Regional
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Europe
AUSTRIA
Private
Medical University Opens
Fall semester 2003 saw the opening of Austria’s first, and Europe’s
second, private medical university. The school in Salzburg is offering
training that is “rapid, intensive and practical” over five
years, a radical departure from those offered by public schools of medicine
often criticized for the length of their studies (seven to eight years)
and for being overly theoretical.
Classes at
Privtaen Madizinischen Universität (PMU) will be restricted to seven
students per class. At the end of the first year, students will be required
to follow a practical internship with one of the city’s clinics.
Tuition is 8,000 euros a year. Much of the student body will come from
Germany, with the first year’s intake of 42 students comprising
20 percent Germans.
—
Die
Süddeutsche Zeitung
May 20, 2003
BOSNIA and HERZGOVINA
Education
Integrated
On Sept. 1, pupils and students in Bosnia-Herzegovina began a new school
year. In contrast with recent years, their schools will now be part of
a single unified system — at least in theory. Education officials
of the Croat-Muslim federation, the Republika Srpska, the cantonal governments
and the Brcko district government signed an Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)-sponsored agreement in Sarajevo on Aug.
8 to replace the three ethnically based education systems with a unified
one.
Until now--in
some mixed Muslim and Croat areas, in particular--separate, parallel systems
existed in one and the same school building. Under the reform, 52 mixed
Croat and Muslim schools will now operate from the same budget and presumably
share administrations and facilities. The necessary reform legislation
is supposed to be passed within six months by the parliament of the Republika
Srpska and by the legislatures of each canton in the Muslim-Croat federation,
but it is clear that there will be numerous attempts at foot-dragging
on that front, too.
The reforms,
moreover, also envision an eventual transition from three distinct curricula
and sets of schoolbooks to a single one. As it stands, three different
systems are in use, with the Croatian and Serbian ones taken essentially
from the education ministries of Croatia and Serbia, respectively. In
literature, history and the social sciences, nationalist views are predominant
in all three sets of textbooks. Children in the Republika Srpska learn
that "our country is Serbia," for example, and each system presents
its own interpretation of recent history that is in stark contrast with
that of the other two.
—
RFE/RL
Aug. 29, 2003
FRANCE
Debate
Sought in Higher Education Overhaul 
France’s university presidents want a public debate on the future
of higher education while they await the first major shakeup of the system
in nearly 20 years. Reforms introduced by Education Minister Luc Ferry,
which are backed by the Conference of University Professors (CPU), give
universities more autonomy and establish a degree structure based on the
two-tier principles of the European Higher Education Area.
The reform
package should have gone to Parliament earlier this year, but it was postponed
because of public-sector strikes. Mr. Ferry hopes to present the legislation
in June. CPU members expect the reforms will “evolve to give them
the means to deal with the new socioeconomic situation and the challenges
of opening to Europe.”
—
The
Times Higher Education Supplement
Sept. 26, 2003
ITALY
Europe’s
Largest University Embroiled in ‘Degrees for Cash’ Scandal
A series of dawn raids in July resulted in the house arrest of 18 people
– including students, faculty and administrators – in and
around Rome as police continued an investigation into what they say is
a huge degree-trading racket at Rome's La
Sapienza University, Europe’s largest with 144,000 undergraduate
students.
According
to police officers, students paid bribes of up to US$3,400 to receive
oral-exam questions in advance from the faculty member who would test
them. There is also evidence of straightforward forgery, as the raids
uncovered, among other things, a rubber stamp that appeared to have been
used to falsify certificates. There is abundant evidence to suggest that
higher education in Italy is riddled with corruption. In the past 15 years,
there have been exam-rigging scandals in the universities of Venice, Naples,
Pescara and Messina.
—
The
Guardian
July 19, 2003
Study:
Italian Graduates Flocking Overseas
The emigration of Italian college graduates to foreign countries is reaching
alarming levels and could have “dire consequences” for the
country’s economy, according to a recent study.
New data
show the percentage of college graduates leaving Italy quadrupled between
1990 and 1999. The number of new college graduates moving abroad rose
from less than 1 percent at the beginning of the decade to 4 percent at
the end of the 1990s. Italy also has one of the lowest percentages of
foreign graduates working in its economy; the United Kingdom (U.K.) has
the highest, according to a paper to be published by the European
Association of Labour Economists.
The economists
argue Italy is out of step with other large European Union countries.
Germany, France and the U.K. have more foreign graduates in their countries
than national graduates working abroad, while in Spain the balance is
roughly equal. However, in Italy, 2.3 percent of all graduates work abroad
but only 0.3 percent of the graduate work force is foreign.
—
The
Guardian
Sept. 26, 2003
MACEDONIA
Brain
Drain and Corruption in Higher Education
Weeks after the government announced in July that the ethnic Albanian
University of Tetovo is to be legalized, (see July/August
issue WENR) a survey sponsored by the Macedonian
Open Society Institute created wide-ranging discussions in the media
on two problems facing the Macedonian higher-education system: the brain
drain and corruption. Although the emigration of highly educated citizens
on the one hand and corruption in the universities on the other are not
directly related, both have come into public consciousness as issues that
need addressing in any reform of the education system.
According
to the study, some 15,000 Macedonian citizens with a higher education
have chosen to live abroad rather than stay at home. The most commonly
cited reasons are basically the same as in other transition countries
– high unemployment and lack of prospects. Of some 13,500 unemployed
persons with a higher education, about 43 percent have been without a
job for more than four years. Young university graduates also lack career
opportunities because the government has imposed a hiring freeze on the
universities.
Corruption
in the universities occurs during enrollment and at exam time, according
to the report. About one-third of the students believe that they can enhance
their admissions chances by paying some sort of “extra fee.”
However, the study suggests that this varies from institution to institution.
Students’ trust in the academic staff of the newly founded South
East European University in Tetovo (see May/June
issue WENR) is considerably higher than in the state-run universities.
In a commentary from the July 12 issue of the Daily Dnevnik,
it is argued that the problem of the universities is linked to the nepotism
that is deeply rooted in Macedonian society and that it is doubtful that
a political or quick solution is possible. Any reform will most likely
end up as previous efforts have states the editorial: “A small purge,
with a lot of dust raised on the surface–and that was all!”
—
RFE/RL
July 18, 2003
SLOVAKIA
Parliament
OKs Hungarian University
Slovak lawmakers approved in October a government-backed plan to launch
Janos Seley University, a Hungarian university in the southern Slovak
town of Komaro (see June/July
2003 issue WENR). The establishment of the university was
a demand of the Hungarian Coalition Party, which views its establishment
as a step toward narrowing the current divide between educational opportunities
for the Slovak majority and the Hungarian minority. The law establishing
the university goes into effect Jan. 1; the first 300 students should
be able to enroll for the fall 2004 term.
—
Slovensko
Oct. 24, 2003
UNITED KINGDOM
China
Takes Up Position As Largest Source Market
China has overtaken Ireland as the No. 1 source market for foreign students
at British universities and colleges. The number of Chinese students applying
to institutions of higher education in Britain soared this year by 36
percent to 7,903 from 5,802 last year, according to statistics from the
Universities and Colleges Administrations
Services (UCAS).
Behind the
Chinese, the Irish are the second-largest group of foreign students at
5,943, followed by Nigeria at 2,912 and Hong Kong at 2,901. Apart from
the big rise in Chinese students, there were also a record number of applicants
from India, rising 16 percent to 1,967. The total number of foreign students
who applied to British institutions is up by 10.9 percent to a total of
59,172.
These figures
are good news for universities, who have been working hard to attract
overseas students, and for the government, which has invested a lot of
money in promoting British education abroad. The National Union of students
also welcomed the news, but expressed concern that overseas students will
be deterred from applying to U.K. institutions after the Home Office’s
introduction of a visa charge for foreign nationals in the United Kingdom.
Since Aug. 1, all foreign nationals are being charged for visa renewal
and settlement. Postal application costs £155, or £250 for
a premium service.
—
Universities
and Colleges Administrations Services
July 18, 2003
City
& Guilds Goes Global in a Big Way
The City & Guilds qualification
in 2003 is a far reach from its days qualifying spotty 17-year-olds in
white aprons at local further-education colleges around Britain. Today,
the City & Guilds organization is more sophisticated and has a reach
that spans the globe. City & Guilds is exporting its expertise by
operating or supervising learning and training centers in more than 100
countries.
A recent
development illustrating the trend is the signing of an agreement that
will lead City & Guilds to help the Sri Lankan government strengthen
its vocational and technical education framework. Students in Sri Lanka
will be able to study for the City & Guilds international vocational
qualifications at colleges and training centers across the country. The
investment will be paid back in the coming years when the 60,000 students
in Sri Lanka in vocational courses pay the fees to take the theoretical
and practical exams and receive the qualifications. These fees range from
approximately £80 for the certificate to £160 for the advanced
diploma.
The recent
opening of a new City & Guilds branch office in Shanghai highlights
the determination to establish a base in the biggest as yet-untapped market
in the world. The British awarding body is the only foreign organization
accredited by the Chinese government. Other footholds in the overseas
market for the vocational qualification are represented by branch offices
in Delhi, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.
This year, City & Guilds awarded 1.2 million qualifications in more
than 500 subjects across the industrial landscape. City & Guilds has
also embraced the e-learning culture with its online studying option,
“e-quals,” which enables
students anywhere to learn and be assessed from home. E-quals is currently
confined to qualifications in computer-related disciplines.
—
Campus
Review
July 9-15, 2003
Institutional
Mergers, Department Closures, New Names
• The
London School of Economics and Political
Science (LSE) is launching a joint venture with the U.S.
business school Fuqua at Duke University to develop corporate management
education programs. The move means LSE now has a portfolio of degree and
non-degree management courses, in effect making it a business school via
the back door.
• Durham
University is closing two departments – East Asian studies,
linguistics and European studies – to create more places in other
subjects in what is seen as the start of a nationwide process that will
undermine choice and diversity to attract more government money. The department
of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies will lose its undergraduate teaching
and become a postgraduate institute. Many leading universities are planning
to bolster their strongest departments after being urged by the government
to concentrate on becoming world-class research institutions.
• Three
Scottish universities and six French universities have signed an agreement
to set up joint Ph.D. programs. Edinburgh, Glasgow and St. Andrews Universities
will develop joint research doctorates with universities in Paris, Grenoble,
Tours and Provence.
• A
name has been chosen for the new “mega-university” that will
result from the merger of the University
of Manchester and the University
of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (see March/April
issue WENR). After much head scratching and deliberation,
the new institution will open in September 2004 under the name…
“University of Manchester.”
A-Level
Alternatives Gaining Popularity
Some of the most prestigious schools in the country are turning to the
International Baccalaureate (IB), complaining
that A-level examinations no longer differentiate an outstanding candidate
from a good one and that it bogs down students with unnecessary exams.
On top of the IB trend, thousands of A-level students will next year be
asked to take a version of the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in
a major trial following complaints from university admissions officers
that, again, the A-level no longer distinguishes the brightest candidates
for them.
The publication
of A-level results in August saw a fresh round of complaints that the
exam has become too “easy.” Top universities have long complained
that the exam no longer discriminates between top-performing students.
Forty-nine mainly private secondary schools now offer the IB qualification,
which involves a range of compulsory subjects, according to the International
Baccalaureate Organization, the Geneva-based body that runs the exam.
Thousands of students now achieve three or four A grades at A-Level. In
the baccalaureate, by contrast, only two percent achieve the top mark.
Supporters of the SAT system argue that the test is a better indicator
of academic ability than A-level results, which often reflect the quality
of the teaching at schools attended.
—
The
Independent
Aug. 17, 2003
Course
Cuts a Sign of the Times?
The University
of Kent at Canterbury (UKC) has dropped the teaching of medieval history
and is closing an associated academic center to cut costs, prompting a
wave of national protests from appalled historians.
Several leading
universities are planning to channel their resources into fewer departments.
Durham University was among the first
to do so with the closure of its East Asian studies department, and the
trend continues at UKC.
The universities
say the government is urging them to concentrate on the things they do
best, and they are being rewarded for doing so by the way research funding
is awarded. This year, government research funding was cut for departments
with a rating of 3 or 4 and increased for those rated 5*, the top of the
scale.
Lecturers
and students opposed to the closures say choice and diversity are being
undermined because highly qualified students aiming for the leading universities
will increasingly be limited to mainstream subjects as a result. Meanwhile,
Canterbury loses the Center for Medieval and Tudor Studies and, with it,
research and interest in a subject central to a city that boasts the oldest
cathedral in England. That cathedral inspired Geoffrey Chaucer to write
“The Canterbury Tales,” long credited as the first novel written
in modern English.
—
The
Guardian
Sept. 26, 2003
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