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- Bologna Four Years After: Trends III
The
European Association of Universities
recently released its Trends III report for university representatives
attending the Graz Convention of higher-education institutions (HEIs).
The report outlines the major findings from questionnaires filled
out by 800 higher-education institutions across Europe on trends
related to implementation of the Bologna reforms.
Awareness
and support for the Bologna reforms is still a task that lies ahead
for a majority of academics at European institutions. According
to the report, 60 percent of heads of HEIs feel that institutions
should be more involved in the realization of the Bologna objectives.
In Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Ireland and most strongly
in the UK, deliberations on institutional Bologna reforms are even
less widespread than in other signatory countries. A lack of financial
support for the Bologna Process is highlighted by nearly half of
all HEIs of Bologna signatory countries.
Student
mobility has increased across Europe, although a majority of HEIs
report an imbalance of outgoing over incoming students. Net importers
of students are most often located in France, Netherlands, Denmark,
Sweden and, most strongly, in Ireland and the UK where 80 percent
of the institutions report an imbalance of incoming over outgoing
students. In promoting themselves abroad, Western Europe is mentioned
by 92 percent of institutions as a target area, followed by Eastern
Europe (62 percent), US/Canada (57 percent), Asia (40 percent),
Latin America (32 percent), Africa and Australia (24 percent and
23 percent, respectively) and the Arab world (16 percent). But few
institutions have elaborated a strategy for recruiting overseas
students. “Only 30 percent of HEIs mention the use of targeted
marketing for recruiting students, with the notable exception of
Ireland and the UK, where more than 80 percent of universities conduct
targeted marketing,” says the report. University heads tend
to favor joint programs and collaborative activities.
Progress
in the introduction of the two-tier degree structure has made important
strides at both the legal and institutional level, according to
the report. Today, 80 percent of the Bologna countries either have
the legal possibility to offer two-tier structures or are introducing
them, while 53 percent of HEIs have introduced or are introducing
the new structure, 36 percent are planning to and two-thirds of
HEIs are using the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) for credit
transfer. Europe appears a little less sure about doctoral degrees:
their length and their organization — with or without taught
doctoral courses — vary depending on the country.
About
two-thirds of Bologna countries have so far ratified the most important
tool for recognition, the Lisbon Recognition Convention. Close cooperation
between the relevant ENIC/NARIC offices is reported by only 20 percent
of HEIs, while 25 percent do not cooperate at all. A further 28
percent of HEIs say they do not know what ENIC/NARIC is. Quality
assurance (QA) measures are much further progressed, with 80 percent
of HEIs in Europe already subject to external quality assurance
procedures in some form or another. The ultimate challenge for QA
in Europe, according to the authors of the report, consists in creating
transparency, exchange of good practice and enough common criteria
to allow for mutual recognition of each others’ procedures,
without mainstreaming the system and undermining its positive forces
of diversity and competition.
More
information and the full report are available from the EUA
Web site.
—
Bologna
Four Years After: Trends III
May 31, 2003
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AUSTRIA
International
University Loses Accreditation
The accreditation of International
University —formerly known as International Christian University—was
withdrawn on July 31 by the Akkreditierungsrat
(Accreditation Council).
International
University had been awarded a three-year accreditation on Jan 4, 2001,
as a private university. The revocation of its accredited status before
the end of the three-year period was approved by the Minister of Science
and Culture Elisabeth Gehrer. The university can appeal the revocation
at the Supreme Court. There are now six accredited private universities
in Austria. More information can be found here.
—
Austrian
NARIC news release
May 26, 2003
FRANCE
New European
Business School
The ESCEM (Tours-Poitiers Higher School
of Commerce) and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Eure-et-Loire
and Loire-et-Cher regions have joined forces to create the European Higher
Institute for Corporate Studies (ISEME), a three-year undergraduate business
school.
The establishment
will be run by ESCEM and is set to open in September 2003 on three campuses:
Blois, Tours and Chartres. The director of the school, François
Duvergé, believes that the school will supply a need for three-year
undergraduate degrees in business as Europe adapts to a common system
for the recognition of degrees. The existing two-year programs, Duvergé
believes, will have to evolve in order to survive.
—
Educationews
April 9, 2003
Grandes
Ecoles Introduce “MSc”
The Conference of the French Grandes Ecoles (prestigious and highly selective
schools) has created the MSc. The MSc is equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon
master of science and is reserved for graduates with four years of university
study. It should allow the grandes écoles to compete with their
American counterparts.
—
Courrier
Cadres
April 10-16, 2003
GERMANY
German
University Rankings
The Center for Higher Education Development
and the magazine Stern have put together a ranking of German universities
that is now available on the German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD) Web site in English.
The site
makes available information on degree courses and study programs with
details of their specific strengths and weaknesses. The ranking does not
follow the American model of league tables; rather, the universities are
simply ranked in a top, middle or bottom group.
—
German
Academic Exchange Service
Business
School of the Future Opens
A business school opened this spring on three campuses based in Berlin,
Munich and Cologne. The European
School of Management and Technology (ESMT) was created through a foundation
supported by 26 major German companies and organizations.
ESMT claims
to be committed to the development of a new concept of business leadership,
which preaches individual and societal progress as a sound basis for doing
business. ESMT offers degree programs and training sessions for executives.
—
ESMT
news release
May 26, 2003
MACEDONIA
Tetovo
University to Gain Official Recognition
Education and Science Minister Aziz Pollozhani announced on June 27 that
the government has decided to recognize the original private university
in Tetovo, thus legalizing diplomas—past, present and future—issued
by the institution. Pollozhani said that by September the university could
become the country’s third state-run university in addition to those
in Skopje and Bitola.
Since its
inception in the early 1990s, Tetovo University has sparked heated debate
between ethnic Albanians and the Macedonian majority, the latter considering
it a hotbed of Albanian separatism. Pollozhani said that legalization
of the Albanian-language university is necessary because a second OSCE-sponsored
university in Tetovo, the University
of Southeast Europe, (see
May/June issue WENR) has obviously not resolved the Albanian communities’
higher-education problems.
—
RFE/RL
July 11, 2003
MALTA
University
of London Degrees on Offer
St. Martin’s Institute of Information
Technology has linked with the University
of London to offer undergraduate-level degree courses in computing
and information systems and management and information systems.
The courses
are open to EU and non-EU nationals alike as St. Martin’s attempts
to establish itself as a regional hub in the Mediterranean basin. For
the University of London this is not a new concept, with over 12,000 students
reading external programs in the two Southeast Asian educational hubs
of Hong Kong and Singapore.
St. Martin’s
has set up a representative office in Sofia, Bulgaria, and next year hopes
to set up another office in Cairo as it attempts to attract students from
the Balkans and Middle East.
—
The
Malta Independent
June 16, 2003
NETHERLANDS
Private
Law School Opens
The Amsterdam Nyenrode Law School, a
private law school, was officially opened on May 27 in Breukelen. The
new institution is a joint initiative by the Universiteit
van Amsterdam and Universiteit
Nyenrode and starting this year will be offering a master’s
in law, with a specialization in international business transactions and
law.
—
Educationews
June 18, 2003
SLOVAKIA
Hungarian
University Planned for 2004
The southern Slovak town of Komárno will play host to a Hungarian-language
university in September 2004, if the Slovak parliament endorses a recently
agreed upon cabinet plan. The mayor of Komárno said he expects
the university to eventually attract about 1,500 students studying in
three faculties: pedagogy, commerce and theology.
According to the 2001 census, 507,000 people reported the Hungarian language
to be their mother tongue, with only 5.3 percent having a university education
compared with 10.4 percent of Slovaks. According to the cabinet plan,
20,000 university-educated Hungarians are needed before the minority catches
up to the Slovak figure.
—
The
Slovak Spectator
March 24, 2003
SWITZERLAND
HEC,
Neuchâtel Merge
The economics department of the University
of Neuchâtel will be taken over by the business school HEC
Lausanne, affiliated with the University
of Lausanne.
The respective
cantonal councils for the two universities have adopted a common declaration
of intent to regroup their economics departments in the aim of improving
their international competitiveness. For both cantons, this innovative
merger is in line with the development of Swiss policy on higher education
and will be followed by further mergers in psychology and theology departments.
—
AGEFI
March 25, 2003
UNITED KINGDOM
Residence
Permit Required for Studies of at Least Six Months
From Nov. 13 onward, overseas students destined for higher studies in
the United Kingdom will have to obtain a U.K. Residence Permit, in an
effort by the British government to curb illegal immigrants.
The ruling
affects 10 countries and will be enforced for individuals who intend to
reside in the United Kingdom for more than six months. Affected countries
are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore,
South Africa, South Korea and the United Status. Officials say that these
10 countries have been identified because they are the ones with the highest
number of long-term visitors to the United Kingdom.
—
The
Star
June 22, 2003
Overseas
Students to Undergo Closer Scrutiny
Universities have agreed to tighten the vetting of overseas research students
in an attempt to prevent potential terrorists from infiltrating British
laboratories and obtaining expertise in sensitive research areas.
Names and
details of postgraduate applicants in 21 sensitive subject areas are to
be automatically sent to the Foreign Office under the new scheme. Universities
will be required to refer all research students from the 10 countries
on the list: Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea,
Pakistan and Syria.
—
The
Guardian
June 24, 2003
Institute
of Art Gains “University” Status
The Department of Education and Skills has approved the United Kingdom’s
first new university of the 21st century. The London
Institute, comprising five colleges, is to become a university of
the arts.
The institute,
which includes St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, will now
enter a process of consultation with all stakeholders to come up with
a new name, which is expected to be announced early next year.
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