"Every person has the right to receive education in Catalan, in accordance with the provisions of this Statute. Catalan should normally be used as the language of instruction and learning in university and non-university education. "
Article 35 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, 2006.
The debate on the use of the Catalan language in university classrooms has leapt back into the headlines. Complaints from students and teachers at Catalonia's universities have increased in recent years due to the decline in the use of Catalan in higher education. This situation has been aggravated by the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court, announced on November 23rd, which imposes a 25% quota of classes that must be taught in Castilian (Spanish) language in Catalan schools, again highlighting the complexity of the situation of the Catalan language in education.
However, the case that reopened the controversy over the presence of Catalan in the universities was that of Jordi Juanico Sabaté, a master's degree professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). The teacher abandoned the teaching of his courses in November because he had been required to give classes in Castilian and, in addition, the university refused to facilitate material in Catalan. Juanico handed in his resignation in response to the instructions for the 2021-2022 academic year, and then made his case public on social media. "I sent the tweet so that there would be a record of it, but I didn't think it would go as far as it did," he admitted weeks later.
Obro fil. Acabo d'abandonar la docència d'un màster de la @UABBarcelona perquè obligaven a fer-la en castellà i prohibien el material en català.Malauradament, cada vegada s'està menystenint més la nostra llengua amb les excuses de la internacionalitat, etc. @educaciocat
— Jordi Juanico Sabaté (@jordijuanico) November 4, 2021
"Unfortunately, our language is becoming more and more maltreated all the time with the excuses of internationalism, etc." The start of Jordi Juanico Sabaté's short thread explaining his decision to stop teaching his master's courses.
The trigger for his decision was a statement informing teachers that it was compulsory to teach in Spanish, with no room for any response, justifying the decision by the large number of foreign students. The viral reaction to Juanico’s tweets prompted a meeting with UAB administrators and the leaders of the Catalan government's universities department. The UAB assumed the responsibility for coordinating the master's degree and called the case a "very serious error". The rectifications from the institution have allowed the professor to return to his job, and yes, he is able to continue in Catalan.
"I wouldn't have had any other way to meet them if it hadn't been through a tweet with so many interactions," Juanico admits with disappointment. His complaint has sparked a wave of complaints from teachers and students, which have also been shared through social media. This is the case of Lluís Pujadas and Oriol Ros, professors at the University of Barcelona (UB), who recently made public their own situation regarding the difficulty of teaching in Catalan.
Given the decline in the use of Catalan, Juanico says that speaking Catalan in university classrooms is a way to protect it beyond social use: "It is a perfectly valid language of transmission like any other and we should not 'classify it as a second- or third-class language".
However, in the face of those who advocate prioritizing Catalan, calls also came from organizations that assert the need for a multilingual education, backing classes in both languages. These platforms include Universitaris per la Convivència, which call for "the neutrality of university institutions in Catalonia", and the association S'ha Acabat!, which has mounted its own campaign in response to the movement in favour of Catalan at the universities.
Language policies
The revision of linguistic policies is one of the main demands of the teaching staff and students to deal with this debate. The language service of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) explains that one of its main objectives is to promote multilingualism in order to guarantee the rights and responsibilities of citizens. The institution assures that it defends and promotes the use of Catalan as a vehicular language both in the institutional and administrative areas and in the university centre's teaching activity.
Jordi Juanico's complaint has fueled the debate on Catalan in the classrooms / Europa Press
The University of Barcelona (UB) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) are preaching a similar discourse. Both centres have established that Catalan is "[their] own language and the official language of studies" in their respective language policies. UPF undertakes, in accordance with Catalan Law 1/1998 on Language Policy, to achieve the generalization of knowledge and use of the Catalan language, and to achieve full equality of linguistic rights and responsibilities.
This law stipulates that the Catalan language must be used in a general way, notwithstanding the right that Spanish citizens have to speak in the official language of their choice (there being, in most of Catalonia, two official languages, Castilian and Catalan). For practical purposes, the law translates into measures to promote the teaching and learning of Catalan in both teaching and non-teaching areas. Public institutions will not ask non-Catalan-speaking students to use the language actively, but they will guarantee the offer of courses to achieve the necessary level of comprehension and knowledge of speech.
As a counterpoint, the law also specifies the right of teachers and students to express themselves orally or in writing in the official language of their choice. In the case of teaching staff, teachers must notify students of the decision well in advance in the relevant course guides. Thus, the percentage of classes in Catalan or Castilian will vary in function of the make-up of the faculty.
The use of Catalan is falling
According to the data from linguistic indicators which the UPC uses to evaluate its Language Plan, the percentage of use of Catalan has fallen to 14.37% between the 2013-14 and 2019-20 academic years. The university also admits that "although the declared use of Catalan is always above 70%, the actual use may be lower due to the change of language in the classroom".
The indicators analyzed by the UPC include a comparison with the degrees of other Catalan public universities for the 2019-2020 academic year, which count the percentage of hours taught in Catalan with respect to the total. According to these data, the average is 73% of teaching hours in Catalan.
Use of Catalan language in bachelor's degrees in Catalan universities.
Source: UPC Language Plan. Evaluation 2010-2020. Based on data from the Public University Funding Plan of the Secretariat of Universities and Research.
The fall in usage in the case of master's degrees is more pronounced, according to this study. In the 2019-2020 academic year in UPC master's degrees, Catalan fell by 38.1% from its level in the 2010-2011 year, to be situated at 40% of hours taught. However, it is not the UPC that has the lowest average. In the case of both first degrees and master's degrees, the Catalan university with the lowest percentage is UPF.
Use of Catalan language in master's degrees in Catalan universities.
Source: UPC Language Plan. Evaluation 2010-2020. Based on data from the Public University Funding Plan of the Secretariat of Universities and Research.
The rector of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Oriol Amat, argues that one of UPF's main objectives is to be a centre of reference on an international scale. Amat defends the importance of not establishing an order between the three languages - Catalan, Castilian and English - as he considers that all three languages are necessary for the professional and academic future of the students. "There is no incompatibility between having high quality teaching and at the same time with three languages of teaching. On the contrary, having three languages ensures a better education for our students," he says.
Respecting teaching plan is key
Most complaints of language discrimination are issued because the language indicated in the teaching plan of the subjects is not respected. Many teachers justify this change of language by arguing that there are students in the Erasmus programme who come to Catalonia without understanding or speaking Catalan. This was the case of Bru Rovira, an associate professor at the University of Girona, who was asked by two Erasmus students from Italy to teach in Spanish because they did not understand him in Catalan. The teacher informed the students that she would teach the subject in Castilian that day, but a student claimed her right to have the class continue in Catalan. Faced with this situation, Bru Rovira contacted the academic secretary, which informed him that the language of his teaching plan was Catalan and that he had to respect it.
Another similar case is that of Biel, a student of Political Science and Administration at UPF, who says that he has experienced this change of language in the teaching plan on more than one occasion. The student states that he has met several teachers who have changed their teaching language from Catalan to Castilian because a foreign student has requested it. He also warns that language change demands are not exclusive to Erasmus students and that he has also witnessed situations in which a single student from Catalonia has requested that the class be given in Castilian and the teacher has agreed. Biel is part of the student assembly of the UPF's Ciutadella campus, and explains that, from this platform, they are working to find solutions that will help to guarantee the university’s language policies.
In fact, the University of Barcelona says that it has close to 2,000 exchange students and, in general, those who attend classes taught in Catalan have no problem following the courses satisfactorily.
Linguistic diversity
For Òscar Escuder, president of Plataforma per la Llengua, the pro-Catalan language NGO, "the root of the problem lies in the fact that we live in a state where linguistic diversity is seen as a problem". Escuder argues that Catalan is not discriminated against in democratic Europe and contrasts the situation in the Spanish state with the cases of Belgium, Sweden and Canada, where citizens, no matter what language they speak, have the same rights. "Spain is radically different. There is one language that has become hegemonic by imposition," he concludes. Among these impositions, Escuder highlights, for example, the changes made in teaching plans, as well as the lack of offers of degrees and teaching material in Catalan.
"The universities decide what percentage of subjects will be in each language, and once this is chosen, they negotiate with the different teachers. It must not be that a professor says that a subject will be given in Catalan and on the first day of class this is changed. The curriculum is like a contract, it can't be changed just like that," he asserts.
Catalan government response
Faced with this situation, Xavier Quinquillà, director general of territorial impact for the Department of Research and Universities, says that the Catalan administration is committed to requiring Catalonia's universities to collect student complaints and establish protocols to carry out exhaustive follow-up of compliance with the teaching language established. "We are developing a comprehensive plan to strengthen the Catalan language in the university system to prevent these breaches. We want to develop the concept of vehicular language, its meaning has never been publicised," he says. The primary objective of the Catalan government, according to Quinquillà, is to achieve 80% of teaching in Catalan and he assures that work is being done to guarantee this right.
At the Plataforma, they hold up the University of Copenhagen as the model to follow. "The Danes have had no problem establishing a cutting-edge university in Danish, and Danish has fewer speakers than Catalan. Therefore, the issue of the language is not a problem; it is false to say that it is a limitation if you want to become a leading university, and here we have the proof", replies Escuder, countering statements made by Ricardo Rivero, rector of the University of Salamanca, who affirms that Catalan universities that restrain the use of Castilian will be internationally isolated.
These latest controversies over the presence of Catalan in universities have become, in short, a new sounding of the alert over the situation of the language and new evidence of the risks it faces. This time, moreover, in one of the spheres where both awareness and protection should be most guaranteed.
This information has been written by Eva Castosa, Aida Carrasco, Marta Romero, Adán Manrubia, Àlex Martínez, Gabriel Vázquez, Sergi Corberó, Feliu Aragay, Paula Vergés, Ainhoa Herrera, Daphne Bos, Clàudia Fuertes, Carmen del Moral, Eli Crego, Júlia Mayral and Laia Canut from the UB's CIC degree Press Workshop.
In the main image, students at a Catalan university centre / Europa Press