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Regional

Europass Proposal Moves Forward

In December, the European Commission presented a proposal to the European Parliament and Council for a single framework on the transparency of qualifications and competences, commonly called the “Europass.” With the European Union poised to expand from 15 to 25 member states, and with the desire for increased and improved transnational mobility, the need for improved transparency is seen as even more pressing. The commission’s proposal to Parliament incorporates five existing documents that cover qualifications and competences in a lifelong-learning perspective: the European CV (resumé) and the European Language Portfolio; the MobiliPass, which replaces the Europass-Training, used by more than 50,000 people; the Certificate Supplement (vocational) and the Diploma Supplement.

A Working Group on Transparency established by the commission has already developed a prototype electronic Europass. A decision should come by the end of 2004. The official launch could then take place at a major conference on vocational education and training in December, in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

— Euractiv
Jan. 8, 2004

Belgium

Three Universities Merge, New University Emerges

The University of Antwerp was established Oct. 1 with the merger of Universitaire Centrum Antwerpen, Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen and Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen.

— University of Antwerp
October 2003

Germany

Plans Afoot for For-Profit University

For-profit Hanseatic University, the brainchild of a group of entrepreneurs, is being touted as the answer to Germany’s flagging higher education system (see May/June 2003 WENR). To be based in Rostock, classes are expected to begin this fall. If projected profit targets are reached, the university will eventually be floated on the stock market.

Like struggling state-run universities, private establishments are fighting for funding. Founders of the new institute believe it will bridge the gap between state and private universities and provide not only a high standard of education but also a supply of trained managers and leaders for the country’s business sector. Hanseatic will be the first entrepreneur-organized private university in Germany. The Ministry of Education and Research states that it has not yet received an application for state recognition.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Dec. 5, 2003

Central Agency to Receive International Student Applications

In response to overburdened university admissions offices, Germany’s higher education institutions have established a work and service center for international applicants — ASSIST (Arbeits- und Servicestelle für Internationale Studienbewerbungen) — in Berlin. Foreigners interested in studying in Germany can now submit their applications either directly to the chosen university or to ASSIST. Once it receives the application, ASSIST checks whether the formal admissions requirements have been met and whether the supporting documents are trustworthy.

— DAAD
December 2003

Mannheim University Adopts Bologna Structure

By winter semester 2004-05, Mannheim University will stop offering German graduate degrees (diplom/magister atrium) in its social science departments and instead will offer internationally recognized bachelor’s and master’s degrees. University officials decided to change to the new structure after a successful four-year trial period, during which students could choose between the traditional German graduate degree and a bachelor’s degree. The new bachelor’s will take three years to complete, and is compatible with the Bologna model.

— Deutsche Welle
Dec. 1, 2003

Winds of Change: Tuition Fees, Private and Elite Universities

The egalitarian concept of education as a privilege granted free to all is being challenged by the growing realities of an underfunded and overregulated public education system. Younger-generation Germans are increasingly viewing education as a commodity worth investing in as demonstrated by the sharp increase in the number of students choosing private education and the tripling of the number of private colleges to 51 over the last decade. Although the private sector educates only 1.5 percent of 2 million students, by breaking the taboo of asking students to pay for their college degree, private schools are being viewed by some as a catalyst of change.

Early in December, students and faculty protested cuts of hundreds of millions of euros in university funding, the imminent closure of some departments and the prospect of an introduction of tuition fees of up to US$725 a year by 2006. But there are also those in Germany who argue that free higher education has come at the cost of heavy-handed government regulations and a lack of healthy competition among students and schools. Despite Chancellor Gerhard Shroedor being on the record in speaking out against tuition fees, five states have passed legislation introducing fines, or “tuition fees” on “long-term” students who take 20 percent longer than the prescribed time to finish their degrees. And six states have challenged in Germany’s highest court the government’s refusal to let public institutions levy fees.

Meanwhile, in early January, Schroeder proposed a plan to develop five “elite universities” with funding of 250 million euros over the next five years to help German universities compete globally.

— Christian Science Monitor
Feb. 10, 2004
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Jan. 9, 2004

Ireland

Kaplan Acquires Dublin Business School

Kaplan Inc., a leading provider of educational services worldwide, announced in December it has acquired Ireland’s largest private undergraduate institution, Dublin Business School, for an undisclosed sum. The school was established in 1975 and has approximately 5,000 students participating in undergraduate, postgraduate, professional and lifelong learning programs. It also operates a campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and has relationships with a number of business schools in Europe. Under the deal, qualifications will continue to be issued by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, Liverpool John Moores University and other examining bodies.

— PRNeswire-Firstcall
Dec. 2, 2003

Finland

Education Plan 2003-2008 Places Internationalization High on Agenda

The Development Plan for Education and University Research (2003-2008), adopted by the Finnish Cabinet in December, includes as one of its main objectives strengthening the international character of Finnish universities and Finland’s competitiveness in the international higher education market. The plan sets a target of increasing the number of foreign students at Finnish institutions of higher education to 12,000 by 2008. There are currently approximately 7,000 foreign students studying at the tertiary level in Finland, representing about 2 percent of the total student body. Interest has grown considerably, however. In 2003, close to 3,500 foreign students applied to study in Finland – 1,000 more than in 2001. The plan also sets the goal of doubling the number of exchange students to 28,000, and increasing the number of courses taught in languages other than Finnish and Swedish.

Full details of the plan can be viewed at: www.minedu.fi/opm/koulutus/asiakirjat/kehittamissuunnitelma041203.pdf.

— Ministry of Education news release
December 2003

Kosovo (Former Yugoslavia)

Albanian-Language Textbooks Causing a Stir

New school texts in Albanian high schools liberally sprinkled with patriotic references have spurred international calls to tone down the rhetoric, which in turn has infuriated the authors of many of the texts. History lessons in Kosovo are based on texts devised in the 1990s for the parallel, semi-underground school system that Albanians set up to counter Serbian state-controlled institutions. Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had scrapped Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989. Now, the European Council wants the Albanian school texts to moderate their tone and has asked for a review of the history curriculum by May. European Union (EU) and U.N. representatives are calling for a more balanced history, which will avoid offending Kosovo’s minority communities.

The authors of the criticized books are furious, saying the EU and United Nations have not even clarified what they objected to. They intimate that the real reason for demanding changes is because the books refer to Albanian demands for an independent Kosovo, while U.N. resolutions treat Kosovo as a province of the former Yugoslavia. Sven Lindholm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said creating a history curriculum that is acceptable to all communities would help persuade Serbs to give up running a parallel school system in Kosovo.

Related: Integration of Education in Bosnia and Herzgovina.

— Institute for War and Peace
Dec. 5, 2003

Latvia

Controversial Education Amendments Signed Into Law

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freinerga announced Feb. 10 that she will sign contentious amendments to the education law that Parliament passed amid fierce public protests earlier in February. The amendments (see May/June 2003 issue of WENR), which require that 60 percent of subjects in minority schools be taught in the Latvian language beginning Sept. 1, were condemned by the Russian state Duma after their passage.

— RFE/RL
Feb. 11, 2004

Macedonia

State Sanctions Albanian-Language University

The Macedonian Parliament passed a law Jan. 19 turning a private, Albanian-language university in Tetovo into a state institution (see May/June 2003 WENR). The decision means Tetovo University can operate as a legal institution for the first time since it opened 10 years ago. Until now, the Macedonian government was unwilling to allow higher education taught in the Albanian language, despite an almost 25 percent minority of Albanians in the country and a strong majority of Albanians in Tetovo. When established in 1994, authorities sent police to close the institution, claiming the school was trying to divide the nation along ethnic lines.

In an attempt to reach a compromise, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe opened the officially approved and internationally funded South East European University, which teaches mainly in Albanian. With the recognition of Tetovo University, work must now proceed toward the recognition of credentials of approximately 10,000 students who have passed through the institution since it was founded. A commission has been set up to work on this issue and a number of others to ensure the institution conforms to Macedonian law.

— Maknews
Jan. 21, 2004

The United Kingdom

House of Commons Passes Controversial Tuition Bill

A hotly debated bill, supported by most higher-education institutions but fiercely opposed by the National Union of Students, squeaked through the House of Commons on Jan. 27. The bill would allow institutions to increase tuition to a top rate of £3000 (US$5,500) a year beginning in 2006. The current limit is approximately £1100.

To get the bill passed, the potential financial blow to students was made as soft as possible. The bill would abolish current upfront fees and would instead allow students to repay the fees once they have graduated and are earning a yearly wage on or above a set amount. While student unions opposed the bill, officials at Britain’s ailing universities welcomed the vote and saw it as a first step toward rectifying a 37 percent decline in funds per student. The funding cuts have led to the commonly held belief that British universities are losing their competitive edge globally, as class sizes have increased and facilities have deteriorated.

The Higher Education Bill will now be given to committees in the House of Commons, which may make amendments. It will then be subject to another vote in the lower house and, assuming it passes, will then go to the House of Lords for approval.

— The Daily Telegraph
Jan. 28, 2004

Underfunded Universities May Double International Student Intake

Britain’s top 19 universities are warning the government they may double their intake of full fee-paying students from overseas by offering up to 80,000 extra places to them. The universities said the government has made so many concessions on its tuition reform bill (see above) that they may have to embark on an all-out drive to recruit international students, who pay full fees, in order to meet their budgets.

Currently, approximately 20 percent of the 400,240 students at elite British universities are from outside the European Union (EU). They pay an average of £11,350 (US$21,000) in fees each year, compared with the maximum of US$2,000 that undergraduates from Britain and the EU currently pay. If the tuition reform bill passes, British and EU students will be required to pay a maximum £3,000 (US$5,500) beginning in 2006 — a figure far lower than that demanded by most universities. The 19 elite universities that make up the so-called Russell Group say the plan will be ineffective because the government has made so many concessions to students and to the public protest.

— The Straits Times
Jan. 12, 2004

Traditional Degree Classifications Challenged by Aggregate Marks

Recent research shows most universities are giving graduates aggregate final marks with their transcripts of achievement, which has led some observers to believe the traditional first-, second- and third-class degree classifications could easily be replaced, as the government has urged.

Commissioned by the Department of Education and Skills, the research shows most universities have already embraced a 1997 recommendation by Lord Dearing to introduce student progress files, which include an “aggregate summative mark” for final results.

Later this year, a government-backed “scooping group” will report on alternative methods for presenting the overall achievements of students amid concerns that the growing proportion of students obtaining first-class and upper-second degrees — a record 55 percent in 2002 — have rendered the traditional system too crude to be meaningful. The research, carried out by the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information at Open University, found that most institutions of higher education have already introduced transcripts giving a detailed breakdown of student achievements, giving marks for all units of assessments and reporting a total aggregate mark for the course, usually as a percentage mark.

The report follows government criticism of the existing system in the white paper on higher education issued in January 2003. The Times Higher Education Supplement reported in September 2002 that the third-class degree was dying out — it was awarded to just 3 percent of students at Cambridge University in 2002, compared with 22 percent in the 1960s.

— The Times Higher Education Supplement
Oct. 10, 2003

Study Compares A-levels, IB

The British Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) released a study in December that compared International Baccalaureate (IB) and A-level qualifications. By focusing on exam material from four subjects, the report found that “A-level and IB examinations were comparable in the demands they placed on the candidate at the level of the individual subject.” Those who participated in the study agreed that the grades A and E awarded in the A-levels were comparable to 7 and 4 awarded in the IB. One of the limitations that the QCA faced was in the different ways in which each system is structured. The IB diploma is awarded to students, usually between 16 and 18 years of age, who complete a set of compulsory components. The A-levels, on the other hand, are “single-subject qualifications awarded for demonstrating sufficient attainment against defined objectives” and are more commonly taken by students in a wider age range.

There are a number of reasons for the timing of the report, most notably, and as the report points out “the IB has recently been accredited as a general qualification at level three,” and “it is also a qualification with a number of staunch supporters in the UK who are vocal in declaring its qualities. In addition, with the Tomlinson Task Force reviewing the whole structure of post 14 qualifications in England and seeming to favor some sort of diploma, it is timely to consider the main example currently in use in the UK.”

The full report is available online at: www.qca.org.uk/news/6369.html.

— Overseas, Overwhelmed
Jan. 28, 2004

International Student Numbers Rising – Target Hit

A record increase in the number of international students studying in the United Kingdom (UK) has seen government recruitment targets achieved ahead of schedule, the British Council reports. Statistics compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency for 2002-03 show the number of non-European Union international students studying in the UK rose 23 percent the previous academic year – to a total of 174,575. The 32,000 additional students mean the Prime Minister Tony Blair’s recruitment target of an extra 50,000 international students in higher education by 2004-05 has been achieved well ahead of target.

— British Council news release
Jan. 21, 2004

Law Admissions Test Introduced

Top law schools confirmed in February that they are planning to launch a national admissions test for undergraduate law degrees. The eight leading law schools that designed the new National Admissions Test for Law (Lnat) say it will help distinguish the best candidates as they receive more and more applications from students with top grades. The two-hour examinations, which will consist of multiple-choice and short-essay questions, are being planned for November.

— The Guardian
Feb. 2, 2004