(The Chronicle of Higher Education is THE journal of the US and Canadians universities, a must-read for university officials and educators. In this month's issue the Chronicle publishes an article about UPF that was researched by The Chronicle reporter in Europe, Francis Rocca.) Young University in the Old World --- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) By FRANCIS X. ROCCA In only 12 years of existence, Pompeu Fabra University(UPF, Barcelona), named for one of the exiled scholars commemorated by the monument, has already gained a strong international reputation. It is one of the most selective public universities in Spain, drawing as many as eight applicants for every slot in its most popular programs. Students earn their degrees years sooner than the national average, and find jobs more quickly afterward. The economics department has been ranked 12th in Europe in a study financed by the European Economic Association, and other departments are at or near the top in the country. Pompeu Fabra is also one of the most international universities in Spain, with 30 percent of its doctoral students coming from abroad and several of its degree programs taught exclusively in English. The university's rapid ascent is the result, in part, of a large financial investment by the government of Catalonia, which has a high degree of autonomy in the region and which has made Pompeu Fabra the best-financed university in Spain. But the changes here also reflect efforts by a small group of scholars and administrators to depart from practices deeply entrenched at Spanish universities. The short history of Pompeu Fabra University illustrates some of the opportunities and obstacles that would-be reformers of higher education face in Spain and the rest of Europe. Many of Pompeu Fabra's buildings are imaginative conversions of obsolete or underused structures, including an army barracks and a train station. The support structure for an elevated reservoir shelters a section of the library, whose brick vaulting and narrow arches suggest a cross between a Roman basilica and a Gothic cathedral. One entirely new classroom building stands on the site of a legendary bordello. These well-appointed facilities indicate the government's largess, also evident in less spectacular forms. The library's large staff, long hours of operation, and open stacks -- all rarities in the Spanish system -- make it the envy of Barcelona's six other universities. Many of their students flock to Pompeu Fabra to study for their own exams. For Maria Escriva, an undergraduate biology student who spent her first year at the University of Barcelona, one of the best things about transferring to Pompeu Fabra was gaining access to better laboratory equipment: "Here there are 15 people or less in lab. There is everything in the lab for you." "Undergraduates get experience with all kinds of equipment -- PCR technology, electron microscopy -- in their first or second year," notes Miguel A. Valverde, a professor of experimental and health sciences. "I never had that even in my sixth year of university." In per-capita terms, Pompeu Fabra is the wealthiest university in Spain, receiving more than $6,000 annually of public money per student, close to twice the national average. Such prosperity has, not surprisingly, drawn resentment from other Catalan universities, which compete directly with Pompeu Fabra for regionally allocated funds. A combination of wealth and low numbers inevitably raises accusations of elitism, which Pompeu Fabra's administrators are quick to deny. "UPF is a public university," notes the rector, "and therefore open to all students regardless of their background, social class, or financial status." Some have nevertheless accused Pompeu Fabra of discrimin
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