Transcript Joint EAIE/NAFSA Symposium Amsterdam, 22

Joint EAIE/NAFSA Symposium
Amsterdam,
22-23 March 2007
John E Reilly, Director UK Socrates-Erasmus Council
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The European Higher Education
Area
• A student-centred approach?
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Three cycles
European Qualifications Frameworks
European Quality Assurance
Tuning – a collaborative project to test and develop Bologna
reforms in a student-centred environment
– Joint Masters – another collaborative project to enhance the
attractiveness of the EHEA
• Compliance or reformation?
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The Three Cycles System
• 1999 Bologna Declaration – a common structure of Higher
Education systems based on two main cycles – undergraduate
and graduate. The undergraduate cycle to be three/four years
• 2003 Berlin - included the doctoral cycle as the third cycle in the
Bologna process to build links between the European Higher
Education and research areas
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Issues
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Genuine curriculum reform or a change of names?
Credits – ECTS the standard?
Duration of first and second cycle and number of credits
Third cycle - new approaches, credits or not?
Progression between cycles?
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European Qualifications Frameworks
A framework for Qualifications of the European
Higher Education area
• An overarching framework three main cycles with provision for
a short cycle within or linked to first cycle
• Cycle descriptors in form of generic qualifications descriptors as
reference points – the Dublin descriptors
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A framework for Qualification of the
European Higher Education Area
Range of ECTS typically associated with
each cycle
• Short cycle - 120 ECTS credits
• First cycle - 180-240 ECTS credits
• Second cycle - 90-120 ECTS credits minimum 60 ECTS credits
at second cycle level
• Third cycle - no suggestion re credits
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European Qualifications Framework
• A reference tool to compare the qualification levels of different
systems within a Lifelong Learning perspective
• 8 levels defined by descriptors indicating the learning outcomes
relevant to qualifications at that level on the basis of knowledge,
skills, competences
• Levels 5,6,7 and 8 correspond to the EHEA Higher Education
levels
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Qualification Frameworks
Common Features
• Overarching “general” frameworks
• Use of qualification level descriptors
• Emphasis on integral nature of European and national Quality
Assurance systems with qualification frameworks
• Stress the need for detailed and compatible national qualification
frameworks
• Emphasis on learning outcomes and credits - shifting from a
teacher centre to a student-centred approach
• Recognition of the Lifelong Learning perspective
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Qualification Frameworks
Issues
• National qualification frameworks and their compatibility
• Credits for qualifications – accumulation regulations –
consistency and transparency
• Levels and level descriptors within qualifications – linked to
curriculum planning and development
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Quality Assurance in Europe
Standards and Guidelines for Quality
Assurance in the European Higher
Education Area
• European Standards for Internal Quality Assurance
• European Standards for External Quality Assurance and for
External Quality Assurance Agencies
• European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies
• Role of EUA, ENQA, TEEP -Trans European Evaluation Projects
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Standards and Guidelines for
Quality Assurance in the EHEA
Internal Quality Assurance
• Institutional Quality Assurance culture embodied in Policy and
Procedures documentation
• Approval, monitoring and periodic review of programmes and
awards
• Participation of students in quality assurance
• Assessment of students
• Quality Assurance of teaching staff
• Learning resources and student support
• Information systems
• Public information
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Recommendation of the European Parliament
and of the Council on European cooperation in
Quality Assurance in Higher Education 1998
and 2006
• A set of principles for European Quality Assurance (1998)
• Support of the Bologna Process (2006)
• Propose that Higher Education Institutions could choose among
Quality Assurance Agencies in the European Register
• Allow Higher Education Institutions to work towards a
complementary assessment by another agency in the European
Register to enhance international reputation
• Ensure public access to the assessments made by the Quality
Assurance or Accreditation Agencies
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Issues
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European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies
National Quality Assurance compliance
Institutional implementation of Quality Assurance
Role of students
Relationships with Qualifications Frameworks, credits and
accumulation
• Information transparency
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Bologna in Practice
Tuning Educational Structures in
Europe
• 135 institutions
• 27 countries
• 9 subject areas
– Business Administration
– Chemistry
– Education Sciences
– European Studies
– History
– Geology (Earth Sciences)
– Mathematics
– Nursing
– Physics
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Project aims
• To make study programmes comparable and compatible
• To facilitate transparency and academic recognition
• To promote output oriented programmes based on learning
outcomes expressed in terms of generic and subject specific
competences
• To develop the use and understanding of ECTS
• Not harmonising but establishing reference points and encouraging
common understanding
• To develop understanding and shared approaches to Learning,
Teaching, Assessment and the role of Quality Enhancement
• Tuning ideas and methods being extended to other countries and
regions: Latin America, Russia, possibly India
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Bologna in Practice
Joint Masters Programmes
– Erasmus Mundus model
• Minimum consortium of three institutions in three countries
• Minimum mobility between two
• Award of joint degree or double or multiple degrees
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Joint Masters
Issues
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Selection of students
Resourcing programmes – tuition fees?
Management
Quality Assurance, Enhancement and Management
Legal requirements for joint or double or multiple degrees
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Bologna Process
• Compliance or reformation?
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