of research fields. Around one fifth of the speakers were UPF faculty members, while the rest were guest researchers from other institutions. When I arrived, I was eager to present my own work, both to share what I had been doing and to get feedback. But securing a slot proved harder than expected: all the seminar times had already been allocated well in advance, at the beginning of the academic year. In the end, I was only able to present because someone cancelled at the last minute, and I was offered their slot.

Every week, each department organizes both internal seminars and doctoral seminars. I found it noteworthy that, in addition to doctoral students, almost all the senior faculty also attend the doctoral seminars. And they do not just attend, they actively participate in the discussions of students’ papers. When I mentioned this to Professor Jordi Galí and explained that we have a slightly different format for doctoral seminars, he said that they consider close interaction with doctoral students and regular feedback to be very a very important part of their academic training.

The message was simple: come prepared

Regarding teaching, I got the impression that the standards were noticeably stricter. Of course, this is just one experience and may partly reflect the course coordinator's preferences, but the rules were clear and firm. In the undergraduate econometrics course I taught, for instance, there was no option to retake the midterm exam. If a student did not show up, they automatically lost 20% of their final grade. As for the final exam, a retake was only allowed if the student had scored at least 30% on their first attempt. I found this approach quite reasonable. If the result was below 30%, it was taken as a sign that the student had not adequately prepared, and in such cases, offering a second attempt was considered unproductive. The message was simple: come prepared.

The midterm exam was made up entirely of multiple-choice questions, while the final included a mix, about half of the questions were multiple-choice. Each correct answer earned one point, but an incorrect answer deducted half a point. At first, this seemed unnecessarily harsh, both to me and to many students. But on reflection, the logic behind it is sound. With four answer options, there is a 25% chance of guessing correctly, so the penalty is there to discourage blind guessing and encourage genuine understanding.

One thing I found absolutely brilliant was the university’s use of an optical scanning system for marking multiple-choice exams, much like the ones used in official English proficiency tests such as the TOEFL. Instead of writing down the number of the correct answer, students simply shade the relevant box on a special form. Marking is then quick and efficient: the forms are scanned and processed using dedicated software, which also enables detailed statistics to be gathered, both for the entire exam and for specific student groups. Around 800 exams can be checked in under an hour. Of course, open-ended and written tasks still have to be graded manually, but that is inevitable.

I also found it both useful and interesting to read through the student feedback. By the way, the questionnaire students fill out in their study information system is much shorter. It consists of just two sections: four questions about the course and two about the lecturer. Alongside the ratings, students can also leave comments. I was genuinely surprised to see several students mention that I came across as a very kind teacher. Since my teaching style was no different from how I teach in Tallinn, I can only assume this reflects a difference in student expectations or norms between the two universities. I have long had the sense that we sometimes treat students more like school pupils, whereas at UPF, the lecturer-student relationship tends to be more formal and distant, and perhaps that is what made my approach stand out.

The Catalans are incredibly friendly and always genuinely eager to help. And even if things did not always go to plan, their warmth made it hard to stay in a bad mood

All in all, I am very happy with my time at Pompeu Fabra University. That said, and just to avoid sounding overly glowing, not everything went entirely smoothly. Compared to home, there appeared to be somewhat more administrative confusion. For instance, on my very first day, I was given a standard metal office key only to find that the door had recently been fitted with an electronic lock, which the key, unsurprisingly, did not open. Then, during the final month, right in the middle of exams, I was surprised to discover that all the furniture and my things were being moved out of the office to make room for the next incoming professor. There were a few such moments, but honestly, they did not spoil the experience. The Catalans are incredibly friendly and always genuinely eager to help. And even if things did not always go to plan, their warmth made it hard to stay in a bad mood.

As a final note, I will dare to offer one suggestion to colleagues and students alike. Every summer, UPF hosts the well-regarded Barcelona School of Economics summer school, which offers short, intensive courses in economics, finance, and data science. If a full semester abroad is not feasible, spending even a couple of weeks there is well worth it, both academically and for the experience.