Spanish university leaders have criticised plans to introduce mandatory entrance exams for overseas applicants, warning that the move could repel students from abroad and hamper internationalisation efforts.
At present, domestic students must sit an entrance exam, commonly known as the Selectividad or PAU, comprising mandatory and optional subjects. While Spanish universities can now set their own aptitude tests, under a draft decree undergraduates from outside the European Union would be required to take a similar exam to apply.
Students from within the EU and those who have taken the International Baccalaureate would not be required to sit the test, nor would those from countries with existing agreements with Spain, including China, Colombia, Andorra and the UK.
The draft decree states that international applicants would be tested on their Spanish competence, although they would not be required to complete the whole exam in Spanish. The test, which would be offered at least twice annually, would have to be taken in person, either at a centre operated by the National University of Distance Education or the Spanish embassy in the applicant’s country.
Rosalía Baena, vice-president for students and international relations at the University of Navarra, described the proposed exam as a “serious mistake”, adding: “It will be an additional barrier to the internationalisation of Spanish universities.”
Arancha González, dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po and former Spanish minister of foreign affairs, said requiring students to sit the exam, rather than accepting local assessment methods such as the SAT, would go against a “philosophy of trust” between host and sending countries.
“You trust that other countries follow proper procedures to check excellence, and they trust that you have proper procedures to check excellence,” she said.
Raul Ramos, vice-rector for internationalisation of the University of Barcelona, noted that the exam only applied to undergraduate admissions, while the bulk of international recruitment at his institution currently focused on postgraduate programmes.
In 2022, only 4 per cent of students in tertiary education in Spain were from overseas, according to Eurostat, compared with 12 per cent in Portugal and Germany and 9 per cent in France. “For most universities, this is not an issue nowadays,” said Professor Ramos. Because of Spain’s ageing population and decline in domestic demand, however, “it is going to be an issue in the near future”.
Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, president of IE University, said the higher tuition fees paid by students from outside the EU “could be a huge opportunity for both public and private universities to increase their revenues”.
Professor Iñiguez said he understood the need to make the university application process “fair” for both international and domestic students, but suggested that recognising tests such as the SAT could achieve the same goal.
The Selectividad exam previously applied to international students, but this requirement was repealed in 2014.
“It would be good to have general exams that measure the ability to continue studies, the ability to think in abstract terms, in mathematical terms, in typical things that are basic elements for university studies,” said Álvaro Escribano, director of the international school at the Carlos III University of Madrid. “I’m not sure that is totally fair to [mandate] similar exams for people that are from different backgrounds.”
