UB gives academic support to students with diseases of long duration
To assist university students with diseases of long duration in continuing their studies is the main goal of the project Studia, which has been developed by the University of Barcelona for three years. During this period of time, academic support has been given to around thirty students who, due to clinical circumstances, had to interrupt their academic life and stayed at the hospital for a long time. The project, pioneer in Spain, is co-directed by Lola Josa, lecturer from the Department of Spanish at UB, and Francesc Casas, oncologist at Hospital Clínic. The project is particularly addressed to university students admitted to the Hospital Clínic and the Catalan Institute of Oncology; the intention is to extend the number of participating institutions.
To assist university students with diseases of long duration in continuing their studies is the main goal of the project Studia, which has been developed by the University of Barcelona for three years. During this period of time, academic support has been given to around thirty students who, due to clinical circumstances, had to interrupt their academic life and stayed at the hospital for a long time. The project, pioneer in Spain, is co-directed by Lola Josa, lecturer from the Department of Spanish at UB, and Francesc Casas, oncologist at Hospital Clínic. The project is particularly addressed to university students admitted to the Hospital Clínic and the Catalan Institute of Oncology; the intention is to extend the number of participating institutions.
The programme was set up in the academic year 2012-2011, thanks to an agreement signed with the Hospital Clínic; in the academic year 2011-2012 the collaboration was extended to the Catalan Institute of Oncology. The projectʼs target group are UB students, but also other students at Catalan or Spanish universities who come to Barcelona to get a treatment. “We especially work with cancer patients. Two or three years pass before they are completely recovered, so they lost the thread of their studies. To take their studies up again is particularly hard for them. The project Studia favours continuity. “To break the taboo on cancer destroying every aspect of one personʼs life is one of the objectives too”, highlights Lola Josa.
“Studies are the way to existence, to keep going”
Patients who receive support are students of nearly any subject area: they are architects, physicists, chemists, engineers, and even students of the conservatoir. “Nearly all of them are good students; the disease reduce so much their existence that studies are the way to existence, to keep going”, affirms Josa. “At this age—she adds—, the decision to study at the university becomes the most important thing of one personʼs life. To achieve that this decision survives, despite disease adversity, makes the experience so much wonderful”.
The programme comprises different types of activities, academics grants and intellectual support to enable patients to continue their life as students. Actions include seminars and support lessons; mediation between students and teaching staff; tutorial sessions and supervision to take exams and tests, and administrative procedures.
Volunteer students who help young patients
When a student need the help provided by the project Studia, its mechanism is immediately set up. “Oncology unit supervisors at the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the Hospital Clínic tell us if there is any university student admitted. When they confirm there is any student, we visit and speak with them and their relatives; then, according to each personʼs needs, we start working”, explains Josa. She is the tutor of admitted patients and enables communication between the patient and the University, for instance when changes must be made in enrolment, when students need to contact teachers and heads of studies at faculties, when they must take exams or when marks are communicated. “Teachers always answer in a generous way. They are always willing to assist students”, highlights Josa.
Volunteer third-cycle students at UB collaborate in the project too. Their tasks are diverse: they provide patients books and notes or supervise them when they take an exam, at home or at the hospital. Moreover, as they are third-cycle students who are researching at the University, they can organise and give support lessons or seminars that patients need. The team of volunteers is composed by six people who have been involved in the project since its beginning. They are in charge of contacting other third-cycle students of other subject areas when there is a patient who needs help in a particular area that is not their speciality. “To find someone who wants to do it has never been a problem”, explains Gaston Gilabert, who coordinates academic aspects and volunteers of the project.
For this trainee researcher at the Department of Spanish, the project offers a service that “society was demanding”. And argues: “It is nonsense, that in the 21st century, with the technologies we have at our disposal, a student enrolled at one faculty who wants to continue studying is not able to do it because he or she cannot attend lessons physically”. “To date —he adds—, these situations have been traditionally not considered by the university community”. In face of this situation, he considers that public universities must assume their responsibility: “In my opinion, a public university must have this role too. In other words, the university must not remain indoors; on the contrary, if a student needs it, the institution must give the opportunity to get it as learning helps people”. He encourages other Spanish and worldwide university to set up similar projects. “Enthusiasm for going on and standing the disease is rubbed on off patients”, he affirms.
“You feel a member of their family”
The project Studia vindicates itself as a project of life: “Most patients get recovered, they get over and they are able to continue their studies. There are some cases of students who got their degree: four or five students were told they had the disease when they had only one or two years left to graduate; thanks to the project Studia, they achieved it”, explains Josa. “We speak about difficult degrees, for example Engineering”, she affirms proudly.
Her words show emotion as she evaluates this three-year experience: “Every academic year that finishes is like living and doubling you own life because a group of people achieve that the expectations of young people who live a really difficult situation are not thwarted”. Volunteersʼ response is always positive. “All them are grateful to be able to collaborate in the project Studia”, states Josa. “You feel a member of their family: the patient, teachers, collaborators... It is like a family who work hard to get ahead in patientʼs project of life. There is nothing so much important. To help other people is the most magnificent thing you can do, the best thing you can experience. I have no doubt of that”, concludes Josa.
The project Studia of UB is supported by the Office of the Vice-Rector for Students and Language Policy and the Student Support Service.