Hello,

I was hoping someone could help me with Spanish student visa requirements, as the Los Angeles based Spanish consulate does not answer emails! I would like to apply for a postgraduate photography program in Barcelona which is approximately 30 ECTS (credit hours) and roughly 9 months in length. According to available information I must be enrolled in a program that requires at least "20 hours of study" per week.

What I'm not being told is how do ECTS hours translate into estimated hours of study?? For instance in the US a typical semester length course is 3 units/credit hours. But that doesn't explain how much one would study per week, just that the class meets for 3 hours/week. Would a postgraduate program worth 30 ECTS, or half-time program be acceptable? The consulate just ignores my emails and I am fluent in Spanish, so I've written them to the English and Spanish email addresses with no response.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Call and talk to someone at that consulate, or try a different consulate. I doubt that anyone here can give that specific info you're asking for. Never say never, but...
Also contact the school about that, they may have better info than the consulate, since it is the school that has experience in having admitted people like yourself. The consulate may be clueless and doesn't want to admit it.
Good luck.

Thanks! I will call tomorrow. I actually got into the program last year and paid and was all ready to go, but family matters came up and I had to postpone. The school actually wasn't too sure themselves--the vast majority of international students were from Europe--completely different set of standards, much less strict, than the ones for Americans.

I suspect that it is something they feel so obvious that they don't feel need to respond. You are probably around borderline.

You can look up what ECTS translates to hours per country. Here is just one site. http://www.mastersportal.eu/articles...stem-ects.html here is another https://www.studyineurope.eu/ects-system.

You need to validate further. An estimate is that 30 ECTS is 750 hours. If 9 months is 39 weeks, that translates to 19.23 hours per week.

Greg,

First thank you for the information. Actually it was far more helpful than anything from any of the consulate websites.

But I did want to respond to your first sentence. There is nothing obvious about, "at least 20 hours of study per week" for multiple reasons. One, what might take you an hour to study, could take me three. Two, for post graduates in photography or any of the arts, study becomes harder to quantify. Three, 99% of the programs in Spain I've seen are either 30/60/240 ECTS. It would've been far more obvious to stipulate "at least 30 ECTS", especially if you're presenting information to foreigners and have hard fast rules for a student visa.


Anyway thanks again. I'm going to call and hopefully someone can help me!

<<One, what might take you an hour to study, could take me three. >>

That isn't what that means, it isn't referring to hours you spend on your own studying. That isn't how university credits are determined in any country. They want to make sure you are taking over a part-time course.

I think the 20 study hours per week refers to hours that you are in class, or some required workshop or lab, etc., some scheduled time on paper from the school. It doesn't include hours on your own or self-study. If you were in high school, it could include study hours that you were required to be in a classroom, but they don't do that in college.

I doubt if a half time program will qualify, but hard to say. Spanish universities require about 60 ECTS per year to get a Bachelor's degree, and usually have 2 semesters, I believe. So each semester would be 30 ECTS so your program is half that.

To translate, 1 US semester hour is about equivalent to 1.67 ECTS. So if they want 20 study hrs per week, they are thinking about what would be 12 US semester hr credits of classes, which is a fulltime schedule (about 4 classes).

So how many classroom, lecture, etc hours per week does this program have scheduled? I think that may answer the question.