[EN] The University of Zaragoza brings forward the return to the classroom with Courses 0: «Basic training is getting worse and worse»

With some nerves due to the fear of the unknown, but eager to start their university stage, dozens of new students of the University of Zaragoza have started their classes a week and a half earlier than usual. And it is that this Thursday the Courses 0 have kicked off for new students with the aim of consolidating essential concepts of Baccalaureate necessary for their higher education. Although, many of the students also attend these previous courses to meet their future classmates and go with «confidence» to the first day of class on September 7.

The School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA) has been the first to start Courses 0 this year where more than 100 students have enrolled. Within its walls, the courses of Chemistry, Technical Drawing, Mathematics, Physics and the joint program of Calculus and Algebra are taught, which is incorporated for the first time this year. Along with these, seven other courses are taught online.

In addition to «consolidating knowledge», the classes serve to «get to know the school’s facilities», make friends before the first day of class and come safely when the semester begins», explains the deputy director of Communication and Social Projection at EINA, Ana Biedermann.

Until September 4, EINA students will have sessions of two and a half or three hours, depending on the subject, so that they can get to the level of the classes once the course begins. «We have been teaching basic training subjects for a long time and, therefore, we know first-hand what are the difficulties that students encounter due to shortcomings in pre-university training or because there are aspects that should be emphasized or remembered,» says Esmeralda Mainar, professor of Applied Mathematics. For this reason, during these classes, the teacher stresses the aspects that will be «necessary» for the first semester of the degree they are studying.

Mainar acknowledges that university teachers perceive that «basic training is getting worse and worse». For this reason, he considers the 0 Courses especially relevant to «review» the main concepts. On the other hand, he adds that there are also «responsible» students who sign up for this training to reach the University «in the best conditions».

The small number of students also allows them to work more closely with students, incorporating group dynamics and complementing face-to-face classes with virtual ones. In this way, it also seeks to promote transversal skills such as permanent self-learning.

Faced with the change that moving from high school to university entails, the advice for new students is to face this stage with confidence: «They have to believe in the potential they have, knowing that they will have to work, but that they will have a teaching staff willing to help them«. «What we want is to take advantage of that enormous potential that we see in all students», he said.