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Volume 12, Issue 4   REGIONAL
NEWS
PRACTICAL
INFORMATION RESEARCH
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Regional News
According to Austrian authorities, Vienna is popular among Bulgarian students for a number of reasons. The economic downfall of 1997 prompted many parents in Bulgaria to send their children abroad.
Earning a foreign degree is considered a sound investment for one’s future and has allowed students to avoid the hardships in their own country. Many Bulgarian students in Austria are able to find jobs illegally on the black market and save up as much as they can before they have to return home.
In addition, Austria’s system of higher education is relatively accessible to international students compared with the rest of Europe. There is little red tape to get through when applying to Austrian universities, and Bulgarians don’t have a terribly difficult time getting in.
Most secondary-school certificates from Bulgaria are accepted in Austria as a valid qualification, and there is no additional entry examination. Bulgarians are also attracted to the wide range of courses students can choose from in Austrian degree programs that are not available at home.
— Times Higher Education Supplement
In essence, the objective of the pact is to allow students to transfer credits from one country to another. At present, degree programs across Europe differ substantially in terms of duration, curricula and grading systems.
The declaration calls on participating countries to adopt the following measures: 1) a system of comparable degrees that is intelligible in all countries; 2) a system based on undergraduate and graduate cycles (the second cycle should lead to a master’s degree); 3) undertaking measures to facilitate student mobility between participating nations; 4) the establishment of a universal academic credit system.
— Chronicle of Higher Education
The Gradué en Ingénierie is conferred upon those students who have successfully completed a four-year program.
Students are accepted to INPG after they have passed a competitive national examination administered at the end of a postsecondary, two-year, college-level scientific program. These preliminary two years of study focus mainly on math, physics and technology.
During the final two years, students can choose electives related to their chosen area of specialization.
The Gradué en Ingénierie degree qualifies students to:
1) Continue their studies for an additional year to fulfill the requirements of the French Diplôme d’Ingénieur awarded by INPG. In the first semester of this fifth year, students take courses in their major. During the second semester, they are expected to complete an engineering project either at school or, preferably, with a company.
2) Continue on for a doctoral degree (Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies and then a Ph.D. thesis).
This degree is also awarded jointly by the Instituts Nationaux Polytechniques of Grenoble, Toulouse and Lorraine. The three institutes award 2,500 degrees in engineering each year.
INPG specializes in the following disciplines: applied physics, applied mathematics, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer and electrical engineering, telecommunications, industrial engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering and paper engineering.
— Correspondence from INPG
The science of archeometrics attempts to solve archeological questions using natural science and engineering methods.
Classical archeology, on the contrary, practices typological (comparative) methods. The core requirements include history, in addition to physics and chemistry. Graduates of this program will be awarded the title of Diploma-Archeologist (Diplom-Archaeologe).
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)
The Wissenschaftstrat (Science Council) also intends to make degree programs less research based and more career oriented to better prepare students for the job market.
Under the new system, students can obtain a bachelor’s degree after only six semesters of study. Exceptionally gifted students have the option of continuing on for a master’s degree, which places greater emphasis on research.
With the traditional diplom eventually phased out, the new bachelor degrees would make Germany’s system of higher education more internationally compatible. It is hoped that the shorter degree programs will help curb the country’s high dropout rate.
Although attempts to modernize Germany’s system of higher education have met with resistance in past years, the Wissenschaftstrat is confident that it will succeed this time. Many universities in Germany are already experimenting with bachelor’s and master’s degree courses.
— Times Higher Education Supplement
Classes will be taught in English. Half of the 40 available places will be reserved for foreigners. A semester-long internship abroad (for Germans) or in Germany (for foreigners) is part of the four year program.
Further information about this program can be found at www.e-i.fh-hamburg.de.
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
According to a report released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, applications to Scottish universities were down by 4,000 this year, a 6 percent drop over last year. At the same time, applications fell by only 2.7 percent in England and 2.2 percent in Wales.
Both Thomas Docherty, president of Scotland’s National Union of Students, and David Bleiman, an officer of the Association of University Teachers, concurred that these statistics are a clear indication that the imposition of fees are discouraging students from applying to British universities.
But a survey conducted by The Times of London found that, while the new tuition regime may be deterring older students from pursuing university degrees, there is little evidence to justify fears that dropout rates would soar once currently enrolled students received their tuition bills.
Les Ebdon, deputy vice-chancellor of Plymouth University, recently told The Times, “I think the impact of the fee and of loans has been to make students think more carefully about applying.”
— The Chronicle of Higher Education
The international-student drive aims at increasing Britain’s market share to 25 percent, which means enrolling an additional 50,000 overseas students by 2005. In addition, education colleges in the United Kingdom will attempt to attract 25,000 more students by that year. This is double the present number.
The campaign includes a number of reform measures intended to remove any obstacles that may hinder the flow of international students into the United Kingdom:
1) Relaxing visa requirements for students coming from countries where there may be problems.
2) Making it easier for students to leave and reenter the United Kingdom while they are studying there.
3) Providing students with more work-study opportunities on campus and during vacations.
In 1996/97, there were 271,000 international students enrolled at British institutions of higher education. Out of that number, 45 percent originated from the European Union countries, while 55 percent came from more than 100 different nations from around the world.
Between 1987/88 to 1996/97, the number of full-time international students in Britain increased from 67,500 to 174,600.
The United States, Canada and Australia remain Britain’s main competitors in the international-student market. In 1996/97, there were 602,000 international students attending institutions of higher education in these four countries.
Out of that number: 6 percent were from non-European Union countries; 7 percent were from the Middle East; 9 percent were from South Asia; 56 percent were from the East Asia/Pacific region; and 16 percent were from the Americas.
The U.K. share of the market for that year was 17 percent, while the United States had 68 percent, Australia had 10 percent and Canada was at 5 percent.
In addition, of the 151,000 European Union students who studied in these four countries during the same year, 63 percent studied in the United Kingdom, 32 percent in the United States, 1 percent in Australia and 4 percent in Canada.
— www.britcoun.org/ecs/newsflash.htm
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Increasing numbers of Bulgarians are flocking to Vienna for higher education. At the University of Economics in Vienna, for example, they now comprise the largest contingency of foreign students: 655 out of a total student population of 22,000.