Developing Mobility and Ensuring Recognition
Autor(en)
Siegbert Wuttig, Dominic Orr, Andrea-Cornelia Riedel, Conor Cradden, Maria Kelo, Ulrich Teichler, Bernd Wächter, Guido Langouche, Andrejs Rauhvargers, Robert G Burgess, Joanne Wood
Preis
24,99 € (145 Seiten, PDF)
Inhalt
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Understanding Mobility and Recognition
Since the Middle Ages, the transnational mobility of students, teachers, researchers and staff has been one of the most important features of universities. With the launch of the EU educational programmes in the 1970s and especially with the Bologna Declaration and the concept of the European Higher Education Area at the end of the 1990s, academic mobility has gained new momentum. Traditional and new types of academic mobility are now part of a wider political agenda (e.g. the Lisbon Strategy) and emerging education concepts (e.g. lifelong learning). At the same time, increasing mobility and improving the quality of mobility have become important European goals. Increasing mobility in Bachelor and Master programmes, improving academic recognition and the funding of mobility are some of the most challenging topics in this context.
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International Mobility of Students through the Looking-glass
The countries involved in the Bologna process agreed upon an overall mobility rate of 20 % for 2020 at their last meeting in Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve in April 2009. The definition of this rate was left very broad. But what kind of picture can be drawn by the different mobility types, different directions of mobility, considering the social background and the subject studied in order to find a basis for such a benchmark? This article compares data from European countries involved in EUROSTUDENT and highlights some country examples against the background of the Bologna reforms. The article concludes with a number of practical and policy-related suggestions for both national and European levels which might encourage mobility.
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Staff Mobility in the European Higher Education Area
Although staff mobility has frequently been recognised as an essential part of the Bologna strategy, little time and effort has been spent on research into or discussion of mobility in the specific context of the Bologna process. Still less has any coherent, concrete strategy to promote staff mobility been formulated or agreed. This has left us in a situation in which, as the Council of Europe argues, ‘the “Bologna vision” of mobility is incomplete and inconsistently articulated.’ The purpose of this article is to provide some background information and analysis that will help readers to develop a ‘complete and consistent’ vision of staff mobility. The article is an abridged version of the paper Constructing Paths to Staff Mobility in the European Higher Education Area, a study for Education International which was presented at the official Bologna process seminar Making Bologna a Reality: Mobility of Staff and Students, held in London in February 2007.
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Student Mobility in Europe
Encouraging and facilitating student mobility has been a major policy goal in Europe during the last two decades. ERASMUS, the EU support programme established in 1987, has made temporary study in another European country a regular option. The Bologna Declaration called for a convergent system of study programmes and degrees as well as for related measures primarily in order to make study in Europe more attractive for students from other parts of the world and to facilitate intra-European mobility. Available statistics show that about six percent of students in Europe in 2003 were foreigners and about half as many European students study abroad. However, only a few European countries provide statistics on genuine mobility, i.e. border-crossing for the purpose of study. Some foreign students already lived and learned in the country of study prior to enrolment, while some students who previously lived and learned abroad returned to their country of nationality for the purpose of study. Moreover, many countries do not record temporarily mobile students, e.g. ERASMUS students, in their regular statistics of foreign students. Mobility statistics available for five European countries suggest that more than a quarter of foreign students might not have been mobile for the purpose of study and that more than one tenth of mobile students might be nationals of the country where they study. Analyses supported by the European Parliament and the European Commission have reinforced the call of supra-national organisations for Europe-wide collection of genuine mobility statistics.
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Promoting Student Mobility
A Coimbra Group Experience
The Coimbra Group brings together some of the longest-established research-intensive European universities outside capital cities. Although not created explicitly to foster student mobility among the member universities, the network turned out to be ideally composed for this purpose. Today almost 20 % of all European Erasmus students “see” a Coimbra Group university and the universities of the network participate in almost half of all Erasmus Mundus master programmes. Although Coimbra Group membership most often is not the direct determining factor in choosing an Erasmus destination or a partner university for a joint master programme, this membership is believed to have led to a growth process and a resulting subconscious tradition of preferential mobility contacts within the Group. Institutionalised links at the academic level resulting from topical networks and short direct and personal contact lines between the Coimbra Group international offices feed this tradition of being an exceptional Erasmus active network and are also at the origin of several joint mobility initiatives beyond the borders of the European Union.
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The Lisbon Recognition Convention: Principles and Practical Application
This article is targeted at higher education staff in contact with foreign qualifications, with holders of foreign qualifications and with persons who plan to study abroad. The main principles of the Lisbon Recognition Convention are outlined and illustrated, and the link is made to practical procedures for the assessment of a foreign qualification. Numerous references to legal documents are made to inform the applicants and the credential evaluators of their rights and duties. Specific handouts are prepared for holders of “regular” foreign or transnational qualifications and joint degrees, as well as for those planning to study abroad as part of their degree or for a full degree.
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The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR)
This article outlines the debate on the classification of honours degrees in the United Kingdom and examines the work conducted by the Burgess Committees in this area. In particular, it discusses the proposal to develop an enhanced student record called the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) to provide greater transparency and comparability on student achievement. The article concludes by looking at the way in which the HEAR can address issues concerning quality and standards and employability.