Spanish Masters (Titulo Proprio) in the US

Anyone here has experience (or know someone who has it) with the reception (and equivalency by evaluation agencies) of Spanish Master degrees, the ones called "titulo propio" (something like self-owned title)?

Those are different than the "official" Master (the ones recognized by the Ministry of Education and now following the Bologna process) by they are also legal in Spain.

I ask this because there are some REALLY good Master in my area there by a fraction of the price of a equivalent Master here in the USA.

But I'm not sure if WES or any other evaluation agency would recognize it as a Master.

Any thoughts?

 

I think a better translation of "titulo propio" would be "its own title" as opposed to "self-owned title". I think the implication is that the title speaks for itself.

Apparently I have more reading to do about degrees in the Latin education systems. I was only aware of the maestria as an equivalent to the master's.

To go off on a slight tangent for a moment, it seems there are many degree programs that can be had in other countries for a fraction of the cost in the US. I hear tell that there are a fair number of US and foreign students attending medical school in Mexico as American medical schools are quite cost-prohibitive. That may be a future bubble bust-- it's possible our education system will need to examine itself and price more competitively.

OP, you seem to have a fair number of degrees under your belt already. What are you looking to add from a Spanish program? That would help folks come up with a better answer for you.

 

What is the connection between Spain and "Latin education systems"? Is Spanish educational system modeled the same way as Latin American systems (or vice versa)?

 

If you look closer you will notice that I only have a BA in History. I'm pursuing a MFA at the Academy of Art (on campus) right now but I will only graduate next year (I hope).

I was thinking in doing a Master degree in 3d Animation there. There is a fair amount of good programs like this there and they are really cheap ( basically the cost of 2 or 3 classes here in the Academy of Art).

But all Spanish Master related to 3d, Digital Arts, etc... that I'm interested in are the "titulo propio" type. So that's why I asked about it.

 

Latin America is a vast continent with different countries, different cultures and different educational system. There's no way you can talk about "latin american educational system as a whole".

I think PeteDude wasn't refering to "latin america" but any system in any latin country.

Although for some weird reason americans tend to think that "latin" means hyspanic, is actually a word used to relate to anything related to the Roman Empire and Latin language. Thus, the Italian, French and Portuguese are "latin" (or latinos) too.

P.S. I can tell you about the system in my home country, Brazil. It does not have any relation to the Spanish system whatsoever - but that's a given as we used to be a Portuguese colony, not Spanish. Our system is a mix of the portuguese and french system with a little bit of american influences. As a whole is closer to the french system than anything.

 

Hi - You may want to look through this site

http://portal.uned.es/portal/page?_pageid=93,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

It's a big distance learning university in Spain.

 

A quick internet search indicates that titulo propio is a certificate and not a degree.

 

Thanks, I presumed that as well, so I was a bit surprised to read Petedude's post.

Hm, I don't think I've never understood Latin to mean anything other than the original Latin language, an adjective related to various aspects of modern Latin American nations (Latin Music etc), and sometimes a collective name for Romance speaking population of the Americas (Latinos). The languages themselves, such as French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian etc. on the other hand are Romance languages, not Latin languages. In my own language we extend this to describe peoples speaking them as "Romance peoples" (romanski narodi), but I'm not sure if the English term "Romance" has that meaning as well.

The term Hispanic as used in the USA is also a bit misleading in my opinion, but so is the whole system of US racial nomenclature mixing geographic, ethnic, linguistic and racial criteria. Why would English speaking descendants of North American natives be "Native Americans", while Spanish speaking descendants of Central and South American natives are classed under the term "Hispanic" along with the descendants of European settlers, Africans, persons of mixed origin etc? I mean just the speakers of Quechua languages vastly outnumber North American "Native Americans".

Interesting. Thanks.

And sorry for the off-topic.

 

The WES report is respected for teaching purposes in the US and Canada. You can pay 20 dollars and see what will be the equivalent of your degree in US terms before you enroll. Just to their website and evaluate the school you intend to attend and see the equivalent.

 

I did just that two days ago - but they have a very limited selection of Spanish Schools (basically only the big government schools) and none of the ones I'm interested in.

 

As I understand it (possibly quite imperfectly) Latina is a term used to describe a person of Spanish origin. This person may or may not actually speak Spanish. Hispanic is a term used to describe a person's language and culture. In this way, a non-Latina could be Hispanic and a non-Hispanic could be Latina. I have a friend who is a bilingual psychotherapist (Spanish-English) and she says that there is a big distinction between someone who just spent a lot of time learning to speak Spanish and someone who has first hand knowledge of the culture. Of course, there are many Hispanic cultures and so you get into finer distinctions. A person from Spain may be Hispanic but they may know absolutely nothing about the culture of Guatemala. It's all very complicated, isn't it?

 

I may be wrong, but that could be very specific to the Americas. I have never heard (it does not mean there is not such a thing) of a person with Spanish roots (Spanish as actually hailing from Spain) being referred to as a Latino/a in Europe. Besides, a person of say Mexican or Cuban descent living in the USA may not have any Spanish origins, but only Spanish-speaking origins.

As for Hispanic, thanks, I understand what is meant by it in the USA somewhat better now. But if we take it to have the meaning of affiliation with a certain culture, there would in my opinion have to be a well-defined Hispanic culture. We couldn't define this culture solely by the fact there are a lot of people that speak Spanish. It wouldn't be much more meaningful than say "Anglian" culture encompassing all the inhabitants of UK, USA, Australia, South African Republic, New Zealand...

Where only language and not culture is concerned, hispanophones might be a better term for people of Spanish language, it does not imply any racial, cultural, ethnic, genetic or any other but linguistic affiliation.

It's interesting that, according to some articles I've read, the Spaniards themselves are called gallegos in some parts of Latin America. Gallego literally means a person from the Spanish province of Galicia on the Atlantic coast, from where supposedly a great number of settlers came to the New World. Ironically, the dialect spoken in Galicia is genetically more related and closer to Portuguese than to castellano / Spanish.

 

I try to be sensitive to these things but I confess that I am not as aware of all the fine distinctions. I guess I'd have to say that the specific language used varies considerably from place to place. When you mix in colloquial expressions and political correctness it's a bit hard to know just what to say. Mostly I just ask people and I go by what they tell me.

 

This is pretty much the American way of use the word - a way that only exist in the USA. In Europe and Latin-America the term "latino" has a very broad meaning, as I said, something related to latin language and the Roman Empire. We use "latino" in the same way as a american or english uses "anglo".

Is not really something that people in Latin-america uses as an "identity", the same way that a white american don't identify as an "anglo".

This "latino" thing is exclusive of "latinos" born in the USA.

As a Brazilian here in San Francisco and friend of a good number of other latinos. Argentinians, Mexicans, Porto-Ricans (the real ones, not americans born from porto-rican parents) I can guarantee that they all think this "latino" classification is silly.

For a brazilian like me is even more annoying because we're not hispanics but is almost impossible for people to grasp the fact that we speak portuguese and we have very little cultural contact (if any) with the rest of latin america.

As a interesting historical side note, the term "Latin-America" was created by Napoleon III, when he tried to intervene in Mexico. He used this term to stress the kinship between the Latin countries in America and France (a latin country too).

 

In some parts of Brazil, "galega" is any blonde girl - she doesn't need to be a really "galega", any blonde brazilian girl. Our first lady has the nickname of "galega" because of that.

That's because the "galegos" are from the North they tend to be more fair skin and blond than the portuguese from the south - so when they came during the immigration wave in the 19th century the term stuck.

In the South, where I'm from, we use the word "polaco" or "alemao" for blonds, polish and german, in the same way for the same reason (the South received more Polish and German immigrants).

And you're totally right - "Galego" is actually more a political than a linguistic term, because is basically the same language as portuguese, sans a different set of writing rules.

I can talk with a galego with no problem - sometimes I understand a galego better than I understand a portuguese (continental portuguese is more formal and "hard sounding" than my native brazilian portuguese).

 

What are you planning to use the degree for? For example, are in you in an industry where there is a strict credentialing process? I have found that out of all of the foreign credentialing service WES is the nicest, and that is in the case where the degree granting institution had an agreement with them. However, that is considering a university Masters from one of the large public schools. I don't know too much about the private schools. I've heard that some of the Master's degrees offered by FUNIBER are/were University Masters, and public school teachers were able to teach with them. What university is it, if you don't mind sharing?

 

Actually, I'm in one of the rare industries where they really don't give a shit for your credentials: the entertainment business.

I plan to use the other degree basically for immigration purposes.

ALthough I'm pursuing my MFA in Motion Pictures & TV here in San Francisco with the long term goal of being a director, no one will hire me as a director after I graduate. I'll probably try to get a job doing what I used to do in Brazil: 3d animation.

Technically I could get a H1B work visa just with this degree, because 3D animation is a "related field" of Motion Pictures & TV (and the law allows the use of a related degree). BUT that would depend on the immigration officer interpretation of what is a "related field".

So, if I could get another cheap and fast Master in Animation (and there some of those in Spain) that would help me to get a H1B visa here.

IF those Master are considered a Master here.

 

If your school is government based then you should have no problems. If it is a private school, then you should check this very well. Spain is invaded of many degree mills that call themselves "Universities". Madrid is full of Mickey Mouse schools due to the lax laws that they have in the area. Basically, it seems that the name "University" is not regulated and you have tons of businesses running as universities but local people know those degrees aren't worth the ink used to print them.

 

Hikaru:

What school are you looking at?


En España, los titulos oficiales tenen validez en todo el territorio nacional español, son establecidos con tal carácter por el Gobierno mediante Real Decreto (RD 1954/1994) la propuesta del Consejo de Universidades. Estos títulos surten efectos académicos plenos y habilitan para el ejercicio profesional, de acuerdo con la normativa vigente.

La Ley de Reforma Universitaria permite a las universidades impartir otros títulos que no pueden utilizar las mismas denominaciones y que no tienen los efectos académicos y de habilitación profesional como los títulos oficiales.

Una titulación propia es un título que oferta la Universidad en cuestión, y que puede (casi siempre) no ser reconocido en ningún otro país.

Normalmente estos títulos suelen ser estudios de postgrado (masters, especialistas universitarios y expertos universitarios) aunque también hay algunos títulos de pregrado.

Las titulaciones oficiales son todo lo contrario se puede homologar el título con total facilidad y pocos (o ningún) problemas