Student review [#5001] for Marine Sciences
at Universidad de Cádiz - UCA

Administratively: it is chaos, I was 5 years and each worse. To give an example (one of many), I was given an international stay scholarship the day before the summer vacation, so in September when I had to start the stay, there was nothing planned by the university (documentation without send, nothing …). As the months passed, they still did not hand in the documentation because the international relations office said that it was the responsibility of the faculty professors and vice versa. Therefore, the scholarship today still does not succeed. To take another example, to register for the master’s degree, I asked for the English degree, you could start the master’s degree in September and present the certificate in December, which would not be a problem with enrollment three months later (innocent …). The date and deadlines of the day of the exam arrive (exam that the UCA PUSO EXCLUSIVE FOR THESE STUDENTS) overlap. Administrative follón, with Christmas in between, contacts with a thousand people, nobody solves anything until one day, someone does something. To give a last example, the curricular practices of master’s and career: at the beginning of the course in the planning they said that you could do them during the master and one year later until December. At the middle of the course the regulations change and you are obliged to do them in SUMMER (time that at least I used to work and earn money to live the following year). Also do not move a finger to open agreements with companies. They give you the two typical ones that the faculty already has, period. And if you want to open a new agreement, get the beans.

As for learning, the UCA is very good at theoretical knowledge. In the Faculty of Marine Sciences there are excellent teachers and experts in many environmental issues. And as everywhere, bad teachers. The problem is that the theory you learn is not compensated by practices. They sell you that there is no money (not even for laboratory latex gloves! USE A GLOVES FOR A COUPLE !! they told us). We stepped on 1 boat in 4 years of racing, we stepped on the beach 3 times … and 4 counted excursions. I’ve been to other universities and I can compare …

As for the master of aquaculture and fishing, you pay € 2000 and when you finish 1) you can not work in an aquaculture plant because you do not have the title of handling animals (about € 600) and 2) you can not board because you do not have the training basic maritime (title with 2 years of waiting list if you want it for free and if not, you pay € 800).

Nevertheless, I reiterate the aforementioned. You learn a lot in theory and have very good experts.