Regional

GRAZ – Bologna Four Years After: Trends III

The European Association of Universities recently released its Trends III report for university representatives attending the Graz Convention of higher-education institutions (HEIs). The report outlines the major findings from questionnaires filled out by 800 higher-education institutions across Europe on trends related to implementation of the Bologna reforms.

Awareness and support for the Bologna reforms is still a task that lies ahead for a majority of academics at European institutions. According to the report, 60 percent of heads of HEIs feel that institutions should be more involved in the realization of the Bologna objectives. In Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Ireland and most strongly in the UK, deliberations on institutional Bologna reforms are even less widespread than in other signatory countries. A lack of financial support for the Bologna Process is highlighted by nearly half of all HEIs of Bologna signatory countries.

Student mobility has increased across Europe, although a majority of HEIs report an imbalance of outgoing over incoming students. Net importers of students are most often located in France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and, most strongly, in Ireland and the UK where 80 percent of the institutions report an imbalance of incoming over outgoing students. In promoting themselves abroad, Western Europe is mentioned by 92 percent of institutions as a target area, followed by Eastern Europe (62 percent), US/Canada (57 percent), Asia (40 percent), Latin America (32 percent), Africa and Australia (24 percent and 23 percent, respectively) and the Arab world (16 percent). But few institutions have elaborated a strategy for recruiting overseas students. “Only 30 percent of HEIs mention the use of targeted marketing for recruiting students, with the notable exception of Ireland and the UK, where more than 80 percent of universities conduct targeted marketing,” says the report. University heads tend to favor joint programs and collaborative activities.

Progress in the introduction of the two-tier degree structure has made important strides at both the legal and institutional level, according to the report. Today, 80 percent of the Bologna countries either have the legal possibility to offer two-tier structures or are introducing them, while 53 percent of HEIs have introduced or are introducing the new structure, 36 percent are planning to and two-thirds of HEIs are using the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) for credit transfer. Europe appears a little less sure about doctoral degrees: their length and their organization — with or without taught doctoral courses — vary depending on the country.

About two-thirds of Bologna countries have so far ratified the most important tool for recognition, the Lisbon Recognition Convention. Close cooperation between the relevant ENIC/NARIC offices is reported by only 20 percent of HEIs, while 25 percent do not cooperate at all. A further 28 percent of HEIs say they do not know what ENIC/NARIC is. Quality assurance (QA) measures are much further progressed, with 80 percent of HEIs in Europe already subject to external quality assurance procedures in some form or another. The ultimate challenge for QA in Europe, according to the authors of the report, consists in creating transparency, exchange of good practice and enough common criteria to allow for mutual recognition of each others’ procedures, without mainstreaming the system and undermining its positive forces of diversity and competition.

More information and the full report are available from the EUA Web site.

— Bologna Four Years After: Trends III
May 31, 2003

Austria

International University Loses Accreditation

The accreditation of International University —formerly known as International Christian University—was withdrawn on July 31 by the Akkreditierungsrat (Accreditation Council).

International University had been awarded a three-year accreditation on Jan 4, 2001, as a private university. The revocation of its accredited status before the end of the three-year period was approved by the Minister of Science and Culture Elisabeth Gehrer. The university can appeal the revocation at the Supreme Court. There are now six accredited private universities in Austria. More information can be found here.

— Austrian NARIC news release
May 26, 2003

France

New European Business School

The ESCEM (Tours-Poitiers Higher School of Commerce) and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Eure-et-Loire and Loire-et-Cher regions have joined forces to create the European Higher Institute for Corporate Studies (ISEME), a three-year undergraduate business school.

The establishment will be run by ESCEM and is set to open in September 2003 on three campuses: Blois, Tours and Chartres. The director of the school, François Duvergé, believes that the school will supply a need for three-year undergraduate degrees in business as Europe adapts to a common system for the recognition of degrees. The existing two-year programs, Duvergé believes, will have to evolve in order to survive.

— Educationews
April 9, 2003

Grandes Ecoles Introduce “MSc”

The Conference of the French Grandes Ecoles (prestigious and highly selective schools) has created the MSc. The MSc is equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon master of science and is reserved for graduates with four years of university study. It should allow the grandes écoles to compete with their American counterparts.

— Courrier Cadres
April 10-16, 2003

Germany

German University Rankings

The Center for Higher Education Development and the magazine Stern have put together a ranking of German universities that is now available on the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Web site in English.

The site makes available information on degree courses and study programs with details of their specific strengths and weaknesses. The ranking does not follow the American model of league tables; rather, the universities are simply ranked in a top, middle or bottom group.

— German Academic Exchange Service

Business School of the Future Opens

A business school opened this spring on three campuses based in Berlin, Munich and Cologne. The European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) was created through a foundation supported by 26 major German companies and organizations.

ESMT claims to be committed to the development of a new concept of business leadership, which preaches individual and societal progress as a sound basis for doing business. ESMT offers degree programs and training sessions for executives.

— ESMT news release
May 26, 2003

Macedonia

Tetovo University to Gain Official Recognition

Education and Science Minister Aziz Pollozhani announced on June 27 that the government has decided to recognize the original private university in Tetovo, thus legalizing diplomas—past, present and future—issued by the institution. Pollozhani said that by September the university could become the country’s third state-run university in addition to those in Skopje and Bitola.

Since its inception in the early 1990s, Tetovo University has sparked heated debate between ethnic Albanians and the Macedonian majority, the latter considering it a hotbed of Albanian separatism. Pollozhani said that legalization of the Albanian-language university is necessary because a second OSCE-sponsored university in Tetovo, the University of Southeast Europe, (see May/June issue WENR) has obviously not resolved the Albanian communities’ higher-education problems.

— RFE/RL
July 11, 2003

Malta

University of London Degrees on Offer

St. Martin’s Institute of Information Technology has linked with the University of London to offer undergraduate-level degree courses in computing and information systems and management and information systems.

The courses are open to EU and non-EU nationals alike as St. Martin’s attempts to establish itself as a regional hub in the Mediterranean basin. For the University of London this is not a new concept, with over 12,000 students reading external programs in the two Southeast Asian educational hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore.

St. Martin’s has set up a representative office in Sofia, Bulgaria, and next year hopes to set up another office in Cairo as it attempts to attract students from the Balkans and Middle East.

— The Malta Independent
June 16, 2003

The Netherlands

Private Law School Opens

The Amsterdam Nyenrode Law School, a private law school, was officially opened on May 27 in Breukelen. The new institution is a joint initiative by the Universiteit van Amsterdam and Universiteit Nyenrode and starting this year will be offering a master’s in law, with a specialization in international business transactions and law.

— Educationews
June 18, 2003

Slovakia

Hungarian University Planned for 2004

The southern Slovak town of Komárno will play host to a Hungarian-language university in September 2004, if the Slovak parliament endorses a recently agreed upon cabinet plan. The mayor of Komárno said he expects the university to eventually attract about 1,500 students studying in three faculties: pedagogy, commerce and theology.

According to the 2001 census, 507,000 people reported the Hungarian language to be their mother tongue, with only 5.3 percent having a university education compared with 10.4 percent of Slovaks. According to the cabinet plan, 20,000 university-educated Hungarians are needed before the minority catches up to the Slovak figure.

— The Slovak Spectator
March 24, 2003

Switzerland

HEC, Neuchâtel Merge

The economics department of the University of Neuchâtel will be taken over by the business school HEC Lausanne, affiliated with the University of Lausanne.

The respective cantonal councils for the two universities have adopted a common declaration of intent to regroup their economics departments in the aim of improving their international competitiveness. For both cantons, this innovative merger is in line with the development of Swiss policy on higher education and will be followed by further mergers in psychology and theology departments.

— AGEFI
March 25, 2003

The United Kingdom

Residence Permit Required for Studies of at Least Six Months

From Nov. 13 onward, overseas students destined for higher studies in the United Kingdom will have to obtain a U.K. Residence Permit, in an effort by the British government to curb illegal immigrants.

The ruling affects 10 countries and will be enforced for individuals who intend to reside in the United Kingdom for more than six months. Affected countries are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and the United Status. Officials say that these 10 countries have been identified because they are the ones with the highest number of long-term visitors to the United Kingdom.

— The Star
June 22, 2003

Overseas Students to Undergo Closer Scrutiny

Universities have agreed to tighten the vetting of overseas research students in an attempt to prevent potential terrorists from infiltrating British laboratories and obtaining expertise in sensitive research areas.

Names and details of postgraduate applicants in 21 sensitive subject areas are to be automatically sent to the Foreign Office under the new scheme. Universities will be required to refer all research students from the 10 countries on the list: Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan and Syria.

— The Guardian
June 24, 2003

Institute of Art Gains “University” Status

The Department of Education and Skills has approved the United Kingdom’s first new university of the 21st century. The London Institute, comprising five colleges, is to become a university of the arts.

The institute, which includes St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, will now enter a process of consultation with all stakeholders to come up with a new name, which is expected to be announced early next year.