The European Comission has announced that the Catalan will be part of the OLS platform (Online Linguistic Support) Erasmus mobility program. It’s about a online language learning services aimed at Erasmus students with the aim of making available to them the linguistic resources necessary so that, before arriving, they can begin learning the language of the country that will host them. Until now, this platform included the official languages of the European institutions and others included in university programs -29-, but it left out Catalan, along with Basque and Galician.
The ‘Conseller’ of Research and Universitat, Joaquim Nadal, has welcomed a decision that, “although it comes late,” he stated, “puts an end to an unjustifiable historical grievance that did not recognize Catalan as a language of international mobility despite being official.” in Catalonia and be the main language of teaching in the degrees of Catalan universities.”
Discrimination and grievance
The Department of Research and Universitats, in collaboration with the Secretary of Linguistic Policy of the Department of Culture, have worked together, they say, to put an end to a discrimination towards universities in Catalan-speaking territoriesto. Although they form one of the linguistic regions with the greatest reception of ‘Erasmus’ – say sources from the ‘department’ -, they did not see their language recognized on the OLS platform.
The exclusion of Catalan on this platform also represented a grievance for the students who were doing Erasmus in Catalan universities, who, unlike those who chose other destinations, could not learn the language of the host university through the OLS. In this sense, the inclusion of Catalan, as well as the other official languages in different territories of the State, has been a historic demand.
Online test and training
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Regarding operation, the OLS platform allows an Erasmus student to know, through a test ‘online’, your level of understanding and knowledge of the language or languages of the university that will host you during your academic stay, while at the same time offers training, at least level A1. Furthermore, participating in the OLS guarantees that the student can follow online courses to improve the language of the host university during their academic stay.
Although the full integration of Catalan in the OLS with the same contents and resources as the rest of the languages that are part of it It will not be produced until 2027, When the new tender for the platform is planned, it has been enabled a web page with the same structure and content types that offers the service. This website links to the online course reference portal Parla.cat.