CONTENTS

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Bologna Country Updates: Southeastern Europe

REGIONAL NEWS
Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Middle East
Russia & CIS

FEATURE
Iraq's students say, 'Welcome back, professor'

ESTONIA

Russian-Language Schools Maintained

The language of instruction in Russian-language secondary schools will remain unchanged after Parliament rejected an amendment that would have switched instruction to Estonian in 2007. The main argument for the amendment was the high cost of maintaining schools in two languages.

— RFE/RL
Nov. 6, 2003

FRANCE

First Gastronomic University to Open

Alarmed by a waning of France’s global prestige in culinary education, the government is establishing a university of gastronomy , the first of its kind in the world. It will open in September in Reims and will accept 100 students. Instructors will be historians, sociologists, chefs, biologists and “great professionals in the trades of taste,” according Renaud Dutreuil, minister for consumer affairs and traditional businesses. There also will be offshoots for regional gastronomy and viticulture.

— The Guardian
Oct. 15, 2003

Striking Students Oppose Reforms

A strike by students at 17 universities in November capped a week of protests over planned higher education reforms, which they fear will raise fees through the partial privatization of the country’s 85 universities and bring patchy standards as examinations and degrees are brought into line with the European standard. French students were joined by their peers from around Europe as November saw some of the largest student demonstrations throughout Europe in years. Students in Germany, France and the United Kingdom among other countries took to the streets to protest against the introduction of tuition fees and cuts in higher education funding.

In a quick response, Minister of Education Luc Ferry said a draft bill being presented this month would not harm the university system. Ferry’s plan to grant universities greater financial and educational autonomy is seen as a first step toward the privatization of higher education. Many students fear such a step will result in higher fees and threaten the automatic entitlement of every student who passes the baccalaureat to attend a university. They also say it will encourage universities to compete for the best students and lead to a “merchandising” of the French and European university systems. Generating even more concern are plans to bring French diplomas into line with wider European standards, as part of the Bologna Process. Known in France as the LMD “licence-master-doctorat”- students believe the new system will undermine the value of existing French degrees. Currently, French college students can earn a general diploma two years after passing the baccalaureat, and then advance to a series of higher degrees in yearlong courses of study after that.

— Reuters News Agency
Nov. 21, 2003

Education Minister Wants France to Set European Model

French Education Minister Luc Ferry has told universities to attract more foreign students and to strengthen their public-service ethos. He said they have to resist U.S.-style globalization and construct an alternative European model of higher education. Ferry added, however, there are neither the resources nor the desire to prohibit the private U.S. universities already establishing themselves in European countries.

Looking ahead to the introduction of legislation giving universities more autonomy, Mr. Ferry said the institutions must have more initiative and maneuvering freedom “not to adapt or surrender to American globalization, but to be capable of resisting this globalization and to construct a European model, which will truly be an alternative to the American model.”

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Oct. 31, 2003

HUNGARY

Privatization Plans Face Opposition

Plans to privatize Hungary’s universities and higher education colleges have raised fears of job losses and a narrowing of the range of subjects offered. The country’s Trade Union of Higher Education Employees argues that the proposals would put academic jobs at risk and may herald the introduction of tuition fees.

The Ministry of Education wants to give universities the right to transform themselves into not-for-profit organizations with a mix of state and private funding. Bela Mang, deputy secretary at the Ministry of Education, dismissed reports that 80 percent of degree subjects would cease to exist, but said many would “merge.”

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Oct. 17, 2003

IRELAND

Undergraduate Medicine Scrapped

Ireland will switch to graduate-only entry to medicine and other health-care courses in a radical break from the rest of Europe. Questions remain unanswered about the length of the courses and who will pay for them.

Education Minister Noel Dempsey wants to convert medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy and radiology to postgraduate entry. Most primary degrees take four years. The state pays tuition fees at the undergraduate level, but not at postgraduate level. If fees are charged for postgraduate health-care education, medicine could become more elitist. The minister says there will be a postgraduate program in medicine by 2007.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Sept. 5, 2003

KOSOVO (Former Yugoslavia)

American University Joins List of Private Schools

The newly opened American University in Kosovo hopes to fill a gap left by a state education system still influenced by former communist system. The university, where classes started in October, joins dozens of private schools and institutes that have sprung up in Kosovo since the end of hostilities in the Serbian province in 1999.

The university is financed almost entirely by Kosovo Albanians, and currently offers a two-year degree in business and economics taught in English. The Rochester Institute of Technology is managing the academic program for the school, which has an initial enrollment of approximately 60 students. It plans to expand to four-year programs in the next two years. The local, state-run university in Pristina (see WENR March/April), with more than 20,000 students, used to have the monopoly on higher education, but critics say the courses there are increasingly irrelevant to student needs.

— New York Times
Oct. 10, 2003

SLOVAKIA

U-Turn in Policy

The Education Committee of Parliament will reverse September’s law abolishing tuition fees for foreign students. The legislation gave students the right to study free and banned universities from charging tuition fees, causing alarm at many universities that had come to rely on income from the high proportion of part-timers and distance students.

Since September, a growing scandal over demands for “gifts” from students has embroiled eight of Slovakia’s 24 universities.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Oct. 31, 2003

SWITZERLAND

Survey Ranks Top Universities

The third annual ranking of Swiss universities published in November places Lausanne and Basel strong in arts and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) leading in science. The SwissUp ranking is based on statistical data and information from a survey of 4,350 students in Swiss universities. The company that compiled the scores said it is working on common rankings for Switzerland, Austria and Germany, with the eventual aim of producing European league tables.

The rankings concluded that the University of Lausanne stands out for language and literature, while Basel makes a strong showing in historical science and culture. St. Gallen remains top of the class in economics, closely followed by the HEC School at Lausanne University. EPFL does well in hard and natural sciences; the universities of Geneva and Bern come out on top in medicine and pharmacy. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich remains strong in engineering and architecture, while Zurich University maintains its reputation for research.

— The Guardian
Nov. 5, 2003

UNITED KINGDOM

Scientists Bemoan Lack of Progress on Bologna Reforms

The government is risking the future of U.K. science education with its reluctance to address concerns over maser’s courses, according to physicists and chemists from the Institute of Physics (IoP) and the Royal Society of Chemists (RSC). The scientists argue that the United Kingdom’s four-year integrated MPhys and MChem degrees are unlikely to be compatible with the ideals of the Bologna Declaration.

The Bologna Declaration is a common framework for degrees, with a preference for three years of undergraduate study, followed by two years of study at the master’s level and a further three years at the doctoral level. The United Kingdom’s integrated master’s degrees would be undermined by Bologna, leaving graduates unable to study overseas and UK universities unable to recruit postgraduate students or academics. UK academics were amazed that January’s higher education white paper made no mention of the Bologna Process and its possible effects. The IoP and RSC first wrote to Education Secretary Charles Clarke in August expressing concern that Bologna was being largely ignored in the United Kingdom.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Nov. 14, 2003

School Calendar to Run Six Terms

Students will switch to a six-term year in the next two years in the biggest shake-up of the school calendar in more than 130 years. The move will allow GCSEs and A-levels to be brought forward to the end of the fifth term in May, so pupils can receive their results before they apply to universities. Hopefully, this will end the August scramble for places by candidates who fail to achieve the grades stipulated by the university of their choice. It is also hoped that teachers’ stress will be reduced by giving them more regular breaks and minimizing the amount of information pupils forget during the long summer break. However, teachers unions said they will resist any attempt to tamper with their long summer holidays.

— Independent
Nov. 5, 2003

Merger to Create Advanced Hybrid

Thames Valley University will merge with Reading College to create the United Kingdom’s most advanced further and higher education institution, or “vocational” university, as it is billing itself.

The merger will make the institution one of the largest in the country with an enrollment of 45,000 students, trailing only London Metropolitan and Leeds Metropolitan universities. Some 30 percent of its students will be in further education, with the remaining 70 percent in higher education. Following the completion of the necessary legal arrangements, the new university will open Jan. 1. It is expected to retain the name Thames Valley University.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Oct. 31, 2003

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