'A system which eliminates people'

"I think the ideas are good, but it is going very fast. In the long term maybe it will work, but right now it doesn't," says Teresa Le"n, a history student at the University Rovira y Virgili in Tarragona. Ms Le"n, a -year-old mature student, began her course while the university was implementing new syllabuses in 1993/94 and still attends some old-syllabus classes.

One improvement is the emergence of three degrees in her department - history, geography and anthropology - where previously there was one. Teresa is in favour of the greater chance of specialising this allows and thinks the introduction of free choice subjects is also positive. "People should be able to complement their studies of one subject with others not normally included in the curriculum," she says.

But in a small university, she is unsure whether there will be enough specialists to teach all the new subjects on offer. She also fears students will not have sufficient time. "It is no use being offered lots of new subjects if you cannot do them well," she says.

Now in her second year, she is studying obligatory units before specialising in her third and fourth years. Teresa says the structure is unbalanced, with too many dense, core subjects at the beginning. "It is impossible for someone who has just started university to suddenly do subjects formerly studied in the third, fourth and fifth years," she says. She noted many students had dropped out.

Ms Le"n fears high student numbers inevitably affect teaching quality, creating more distant student-teacher relations. "The professor becomes a man in a white coat who is only telling you things you could find in books."

Many Spanish students traditionally combine study with part-time jobs to help pay their way. Teresa fears the density of the new syllabuses will prevent this.

Increased hours, excessive workloads and overcrowded lecture theatres in the first two years make for a less flexible system. She wonders whether there may be a hidden agenda to the reforms, introducing selection by default. "They are making a school for sheep - people who go there to listen, study and sit exams and nothing more," she comments. "It is a university system which eliminates people."