Although final enrolment data for September are not yet available, by July some 8,000 new students had enrolled at the UB’s faculties and schools. This is almost one third of the total number of students who pre-enrolled in the Catalan universities for academic year 2008-2009. The UB has maintained the high rates of growth recorded in previous years for the number of applications – almost two and a half percentage points above the average.

The UB and its faculties and schools have organized a variety of induction programs before classes officially begin. An example is Welcome 2008 (www.ub.edu/futursinousestudiants/benvinguda), a portal which provides information on the introductory sessions offered in the various areas of teaching, induction courses, enrolment procedures and requirements, and a language tutorial program aimed at students with no previous knowledge of Catalan.