Participate in the Via Universitària survey that analyses what is means to be a university student today
On Thursday 1 February, the Vives Network of Universities will begin its fieldwork on the fourth edition of the Via Universitària programme. Students can participate in the online survey between February and March. The study analyses the living conditions of students, how they study, their relationship with their university, cultural habits and economic determinants, as well as expectations, values and beliefs they have regarding higher education. The results will serve as the basis for the decision-making processes and guidelines of future university policies.
Students can take the online survey in the months of February and March.
In the months of February and March, students from the UAB — and other participating universities — can participate in the online survey of the Via Universitària: accés, condicions d’aprenentatge, expectatives i retorns dels estudis universitaris (2023-2025) programme. The total number of students eligible to participate surpasses 300,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 20 universities in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Andorra.
This is the fourth edition of the study, which has established itself as a benchmark in higher education with the involvement of quality agencies and university institutions.
Via Universitària is an instrument for the definition of social and gender equity policies within the university system and is aligned with the results of the EUROSTUDENT report, which collects the same information in 28 European countries. The report will study student trajectories from a triple perspective: equity in access to and life in higher education, the transformation of students' reality as a result of an increasingly diverse social environment, the gender perspective and the quality of teaching and learning methodologies.
The survey: fifty-nine questions divided into five thematic blocks
The Via Universitària online survey includes fifty-nine questions divided into five blocks. Firstly, students will evaluate their access to university and their personal academic career. Secondly, they will evaluate their living, learning and study conditions. Next, they will answer questions about the daily life of a student and the level of participation and involvement in cultural, social and leisure activities that take place at the university. Fourthly, a blog is dedicated to the expectations about their professional future at the end of their university studies. Finally, the questionnaire ends with the collection of socio-demographic data, which will allow a detailed analysis of the key axes of the programme according to the profile of the respondents who take part in it.
The results of the study, scheduled for publication in May 2025, will serve not only as a tool for reflection and debate, but also to inform the decisions and orientations of the university policy developed by both universities and public administrations in the field of education, research, employment and youth.
Programme team
Via Universitària 2023-2025 is led by the Vives Network of Universities (Xarxa Vives d’Universitats) under the technical direction of the Catalan university system quality assurance agency, the Agència per a la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya (AQU). The programme also includes the support of the Andorran quality assurance agency, Agència de Qualitat de l’Ensenyament Superior d'Andorra (AQUA), and of the Government of Catalonia.
The programme team is made up of six working groups comprising more than 70 experts from a wide range of disciplines. In addition, the Advisory Board is made up of vice-rectors for students and experts from institutions linked to the universities and is involved in different phases of the programme, from advising on the orientation and content of the questionnaire to the formulation of proposals for analysis and discussion of the results. The Research Team is made up of teaching and research staff from the universities and is responsible for analysing the results of the survey and drafting the contents of the report. Finally, the Technical Quality Team is made up of the heads of the universities' quality units and acts as the programme's liaison in each higher education institution, so that they can take ownership of the survey results and incorporate them into the strategic decision-making processes.