World Education News and Reviews

September/October 2003

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Regional News

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Africa

CAMEROON

Eleven Unauthorized Private Universities

The Ministry of Education recently reiterated its rules for the authorization of private universities in Cameroon and warned that they have entered into a period of strict enforcement of those rules. The process of authorization for private institutions of higher education is a two-step procedure. First, the institution must gain a “creation agreement,” which provides access to bank loans and grants. The second stage is an "authorization to open” agreement, which allows an institution to enroll students.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education, there are 11 institutions that have received official authorization from the ministry to open. Seven others have gained the creation agreement but have not yet satisfied the conditions to gain authorization to open. These are: L’Université des Montagnes, Bamenda University of Science and Technology, l’Ecole Supérieure des Technologies avancées, Douala Institute of Technology, l’Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et Modernes, l’Institut Supérieur Kemvouk and l’Institut Universitaire des Sciences Technologiques Nanfah. Four institutions are functioning without either agreement: Hautes Etudes Canadiennes et Internationales, Institut Supérieur de Gestion et des Affaires, Cambridge International College–the British College, International University of Bamenda.

— Cameroon Tribune
Sept. 12, 2003

ETHIOPIA

AACC Offers Degree Program

The Addis Ababa Commercial College (AACC) started offering its first degree program this September. The three-year business administration degree course will be offered as a regular program or as a four-year extension program. The degree program is accredited by the Ministry of Education.

— Addis Tribune
July 25, 2003

KENYA

Aga Khan U. Postgraduate Course to Start in November

The Aga Khan University, East Africa’s first private medical school, will offer postgraduate courses in internal medicine, general surgery and radiology beginning in November of this year.

The curriculum for the courses is the result of a consensus reached by medical experts from the University of Nairobi, Moi University, Aga Khan University and the Aga Khan Hospitals in Nairobi and Karachi through a number of workshops. According to academics from Moi University, this is the first time universities in East Africa have come together to agree on course curriculum for one university.

The university’s first program in East Africa is in advanced nursing studies offered at the Kenya Campus, next to the Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi. The course is accredited by the Kenya Commission for Higher Education and enrolls students for diploma and bachelor-level studies.

— The Nation
Aug. 27, 2003

Two Polytechnics to Be Upgraded

The Kenya and Mombasa Polytechnics will be upgraded and transformed into university constituent colleges, the government announced in August. According to the announcement, the two institutions will begin preparations to offer degree programs in collaboration with one of Kenya’s public universities.

When finalized, the Kenya Polytechnic will offer degree courses in computer science, electrical engineering, civil engineering, architecture and aeronautic engineering, according to Minister of Education George Saitoti. Final approval will rest on a decision from the Commission for Higher Education. Mombassa Polytechnic will specialize in marine sciences.

— The East African Standard
Aug. 16, 2003

University Offers First Online Course

The University of Nairobi has launched a distance learning bachelor's program in education. The university becomes the first institution in East and Central Africa to launch a program of this kind. So far, 150 teachers nationwide have enrolled for the program.

— The East African Standard
Aug. 13, 2003

LESOTHO

Country’s Only University Shuts Indefinitely

The National University of Lesotho, the nation’s only university, closed indefinitely in mid-September after student protests over nonpayment of government stipends turned violent. The university board decided to close the institution until the Lesotho government resolves the stipend dispute. Early estimates suggested that classes would be canceled for at least two weeks.

A majority of the 6,000 students studying at the university receive scholarships from the Lesotho Ministry of Finance. A stipend for food and books is deducted from the scholarship, and is supposed to be issued to the students each year to make their own purchases. Graduates are supposed to pay back 50 percent of their scholarships, but they have been reneging on their debts, placing a strain on the scholarship fund.

Delays in stipend payments happen every year, but student demonstrations have not turned violent before. Students, according to a government spokesman, feel more uncertain this year, as the Lesotho government follows other countries in shifting its tuition policy so that students pay more of the cost of their education, or take out commercial loans.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sept. 18, 2003

LIBERIA

Booker T. Provides Hope for the Future

Booker T. Washington Institute is Liberia’s sole surviving institution of higher learning; the University of Liberia was destroyed in August by the militias of exiled leader Charles Taylor before he left for Nigeria on Aug. 11. The rest of the school system is a wreck.

Named after the black American inventor and educator, Booker T. Washington Institute owes its current existence to the aging group of teachers and overseers who watched over it day and night for the past 16 months while the rest of Liberia fell deeper into the latest cycle of violence in the civil war that has ravaged the country over the past 14 years. With the help of outside donors, the institute was patched up enough by 2000 to admit its first full class of 840 students in a decade. They learned accounting, engineering, business, home economics, secretarial work, auto mechanics, agricultural sciences, carpentry, masonry and plumbing – skills needed to rebuild the country. Then in April 2002, LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) rebel militia raided the institute and terrorized students, who have since been too scared to return.

With the nation experiencing relative calm since the removal of Charles Taylor and the introduction of United Nations forces, the institute hopes to reopen as soon as possible, perhaps this winter if funds can be raised to buy books and pay teachers. It will take years to restore the campus. Bids submitted in 1999 for the job ranged from US$18 million to US$25 million. The other necessary ingredient for reopening is security; there is little in Liberia today. Alumni in the United States sent a container filled with teaching supplies last month. All were looted in Monrovia’s port.

— The New York Times
Sept. 1, 2003

NIGERIA

NUC Releases 2003 University Rankings

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has released its second list of university rankings, following up on its rankings from last year. The criteria used for the assessment exercise include: academic content, philosophy and objectives of programs, academic regulation of students’ work, quality of academic and non-academic personnel and physical facilities. The universities were grouped as first- and second-generation and state-owned universities.

In agriculture, the University of Maiduguri came first, followed by the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and Federal University of Technology, Yola. In education, the University of Benin came first, followed by Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye and the University of Ado-Ekiti. In engineering, the University of Benin again ranked first, followed by Bayero University, Kano and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. In law, the University of Lagos topped the rankings, followed by the University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Maiduguri. In health sciences, the University of Port Harcourt topped the rankings, while the University of Jos topped the pharmacy and natural science rankings. The University of Lagos topped the rankings for social sciences. In the overall ranking of first-generation universities, the University of Lagos topped the list, while the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the University of Benin came in second and third, respectively. The University of Port Harcourt topped the rankings for second-generation universities, while Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho topped the rankings for state universities.

Of the 185 programs previously denied accreditation from the first round of assessments, 19.4 gained full accreditation, 71 percent gained interim status and 9.7 remained unaccredited.

— Daily Trust
Aug. 5, 2003

WAEC Issues Photo-Embossed Certificates

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has launched its latest anti-forgery initiative by introducing certificates embossed with the candidates’ photograph. The photograph makes the frequently forged WAEC certificates much more difficult to duplicate and allows institutions of higher education and employers a greater deal of certainty that credentials presented to them are earned and genuine.

The effort, according to WAEC, is being done to check the growing rate of certificate racketeering and forgery, which has characterized Nigeria’s educational system over the past 20 years. Coming on the heels of the recently launched WAEC Internet connectivity project WAECDIRECT (see March/April issue WENR), the latest move shows a commitment to restoring credibility to WAEC credentials. Some of the features on the new embossed certificates include gender identification, date of birth, the coat of arms of the WAEC member-country, a watermark of the WAEC logo and the candidate’s photograph.

— P.M. News
Aug. 19, 2003

SOUTH AFRICA

New Admissions Plan Far from Popular

Academics in South Africa have expressed their anger over a government plan, revealed in August, to centralize admissions for all the nation’s public colleges and universities.

The proposed plan recommends that, by 2007, all prospective undergraduates apply only to a new National Education Information and Application Service, rather than directly to the college of their choice. Since the plan has been made public, complaints have arisen that such an agency would threaten universities’ autonomy by handing admissions decisions over to the state. The ministry denies that such action is contemplated; rather, the idea of centralized admissions is modeled, in part, on existing agencies in Ireland, Kenya and Turkey.

The South African Universities Vice Chancellors Association has stated that it would support an agency that allowed each student to submit a single application for consideration by all of the country’s public institutions, as long as students also were able to apply directly to any single institution. The association said that it would be diametrically opposed to a second option that would see the agency making admissions decisions based on each institution’s criteria.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sept. 5, 2003

East Cape Merger Plans Under Review

The merger of the University of Transkei, Border Technikon and the Eastern Cape Technikon took another step towards meeting the January 2005 target date with the submission of a joint merger proposal to national Education Minister Kader Asmal in August.

The three institutions must now await the minister’s response to the merger plan. The name chosen for the new institution, although still under wraps, is said to be that of a deceased liberation struggle veteran.

— East Cape News
Aug. 26, 2003

Northern Cape to Get Tertiary Institution

Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico has welcomed the unveiling of the only tertiary institution in the province, saying it will go a long way in building intellectual capacity within civil society and business.

The yet-to-be-named institution is a result of the Ministry of Education’s restructuring of the higher-education institutional landscape, which aims for better efficiency and equality of access to education in post-apartheid South Africa. The institution will be a National institution for Higher Education, which is described as technikon and university hybrid. The restructuring and merger plans were approved at the end of 2002.

— BuaNews
June 22, 2003

Technikon Label Thrown Out

Some of South Africa’s best-known tertiary institutions will be operating under new names next year, with the term technikon being dispatched to the garbage heap of history to join other relics of the apartheid era.

Education Minister Kader Asmal’s announcement in October that technikon will be abolished in favor of “universities of technology” is a sign of the radical shakeup that is taking place in South African higher education. The name change will give South Africa’s institutions a more universally recognizable name; technikon is a uniquely South African term that for 20 years had little recognition in other countries.

The new universities of technology will be separate from traditional universities and will retain their current focus. Certificate and diploma courses will continue to compose 70 percent of the programs, but there will also be a push for research programs, Asmal emphasized.

— Business Day
Oct. 22, 2003

Names of Merging Institutions Announced

Education Minister Kader Asmal announced Oct. 21 the names of new institutions of higher education as the result of ongoing mergers. Restructuring South Africa’s tertiary education landscape (see WENR Nov./Dec. 2002) will take at least two years, and the process will begin in January next year, the minister added.

New names (as of Jan. 1, 2004):

• The Universities of Potchefstroom, North West and the Sebokeng campus of Vista University will be North West University.

• Pretoria, Northern Gauteng and North West technikons will merge to become Tshwane University of Technology.

• The University of South Africa (Unisa) and Vista University Distance Education Campus will retain the name Unisa.

• Mamelodi campus of Vista University will be incorporated into the University of Pretoria.

• Welkom campus of Vista University will be incorporated into Technikon Free State. A name has not been chosen yet.

• The Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University will be incorporated into the University of Port Elizabeth.

• The East Rand and Soweto campuses of Vista University will be incorporated into Rand Afrikaans University.

• The dental faculty of University Stellenbosch will be incorporated into the University of the Western Cape.

• The East London campus of Rhodes University will be incorporated into the University of Fort Hare.

• The University of Natal will merge with the University of Durban-Westville. A name has not been chosen yet.

New names (as of Jan. 1, 2005):

• The University of Port Elizabeth and Port Elizabeth Technikon (including Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University) will be called Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

• Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon will be called Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

• Rand Afrikaans University and Technikon Witwatersrand (including the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University) will become the University of Johannesburg.

• University of Transkei, Border Technikon and Eastern Cape Technikon will be called Eastern Cape University of Technology.

• Medical University of South Africa and the University of the North will be called the University of Limpopo.

— Ministry of Education
Oct. 21, 2003

UGANDA

Kenya Blacklists Ugandan University

The Kenyan government has been advising students against attending Kampala International University (KIU), which it claims offers a “substandard education.”

Officials from KIU, which hosts over 1,500 Kenyan students, claim that they have resolved the issue with Kenyan officials; however, according to New Vision sources, the ministry denies the issue has been cleared up. Although no official reason has been given for the decision, sources within the ministry said NIU was “fake” and a danger to Kenyan students who may not get certificates commensurate with their standards. In August, the Kenyan government said it would not offer places in six public universities to over 40,000 students who had met entry requirements, leaving some parents with no option but to resort to more affordable Ugandan universities.

— New Vision
Aug. 29, 2003

Northern Region Wins Battle for New University

The Ministry of Education unveiled an ambitious plan in July to create the first university in northern Uganda. Unlike most of the country’s institutions, though, Nile University will offer courses with an emphasis on practical skills and modern technology.

The university will help revive an area deprived of education for the past 30 years. The recently deceased, exiled leader Idi Amin closed many of the region’s schools during his brutal reign in the 1970s. Many of those who have now been through secondary school cannot afford, or are reluctant, to travel to universities in the capital, Kampala, or farther south. Students going into higher education in Uganda rely heavily on scholarships from business and missionary organizations, which still run many of the country’s secondary schools. The government offers only limited funding, and the application process for money is dogged with controversy.

Nile University will be built near the town of Aura and enrolled its first intake of 60 students to its temporary campus at the end of August. It is hoped that enrollment numbers will eventually swell to 10,000. Students will take a foundation year in computer skills, English and mathematics before embarking on one of four three-year degrees in agriculture, computing, teacher training and business studies. New laws coming into force next year will tighten controls on the setting up of universities. All higher education institutions will need to be vetted by the government before they can call themselves universities. Nile University already has government approval.

— The Guardian
Aug. 1, 2003

ZIMBABWE

Strike On, Strike Off

A recent strike, which is one of a series by academic and non-academic staff at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), seems to be symptomatic of the current state of the tertiary education sector in Zimbabwe. It comes just a few months after the last strike in April (see May/June issue WENR) over the same issue of remuneration. Lecturers have had to withhold the processing of examination marks for university students this year, which has led to the failure of thousands of students to graduate.

At the UZ medical school, the number of incoming students for the new academic year has been drastically reduced due to an exodus of lecturers. Sources at the medical school say that 15 lecturers have resigned since last year, leaving the institution with five lecturers. UZ does not seem to be the only university facing such problems, as even private universities have been affected by the shortage of lecturers.

Although the strike was called off on Sept. 12, the situation is unlikely to improve as inflation hits 500 percent and the country is, both economically and socially, in a serious downward spiral. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests that many lecturers have left the country for better-paying jobs overseas, and it seems that it will take more than fair wages to solve the problems in higher education that have such serious consequences for Zimbabwe’s future.

— All Africa
Sept. 1-15, 2003

Crises Slam Education

Once hailed as the pride of Africa, Zimbabwe’s education system has been engulfed by the country’s political and economic crises. The University of Zimbabwe, once the pinnacle of the system, is now finding it almost impossible to keep functioning, as teachers have been beaten, forced to attend “re-education camps” and killed, according to union officials. This is a far cry from 1980, when President Robert Mugabe’s government made education its first priority. Primary and secondary education was virtually free and within the reach of almost everyone. The country achieved impressive literacy rates of more than 90 percent, making Zimbabwe’s education system one of the most effective in the developing world.

But the system has suffered 10 years of decline, and since 2000 has been one of the main victims of the country’s economic chaos and political repression. Speaking at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies earlier this year, Chairman of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Brian Raftopoulos said, “Problems [in the education sphere] have centered around: the ‘disciplining’ of teachers for their support of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change; the militarization of youth centers; the struggle by teachers for better conditions of service in a rapidly declining economy; and struggles over curriculum, in particular the teaching of history.”

The increasing percentage of children staying out of school due to tuition costs and the harassment, detention, arrests, torture and the unprecedented unleashing of state security agents on the schools illustrate how deeply the ongoing political and economic turmoil has reached into all sectors of the country. Yet, Raftopoulos and other education specialists believe the country’s schools can rebound if Zimbabwe can negotiate a process of transition that will lead to a fresh round of fair and free elections.

— The Teacher
Sept. 8, 2003

Americas

BRAZIL

Promoting Equality in Education

The new minister for education Cristovam Buarque in a declaration to the World Education Forum recently outlined his commitment to ending social exclusion and creating a school system that “Brazil has owed to its children for the past 500 years.”

The newly elected Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s (Lula) government has inherited a country with nearly 20 million illiterates and a segmented, differentiated, unequal and exclusionary education system. In an interview he gave to the newspaper Folha Dirigida Mr. Buarque outlined the three aspects of his project: “First, set up a vast nation-wide program to abolish illiteracy within a period of four years; second, create a school system that corresponds to the needs of the twenty-first century; third, build a new Brazilian university that will be able to keep pace with the speed at which knowledge is generated and disseminated and that also reflects the ethical requirements in a world in which exclusion is rampant.”

Among the immediate courses of action adopted by the government, the following are noteworthy: gradually increase school scholarships (currently a monthly stipend per student just under US$5, up to a limit of US$15 per family); replace the university entrance examination (vetsibular) with progressive evaluation throughout secondary school education; expand public financing in order to assist students enrolled in private universities; provide university training to teachers who currently practice their profession without the required degree; raise the salaries of education workers; double the number of places in public universities through distance learning and cooperation with the Landless Workers’ Movement on education in rural areas.

— Hemispheric Secretariat on Education Newsletter
June 2003

CANADA

Alberta Adopts 4-Point Grading Scale

The four universities and five university colleges in Alberta have adopted a letter grading system with a four-point scale of numerical equivalents for calculating grade-point averages. Prior to Sept. 1, the institutions were using different scales: a 4-point scale, a 9-point scale and a percentage scale. The new common scale allows students to transfer without having their grades converted from one scale to another, making mobility within the province more convenient.

— University Alberta Media Advisory

CHILE

Voluntary Accreditation Available for Private Institutions

The National Council for the Accreditation of School Management (Consejo Nacional de Certificación de la Calidad de laGestión Escolar) was recently set up. This new body’s central task will be to develop and assess the standards and procedures of accreditation as well as to certify schools’ compliance with these criteria throughout the country. School assessment will rely on an external technical process and will provide the council with a basis for attributing a three-year “seal of quality” to institutions that guarantees a level of efficiency in management.

The council was established on the initiative of the Fundación Chile and is entirely autonomous of the Ministry of Education. One of the pioneers in the field of private quality control in Chile is the Colegio San Lorenzo de Rancagua, which contracted the services of the North American firm Unwriters Laboratories Inc. in order to acquire ISO 9001 quality certification.

In a country where there has been almost complete deregulation of the education industry and the state is a virtual spectator with the only organ of control, the Higher Education Council—giving complete autonomy to institutions once the initial period of accreditation is complete—must be seen as a positive, and will give parents some kind of benchmark when looking at the quality of private providers. The process is voluntary and costs institutions between US$700 and US$2,100.

— Hemispheric Secretariat on Education Newsletter
June 2003

MEXICO

Shortage of University Seats Leads to Unrest

Student unrest around the country in recent weeks reflects the growing frustration that Mexicans are experiencing over the government’s failure to meet the demand for higher education.

According to the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Juan Ramón de laFuente, the situation will reach fever pitch if the government does not create 800,000 more undergraduate spots. Such an increase would bring the total number of undergraduates at private and public universities in Mexico to 2.6 million. In 2001 at the National Autonomous University, 88,584 applicants competed for 33,000 spots. This year, 134,894 competed for the same number of seats. Other public universities face similar demand.

Mexico’s president, Vincente Fox, said in a speech last month that the government had opened 54 universities and technical colleges and had created 200,000 undergraduate spaces since December 2000. In addition, he said, the government has increased the higher education budget by 20 percent, to US$5.4 billion.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sept. 12, 2003

University of the Incarnate Word Opens Campus in Mexico City

The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) in San Antonio celebrated in August the opening of its second joint academic venture outside the United States. The Centro Internacional Universitario (CIU) was inaugurated Aug. 16 and marks the second international venture for UIW after the opening of China Incarnate Word in Guangzhou in 2000. The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

— San Antonio Business Journal
Aug. 5, 2003

Private Universities Closed

According to education officials, the Mexican government has shut down 88 private institutions of higher education over the past two years for failing to comply with basic education standards. The move comes in the light of mushrooming numbers of private institutions that have grown in number from 67 in 1975 to 1,368 today, according to government figures.

As highlighted by recent student demonstrations, public universities are not meeting the growing demand for higher education among middle-class Mexicans. Filling the gap has been the proliferation of private institutions, which now account for 56 percent of students. According to a report in Reforma, a Mexico City newspaper, many of these institutions lack even the most basic of facilities: engineering and science degrees offered at institutions without laboratories and classes taking place in professors’ houses or garages to cut costs.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
May 29, 2003

UNITED STATES of AMERICA

Miami Dade Offers Bachelor's Degrees

Miami-Dade Community College, the nation’s largest educational institution, has changed its name to Miami-Dade College to reflect its new curriculum. Beginning this semester, the college will offer bachelor’s degrees.

Impact of New Visa Regulations and SEVIS Still Unclear

Many schools across the country are reporting a drop in the number of international students and delays in the processing of student visas, yet the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) maintains that the number of student visas issued so far this year is typical of recent years. What gives?

Enrollment in English-language courses across the nation this summer was reportedly down 30 percent from previous years, with declines especially sharp for students from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. UC Berkeley expects to lose 50 to 60 of its 522 graduate students this semester, and foreign-student enrollment at San Francisco State is flat after an average of 11 percent growth every year since 1994, officials said. International student advisors fear that the enrollment decline will be cumulative as students see the problems their friends are having with the United States and apply instead to schools in Canada and the United Kingdom, which are wooing students with more lenient visa policies. According to a spokesman for BICE, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, the number of student visas issued this year, 233,000, is typical of past years.

Most questions center on the performance of the Students and Exchange Visitor Information System–SEVIS–and on new face-to-face interviews for visa applicants at embassies around the world that, for many, can mean days of travel to capital cities for what, essentially, can be a lottery. More than 1 million students are now in the SEVIS database, representing about 7,000 schools across the country. But the work is only beginning. Updates on new arrivals, as well as changes of address, changes of courses taken and other details, must be reported via SEVIS within 30 days of the start of term. More than 600 schools — mostly small, private ones — are still awaiting government certification to use SEVIS, which takes 60 to 90 days to get. While they wait, foreign students who plan to attend those schools have been delayed at American ports of entry because they are not in the system.

Foreign students are not the only ones under the microscope. Since the 1980s, the number of educational institutions that have accepted at least one foreign student totals more than 77,000. That means about 70,000 are not yet part of SEVIS. The Department of Homeland Security is conducting site visits and has found that more than a few of those “schools” are actually post-office boxes. The most in-depth study of international student numbers, “Open Doors” (conducted by the Institute for International Education), will publish its 2003 findings in November. Many are expecting these numbers to reflect the real state of play for America’s student export market. The institute has recently opened a discussion forum on its Web site to provide an opportunity for the higher-education community to share their experiences and perspectives on the drops in foreign student enrollments on U.S. campuses.

— Nick Clark, Assistant Editor WENR

Proposed SEVIS Student User Fee Announced

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in October a proposed service fee that international students with F, M or J visa status would have to pay for their federally mandated inclusion in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Interested parties have until Dec. 26 to submit comments.

The rule would set the SEVIS user fee at $100 for international students. The fee is intended to defray the cost of administering the electronic tracking system. If the fee passes scrutiny early next year, it could be implemented before the summer 2004 semester. Failure to pay would be considered a violation of status. The fee is not expected to be made retroactive to include all students currently participating in the system.

— American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
Oct. 27, 2003

Studies Portray Decline in Foreign Enrollments

The number of foreign students enrolling in U.S. institutions of higher education may be declining for the first time in decades, according to two studies released in early November. The annual Open Doors report by the Institute for International Education (IIE) shows foreign student enrollment grew only 0.6 percent in 2002-03, the first full academic year after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In contrast, enrollments grew a steady 5 percent for each of the previous five years. In addition, in a recent survey of 276 universities, most reported some decline in international enrollment this fall, suggesting that final student numbers may fall in the 2003-04 academic year for the first time since 1971.

The IIE report shows 586,000 foreign students were enrolled in U.S. colleges in 2002-03. The largest increase in applications came from India, China and South Korea, masking a decline in applications from Muslim countries following the overhaul of the U.S. visa application process. The number of students applying to study in the United States from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia fell 25 percent, while applications from India jumped 12 percent.

In a Nutshell

• India sends the most international students (74,603, up 12 percent), followed by China (64,757, up 2 percent), Korea (51,519, up 5 percent), Japan (45,960, down 2 percent) and Taiwan (28,017, down 3 percent).

• Asian students comprise 51 percent of all international enrollments, followed by students from Europe (13 percent), Latin America (12 percent), Africa (7 percent), the Middle East (6 percent), North America and Oceania (5 percent each).

• The University of Southern California is the most popular destination for overseas students (6,270 students), followed by New York University (5,454) and Columbia University (5,148).

• New York City has more international students than any other metropolitan area in the nation, with 36,086. The Los Angeles area hosts the second-highest number of foreign students (29,486), followed by Boston (24,160), Washington, D.C. (20,678) and Chicago (17,319).

• The most popular fields of study for international students in the United States are business and management (20 percent) and engineering (17 percent). After two years of impressive growth, the number of international students studying mathematics and computer science has decreased 6 percent, although these students still make up 12 percent of the total.

• International students contribute nearly $12 billion to the U.S. economy.

Details from the full report can be accessed from the IIE Web site.

Asia/Pacific

AFGANISTAN

Private Universities to Fill Demand

Despite Afghanistan’s poverty, international institutions of higher education say there is a market for fee-paying education, and there are now plans for at least two international colleges in Kabul. Demand is high in a country where teaching and education are well respected but years of conflict have brought the state system to its knees.

There is talk of setting up an American University in Afghanistan, along the lines of the long-established institutions in Cairo and Beirut. There apparently are enough people with money to make private schooling a viable prospect -- Ariana Gulf Medical College, with financing from the United Arab Emirates, has just announced it will open its doors in Kabul to 100 students for the 2004 academic year. Those students will pay $US10,000 a year to follow a six-year program, using English as the medium of instruction.

There is already a burgeoning private-college sector that mainly offers courses in English and computing, despite the 1964 Constitution that stipulates the “state alone has the right and duty to establish and administer the institutions of public and higher learning.” A new constitution is expected to be completed in December, before either the American university or the medical college will open.

— Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Nov. 3, 2003

AUSTRALIA

Associate Degrees Given the Go-Ahead

Private colleges have been given the green light to offer associate degrees after a hard-fought two-year national campaign. State, territory and federal education ministries decided in July to include associate degrees in the Australian Qualifications Framework as a higher education qualification.

Controversy has centered on whether the qualification should be a higher education, vocational or dual-sector one. The Ministerial Council on Education decided that it should be only a higher education qualification. But vocational colleges will still be able to deliver it as long as they go through state higher-education accreditation processes.

— The Australian
July 16, 2003

Technology Institutes Combine to Offer International Joint Degrees

Institutes of technology in Australia, the United States and Canada have established an education network to develop an “international skills passport” that will give students global employment opportunities.

The Box Hill Institute of Technology and Further Education in Melbourne developed the scheme with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and the Colorado Mountain College. The ultimate goal is to allow students to gain employment in any continent by providing them with industry-focused courses that would be recognized worldwide.

Student and staff exchanges have already taken place in trials of the scheme last year, in which Melbourne students attended the Canadian and U.S. colleges. The first semester-long exchange, in which Box Hill students will attend classes at Alberta College, has been planned for later this year. Students will receive a Box Hill diploma with a logo from the Canadian institute indicating the work completed there.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
May 16, 2003

Off-Shore Institutions to Be Audited

The National Quality Agency has backed federal moves to conduct audits of Australian higher education activities abroad on a whole-of-country basis but has warned of the risk of overlap and duplication.

Malaysia, one of the biggest source countries for Australian universities, has been cropping up as a possible first target for audits. Details of the government’s plans are still scant, though. Education Minister Brendan Nelson has earmarked A$590,000 a year from 2005 for the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) to conduct the audits. The move comes amid a growing push to tighten quality control in the expanding international education market that, in Australia, is worth A$4 billion a year.

At present, AUQA audits individual universities. That includes looking at their operations off-shore and sometimes having auditors visit those. Whole-of-country audits would be a significant development in an Australian quality audit system that is still in its infancy.

— The Australian
June 18, 2003

Forgeries Play Havoc with Visa Process

The increasing sophistication of forged documents and the surging volume of applicants – especially from China – are beginning to clog the visa-processing system of overseas students. The Department of Immigration told an international education conference in October that forgeries, although small in number (1 percent to 2 percent of 90,000 applicants annually), are becoming harder to detect.

According to Australian officials, document fraud – usually forged qualifications – is especially prominent in China, Vietnam, India, Pakistan and parts of Eastern Europe and South America. Modern publishing software is making detection of forgeries more difficult. Delays occur when fraud is suspected and documents have to be checked against records at the source institution. Students from India and China show the most concern about delays in visa applications.

— The Australian
Oct. 29, 2003

New University to Offer Australia’s First Online Law Degree

Charles Darwin University, to be established Jan. 1 through the merger of Northern Territory University and Centralian College, will offer the country’s first external, fully interactive online bachelor of law degree, giving students living in remote areas the opportunity to experience lectures, debates and all other interactive aspects of a degree from their home.

— EDNA Online
Oct. 10, 2003

BANGLADESH

All-Female University to Open

Work has begun on an all-women’s residential international university in Kaliakor, scheduled for completion no later than 2005.

A five-year residential study program with master’s degrees combining liberal arts with professional training in engineering and other fields will be rare, if not unique, in Asia. The course of study will include three years of undergraduate study, primarily in the humanities, combined with two years of professional training in one of five fields: management, public policy, education, environmental engineering and information technology.

Those involved envision a student body of 2,000 from 20 Asian countries. It will be staffed by Asian faculty who will teach courses in English.

— Women’s Enews
June 18, 2003

CHINA

University Complex in Beihai

Construction of a university park in southern China’s Guangxi province got under way in July. The complex will play host to a number of institutions. Those already invested in the project include Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Sino-French Association for the Development of Education.

The estimated cost of the project is about US$1.2 billion, it is due for completion by April 2004, with the first 1,500 students expected to enroll by fall of the same year. It will be located in Beihai on the border with Macau.

— People’s Daily
July 31, 2003

Shanghai JiaoTong Builds International Partnerships

Students at Shanghai’s JiaoTong University now have a number of international options in the course of their studies due to a number of cooperation agreements that the institution has entered into recently.

Students from the mechanical engineering department will soon be able to participate in a joint program with the University of Michigan that covers undergraduate through doctoral level studies. Some students will go to Ann Arbor to pursue master’s degrees and then return to JiaoTong for three years of doctoral studies. At the business school, a recent agreement sees the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business offering its global executive MBA degree program for U.S. and Asia-Pacific nationals to begin in 2004. Future projects listed on the JiaoTong Web site feature names such as the University of London, the University of British Columbia, the University of Sydney and the University of Nottingham.

JiaoTong is also exporting programs and has recently set up an office at Nanyang Business School in Singapore, where it will offer an 18-month part-time MBA program resulting in a degree awarded by JiaoTong.

— JiaoTong media advisory
June 9, 2003

New Law Puts Growing Private Sector on Equal Footing

China has put into force a law giving private education providers equal status with state-owned schools. The private education sector has been growing ever since its initial vague recognition in the 1982 constitution that encouraged not just state-owned education providers, but "other entities." This language contributed to bureaucratic misconduct, lawsuits, and a yearning for greater clarity and support. Private-education providers have essentially held the status of nonprofit providers whereby "investment with no repayment," has been the official line. However, in reality private institutions have been allowed to make profits and therefore needed to pay taxes.

The nation's 1,300 non-governmental colleges service approximately three million students, or 10 percent of China's higher education enrollments, and have generated 300 billion RMB (US$36.1 billion) in revenue in the past 10 years. The new laws represent an effort by the national government to come to grips with the legal issues concerning private education in its current state and to clarify the previously opaque language legislating its provision.

The Law on Private Education Promotion, passed at the end of 2002 and effective Sept.1 this year, stipulates that "private-school investors can get a reasonable repayment after deducting schooling costs and reserving development funds and other expenses." Further laws recently passed give private schools an equal footing with state-owned schools in what the Economic Daily called "a marker of the great changes that have taken place in the educational system of the country". According to the law, non-state educational sectors can enjoy national and other preferential treatment in the management of schools. The law also regulates both the government's and the investor's activities in order to safeguard the legal rights and interests of the schools, students and staff. In effect, the law attempts to both promote and regulate private education.

It is important to note that although there are 1,300 private institutions of higher education licensed by the state, only 167 issue credentials recognized by the ministry of education as equal to those from a state school. Students enrolled in private schools have the option of sitting external exams in their programs of study that are offered by the state twice a year. If passed, the exams represent a validation of student knowledge and credit is accumulated towards the award of state-recognized credentials.

— Nick Clark, Assistant Editor WENR

Ministry to Evaluate Foreign Institutions

For students wishing to study abroad, the Ministry of Education plans to establish an official center to evaluate the quality of foreign institutions of education, with evaluation results to be posted at http://www.jsj.edu.cn. It expects to establish service standards for intermediary agencies and to train agency managers in a bid to curb “unethical” practices. The number of Chinese students studying abroad is increasing, and nearly 70 percent use the services of agents. Currently, there are 270 authorized agents in China and an untold number of unofficial “consultants.”

— Education Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003

INDIA

Chhattisgarh State Inundated with New Institutions

Thirty new private universities have set up in Chhattisgarh over the past six months, and another five are waiting in the wings. Chhattisgarh is a new state that was created in 2000 by splitting Madhya Paradesh into two states. The establishment of private institutions in the country has been on hold pending the passing of the Private Universities Bill, languishing in National Parliament since 1995. But Chhattisgarh passed the Private University Act last year, thereby becoming the first state in the country to allow private universities and opening the floodgates to for-profit institutions.

Students are reportedly flocking to newly created institutions from both within the state and from neighboring states, snapping up the opportunity to take classes at roughly half the cost of elsewhere in the country. Serious concern has been raised, however, that these institutions are not always entirely honorable in their intentions and that many institutions often lack the necessary infrastructure and faculty to offer acceptable standards of education. Some ask whether these degrees will be recognized elsewhere in the country and state that if these universities become discredited in the near future, the degrees they have issued will be worthless.

— Indiaedunews
July 28, 2003

Trade in Education Services Not a Go for India

India currently has no obligations to allow foreign educational services into the country under the 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The country is saying that it has no intention of making commitments to the contrary in the latest round of talks, despite pressure from major education providers such as the United States, the EU, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Indian institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management do have the potential to attract and supply foreign markets, especially in developing and neighboring countries, but India has decided to protect its own market rather than trying to pry open other markets. The industry seems to back the government’s stance. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has made statements indicating that India has nothing to gain from the liberalization of trade in educational services because it is a net importer—i.e., more students go abroad for education than India welcomes to its shores. Meanwhile, India is continuing its recent policy of regulating foreign activity in the country (see May/June and March/April issues WENR).

— The Times of India
Aug. 28, 2003

Tamil Nadu Open University Offers First Courses

This academic year sees the Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) offering certificate, diploma and degree programs in a number of faculties. The university has tied up with Indira Ghandi National Open University (IGNOU) to provide distance education and develop learning materials. Initially, TNOU will be using the IGNOU syllabus and materials for delivery of its courses, while developing its own educational infrastructure for course delivery.

The institution’s long-term plan envisions learning centers located across the country to enable face-to-face learning to supplement online courses. The institution has gained approval to offer B.A., M.Com, M.A., MBA, diploma and certificate programs. All programs are based on a full-time load of 36 credit points per year.

— Indiaedunews
Aug. 4, 2003

Manipal: Education Mecca

Dr. Ramadas Pai is the driving force (and pocketbook) behind one of India's largest educational empires, or, as described on its Web site, "A Mecca of education and health services." Situated in the province of Karnataka, the town of Manipal has grown to accommodate 53 schools and colleges, 30,000 students, and 3,000 instructors and administrators under the umbrella of the Manipal Group and its deemed university, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. The Pais family, whose corporate entity is the Manipal Group, owns it all.

The Manipal Group's schools and colleges have always followed a unique self-financing model. Simply put, that means admission is based on merit and ability to pay. Today, 25 percent of the places in all institutions run by the group are reserved for non-resident Indians who, along with foreign students from 32 countries, are charged a tuition fee that is typically four times what locals pay. The Manipal Group also operates colleges in Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

— Business Today
Aug. 17, 2003

U.S. Drops Student Visa Fees

The United States has scrapped student visa issuance fees for Indian students, although application fees of US$100 for potential students wishing to study in the States still apply. It was made clear that the application fee was not being eliminated and must still be paid for all visa applications that currently require the payment of an application fee. These include applications for students. The new fee structure began Oct. 11.

— Hindustan Times
Oct. 7, 2003

IIT Abroad?

In an effort to market Indian education abroad, the government has been discussing plans to promote the world-renowned Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). According to a release, the government will first set up IIT campuses abroad, in such developing nations with growing demand as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mauritius and the countries of West and Southeast Asia. Expert committees believe institutions with good brand equity operating abroad can establish a base from which other institutions can springboard.

A recent proposal from Singapore to facilitate the presence of an IIT for postgraduate education and research is fast-tracking the Indian government’s plans. At a recent IIT council meeting, members saw the benefit of working with other top Singapore institutions. In addition, IIT’s presence will help India develop links with Southeast Asia and China, as well as support the promotion of its economic and commercial interests in the Asia-Pacific Region.

— Economic Times
Sept. 23, 2003

MALAYSIA

International University Links with U.K. Institutions

INTI Management Services (IMS), a wholly owned subsidiary of INTI International Group of Colleges, has forged an agreement with U.K. eUniversities ((UKeU); see January/February issue WENR) to market and support the online provision of degree courses from the various universities offering courses through the UKeU platform. IMS will function as UKeU’s accredited partner in Malaysia, upon approval from the Ministry of Education.

Currently, only four programs are available through UKeU, although more are in the pipeline. UKeU was set up on the initiative of the British government as a platform for British universities to offer programs online to students around the globe. INTI International Group of Colleges has five campuses in Malaysia and five internationally in Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam and Beijing. INTI has a number of agreements with institutions from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand, offering their programs through licensing agreements.

— The Star
Aug. 3, 2003

MMU Expands into Oman and Thailand

Multimedia University, Malaysia’s first government-approved private university, plans to open branches in Oman and Thailand within the next six months.

Each campus will initially enroll about 30 students into a bachelor of business administration program in the Oman campus, and e-business programs in Thailand. The university also has branches in Ghana, South Africa and China.

— The Star
Aug. 3, 2003

Technical University Opens

Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) is the latest university to open in Malaysia and joins the list of 16 public and 21 private universities in the country. It is the result of the integration of various Mara institutes with input from France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. It will be managed by Universiti Teknikal Mara.

The institution is modeled after the German fachhochschulen, where students spend a few semesters on practical training. It aims to produce graduates specializing in engineering and technology, with about 60 percent of its curriculum devoted to hands-on learning.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

3 Private Institutions Given ‘University-College’ Status

Ikram College of Technology (renamed Kuala Lumpur Infrastructure University College), University College Sedaya International and International University College of Technology Twintech were upgraded to university-college status in September.

A relatively new innovation, university-college status allows private colleges to offer their own bachelor- and master- level degrees. Kolej Universiti Teknologi dan Pengurusan Malaysia was the first private institution to be granted university-college status in 2001. However, other colleges were hesitant to seek a status upgrade because they would have to give up their staple of franchised foreign degree programs and offer their own degrees instead. A recent policy change allowing university colleges to offer franchised programs in addition to their own courses has changed all that.

Earlier this year, Limkokwing University-College of Creative Technology was the second private institution to be upgraded, followed by the three newly upgraded institutions.

In 1999, one private college secured university status: International Medical College was upgraded to International Medical University. It now offers its own medical degree programs in addition to medical degrees offered in collaboration with 24 partner universities from seven countries.

— The Star
Oct. 5, 2003

New Teacher-Training Programs to Start

A new, six-year program for teachers begins in 2004. The course provides qualified teacher trainees with a foundation program before being placed in local universities to pursue graduate-level degrees. The current Malaysian teaching diploma reportedly will be gradually phased out. The Ministry of Education has set a target of 50 percent graduate teachers in primary schools by 2010 and 100 percent graduate teachers in secondary schools by 2005.

— Education Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003

Number of Foreign Students Grows

There has been a 60 percent increase in the number of foreign students enrolled at schools in Malaysia, from 22,824 in 2002 to 36,466 in 2003. Minister of Education Tan Sri Musa said 28,827 of the students are in private universities and colleges, while 5,668 are in private schools. Among the 150 countries represented, China tops the list with 11,058 students, followed by Indonesia with 7,500. The target of enrolling 50,000 overseas students by 2005 now looks achievable.

— Education Intelligence Asia
June/July 2003

MYANMAR (Burma)

Education in Crisis

Myanmar’s government is jeopardizing the future of an entire generation, with children being denied educational opportunities and basic health care, an international labor union said recently in a report.

The Belgium-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions released the report on Aug. 8 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of a Myanmar crackdown that killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were students. The report said that the “catastrophic economic situation” in Myanmar had forced the “vast majority” of parents to rely on their children to work to support their families, and that “access to a school will remain a dream unless and until the military regime radically changes its policy.”

In 1998 and 1999, 50 percent of Myanmar’s budget was spent on the military, compared with 7 percent on education, according to a UNICEF report from 2001.

— The Star Online
Aug. 17, 2003

NEW ZEALAND

Flow of International Students Stemmed

The collapse of one of the country’s biggest international-language schools has industry representatives worried that reliance on the volatile Asian markets, particularly China, could be disastrous. The Modern Age Institute of Learning, with campuses in Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga, was placed into receivership in early September.

International education is one of New Zealand’s top four export earners. A huge proportion of New Zealand’s foreign students are recruited from China—a market that, according to industry experts, is starting to dry up, forcing English-language providers to “re-group.” The Association of Private Providers of English Language Chairman Patrick Ibbertson said New Zealanders should be extremely worried about the plight of the country’s English-language schools, stating that the Chinese Government had “more or less switched off the tap for Chinese students coming to New Zealand schools,” leaving the industry in a perilous state.

A high-powered mission was recently in Beijing in the hopes of reversing negative media coverage within China, which claimed that New Zealand was anti-Asian and that 20 Chinese students attending New Zealand schools had died over the past six months.

— STUFF
Sept. 8, 2003

Indian Fairs Buoy Export Market

The number of students from India studying in New Zealand at tertiary-level institutions has increased from about 150 in 1999 to 3,000 in 2003, according to the New Zealand High Commission. Officials attribute the rapid increase in numbers to the education fairs held annually in five cities around India, which were started four years ago.

— Business Standard
Sept. 11, 2003

Polytechnic Sector Renamed

The polytechnic sector in New Zealand has been rebranded in an attempt to attract a more positive view of polytechnics and institutes of technology and therefore attract more students. The new brand was launched in August and has been applied to the sector’s peak body, the Association of Polytechnics, changing its name to the Association of Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics New Zealand. The aim is to refer to the polytechnic sector as the ITP sector and to emphasize polytechnic education and training as excellent and relevant to the workplace.

The move comes after the government asked tertiary institutions to differentiate themselves from one another and explain their place in the sector. It also comes amid a general feeling that polytechnic education and training have been regarded as second-rate by the public and after historical efforts by some polytechnics to become more like universities.

— Campus Review
Aug. 5, 2003

SINGAPORE

Blueprint for a Global Education Hub

Singapore in August unveiled a blueprint aimed at lifting its education exports and capturing a larger slice of the burgeoning demand for higher education in Asia. There are currently 50,000 full-fee-paying foreign students enrolled in Singaporean schools, and the “Global Schoolhouse” blueprint hopes to raise the figure to between 100,000 and 150,000 by 2012.

Plans to expand the industry include the welcoming of providers from both Singapore and overseas at all levels of the academic food chain. According to the Straits Times, at least five schools from Singapore and abroad say they are keen to set up new private secondary and junior colleges in Singapore, now that such proposals are officially welcome. Proposals must be in by year’s end, and the decision on who gets the go-ahead should be known by next March. The Economic Development Board (EDB) has said that such schools will receive no state funding but will be free to run their own programs, as long as they follow the bilingual education policy and include national education.

The door has also been left fully ajar for the establishment of a fourth university, and it is likely to be an established foreign one. The EDB is hoping to sign a deal with an institution by mid-2004 and has been wooing institutions to set up a campus that will offer a comprehensive curriculum from liberal arts to engineering. Unlike the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University, the new university will be funded privately.

The EDB has already convinced 10 top-ranked institutions, including Johns Hopkins and INSEAD, to offer programs. The board is also working to attract brand-name specialist schools from overseas, such as the London College of Fashion and Le Cordon Bleu, to open branches in Singapore in order to make the city-state an educational hub that offers a wide variety of top-quality educational opportunities.

— The Straits Times
Sept. 8, 2003

NTU to Expand Curriculum

The Nanyang Technological University is in the process of setting up the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, its tenth school. The school, due to open July 2004, will offer language studies, behavioral psychology and economics.

This venture marks NTU’s first step toward offering a broad-based curriculum in 2005 (perhaps adopting American-style liberal-arts ideals), offering degrees in the physical sciences, humanities and design in addition to engineering, which is its mainstay. In a move to turn out well-rounded graduates, all students, by 2005, will have to study humanities and science subjects in addition to their core discipline.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

Indian IITs Eyeing Singapore Market

Six of the seven campuses of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have had talks with the Singapore government’s Economic Development Board, aiming to establish programs in Singapore. The move is one result of a planned increase in economic cooperation between Singapore and India. The initiative seeks to boost local research and development talent pools and to enhance Singapore’s reputation and identity as a regional and global hub for education.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

Duke, NUS to Establish Graduate Medical School

The National University of Singapore (NUS) will partner with Duke University Medical Center to establish the NUS Graduate Medical School by 2006.

The new school will be based on Duke's medical school curriculum and the U.S. model, in which students enter medical school after earning a baccalaureate degree. The new Graduate Medical School will supplement the existing NUS School of Medicine, which is based on the British model, in which students enter medical school with essentially a high school degree. The new school will admit students with bachelor-level qualifications or adequate work experience. The program will follow Duke’s four-year curriculum, featuring one year of basic science, one clinical year, one research year and then one final clinical year. The program will lead to a doctor of medicine (MD) degree.

— Association of American Medical Colleges
July 1, 2003

THAILAND

Slow-Paced Reform Process Criticized

Lack of progress in reforming the Thai education system has prompted frustration and criticism from academics, who have cited a deadline of October 2002 for changes that had not been met.

Frequent personnel changes in key positions within the Ministry of Education have been offered up to explain the delays. Many education bills are being drafted, but more work is still needed, according to some lecturers who do not see reforms coming into effect for at least a decade. Education Minister Pongpol Adireksarn admitted the going had been slow but that the authorities are committed to modernizing Thailand’s outdated systems.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

VIETNAM

Curriculum Reform Stresses Patriotism

Political and ideological education will be integrated into the higher-education curriculum in the near future. A conference held by the Education Ministry and various (Communist) Party Committees revealed that ideology and politics will be a high priority, with emphasis on patriotism and love for one’s family. The focus will also be on moral, physical and arts education, with teaching and learning methods updated to encourage creative thinking and self-learning.

— Education Intelligence Asia
May 2003

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

Middle East

BAHRAIN

Women’s University in the Offing

A group of private investors plan to establish a Bahrain-based university for women with the help of Canadian and British universities. The Royal University for Women will be one of the first of its kind in the Gulf region when it is established next year. It will be offering international standard degree-level qualifications for women only.

The project is being funded by private investors, but no information has yet been released about the cost. Agreements are now being finalized with Canada's McGill University and the United Kingdom's Middlesex University. The university plans to offer a wide variety of subjects through a number of colleges. These colleges will include business administration, design and informatics and education. Modern facilities, to be built on a site in West Riffa, will house the university and eventually cater for up to 3,000 students.

— Arab Women Connect
June 4, 2003

AOU Establishes Branch Campus in Bahrain

A Bahrain branch of the Arab Open University (AOU) was officially opened in July. The Arab Open University is a non-profit educational organization helping to address problems of access to higher education in the Arab states.

The university aims to provide to everyone regardless of age, background or location the opportunity to study at the tertiary level through distance-learning programs. Courses on offer through the university lead to diplomas and bachelor’s degrees in business administration, computer science and information technology, English language and teacher training.

— Gulf News
July 6, 2003

IRAN

Iranian Students Looking Overseas

A population boom in Iran in the 1980s means the country is now overwhelmingly young, with around 70 percent under the age of 30. Faced with poor job prospects, thousands are leaving every year, creating alarm among the country’s leaders.

English-language schools have mushroomed all over the country in the past few years. Qeshm Language School in central Tehran opened just under a year ago with 80 students; it now has more than 500 students enrolled. In fact, so huge is the demand for places that it has had to open two other schools, with two more on the way. Most students are studying for English-language proficiency tests, compulsory for study overseas. Last year the number of applicants for English-language exams rose by 84 percent. Now, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), hundreds of thousands are leaving every year.

— BBC News
May 29, 2003

IRAQ

University Renamed

Saddam University, Iraq’s premier university under the rule of Saddam Hussein, has been renamed Two Rivers University. Under the previous regime, the Chronicle states, students at the university were admitted strictly on merit to be taught by top-notch handpicked professors who were paid double what their peers elsewhere received. The institution’s budget, in a system starved of resources, was relatively lavish.

That is all about to change. Under the U.S. plan, all universities in Iraq will be equally funded. For many, that represents good news, but scholars at Two Rivers University worry that, as their budget shrinks, so will the quality of their academic programs.

The Ministry of Education, which is being run by Iraqis and Americans, plans to spend roughly US$37 million, excluding salaries, for the rest of the year on the country’s 43 universities, colleges and technical institutes. The money is coming from the Iraqi Development Fund, which is financed by oil revenues and Iraqi government assets seized abroad. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is planning to give US$30 million to American universities to establish programs with Iraqi universities (see July/August issue WENR).

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sept. 12, 2003

International Grants Awarded for Universities’ Reconstruction

The Qatar Foundation and UNESCO have launched a multimillion-dollar initiative to revitalize Iraqi universities through immediate and long-term assistance. Qatar provided the first US$15 million to the UNESCO-administered fund. The gift from the nonprofit foundation represents the first financial contribution from another Arab country to assist Iraqi higher education. UNESCO is completing a comprehensive assessment of Iraqi higher education with the support of the Japanese government.

In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded $11.7 million in grants to three consortiums of U.S. and other universities, which will work with their counterparts in Iraq:

• $4.1 million for archaeological and environmental research was awarded to a consortium led by the Research Foundation of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The consortium includes Boston University, Columbia University and the University of Oxford, in partnership with Al-Mustansiriya University and the universities of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul.
• $3.8 million for legal-education reform was awarded to the Human Rights Institute of DePaul University’s College of Law and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Syracuse, Sicily, in partnership with the University of Baghdad.
• $3.8 million for agriculture was awarded to the University of Hawaii-Manoa, in partnership with the University of Mosul.

— The Chronicle of Higher Education
Oct. 7, 2003

ISRAEL

Humberside University Administrators Arrested

Four administrators from the Israeli branch of Britain’s Lincolnshire and Humberside University were arrested in September for suspicion of fraud, bribery, forgery and extortion and interference in an investigation over the course of the past year.

According to the investigation, some of the degrees received by graduates were fictitious and printed without the knowledge of the parent institution in Britain. Hundreds of graduates, some of them teachers and state employees – including police officers – received master’s degrees without first earning bachelor’s degrees, for the suspected reason of gaining education-based salary bonuses from the state.

Last year, Israeli branch campuses of the University of Latvia and the American Burlington Academy were both under suspicion for similar activities (see November/December 2002 issue WENR) after criminal investigations found that the two institutions frequently granted fraudulent degrees. The Finance Ministry decided that Latvia University diplomas will no longer win public-sector employees pay raises in Israel.

— Haaretz
Sept. 15, 2003

JORDAN

Technical University to Boost Prestige of Technical Qualifications

The government is working on plans to further develop human resources by establishing a university that will offer bachelor’s degrees in various marketable vocational trades for the first time. The school would be the first of its kind in the Kingdom, pushing the vocational sector into the realm of higher education while helping to eliminate deep-rooted negative attitudes toward vocational trades.

Officials from the Ministry of Education are looking at the German system as a model, whereby curricula focus on the practical application of technically advanced and knowledge-based vocational trades that are demanded by local and regional markets. A German delegation was in the country recently to examine the potential of such a project, agreeing, in principle, to help develop the government’s plans.

— Jordan Times
Aug. 5, 2003

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

Two Universities Allowed to Reopen

Israel’s military forces allowed two Palestinian universities in the West Bank city of Hebron to reopen in August, after they were forcibly closed in January on the grounds that they had been producing militants hostile to Israel (see January/February issue WENR).

Professors from the two institutions – Hebron University and the Palestinian Polytechnic University – had been holding classes in their houses as well as at elementary and secondary schools, but students lacked access to laboratories and scientific equipment.

For several months, the Palestinian Polytechnic University has been the site of frequent demonstrations over the institution’s closure and damage incurred to the infrastructure under successive Israeli incursions into Hebron.

— CPTnet
Aug. 16, 2003

One University’s Future Threatened by Route of ‘Separation Fence’

Al-Quds University in the East Jerusalem town of Abu Dis is home to 7,000 Palestinian students and is battling to save its campus. The university’s soccer field and an adjoining basketball court are destined to be bulldozed and replaced by one section of Israel’s controversial “separation fence,” an 8m-high, fortified steel barrier tipped with razor wire and patrolled by border police. The sports grounds make up one-third of al-Qud’s compact campus.

Once the fence, which Palestinians refer to as an “apartheid wall,” is built, al-Quds will in effect become the border between Israeli Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank. As well as changing the map of the university, the route of the fence will add to the problems students already face in reaching the campus. Up to 30 percent of the student population lives in Israeli-controlled areas of Jerusalem destined to fall on the “other side” of the fence. Once the fence is completed, they will have to make a complex journey through Israeli gates in the fence to cross into Palestinian territory. There is no guarantee that they will be allowed access at times or places convenient to them.

— The Guardian
Sept. 30, 2003

Israel Agrees in Principle to Change Route of Fence

Israel has agreed in principle to change the route of its controversial “separation fence” to minimize damage to the campus of al-Quds University (see above) . The decision to build the fence west of the campus comes after students and staff at the university mounted a monthlong protest vigil.

Under a compromise agreed at a meeting between Amos Yaron, director general of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, and the president of al-Quds University, professor Sari Nusseibeh, the route of the fence will now be shifted westward and will take in just a small section of the university.

— The Guardian
Oct. 1, 2003

SAUDI ARABIA

University Mergers

King Fahd has approved the merger of several university branches into independent institutions. The decision will merge faculties of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and King Saud University in Qasim into an independent university. Other faculties of the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University will merge with King Abdul Aziz University in Medinah.

The mergers are to be complete by the end of the current academic year. The Taif branch of Umm Al-Qura University will also become an independent university. According to Minister of Higher Education Khaloed Al-Angari, the new institutions are being formed to afford more high school graduates access to a university education.

— Arab News
July 14, 2003

Ministry of Education: ‘Foreign Investment in the Private Higher-Education Sector is Open’

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education recently indicated that it will allow foreign universities to establish a presence in the Kingdom. Saudi universities accepted 178,500 students this year. Although the ministry says there are places for 27,000 more students, Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing population will put increasing demands on the nation’s nine universities.

The ministry convened a special council to examine the problem. Its short-term recommendations include the immediate increase of the number of places in higher education by 57,000 – including the establishment of faculties and educational institutions providing direct training for the job market. Moreover, the council urged support for private institutions of higher education to meet the demands of school-leavers, as reflected in an August statement at a press conference by Minister of Higher Education Khaled al-Angari: “Foreign investment in the private higher education sector is open.”

The Ministry of Education is currently drafting the regulations needed to legalize the establishment of foreign universities in Saudi Arabia. Ministry officials said foreign universities could be operating in the kingdom as early as the fall 2004 academic year.

— Arab News
Aug. 28, 2003

SYRIA

Private University Given Green Light

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in September issued a decree for licensing the establishment of a private university in Syria under the name Private Union University. The proposed institution will be located in the eastern region of Raqqa, with a branch campus in the city of Manbej in the region of Aleppo.

According to the decree, the university will have faculties of agronomy, engineering and administrative sciences.

— The Arabic News
Sept. 1, 2003

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Harvard is Coming to Town

The Harvard University Medical School is set to establish a series of research and training programs to help improve the quality of medical education in the region. The medical school’s international division – Harvard Medical international – and the UAE Ministry of Higher Education are planning to have the joint effort up and running for its first intake of students in 2005.

The program will operate out of a real-estate development known as Dubai Healthcare City, which will house new hospitals, currently under construction, and will extend to existing facilities that fulfill certain standards for quality and research potential.

— Dubai Healthcare City news release
June 29, 2003

Russia & The Commonwealth of Independent States

BELARUS

Academic Exchange Program Shuttered

The International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) was ordered to close by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and did so Aug. 6. The IREX program aimed at broadening academic and professional contacts, providing free and unlimited Internet access, and supporting independent mass media. A statement from Promedia, a Belarusian independent-media advocate, suggests that the closure of the IREX office is part of a detractive campaign against foreign humanitarian and technical aid programs conducted in Belarus.

IREX, which has operated in Belarus since 1997, administers four programs, two of which focus on academic and professional exchanges. The others provide training for Internet users and independent reporters. IREX’s accreditation was denied because, officially, the organization was conducting activities inconsistent with its charter. In other words, an academic exchange program has no business helping develop independent newspapers and television stations.

— Promedia
Aug. 6, 2003

President’s Ideology Becomes Mandatory University Course

Belarusian students are being forced to learn a new subject – state ideology – as of the start of the new academic term in September. The new course, mandatory at all state and private universities, has been greeted with suspicion by pro-Western analysts and students alike. In a meeting on Aug. 13 to discuss the state’s plans for imposing its ideology on the population, President Lukashenko told those present that his speeches could be used as a source for ideologists, adding that “the wording (of the Belarusian national ideology) may not be too refined or coherent, but is good enough to use.”

In another development, Lukashenko has recently reshuffled his cabinet and replaced former Education Minister Pytor Brigadin with Alexander Radkov, a former rector of Mogilev State University. The president justified the replacement by the need to step up ideological training in schools and colleges, stating, “The opposition will never set foot in education.” Analysts believe the Education Ministry has rushed the new course onto the curriculum because it is worried about the political attitudes displayed in many classrooms. The Yakub Kolas Belarusian Lyceum of Humanities in Minsk was closed down by the authorities last month for “supplying dissidents to colleges across the country.”

While Belarusian dissidents and opposition activists agree that Belarus currently lacks a recognizable national identity, they denounce the government’s attempts to fabricate and impose a way of thinking on the younger generation. But the authorities press on with their Soviet-style methods of indoctrination and are preparing to set a large propaganda machine to work. Every industrial enterprise employing 300 or more workers, and collective farms employing more than 150, now must have a deputy manager for ideological education.

— Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Aug. 20, 2003

KYRGYZSTAN

Same Rules Now Apply at State and Private Schools

As of the beginning of August, state as well as private institutions of higher education must be licensed by the Kyrgyz Education and Culture Ministry, akipress.org reported on Aug. 8, quoting the State Commission on Entrepreneurship. Previously only private institutions were required to obtain licenses. The objective of the new requirement is to raise teaching standards within the framework of ongoing reform of the country’s educational system.

— RFE/RL
Aug. 11, 2003

RUSSIA

Demand for University Places Higher Than Ever

Competition for university places was unusually fierce this summer, and demand for majors involving technology has skyrocketed, school officials said.

The country’s 657 institutions of higher education stopped accepting applications in early July and had to make decisions by the end of July as to the 594,381 students to be admitted, according to Education Ministry Spokeswoman Larisa Chegayeva. Moscow State University (MGU) received a total of 19,813 applications for 3,660 openings in its 25 departments, almost 500 more than last year. Moscow’s Bauman Technical University received more than 7,000 applications for its 3,100 places, with most competing for places in the departments of information technology and programming. Other popular majors this year around the nation have been public administration and financing.

The number of applicants from the regions also increased markedly. Almost half of the tuition-paying students that MGU enrolled for the fall term came from the regions, in sharp contrast with years past, when two-thirds were residents of Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region.

— The Moscow Times
July 23, 2003

TAJIKISTAN

US$20 Million from World Bank to ‘Modernize Education’

The World Bank has approved US$20 million for an “Education Modernization Project” to be carried out in Tajikistan in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Education.

Tajikistan inherited a quality education system during the Soviet era. But, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, coupled with five years of civil war between 1992 and 1997, the system crumbled and will take years to rebuild, experts say. Eight years of education was compulsory in Soviet Tajikistan, and this requirement was expanded to nine years in the newly independent republic. Authorities in Tajikistan still claim 98 percent of the population is literate, which aid workers say is simply not feasible. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) put the average enrolment for all levels of education (ages six to 23) at 62.1 percent in 2002.

— UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
May 30, 2003

TURKMENISTAN

Russian University Applicants Targeted

According to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, quoting sources in the Turkmen Education Ministry, an unwritten order “handed to us from above” encourages universities to reject applicants with non-Turkmen surnames–especially ethnic Russian, considered some of the most talented in the country.

While thousands of Russians left the country when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Turkmenistan gained its independence, a large number stayed. The 150,000-strong Russian-speaking community includes other minorities, such as Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks and Kazaks. Some analysts believe that the authorities’ harsh attitude has been prompted by the recent cancellation of a bilateral agreement with Moscow that granted dual citizenship to those in Turkmenistan who wished it. But it is not just Russian-speakers who are facing discrimination. A decree issued last month by President Saparmurat Niazov rules that only those who have done two years’ work after leaving school are allowed to go onto higher education (see July/August issue WENR).

The rule has angered many, who now fear for their children’s future in the former Soviet republic, which has severe economic problems and high levels of unemployment. And there is little to be gained from leaving the country to study abroad, as foreign qualifications are not recognized in Turkmenistan, irrespective of the academic excellence of the university at which they were acquired.

— Institute for War and Peace Reporting
July 16, 2003

Feature

The Bologna Process: As Seen From the Outside

By Robert Sedgwick
Editor, WENR

Across the Atlantic, unbeknownst to many Americans, higher education in Europe is undergoing a profound transformation. More and more countries are uprooting their traditional systems of education, which feature long degrees, in favor of a two-tiered model based on bachelor’s and master’s degrees. A standard credit system is also being adopted, and efforts are underway to promote regional quality assurance. The reforms, known collectively as the Bologna Process, will no doubt impact Europe in many ways, but they also hold significant implications for international educational exchanges in the United States.

The Bologna Declaration was issued following a meeting of the European Ministers of Education held in Bologna in 1999, and set into motion a “process” (thus the Bologna Process) aimed at creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. To achieve this goal, the Declaration called for the following:

• Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees
• Adoption of a degree structure based on two main cycles (undergraduate and graduate)
• Adoption of a system of credits (to enable students to transfer and accumulate credits)
• Elimination of obstacles that impede mobility of students and job seekers
• Promotion of European cooperation in quality assurance
• Promotion of necessary European dimension in higher education

Hence, the long term objectives of the reforms outlined in the Bologna Process are essentially threefold:

1) To facilitate the speedy entrance of educated professionals into the job market through shortened degrees.

2) To enhance the cross-border mobility of students and job seekers.

3) To increase the competitiveness of European higher education internationally.

How Big is it?

The Bologna Process is a massive undertaking that encompasses most of Europe, and continues to expand geographically picking up new member states at each ministerial meeting.

Originally, there were 29 signatory countries to the Bologna Declaration, and shortly thereafter Liechtenstein was retroactively added. Then in 2001 at the Prague conference, Cyprus, Croatia and Turkey joined. At the most recent meeting in Berlin last September, seven more countries (Albania, Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Holy See, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia) were admitted bringing the number up to 40.

With Russia’s membership, the Bologna Process now literally stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When it is completed in 2010, the EHEA will include over 12 million students and 4,000 universities across Europe. An educational reform movement on such a grand scale has never before been attempted in Europe, or elsewhere for that matter.

Bologna Update

It has been only four years since the historic signing at Bologna, and much of the necessary groundwork for the EHEA has already been laid. The breakneck speed at which the reforms are being implemented has taken many observers and especially skeptics by complete surprise. Many of them are particularly astounded at the way the Bologna Process is shaking up and reformulating traditional structures of higher education that have remained unchanged for centuries.

According to Univers Foreign Affairs, 80% of the signatory countries have already introduced the two-tiered degree structure, clearly dividing undergraduate from graduate studies. More than half of all participating institutions of higher education (53 percent) are currently implementing the Bologna reforms, while just over a third (36 percent) are still in the planning phase. Only 11 percent of these institutions have indicated they are not interested in adopting the two-tiered system.

At the present time all the Scandinavian countries are in the process of introducing bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Denmark, for example, will soon adopt the two-tiered system in all disciplines, including medicine and chemistry.

In a particularly daring move, Italy has discarded its traditional laurea degree and adopted the 3+2 structure (three-year bachelor’s and two-year master’s).

Likewise, universities in the Netherlands are currently in the process of converting their one-tier programs to bachelor's and master's programs.

In Austria, legislation has been passed requiring all new academic programs to follow the two-tiered system.

Germany has introduced the two-tiered system on an experimental basis and currently offers a three-year bachelor’s degree alongside the traditional one-tiered system.

The United Kingdom and Ireland are signatories to the Bologna Declaration, but because these countries have always had education systems based on bachelor's and master's degrees they will not have to implement significant changes.

The countries of eastern and central Europe present an interesting case as far as the Bologna Process is concerned. Until 1989, when the communist eastern bloc collapsed, the educational systems in this region were largely influenced by the Soviet model of higher education.

Following independence, new laws were passed in east European countries that ended the state monopoly on education, promoted the liberalization of curricula, and adopted a two-tiered system of degrees based on the Anglo/American model. Hence, eastern Europe has actually been well ahead of the curve in terms of introducing the types of reforms called for in the 1999 Bologna Declaration.

Institutions in the Czech Republic, for instance, have offered degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral level--alongside the traditional one-tiered system--since 1990. In addition, many institutions have introduced tuition-based, short-term and degree programs for international students.

Hungary similarly adopted a two-tiered system of higher education shortly after it gained independence. New MBA degrees have also been introduced and are offered through specialized, postgraduate programs.

Challenges

Despite the steady progress made in implementing many of the Bologna reforms, degree structures among the signatory countries remain largely divergent. The two-tiered system is still more clearly defined in some education systems than in others (in some countries, the master’s and bachelor’s degrees are viewed as separate qualifications, whereas in others, the master’s is still seen as an extension of the bachelor’s). So far, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway and Italy have made the most headway in truncating their long degrees.

Other countries are proceeding cautiously. Spain and Portugal, for instance, have endorsed the Bologna Process in theory, but in practice have still not implemented many reforms. Greece has rejected the two-tiered system outright, and Switzerland has shown signs of resistance, although the Swiss legislature recently passed a law preparing for the implementation of a new degree structure that is compatible with the Bologna reforms.

There have been other pockets of resistance as well among students and institutions of higher education. Although the student organizations and universities play an integral role in implementing the reforms, particularly at the local level, some members of these groups continue to suspiciously regard the Bologna Process as a possible manifestation of market-driven globalization.

The Bologna Process has also engendered a certain amount of xenophobia among the old guard, who decry the abandonment of their traditional university systems--emblems of history and national pride--in favor of an imported system imposed from the top down.

But Bologna supporters deny that the reforms will lead to a homogenized system of higher education based on the Anglo/American model. They argue that the Bologna Process will foster compatibility among Europe's different higher education systems, while maintaining respect for cultural and linguistic diversity.

In the end most educators, even the detractors, know the reforms are here to stay. The gradual erosion of the Welfare State and the rapid globalization of knowledge have brought about a fundamental reexamination of Europe's traditional systems of higher education. The utilization of new technologies in distance learning programs, the predominance of English as the world's lingua franca and the international demand for short degrees all present formidable challenges to European systems of higher education.

In the last 10 years, the market for international students (particularly students from Asia) has heated up considerably, and Europeans fear that if they don’t act decisively they could end up falling behind while the United States and its competitors (Australia, Canada and the UK) corner the market. Last year, for instance, 267,111 Asian students enrolled in higher education programs in the United States compared to only 178,000 who studied in Europe.

If Europe wants to attract more students from abroad it must offer degrees and programs that are compatible with international structures. Newly reformed higher education in the EHEA, along with relatively low tuition fees, will hopefully make Europe a viable option for many international students who cannot or will not pay the high cost of education in North America or Australia.

Looking Beyond Europe

By 2010 there will be standard recognized European degrees at the bachelor's, master's or doctoral level in much the same way as they exist in the U.S. Like the introduction of the new currency, the Euro, the establishment of the EHEA will ensure the convertibility of qualifications among the participating countries. Degrees earned in, say, Germany will immediately be recognized in France, and the holder of those qualifications will automatically be eligible for work or study in any of the Bologna signatory countries.

For the United States the effects of the Bologna Process are difficult to predict, but a few things are clear. At the moment, the biggest challengers to the U.S. in the international student market are Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In the future, with its transparent and flexible higher education system, Europe will offer an attractive alternative. The EHEA may end up challenging American dominance in international higher education, in much the same way that the European Union has become a counterweight in international trade vis-a-vis the U.S. and Japan.

There will also be greater convergence between the U.S. and Europe as European higher education adopts aspects of the American system. There is a long tradition of academic exchange programs between European and American institutions of higher education. A more transparent and flexible European higher education system will undoubtedly enhance the number of student exchanges between the two continents. This is important for both sides. There are currently 64,811 European students studying in the US--14 percent of the total international enrollment. Germany, the U.K., France Spain and Greece are the top sending countries, but the number of students from the former eastern bloc countries like Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary is on the rise.

At the same time, the majority of U.S. students who study abroad are in Europe mostly attending special programs designed solely for them. According to Open Doors 2002, of the five top study destinations for Americans, four are in western Europe. The United Kingdom accounts for almost 20 percent of all U.S study abroad followed by Italy, Spain and France.

The implementation of shorter degrees that are taught in English--together with relatively lower tuition cost- will make it easier for American students to enroll in regular degree programs at European universities and to transfer their credits.

But Europe and the United States are not the only actors here. While the reforms are being implemented within the signatory countries, the planners of the EHEA are beginning to look beyond Europe. At the last follow up meeting held in Berlin (Sept. 2003), the Ministers of Education advocated the need to encourage cooperation with other parts of the world, and to open up future Bologna events to representatives of non-European countries. In particular, they declared the necessity to actively promote the new EHEA abroad to attract students and researchers from non-participating countries.

LINKS

Articles

• Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 26, 2003. European Higher Education Seeks a Common Currency

• International Higher Education, Summer 2003. Bologna is not the Only City that Matters in European Higher Education Policy

• WENR, January/February 2000. Bologna Declaration Addresses Higher Education in European Union

• WENR, March/April 2001. The Bologna Process: How It is Changing the Face of Higher Education in Europe

Web Sites

• ACE Admissions Officers and Credential Evaluators: Bologna Process

• Austrian Bologna Web Site

• Berlin-Bologna Web Page

Practical Information

Explaining the Bologna Process to the Rest of the World

By Robert Sedgwick, Editor WENR
and Nick Clark, Assistant Editor WENR

The Bologna Process is a complex and vast undertaking that involves 40 European countries and, within those countries, literally thousands of higher education institutions and millions of students. With the addition of Russia at the Berlin Summit, the Bologna Process now literally stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific making it one of the largest reform movements in history. Although most European higher education professionals are familiar with the Bologna Process, many people outside of Europe seem baffled by it. In this issue of WENR we have attempted to unravel the mysteries of Bologna and introduce it to a non-European audience.

In the paragraphs and inserts below we have presented a comprehensive overview of what the Bologna Process is (and what it is not) and have provided links to some of the most important documents and position papers written on the subject. Many of these documents are essential to understanding the breadth and scope of the reforms that are currently being carried out across Europe. We have also included information on the Bologna degree structure, a glossary of Bologna terms, and a listing of the key players in the Bologna Process. In addition, we are featuring a status report on where the various countries are in restructuring their education systems in line with the reforms (see insert below).

What is the Bologna Process?

The Bologna Declaration was issued following a meeting of the European Ministers of Education held in Bologna in 1999, and set into motion a “process” (thus the Bologna Process) aimed at creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. The Ministers of Education have since held subsequent meetings (Prague, 2001 and Berlin, 2003) to receive updates on the progress of the Bologna Process and set new goals that advance its implementation. The next milestone meeting of the Ministers of Education will be held in Bergen, Norway, in 2005.

The objectives set out in the Bologna Declaration are the following:

Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees.

Adoption of a system essentially based on two main cycles: undergraduate and graduate.

Establishment of a system of credits — such as in the ECTS system — as proper means of promoting the most widespread student mobility.

Promotion of mobility by overcoming obstacles to the effective exercise of free movement of students, researchers, instructors and staff.

Promotion of European co-operation in quality assurance with a view to developing comparable criteria and methodologies.

Promotion of the necessary European dimensions in higher education, particularly with regards to curricular development, inter-institutional co-operation, mobility schemes and integrated programs of study, training and research.

Originally there were 29 signatory countries to the Bologna Declaration. Shortly thereafter, Liechtenstein was retroactively added to the list of countries, and in 2001 at the Prague meeting, Croatia, Cyprus and Turkey signed on as well. In September 2003 at the meeting in Berlin, several more countries (Albania, Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Holy See, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) joined the Bologna Process, bringing the number of participating countries to 40.

It is important to note that the Bologna Process is not a European Union program like SOCRATES-ERASMUS, TEMPUS or the Leonardo Da Vinci Program, although the EU is certainly one of the principal stakeholders in the European Higher Education Area.

In sum, the Bologna Process is a commitment by 40 countries across Europe to reform their systems of higher education in an effort to make European qualifications more transparent, more attractive and more competitive in the international student market. The Bologna Process is a colossal undertaking that involves governments, education organizations, higher education institutions, and students. It is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

Who is Responsible for Implementing the Bologna Process?

The Bologna process will lead to a fundamental restructuring of higher education across Europe. Participating countries have had to change laws governing their higher education institutions, programs and degrees to comply with the Bologna Process. The extent and the pace of these changes are dictated by the political leaders of each country.

A Bologna follow-up group, created after the signing of the Declaration, monitors the progress of the implementation process. The group consists of representatives from all the participating countries and meets several times a year. It organizes and schedules conferences pertaining to the Bologna Process, decides on the reports to be written and the ways in which progress is reported to the ministers.

The responsibility for implementing the goals of the Bologna Declaration rests with the different national governments, academic institutions, student organizations and professional bodies in the participating countries. Experts drawn from the relevant organizations in the various countries develop standards, guidelines and mechanisms that academic institutions can use when they restructure their programs and degrees to conform to the Bologna agreements.

Where to go for Resources and Information on the Bologna Process

Most of the information pertaining to the Bologna Process can be found on the Internet and consists of legal documents, background papers and documents submitted by the various parties in connection with the major conferences, and conference communiqués. These documents are essential to understanding the scope and breadth of the educational reform movement that is currently under way in Europe.

Following is a partial listing of the documents that have been published in connection with the Bologna Process:

• Recognition Issues in the Bologna Process: Follow Up to the Salamanca and Prague Meetings

• Survey on Master’s Degrees and Joint Degrees (September 2002)

• Student Participation in the Governance of Higher Education in Europe

• Tertiary Short Cycle Education in Europe

• Trends I (in learning structures in higher education)

• Trends II (survey of main reforms from Bologna to Prague)

• Trends III (Bologna four years after)

• Tuning Educational Structures in Europe

Many independent organizations that participated in the discussions on Bologna have also produced many important documents on the subject. The following organizations have submitted papers outlining their positions on the Bologna Process:

• Council of Europe: Council of Europe Contribution to the Higher Education Area

• European University Association (EUA): Forward From Berlin: The Role of Universities to 2010 and Beyond

• European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE): Policy Statement on the Bologna Process--Towards Berlin 2003

• The National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB): ESIB and the Bologna Process-- Creating a European Higher Education Area for and with Students

• The European Association for International Education (EAIE): EAIE Comment on the Bologna Process

For more information on the Bologna Process, please visit the following Web sites:

• Admissions Officers and Credential Evaluators: About the Bologna Process in Short

• Association of European Universities: The Bologna Declaration: An Explanation

• Civic Education Project: An Introduction to the Bologna Process

• Council of Europe: The Bologna Process

• European Commission: The Bologna Process, Next Stop Berlin in 2003

Bologna Terms and Definitions

Bologna Process: The ongoing process of working towards the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), to be completed by 2010.

• http://www.eaie.org/about/bologna.html

Diploma Supplement: A document attached to a higher-education diploma that provides a detailed description of the studies undertaken and successfully completed by the individual named on the original qualification.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/rec_qual/recognition/diploma_en.html

ECTS (European Credit Transfer System): Establishes common procedures for recognizing studies completed abroad. The main goal of ECTS is to promote the exchange of academic information among European institutions of higher education in order to facilitate student mobility.

• http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/ects_en.html

Tuning: The term "tuning" emphasizes the notion that universities are not looking to unify or harmonize their degree programs into a prescribed set of European curricula, but rather are looking for points of convergence and common understanding based on diversity and autonomy.

• http://www.aic.lv/ace/ace_disk/Bologna/Reports/projects/Tun_Book.pdf

Two-Cycle System (two-tiered system): The Bologna Declaration calls for the adoption of a degree structure comprised of two clearly defined cycles: undergraduate (bachelors) and graduate (masters and doctorate). At present, many countries in Europe are still on the one-cycle system based on the long degree.

• http://www.wes.org/ewenr/00jan/research.htm

Additional Links

• A Glossary of Terms and Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.aecinfo.org/glossary%20and%20faq%20english.pdf

Degree Structure

First Stage (bachelor-level degree): A higher education qualification requiring between 180 and 240 ECTS credits. It normally takes three to four years of full-time study to complete this degree.

• http://www.vvs.ac/documentatie/bologna/seminar-short_cycle.htm

Second Stage (master-level degree): The length of study programs leading to the master’s degree in Europe still varies considerably from country to country. However, there seems to be a trend towards a one-to-two year master’s degree requiring between 90 and 120 ECTS credits with a minimum requirement of 60 ECTS credits.

• http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/pdf/Survey_Master_Joint_degrees.pdf

Joint Degrees: Degree programs jointly developed by two or more institutions. These qualifications are still being developed and are not currently recognized.

• http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/pdf/Survey_Master_Joint_degrees.pdf

Double Degrees: A double degree is two or more degrees given by two or more higher education institutions for the same study program.

• http://www.esib.org/issues/jointdegrees.php

Bologna Documents

Precursor Agreements to the Bologna Declaration

Lisbon Recognition Convention (1997)

Sorbonne Declaration (1998)

Main Documents of the Bologna Process

Bologna Joint Declaration (1999)

Salamanca Convention (2001)

Göteborg Declaration (2001)

Prague Communiqué of Ministers (2001)

Graz Declaration of the European University Association (2003)

The Berlin Communiqué of Ministers (2003)

Key Players in the Bologna Process

Conference of Rectors:
Established in March 1973. Expresses the common views of its members on EU policies pertaining to university and higher education and research issues.

Council of Europe:
Promotes awareness and encourages the development of Europe's cultural identity and diversity.

EAIE (European Association for International Education):
A non-profit organization whose mission is to actively promote the internationalization of European higher education, and to meet the needs of international higher education professionals both in Europe and the rest of the world.

ENIC/NARIC Networks:
The ENIC Network provides information on the recognition of foreign diplomas, degrees and other qualifications, national education systems and opportunities for studying abroad. NARIC aims at improving academic recognition of diplomas and periods of study in the Memeber States of the EU, the EEA countries and the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Cyprus.

ENQA (European Network for Quality Assurance):
ENQA is a European network that disseminates a wide range of information in the field of quality assessment and quality assurance in higher education.

ESIB (National Unions of Students in Europe):
ESIB is the umbrella organization of 50 national student union organizations from 37 European countries.

EUA (European University Association):
The main organization representing European universities and their national rectors' conferences. EUA's mission is to promote a coherent system of European higher education and research based on shared values, through active support and guidance to its members. It also seeks to strengthen the role of the institutions in the creation of the European Higher Education Area.

EURASHE (European Association of Institutions in Higher Education):
Reflects the interests of colleges and polytechnics in Europe. Organizes and attends conferences related to this sector and was actively involved in the preparation of the Berlin Conference.

Joint Quality Initiative:
The Joint Quality Initiative is an informal network for quality assurance and accreditation of bachelor and master programs in Europe. It stems from the Bologna Declaration (1999) in which European ministers of education committed themselves, among other things.

Timeline: The Bologna Process

1988: The Magna Charta Universitatum
Signed by the Rectors of European Universities in Bologna, Italy. The agreement outlines the founding principles of what will later become known as the Bologna Process.

April 1997: Lisbon Convention
Emphasizes mutual recognition of studies, certificates, diplomas and degrees to promote academic mobility among European countries.

May 1998: The Sorbonne Declaration
Calls for the “harmonization of the architecture of the European Higher Education System” and is signed by education ministers from France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

June 1999: The Bologna Declaration
Signed by 29 countries pledging to restructure their higher-education systems in an effort to create a coherent, compatible and competitive European Higher Education Area by the year 2010.

March 2001: Salamanca Convention
Over 300 higher-education representatives gather in Salamanca to assess the role of higher-education institutions in the Bologna Process in preparation for the Prague Summit of education ministers.

March 2001: Göteborg Student Convention
In preparation for the Prague summit, representatives of the National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB) formally adopt their position on the Bologna Declaration in Göteborg.

May 2001: Prague Summit
Adds three more countries (Croatia, Cyprus and Turkey) to the Bologna Declaration, reviews progress made in the Bologna Process, and sets directions and priorities for the upcoming years.

May 2003: Graz Convention
The European University Association (EUA) council adopts the Graz Declaration, which emphasizes the central role universities must play in implementing the Bologna reforms.

September 2003: Berlin Summit
Reviews progress of the Bologna Process and set directions and priorities for the next stages of the European Higher Education Area. The Berlin Communiqué of Ministers
is signed.

Denmark

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Due to the multifaceted nature of Bologna implementation in Denmark, a steering committee – the Bologna Follow-up Group – comprised of representatives of the invested ministries, agencies, institutions and organizations has been set up. The legislative basis for the study programs at universities and other higher education institutions in the university sector is the University Act of 1993, which authorizes the ministry to lay down regulations for the programs. The act does not contain provisions regarding the structure and content of the programs. This has now been made statutory in Act no. 403/2003 on universities, which lays down the degree structure for university programs.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Denmark has signed and ratified (March 2003) the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications.

• As of September 2002, graduates of all higher education programs in Denmark receive a Diploma Supplement. A common diploma supplement template has been designed, and will be issued by all institutions of higher education as an English-language supplement to the Danish diploma.

• As of July 2002, certificate supplements are issued with all vocational qualifications.

• The Danish Center for Assessment of Foreign Credentials acts as the Danish ENIC/NARIC body.

• A board of appeals assesses disagreements between students and institutions of higher education regarding credits for foreign qualifications.

2. Degree Structure

• The Danish higher education system is divided into two sectors: university and college (professionally oriented higher education sector).

• As a result of reforms in the late 1980s, Danish higher education has switched from a one-tier qualification structure to a two-tier structure with bachelor’s, master’s (candidatus) and doctoral degrees. Previously, all university study programs took between four and 6½ years and led to the award of the candidatus degree.

• Starting in 1988, students who completed three years of a candidatus program were awarded a bachelor’s degree and could use the title B.A. (humanities, theology, social science) or B.S. (natural science, health science).

• In 1993, a general bachelor’s degree structure was introduced (the so-called 3+2+3 system). As a result, almost all university programs now consist of a bachelor program (B.A./B.S.), a candidatus program and a doctoral program. The bachelor program constitutes a complete program in itself, but most students still continue their studies in a candidatus program.

• A few candidatus programs are still organized as one unbroken course, without the bachelor level, such as pharmacy, dentistry, architecture and land surveying. Medicine currently is being restructured from a 6½-year unbroken course into a three-year bachelor plus three-year candidatus course.

• These reforms are statutory as of this year with the new Act on Universities, which lays down the degree structures for university programs. The changes are nearly complete, but universities are developing them further to give more flexible study and exam forms. An example is the University if Copenhagen, which is introducing a thorough revision of curricula and structure of its BSc and MSc programs, to come into effect from Sept. 2004.

• The aim of the new act is to improve the conditions and opportunities of the universities to give multi-disciplinary and strategic priorities to the composite educational, research and dissemination activities. Universities are to enjoy greater autonomy and have strengthened management structures. It is also designed to increase student mobility between Danish universities and to/from foreign universities.

• For medium-cycle higher education programs, the professional bachelor’s degree was introduced in 2000. The programs, mostly aimed at the education and health sectors, have been reformed to fulfill the new requirements. In 1997, short-cycle higher education programs introduced a new sector in Danish higher education, namely a two-year professionally oriented higher education program.

3. Credit Transfer

• As of Sept. 1, 2001, it is obligatory to indicate the size of education units in European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits by all Danish institutions of higher education – universities and colleges alike. The system is student workload-based and has 60 credits per year. ECTS is used on all transcripts and diploma certificates issued after Sept. 1, 2001

• Implementation of reforms at nonuniversity institutions has been variable, according to a recent survey. All are using ECTS credits (the numerical part of ECTS). Many are using the ECTS format for describing the content of their programs (qualitative). Only a few have fully integrated the individual forms for application, agreement and transcripts in the mobility procedure (dynamic).

• A similar survey is planned for the university sector this fall (2003).

• The ECTS marking scale is not used, although several institutions provide equivalencies in their program descriptions:

4. Mobility

• Internationalization has a high priority at Danish higher education institutions, and most higher education institutions have entered into exchange agreements with one or more foreign institutions, particularly in other Nordic countries, the European Union and the United States.

• Denmark is a member of the SOCRATES/ERASMUS and Leonardo exchange programs, as well as the regional Nordplus program.

• The Danish Center for Assessment of Foreign Credentials (CVUU) is an administrative unit under the Danish Ministry of Education. Its purpose is to make it easier for people with foreign credentials to enter the Danish labor market and higher education institutions. The center carries out consultative scope and level assessments of non-Danish education programs, advises on assessment procedures and provides information on other nations’ education systems, as well as informs foreigners of the Danish education system.

• An agency for the support of international education exchange programs, CIRIUS, was established in 2000 for the dissemination of information about exchange programs and Danish education.

• International organizations provide services to exchange students and other foreign students.

• A growing number of programs and courses are offered in English. A database of programs is available on the CIRIUS Web site.

• Higher education institutions receive special funding in proportion to the number of incoming and outgoing international exchange students.

• The structural reforms of the Danish educational system passed this year are designed to allow greater student mobility between Danish universities and to/from foreign universities, especially within the three-year bachelor program.

5. Quality Assurance

• In 1992, the Center for Quality Assurance and Evaluation of Higher Education was established under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The center initially was established for a five-year trial period, which was extended until the end of 1999. It was then decided that systematic evaluations were to be carried out for all levels of education. In 1999, the tasks of the center were taken over by the Danish Evaluation Institute.

• The Evaluation Institute systematically examines individual programs and the relations between programs. The institute also develops evaluation techniques and methods and combines national and international experience with educational evaluation and quality development.

• As part of the evaluation process, each institution must prepare a self-evaluation report. The report should not only assess a program’s strengths and weaknesses but also propose initiatives that may ensure the quality of the program.

• Universities have the option to choose the Evaluation Institute or a foreign evaluation agency to conduct evaluations.

• The Danish Evaluation Institute is a founding member of the European Network of Quality Assurance (ENQA).

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• Universities in the Copenhagen metropolitan area and southern Sweden (Scania) cooperate in education and research in a transnational university consortium, Øresund University.

• Danish higher education institutions take part in the development and establishment of a number of European joint programs and joint degrees. For example, a Swedish-Danish education program in horticulture has been established, Germany and Denmark have been cooperating in business economics and business programs for 10 years and English-Danish programs in marketing and finance also have been established.

• Danish universities are participating in three projects relating to the Joint European Master programs.

— Nick Clark
September 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Implementation of the Bologna Goals in Denmark, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, June 11, 2003

• ECTS Grading Scale Equivalency, Aarhus University

• ECTS Grading Scale Equivalency, University of Copenhagen

Estonia

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The higher education system is binary and consists of universities (ülikool), applied higher education institutions (rakenduskörgkool) and vocational education institutions (kutseöppeasutus) in both the public and the private sector. In 1999, extensive reform with regard to curricula and transition to a new system of stages of studies commenced at universities, which was first applied in the academic year 2002/2003, after amendments to the Universities Act were passed by parliament in 2002. The changes that have occurred in Estonia in the course of the Bologna process have primarily been directed at the system of qualifications and towards supporting mobility. The general principles of legislation are determined in the Universities Act (1995, 2002) and in the Applied Higher Education Institutions Act of 1998. The Vocational Education Institutions Act of 1998, the Private Schools Act and the Adult Education Act also regulate some aspects of higher education.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Estonia has signed and ratified (1998) the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications.

• The Estonian National Academic Recognition Information Center, which was established in 1997, operates as the Estonian ENIC/NARIC center. To make assessment and recognition easier, “Principles of Assessment and Recognition of Qualifications of Foreign Higher Education and Comparison with Estonian Qualifications” has been published.

• Government regulations: “Procedure for Assessment and Academic Recognition of Qualifications Certifying Education and Providing Access to Higher Education” is being prepared.

• The Diploma Supplement was first issued by a number of universities in English and Estonian in 1999. Beginning Jan. 1, 2004, the government will require all institutions of higher education to issue a diploma supplement in English and Estonian.

• The diploma supplement is currently issued to all graduates upon request, except for those graduating with a bachelor’s and continuing with a master’s in the same year from the same institution.

• Those graduating from applied higher education programs have been receiving an English diploma supplement as a matter of course from spring 2003.

2. Degree Structure

• Estonian higher education has undergone a number of reforms since the country gained its independence from the Soviet Union. In terms of study cycles, these reforms – in 1990,1995 and 1999 – have resulted in the phasing out of the Soviet integrated degree in favor of a system based on the bachelor (baccalaureus) and master (magister) cycles. Between 1991 and 1994, the length of the first stage of study was four to five years. Between 1994 and 1999, the length of study for a bachelor qualification was generally four years.

• In 1999, Estonian higher education underwent extensive reform with regard to curriculums and the transition to another two-tiered system of studies. Parliament passed amendments to the Universities Act in 2002, and these reforms went into effect in the 2002-03 academic year. Transition to new curriculums has taken place in the majority of major Estonian universities, with the focus of the first stage of study being general education and skills in specialty areas necessary for master studies.

• The latest reforms are geared more toward European integration, and thus the new system is closely aligned to the Bologna two-tier model. At the bachelor level, length of study is predominantly three years, and the capacity of study is 120 national credit points, or 180 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) points. Some bachelor programs are four years in length (240 ECTS points). Master studies are one to two years in length or 40 to 80 credits (60 to 120 ECTS points), but along with bachelor’s studies not less than five years (200 credits/300 ECTS points).

• Beginning in 2005-06, institutions of applied higher education will also be able to provide master studies, but only in cooperation with universities and taking into account regional needs.

• In addition to the two-tier model, professional studies such as medicine, veterinary medicine and architecture still follow the integrated, one-stage model of five to six years (300 to 360 ECTS points). New, one-tier programs in civil engineering and primary school teacher training were introduced in 2002-03.

• The length of doctoral studies has been revised from the fixed, four-year program to three to four years in length.

3. Credit Transfer

• Like its Baltic neighbors, Estonia had a system of credits (Law on Universities, 1995) for accumulation and transfer in place well before the signing of the Bologna Declaration. The national system of credit points is a calculation based on the student’s workload. One credit point corresponds to 40 hours or one study week; one academic year equals 40 credits.

• The Universities Act allows parallel use of both the national credit system and ECTS credits (for international mobility purposes). One national credit point equals 1.5 ECTS points. Full transfer to the European system of credits is slated for completion by September 2006, but is currently used voluntarily by most of the Estonian higher education institutions involved with the SOCRATES/ERASMUS programs.

• Since the beginning of academic year 2003-04, it has been possible to express course workloads in terms of ECTS, and many of the major universities have included ECTS weighting in their course catalogs.

• Estonia has a six-point grading scale based on percentage of subject knowledge. A transition to the ECTS grading scale would require an amendment to current legislation, although the Estonian Business School uses the ECTS grading scale and credit system.

4. Mobility

• Estonia has participated in the ERASMUS program since 1998.

• According to ministry figures, approximately 6 percent of the students admitted to doctoral studies in Estonian universities are sent to foreign universities for a period of study/research with the help of state research grants.

• Statistical data about Estonian students who study abroad is unavailable. According to statistics on study loans, slightly less than 30 percent of Estonian students studying abroad are in Russia, followed by Finland (18 percent), Germany (15 percent) and Latvia (7 percent). No information on the percentage these students represent as a proportion of the Estonian student body is available.

• Incoming students to Estonia, according to a ministry report, are still low in number and limited to a few universities that provide studies in English. The majority of foreign students come to Estonia not as exchange students but in order to complete their entire field of study. A number of Estonian universities have set targets to increase foreign student enrollment, so the development of courses in English has become an important goal for these institutions.

• Of the foreign students in Estonian institutions, 28 percent are from Latvia, Finland (24 percent), Lithuania (20 percent), Russia (12 percent) and China (8 percent). The majority of them study in private universities that have curriculums in English.

5. Quality Assurance

• Like its Baltic neighbors, Estonia has had an independent system of quality assurance in place since the mid-1990s.

• Quality assessment of higher education institutions in Estonia is a continuous process consisting of four parts: institutional self-analysis; site visits conducted by a body of foreign experts; oversight by the autonomous Higher Education Quality Assessment Council (HEQAC), which makes decisions regarding curriculums and the institutional accreditation of educational institutions; and institutional self-improvement activities.

• The HEQAC -- with its final decision-making powers -- plays a leading role with the Higher Education Accreditation Center (HEAC), which organizes accreditation procedures. The HEQAC was founded in 1995.

• Active assessment of curriculums began after HEAC was established in 1997. HEAC, a member of the European Network of Agencies of Quality Assurance (ENQA), makes accreditation decisions public.

• Accreditation in Estonia is not a compulsory process; however, it is the only way for an institution of higher education to acquire the right to issue officially recognized documents. Full accreditation lasts seven years; conditional accreditation lasts three years.

• In 2002, the first round of accreditations was completed.

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• Only a few institutions of higher education have developed a purposeful strategy supporting internationalization; the majority of institutions consider it important to only increase the number of foreign students.

• According to a questionnaire filled out by the ministry for the “Survey on Joint Degrees in Europe (2002),” only one institution in Estonia is involved in a (true) joint degree partnership.

The following is a list of international activities the ministry highlights in its latest Bologna report:

• Tartu University and Tallinn Technical University participate in the European University Association. Tartu University is a member of the COIMBRA group of European research universities.
• The University Consortium in Science and Technology, Baltech, was established in 1997 by seven universities in the Baltic region. It partners technical universities in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries to develop international cooperation in industrial engineering and management. Such projects have resulted in the development of joint curriculums in which students can take modules from different universities participating in the network.
• The Baltic University Program is a network of more than 180 universities and higher education institutions throughout the Baltic Sea region cooperating in such fields as sustainable development, environmental conservation and democratic development. Although this network does not award supra-national or joint degrees, it is an example of universities pooling resources to cooperate in areas of regional common interest.
• In spring 2003, a number of Estonian universities held negotiations with foreign universities for preparing joint curriculums. The Estonian Business School is the only institution of higher education that has participated since 1998 in the International Consortium of Double Degrees, which is oriented toward international business administration.

— Nick Clark
August 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Implementation of Bologna Declaration in Estonia in 1999-2003, Ministry of Education and Research, 2003

Finland

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The Higher Education Development Act of 1986 includes provisions on the mission of the higher education system, appropriations and their allocation. The Universities Act of 1997 and Decree (1998) include provisions on the mission of the universities, research and instruction, organization and administration, staff and official language, students, appeals against university decisions and students’ legal protection. Legislation on higher education degrees comprises the Decree on the System of Higher Education Degrees (1998). These decrees stipulate, for example, the objectives and scope of university degrees, their general structure and content, as well as the distribution of educational responsibility between different universities.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Finland has signed the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications, and ratification is expected by the end of the year.

• The National Board of Education acts as the Finnish ENIC/NARIC body and works closely with the Center for International Mobility and the Ministry of Education.

• All Finnish university and polytechnic legislation requires institutions to issue to their students, upon request, an annex to their diploma for international use. The Finnish Ministry of Education has recommended that all institutions follow the Diploma Supplement model. Most universities and polytechnics issue the diploma supplement automatically, free of charge and in English to all students on graduation.

2. Degree Structure

• The structure of the university degree system in Finland was reformed in the early 1990s to provide broad, flexible and internationally compatible programs. As a result, a degree system based on two main cycles was introduced in most fields of study, with the exception of medicine, technology and architecture.

• Despite these reforms, a stand-alone, first-level qualification never really materialized. The bachelor programs that were introduced did not lead to independent degrees but were part of the five-year master programs, and were largely overlooked in the labor market as stand-alone qualifications.

• The Finnish Higher Education Council published an evaluation report on the existing master programs in February 2002. In academic year 2000-01, there were 167 programs in 19 universities.

• The government is introducing a bill in Parliament this fall to address the need for a system that is more internationally compatible. According to the ministry, the reforms, if passed, would be in force by summer 2005. The two-tier degree structure with an obligatory bachelor phase would be introduced in all fields of study except in medicine, where faculties would have the choice of using the new structure or the old integrated model.

• The ministry has earmarked funding to facilitate the transfer to the new degree structure and promote universities’ cooperation in implementing the reforms.

• Currently, polytechnics can offer bachelor-level degrees in all fields and postgraduate degrees in select fields. The postgraduate programs currently are offered on an experimental basis. Although these degrees are a second cycle of 60 to 90 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits in length, they are not strictly master programs. The government approved all the programs after an external evaluation; according to the most recent ministry report, the future of the polytechnics’ degree structure will likely be decided by the end of 2004.

3. Credit Transfer

• A national credit system has been used in Finland since the late 1970s. It is student workload-based and is an accumulation system. There is an average of 40 credits per year, with each credit corresponding to 40 hours of work.

• The national credit system will be replaced by a system based directly on ECTS credits from Aug. 1, 2005, simultaneously with the reforms on university degree structure. The credit reform will be introduced in both universities and polytechnics.

• Nearly all higher education institutions in Finland use ECTS as a transfer system. Some institutions even give both domestic and ECTS credits automatically on transcripts.

4. Mobility

• Financial aid from the state is completely portable for studies abroad. The government gives additional national funding for the implementation of European Union programs to the Center for International Mobility, and many universities and polytechnics offer top-up funding for their students who take part in international exchanges.

• Targets set by the Ministry of Education in a three-year performance agreement call for every third Finnish student in higher education to spend at least part of their degree studying abroad. The best performing universities and polytechnics are rewarded for their activities in international cooperation.

• In 2001, a national strategy was set to double the number of foreign students in Finland by 2010.

• All Finnish higher education institutions offer English-language programs. According to government figures, Finland has the highest share of English-language degree programs in Europe outside English-speaking countries. The ministry provides extra funding for the provision of these English-language programs to encourage international students to Finland.

• The Center for International Mobility (CIMO) was established in the early 1990s to promote international cooperation between Finland and other countries. CIMO administers scholarship and exchange programs and is responsible for the national implementation of several European Union education and youth programs.

5. Quality Assurance

• All Finnish universities are required by legislative reforms (1999) to evaluate themselves and take part in external evaluations. The evaluation reports are made public, and many of them are published in English. Students play an integral part in all evaluations. Most evaluations consist of self-evaluation and an external evaluation with international experts.

• Institutions of higher education are assisted in their evaluation work by the Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC), which was established in 1995. The council is independent of both the educational administration and institutions of higher education. Its establishment and the separation of evaluation activities from the direct operations of the Ministry of Education safeguard the independence of the evaluations.

• All Finnish universities have been evaluated at the institutional level, and the council has carried out several program and thematic evaluations.

• The council is a member of the European Network for Quality Assurance (ENQA).

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• Internationalization of education has been one of the key objectives of Finnish education policy since the late 1980s. The prerequisites of institutions of higher education and other educational institutions to participate in international cooperation are supported by separate appropriations, which have enabled educational institutions to develop foreign-language instruction and administration of international affairs.

• In the agreements made between the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) concerning cultural cooperation and the common labor market, these countries are committed to the aims of reciprocal recognition of education completed in another Nordic country. Furthermore, there are joint arrangements between Baltic and Nordic countries in, for example, technical and agricultural fields. However, these often only lead to the award of the home institution degree, thereby not truly qualifying as a joint degree.

— Nick Clark
September 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Report on the Finnish Implementation of the Bologna Declaration, Ministry of Education, August 2003

• International Relations – ECTS, University of Oulu

Iceland

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Legislation on higher education institutions enacted in 1997 establishes the general framework for the activities of institutions. There currently are eight institutions of higher education in Iceland – five are state-run, and the others are privately run with state support. The ministry believes the Bologna Declaration is in line with Icelandic higher education policy and, therefore, has not made any major changes in either policy or organization of the system. Regardless, the ministry has established a special coordination and advisory committee to formalize and strengthen the implementation process. The committee, comprised of representatives from the ministry and from all Icelandic higher education institutions, will monitor the progress of the Bologna Process and provide input on how to secure successful implementation.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Iceland signed and ratified (2001) the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications.

• The University of Iceland is promoting the Diploma Supplement, although it is not compulsory. The government has recommended that all universities issue Diploma Supplements. Most have agreed to do so; some began in 2001-02, and others have yet to start because of technical reasons.

• The Academic Recognition Information Center, through the University of Iceland, acts as the ENIC/NARIC body in Iceland.

2. Degree Structure

• In most fields, the degree structure in Iceland is based on the two-tier system of bachelor and master programs. The longer (four to six years), integrated candidatus degree still exists, however, in certain fields – theology, medicine, pharmacy, law, business administration, engineering and dentistry – at the University of Iceland. The long master programs account for only 4 percent of all graduate programs.

• Some faculties that still offer the candidatus, such as the law school at the University of Iceland, are considering changing their structure to a 3 + 2 system.

• The B.A. degree is awarded to students who have completed three to four years of study in the fields of humanities, theology, social sciences, visual arts and design and who have satisfactorily completed a final thesis or research project.

• The B.S. degree is awarded to students who have completed three to four years of study in the fields of economics, management or business administration, natural sciences, health sciences, agricultural science, computer science or technical engineering subjects, and who have passed the prescribed examinations and completed the final thesis or research project.

• Most graduate programs in Iceland are relatively new, and the curriculum is still being developed. They are largely research-oriented, they consist of 30 to 60 study credits or 60 to 120 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits and the length of study is one or two years. A research project and a thesis can amount to 15, 30 or 45 credits. There are some master programs, such as the master’s in business administration, that are considered somewhat more professional than the usual master’s of arts or master’s of science.

• Higher education is based primarily on two main cycles. Access to the second cycle requires successful completion of the first cycle, and lasts at least three years. The second cycle leads to a master’s degree.

3. Credit Transfer

• The Law on Universities (1997) requires the use of a national credit system, which is based on student workload and is used for accumulation.

• The Icelandic credit system has 30 credits per academic year. One Icelandic credit equals two ECTS credits. There is no legal framework directly related to the ECTS system.

• There is inconsistent implementation among universities. Most give their students information on the link between Icelandic credits and ECTS credits with their transcripts. At least one university issues an ECTS guide with course descriptions and ECTS credits. In some disciplines, professors translate national grades into ECTS grades for mobility purposes.

• All universities use the ECTS system for student exchange.

4. Mobility

• Iceland has a long history of student mobility because, before the expansion of research-based training in the country, students in many disciplines had to go abroad to complete their studies.

• According to ministry figures, 16 percent of all Icelandic university students either study abroad full time or go overseas for one semester or more as part of their regular studies.

• The ministry has left the development of agreements with foreign institutions to Iceland’s universities, which explains why there are very few bilateral education agreements between Iceland and other governments. Current legislation encourages the independence of Icelandic universities, which are all trying to increase international cooperation.

• A perceived language barrier has been a major obstacle to receiving more students in Iceland. However, as institutions of higher education have gradually increased the number of courses taught in English, the country has experienced a significant rise in the number of incoming exchange students.

• The greatest number of foreign students in Iceland is enrolled at the University of Iceland, which offers the greatest variety of subjects. For the 2002-03 academic year, there were 572 foreign students at the university, more than 7 percent of all students enrolled.

5. Quality Assurance

• According to the 1997 Universities Act, universities in Iceland are required to adopt a formal system of quality assurance. The form and method are articulated in a contract between individual institutions and the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. According to rules set in 1999 regarding quality control of university instruction, higher education institutions are obliged to set up a formal internal quality system. These rules also include provisions for the monitoring of higher education institutions' self-evaluation systems and regular external evaluation of defined units within the institutions or the institutions as a whole.

• According to the latest “Trends III Report (July 2003),” the Ministry of Education has plans to establish an independent national accreditation agency.

• A division of Evaluation and Supervision was established within the Ministry of Education in 1996 and is a member of the European Network of Quality Assurance (ENQA) and the Nordic network of quality assurance agencies.

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• The Ministry of Education reports that the present legal situation in the country does not allow joint degrees because only one institution can legally be responsible for issuing a degree.

• The Nordic Academy of Advanced Study (NorFA) provides exchange of ideas and human resources and seeks to develop Nordic research and research training. The organization is heavily engaged in disbursing grants for students who wish to undertake part of their education at another university or college in a Nordic country. It also grants fellowships to students in advanced studies. Acting upon an initiative by the Council of Ministers, NorFA is developing Nordic Research Schools and Nordic Centers of Excellence in research.

• The Nordplus system of grants was established by the Nordic Council of Ministers in 1988. The aim of the Nordplus program is to strengthen the Nordic region as a market for education. Grants awarded through Nordplus go mainly to those who are studying at higher education institutions, but grants are also given to participants in joint research projects.

• Iceland reported in the “Survey on Joint Degrees in Europe (2002)” that one of its universities was involved in three joint degree programs at the master’s level and none at the bachelor’s level.

— Nick Clark
September 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• National Report on the Bologna Process, Ministry of Education, 2003

Latvia

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

On June 19, 1991, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Latvia reformed its system of education with the adoption of the Law on Education. This law provided the legal background for changes roughly consistent with many of the principles of the Bologna Declaration. The new law provided a framework that was later solidified and clarified by the Law on Higher Education Establishments, adopted four years later. The most significant reforms of 1991 and 1995 gave greater autonomy to institutions of higher education, created a division of academic and professional qualifications, introduced a two-tier system of bachelor- and master-level studies, allowed the establishment of private institutions and introduced a culture of quality assurance and accreditation. These reforms, and subsequent amendments introduced in 2000 are outlined below where relevant to the principles of the Bologna Declaration.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Discussions over the adoption of the Diploma Supplement were already well advanced in Latvia when the Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999, and a number of institutions were already issuing a version of the supplement to graduates of certain programs.

• All technical preparations for the introduction of the diploma supplement have been successfully introduced. The key documents are available in Latvian, and a Rectors Council working group has produced detailed instructions for compiling diploma supplements: http://www.aic.lv/rec/Eng/leg_en/ds_doc.htm.

• Each year the Latvian ENIC/NARIC body produces a description of Latvia’s higher education system for use with and to be attached to the diploma supplement.

• A number of institutions are now issuing the supplement, although it has not been introduced nationally. The Ministry of Education has said all relevant regulations for the implementation of the diploma supplement will be prepared and approved soon.

• Latvia has signed and ratified (July 1999) the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia signed a multilateral agreement on the recognition of qualifications in the Baltic Education Space in 2000.

• The Latvian ENIC/NARIC works under the auspices of the Latvian Academic Information Center.

2. Degree Structure

• According to the 1991 Higher Education Law, “Higher education comprises higher academic education and higher professional education.” Different objectives were set for those branches.

• The law also provided for the replacement of integrated, five-year programs leading to a higher education diploma with a two-tier system with bachelor and master cycles. The subsequent Law on Higher Education Establishments (1995) further strengthened the bachelor-master structure in universities but failed to implement the same structure for professional qualifications. Amendments to the Law on Higher Education Establishments in 2000 allowed for the introduction of a two-tier system with bachelor and master cycles in professional education, allowing for further progression to doctoral studies.

• The current structure of higher education allows for academic bachelor programs (bakalaura diploms) of three to four years, which qualify students for one to two years of study at the master level. Bachelor degrees in professional disciplines are awarded after studies of at least four years in duration, and master degrees after no less than five years, including the bachelor phase. Successful students can then qualify for doctoral programs. The bachelor/master/doctorate cycles are, since 2000, applicable to both academic and professional programs. The 2000 amendments do not, however, include a provision abolishing the existing four- to six-year [240 - 360 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits] integrated professional program that leads to a professional diploma, but not to doctoral studies. There will be a transition period during which the new professional bachelor and master programs will coexist with those professional programs leading to a diploma.

• The new master’s degrees are called magistra grads. The long programs in medicine and dentistry lead to arsta grads and zobarsta grads.

• The total duration of first and second cycle studies combined should not be less than five years (300 ECTS). This means that 3+2, 4+1 and 4+2 structures are legal and in existence. In addition, there are some examples of 3+3 structures at Riga Technical University and 5+2 law programs at the University of Latvia.

• Two more documents – “Academic Education Standard” and “Second-Level Higher Education Standard” – have been adopted to supplement the Law on Higher Education Establishments. These documents obscure the difference between academic and professional higher education and ensure employability of graduates at all levels.

• Further progression of the two-tier structure in Latvia foresees transfer from one sector of higher education to the other at every level. For example, successful completion of a professional bachelor program will provide eligibility for entry into both an academic and a professional master program. Long, one-tiered programs will be kept in areas where such programs are likely to be kept in a number of other European countries, e.g., medicine and dentistry.

3. Credit Transfer

• Latvian institutions of higher education have been using the national credit system since the passage of the Law of Higher Education Institutions in 1995. Similar to other Baltic states and some Nordic countries, the credit system is based on the definition of one credit point as a workload of one week of full-time studies, with 40 credits per year. Contact hours may not exceed 50 percent of the student workload.

• The use of the credit system is also an essential requirement for institutional accreditation. In 2002, Regulation No. 2 of the Cabinet of Ministers’ state standards of academic education established the length and volume of bachelor (120 to 160 credits) and master (80 credits) study programs.

• The Latvian credit system is easily compatible with ECTS credits – one Latvian credit is worth 1.5 ECTS credit points.

• In Latvia, credits have been used for accumulation from inception, and the duration of programs has been expressed in total number of credit points.

• Latvia has not introduced the ECTS grading scale. A comparability study between Latvian credits and ECTS credits was carried out in 2001, and simple software has been produced to compare the achievements of Latvian students graded on the 10-point scale to the ECTS system.

• During the last three years, 15 universities have implemented ECTS as a credit transfer and accumulation system in almost all study programs.

4. Mobility

• Staff and student mobility were stimulated in Latvia by the country’s entry into the European Union’s TEMPUS and SOCRATES programs, as well as through bilateral projects with several Western European and Nordic countries.

• Student and staff mobility has increased slowly during the years of the Bologna Process. The main hindrance to academic mobility has been funding.

• To meet Bologna mobility goals, 2 percent of students – 2,000 in Latvia – should complete a study period abroad each year. Currently, only 200 students do so through the SOCRATES program. Due to lack of funds, the study period is usually only three months in duration, compared to the standard six months. This shorter study period causes certain problems with credit transfer because it is difficult to express achievements in terms of credits for a period of half a semester when most courses in foreign institutions are planned on a semester timescale.

• Outgoing student mobility flow significantly exceeds that of incoming flow.

• The Latvian Academic Information Center, which oversees the Latvian ENIC/NARIC, assesses and recognizes foreign credentials. Issues concerning the recognition and credit for periods of study abroad are usually dealt with by the institution where the student completes their study program.

5. Quality Assurance

• The establishment of a higher education quality assurance system began in 1994 with the adoption of the Law on Higher Education Establishments. The law mandated a two-stage system of quality assurance in which both institutions and programs have to be officially accredited for a degree to have full state recognition.

• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania collaborated on the principles of the quality assurance system, and the three countries agreed to have a common expert pool for use as external evaluators.

• Regulations for accreditation procedures stipulate that each evaluation team consists of at least three experts, of whom only one can be Latvian. In practice, most evaluation teams comprise one expert from Western Europe or North America, one from Estonia or Lithuania and one from Latvia.

• In the case of program evaluations, final decisions are made by the Commission for the Accreditation of Study Programs, and in the case of institutional accreditation final decisions are made by the Council of Higher Education. Institutional accreditations are valid for six years.

• After five years of evaluations, Latvia completed the first round of accreditations of all study programs in 2001. Information about the accreditation system and its results are disseminated through the European Network for Quality Assurance (ENQA).

• In January 2003, the Council of Higher Education established a working group to consider regulation amendments based on the results of the first round of accreditations.

• According to the results of the “Trends III” study, Latvian higher education institutions believe European cooperation in quality assurance should take place as a cooperation of national higher education quality agencies through ENQA rather than with the establishment of a European accreditation body.

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• Through participation in the TEMPUS program, Latvian institutions are cooperating in joint curriculum development and establishing joint programs – the most important examples being cooperation among technical universities of the Baltic and Nordic countries, as well as cooperation among those region’s agricultural universities.

• In 2000, multilateral agreements were reached among Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia on the recognition of qualifications in the Baltic Education Space.

• This cooperation, however, has not yet resulted in the creation of joint degrees. Latvian authorities blame the gaps in national legislations. A recent ministry report suggests Latvia can facilitate true European joint degrees by identifying and revising its own laws.

— Nick Clark
August 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Report on the Reforms in Latvia’s Higher Education on the Way Towards European Higher Education Area, Andrejs Rauhvargers, 2003

Lithuania

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The 1992 Law on Research and Higher Education promoted autonomy, academic freedom and integration of research and higher education in Lithuania. The Law on Higher Education, passed in 2000, built on those principles and established a binary system in higher education. The Law on Higher Education determines the system of higher education, the principles for acquisition of academic and professional qualifications, qualification and research degrees, the scope of the autonomy of higher education establishments and control of their activities by the state. The law also defines the rights and responsibilities of the teaching staff, research workers and students, the legal grounds for the establishment, reorganization and liquidation of higher education institutions in the Republic of Lithuania, the basic requirements for higher education establishments and study programs, the principles of evaluation and registration of study programs as well as the principles of financing higher education establishments.

• Establishment of the binary system of higher education provides for two types of higher education institutions: universities and colleges (mokykla). On Sept. 1, 2000, seven new colleges opened (four state-run and three private).

• Requirements were developed for the university and non-university study programs, their registration, evaluation and accreditation.

• Agencies were established for coordinating the activities of higher education institutions and their regulation by the state. These include the Higher Education Council of Lithuania, the Science Council of Lithuania, the Rectors Conference and the Lithuanian Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Lithuania has signed and ratified (1999) the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications.

• Universities are now issuing Diploma Supplements to all students (in English upon request). A working group with representatives from higher education institutions, the Ministry of Education and ENIC/NARIC began in 2002 to prepare for the full implementation of the supplement, which was first introduced later that year.

• The Lithuanian Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education body in Lithuania.

2. Degree Structure

• As a result of initiatives by institutions of higher education and changes to the law since independence, a three-tier system of higher education, similar to that proposed under the Bologna Declaration, has been introduced.

• Undergraduate university studies last 3½ to 4½ years. Non-university studies last three to four years. Upon completing a bachelor program, a specialized professional or academic master program can be undertaken. Master courses last 1½ to two years. Integrated courses incorporating first- and second-level studies lead to a master’s degree and last up to five years. Integrated master studies are offered in such disciplines as medicine, pharmacy and agriculture.

• Short master’s degrees build on bachelor programs requiring an average of four years (240 credits), thus bringing the overall length of study to more than five years, or 300 credits.

• Lithuanian authorities see no further need to change the degree structure.

3. Credit Transfer

• A system of credits was introduced in Lithuania as part of the post-Soviet education reforms. According to the Law on Higher Education, an average academic year of full-time studies corresponds to 40 credits. The credit system is applied to bachelor and master cycles. Students may choose courses at other faculties or study programs within their own institution or even at other institutions. The credits earned are recognized in accordance with the regulations adopted by each institution.

• Doctoral study programs must be quantified in credits according to a June 2002 ministerial decree.

• The Law on Higher Education does not mention the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), although it does foresee and allow for internal and external credit accumulation. The only legal framework allowing for use of ECTS credits is two papers the ministry signed concerning Bologna and the SOCRATES program.

• After Lithuania joined the SOCRATES/ERASMUS program, periods of study by participants were credited in accordance with ECTS on a voluntary basis.

• The national credit system is based on student workload; one credit corresponds to 40 hours of student work, or to one workweek. The academic year consists of two semesters, and a student has to earn 40 credits. One Lithuanian credit is comparable to 1.5 ECTS credits. A minimum of 240 ECTS credits is required for a bachelor’s degree, and 120 for a master’s degree.

• The use of the national credit system is an essential element for the accreditation and registration of study programs.

• A 10-point grading scale has been introduced. A grade of 1 to 4 is considered a fail in comparison to the ECTS system; a 10 an A and a 5 an E.

4. Mobility

• Higher education qualifications acquired abroad are assessed and recognized by the Lithuanian Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education. The center has also been commissioned to execute the functions of the Lithuanian National Academic Recognition and Mobility Center (ENIC/NARIC).

• Issues concerning recognition and credit for periods of study spent abroad are dealt with by the institution where the applicant completes his or her study program.

• On joining the SOCRATES program, periods of study have been credited in accordance with ECTS.

• According to the 2001 Strategy of Development of Higher Education, at least 1.5 percent of all Lithuanian students should participate in various mobility programs this year. The number of incoming students should also account for 1.5 percent. To meet these goals, institutions of higher education have been allocated funds to develop courses in foreign languages to accommodate foreign students.

• The 2000 Law on Higher Education includes a provision allowing courses taught in foreign languages when the content of studies is related to another language, when a foreign professor or expert is invited to deliver a course in a foreign language and when courses are delivered by Lithuanian higher education institutions in the framework of academic mobility agreements.

• There is legislation in place to protect the use of Lithuanian as the language of instruction, which could be seen as a hindrance to mobility and the creation of joint-degree programs.

5. Quality Assurance

• In 1995, the Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education was established. The center’s tasks are to organize the assessment of research and pedagogical activities, assess qualifications related to higher education and provide information on the recognition of these qualifications.

• The center conducts the assessment of undergraduate and second-level studies. The Register of Study Programs includes new programs only after they have been recommended by the center.

• In 1999, the Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education introduced the external assessment of study programs. These outside experts determine whether a program fulfills the general requirements of other higher education programs and whether the academic degrees and professional qualifications acquired can be recognized internationally.

• A quality assurance culture is growing in institutions of higher education. Self-analysis of programs and all activities has become common at all levels of institutional management.

• There is currently no accreditation body, although recommendations have been made for either the creation of such an organization or to give these powers to the ministry.

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• To implement the provisions of the Lisbon Convention, the three Baltic States signed a trilateral agreement on the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education. The agreement created favorable conditions for the exchange of students and teachers and for the recognition of secondary, higher education and research degrees.

• The 1991 Lithuanian law on research and higher education allowed for two types of foreign initiatives: international institutions and joint establishments.

• Compared to its two Baltic neighbors, Lithuania has been fairly conservative in promoting transnational institutions and programs, although this has been changing since 1999. In a 2002 report, Lithuania admitted that its joint degrees “are not real joint degrees,” i.e., on completion of a jointly developed program, graduates still receive only one degree -- from their home institution, and not from all participating institutions.

• There are joint arrangements between Baltic and Nordic countries in, for example, technical and agricultural disciplines, but these often lead to the award of the home-institution degree only.

• Bilateral partnerships, as opposed to multilateral joint-degree networks, are either the only type of cooperation or the dominant one.

— Nick Clark
August 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Higher Education in Lithuania 2002, Department of Science and Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, 2002

• LITHUANIA: National Report on the Bologna Process, Ministry of Education, 2003

• ECTS Grading Scale, Kaunas University of Technology

Norway

LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

There are two laws specific to higher education: the 1995 Act on Universities and Colleges and the 1986 Act on the Recognition of Study Programs at, and State Funding of, Private Higher Education Institutions. All institutions of higher education are subject to the authority of the Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs. Higher education in Norway is mainly offered at state institutions, notably universities (four), university colleges (six), state colleges (26) and art colleges (two). They are all covered by the same act, which came into force on January 1, 1996. In 2001, two legal bills and five white papers, under the combined title “Quality Reform,” provided amendments to these laws. With the Quality Reform Bill’s ratification in 2002 and 2003, many of the assumptions of the Bologna Declaration could be implemented in Norway. Amendments to the 1995 act include provisions for quality assurance, the introduction of an independent organization for accreditation and evaluation, the introduction of an ECTS grading scale and credit points, and recognition for study periods. The stipulations in the revisions, discussed below, have been fully operational since this academic year (2003-04).

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• Norway ratified the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in April 1999.

• The Diploma Supplement was introduced in 2002. Institutions of higher education are required to issue diploma supplements to every graduate upon his/her request.

• The Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT) acts as the ENIC/NARIC center in Norway

2. Degree Structure

• A new degree structure is being introduced in Norway that consists of an undergraduate and graduate cycle of three years and two years, respectively. This 3+2 structure replaces most existing degrees in Norway with few exemptions. In addition, the old doctorate degree has been replaced by a three-year Ph.D. degree. Transfers between institutions are encouraged and simplified by the degree system.

• The bachelor’s degree is a three-year degree consisting of 180 ECTS-equivalent credits (studiepoeng – see below); the master’s consists of 120 credits. However, there are exceptions, with some master’s degrees weighted at 90 credits (1½ years) with at least two years of relevant work experience. In a few exceptional cases, some institutions have been allowed to continue awarding a one-year master’s degree, but strict rules apply in relation to the subject area of the degree, language of teaching, etc.

• Students enrolled in such areas as odontology, engineering and pharmaceutics participate in five-year integrated degree courses.

• Some degrees from the former structure remain, including degrees and titles in medicine, theology, psychology and veterinary science.

• Most institutions incorporated the new degree structure in academic year 2002-03. All were required to do so by the start of the current academic year (2003-04). The old and new degree structures will co-exist for one to three years (depending on study program) to ensure a smooth transition.

• In addition to the master program requiring 120 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credit points, there is an international master’s degree (60 to 90 ECTS credits) and an experience-based master’s degree (60 to 90 ECTS credits). All public higher education institutions offer the new degrees.

3. Credit Transfer/Accumulation

• The former credit system (vekttal) allotting 20 credits per year has been replaced as of academic year 2003/04 by a system of credits (studiepoeng) in line with ECTS, where a full academic year equals 60 credits. Both the original and ECTS credit systems are student workload-based and used for accumulation and transfer.

• The new law on higher education acknowledges the ECTS credit system, and all institutions must by law complete the implementation process by the end of 2003. A majority of institutions have initiated the necessary changes, although there is variation to the degree of implementation both within and between institutions.

• A new, standardized grading system has been introduced, with a descending scale from A to E for passes and an F for fail. The new system of credits and the grading scale are equivalent to those of the ECTS.

4. Mobility

• Higher education institutions (HEI) are working on their international strategies as well as reviewing and renewing their cooperation agreements with partner institutions abroad.

• As a means of facilitating and encouraging student mobility between higher education institutions in the country, degrees can be conferred on the basis of studies from a combination of higher education institutions.

• Institutions are encouraged to increase the number of academic courses offered in English at their institutions to attract more foreign students to Norway.

• New funding for HEIs incorporates measures designed to promote the internationalization of Norwegian higher education. Institutions receive 700 euros per incoming and outgoing exchange student.

• To encourage stays in non-English speaking countries, the National Educational Loan Fund awards grants for language courses.

• Every Norwegian student is entitled to a study period abroad as an integrated part of their degree program. It is the responsibility of the Norwegian institutions to arrange study periods abroad.

5. Quality Assurance

• Norwegian higher education is regulated by two laws: the Universities and Colleges Act, which regulates state-owned institutions and their right to establish programs and award national degrees; and the Private Colleges Act, which regulates private institutions’ right to award national degrees and their access to public funding. Both laws were amended in 2002 in connection with the government’s “quality reform” of higher education. The amendments are the first step toward merging the two laws and thus creating greater equality between state and private institutions.

• The government established in 2002 the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT), which commenced activities Jan. 1, 2003. NOKUT is an independent government body performing evaluations, accreditations and recognition of quality systems, institutions and course provisions.

• NOKUT assesses the quality assurance system of higher education institutions, accredits private institutions as well as state-owned institutions applying for a change of status and accredits academic courses when such accreditation is not within the authority of the individual institution. (All state-owned colleges and universities in Norway have the right to establish bachelor programs without applying to NOKUT or the ministry. Universities can establish new programs at all levels, while state-owned colleges that have the right to award doctoral degrees can establish master programs within the doctoral subject area. Private colleges still have to apply to NOKUT, but a revision of the law has opened the accreditation door – as of Jan. 1 -- to some of the larger private institutions with similar freedom of establishment as state-owned colleges.)

• NOKUT is introducing accreditation procedures to its quality assurance system. A prerequisite for status as an accredited institution will be the existence of an internal system of quality assurance that complies with nationally set criteria. Institutions are expected to have such systems in place by Jan. 1, 2004.

• Full details of Norwegian accreditation can be found here: http://www.nokut.no/sw455.asp

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• The development of joint degrees and cooperation between Norwegian HEIs and others in Europe is strongly encouraged by the ministry.

• Institutions are also strongly encouraged to participate in European and other international education and research programs. Norwegian institutions are also increasingly participating in various European networks of cooperation.

• Norway views the establishment of joint degrees as a rapidly growing trend and small number of joint bachelor degrees exists.

• There are joint arrangements between Baltic and Nordic countries in, for example, technical and agricultural disciplines, but these often lead to the award of the home institution degree only.

• In awarding joint degrees, a “double degree” (separate degrees from both institutions), appears to be the common practice.

— Nick Clark
August 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, Aug. 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Implementation of the Elements of the Bologna Process, Ministry of Education, 2003

• ECTS Grading Scale, Faculty of Health and Sport, Agder College

Sweden

LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

• In April 2002, the Ministry of Education and Science appointed a group to review developments relating to the Bologna Process. A final report, “Degree Review,” will be released by December 2003. For further information, see: http://utbildning.regeringen.se/inenglish/pdf/review_univdegrees.pdf.

• The “Degree Review” will focus on the level and status of the master’s degree, the formulation of the scopes and objectives of the degrees, the translation of the degree titles and will also address the issue of adapting the Swedish credit system and grading scale to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) grading scale.

• A state commission has also been appointed to review Sweden’s doctoral programs, including a survey of how they compare to those in other countries and to the Bologna Process. This report is also due in December.

• Objectives for higher education are explained in the Higher Education Act and in the Higher Education Ordinance (1993): http://utbildning.regeringen.se/inenglish/publications.htm#acts.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

• As of Jan. 1, 2003, a Diploma Supplement is issued free of charge and in English and free of charge with the award of a degree certificate in accordance with legislation passed Feb.15, 2001. It should, as much as is feasible, contain ECTS data.

• Sweden ratified the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in the EHEA in August 2001.

• The National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket) acts as the Swedish ENIC/NARIC body. The Swedish Institute also forms part of the ENIC network.

2. Degree Structure

• Undergraduate degrees are divided into general degrees and professional degrees.

Current degree structure for general degrees:

• Högskoleexamen (university diploma): at least two years of full-time study, 80 Swedish credits (poäng) (120 ECTS credits)
• Kandidatexamen (bachelor): at least three years of full-time study, either of a general nature or professionally oriented, 120 credits (180 ECTS credits)
• Magisterexamen med amnesdjup (master): at least four years of full-time study, 160 credits (240 ECTS credits)
• Magisterexamen med amnesbredd: awarded after studies of at least 40 credits to students with a degree of at least 120 credits or the equivalent.
• Licentiatexamen (Licentiate): usually two years of full-time study after the completion of at least three years of full-time undergraduate study
• Doktorsexamen (doctorate): usually four years of full-time study after the completion of at least three years of full-time undergraduate study

• Master’s degrees of 40 credits (60 ECTS credits), after a bachelor of 120 credits (180 ECTS credits), are offered in all disciplines. Master’s degrees are awarded at the level of four years/240 ECTS credits.

• Review of the Bologna Declaration’s division of higher education degrees into different cycles is still under review and will be available in December 2003. The analysis will clarify the division given in the declaration and will determine which programs will be affected by a division based on a system of bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

• In addition to the existing degrees, a new type of professional master’s degree has been introduced recently, called magisterexamen med ämnesbredd. This new professional master’s degree is designed as an important element of progressing lifelong learning, aiming at candidates who are already in employment.

• An interim report in March 2003 made proposals concerning the position of the master’s in relation to other qualifications. These proposals are under review by higher education institutions and the National Students Union.

• Swedish officials stress the importance of the European Research Area, and the logical inclusion of a third cycle (doctoral studies) in the EHEA.

3. Credit Transfer

• The use of a credit point system is mandatory throughout the Swedish higher education system. The workload of a student is expressed in points: one week of full-time study equals one credit point (one year is 40 credits). One Swedish credit point is equal to 1.5 ECTS credits. A full student workload is equal to 1,600 hours per year.

• ECTS is implemented as both a transfer and accumulation system for incoming and outgoing students in the majority of institutions taking part in the SOCRATES student exchange programs. In addition, some institutions use ECTS points as a general system alongside the national credit point system. Currently, however, the ECTS grading scale is not frequently used in Sweden.

• The “Degree Review” will address whether to adapt the Swedish credit system and grading scale to the ECTS.

4. Mobility

• Universities and university colleges are responsible for the recognition of foreign credentials and study periods abroad if the student is to continue his or her studies in Sweden. The National Agency for Higher Education evaluates study periods abroad for foreign qualifications in relation to the labor market.

• Sweden joined the ERASMUS program in 1992. The number of Swedish exchange students participating in this program, however, has diminished in recent years. The International Program Office for Education and Training published a report in October 2002 containing a number of proposals to address this issue.

• At Swedish universities and university colleges, an increasing number of courses are offered in English for both national and international students.

• Foreign students have the same right as Swedish students to government subsidization of all tuition fees.

• According to the “Graz Trends III” report, Sweden is a net importer of students. The government is keen to promote the internationalization of Swedish education and attract more foreign students to the country.

• Sweden has a number of bilateral agreements in addition to its participation in the following exchange programs: Linnaeus/Palme (with non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries), Visby (with Baltic countries, Poland and Russia) and Nordplus (with Nordic countries).

5. Quality Assurance

• In 2001, the National Agency for Higher Education began performing six-year evaluations of all undergraduate- and graduate-level programs. National recurrent and comprehensive subject and program evaluations will continue on a six-year cycle after the initial six-year review is completed.

• Evaluation is a multi-step process. First, the institution assesses itself in accordance with procedures laid down by the agency. Its findings are then evaluated by an external group of experts. Interviews are conducted with staff members on the basis of the initial report. Improvements are then proposed, and some years later a follow-up assessment is carried out.

• The agency assesses an institution’s right to award degrees by looking at the standard of education and research. It also assesses an institution’s right to award doctoral degrees and, where applicable, its right to university status, although the government makes the final decision on such matters.

• The agency also examines quality management, i.e., the quality process at the local level.

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education

• Swedish institutions of higher education are active in European Community education programs.

• Sweden is increasingly promoting the development of international joint degrees, although it estimates the number of joint degrees available to Swedish students today as very small. Most joint-degree programs appear to be at the master level, although a small number of joint bachelor’s degrees exists.

• In May 2002, Sweden organized the Stockholm conference on joint degrees and integrated curriculums that led to detailed recommendations: http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/en/bologna_seminars /index.htm.

• Working with the Nordic Council of Ministers, Sweden is looking at proposals on how to spur the creation of joint degrees among Nordic countries and how to promote those degrees.

• There are joint arrangements between Baltic and Nordic countries in, for example, technical and agricultural disciplines, but these often lead to the award of the home-institution degree only.

• An example of regional cooperation is the recent creation of Øresund University, a network of 12 Danish and Swedish universities.

• In awarding joint degrees, a “double degree” (two separate degrees) appears to be the common practice.

— Nick Clark
Aug. 27, 2003

References

• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe, Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, September 2002

• The State of Implementation of ECTS in Europe, European University Association, October 2002

• Diploma Supplement – State of Implementation, European Commission, last update June 2003

• Lisbon Convention Status Reports, Council of Europe, August 29, 2003

• The Information Network on Education in Europe – Eurydice, European Union

• Report on the Swedish Follow-up of the Bologna Declaration, Ministry of Education, April 30, 2003

• Guide for Exchange Students – Transfer of Grades, Lund University