– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

The side-effects of cultural mixes and conglomerations – languages that merge to generate new dialects, like Spanglish (Spanish and English). Then there’s that blend of Portuguese and Spanish called Portunol, widely spoken in Uruguay.  So how do you earn a degree in Spanish, as it is spoken in the United States, and not in the way it is in Spain?

Through FUNIBER, of course! An acronym for Fundacion Universitaria Iberoamericana, this non-profit, international alliance offers advanced distance education degrees in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese through member institutions in various countries. Comprising 50 universities in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Latin America, the alliance just set foot in the United States with an office in New York. While no formal agreements have been reached with schools in the US, as many as 170 people in the country have already signed up for degrees taught through FUNIBER. Inside Higher Ed reports:

The member institutions include the Universidad de León in Spain, the Universidad de Santiago de Chile and the Universidad de The members, most of which are public and only a handful of which are for-profit, are well-recognized in their respective countries. The two institutions in Puerto Rico, “the bridge” for FUNIBER between the United States and the Spanish-speaking world, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico and the Universidad de Puerto Rico, are both accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.