Catalan, Spanish and English coexist in universities from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. The presence of the regional language in higher education differs in both regions. Focus groups with students were carried out to understand the roles that these three languages have in each region.
Current internationalization at higher education is forcing universities to adapt to an increasing globalized and multilingual context. This means adapting their language policies to a new, complex reality. This communication focuses in the linguistic situation in the universities from two regions where Catalan and Spanish are co-official: Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. In this case, high education institutions aim to promote multilingualism and, at the same time, play an important role in the normalization of the regional language. Quantitative data provided by universities highlights that the presence of Catalan, Spanish and English differs greatly in both regions. While in Catalonia, the regional language is the predominant one, in Palma only half of the classes are taught in Catalan. Focus groups with undergrad students were carried out to analyze their perceptions on the current linguistic situation in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Results show that the flexibility of the current language policies allows significant differences not only regarding language use in different universities but also among the same universities: in certain degrees results show that there is a general acceptance of the current situation, where each professor can choose the teaching language. As a consequence, the difference in status of the Catalan language affects its presence at higher education. Moreover, students value multilingualism in a positive way and consider English an essential language for their future careers.
