2010 sees the end of the process of establishing the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Although not all countries may have achieved all the objectives, many are those countries and universities who have implemented many of the targets set. Within the Bologna Process, there have been many developments such as: European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) for the transfer of period of study abroad; joint degrees; and quality assurance aspects among others. Guidelines for Quality Assurance and the development of an overarching European Qualifications Framework have been developed. While the Bologna Process brings with it many advantages on an education level, the discussion has not really considered the legal aspects of such a system. Once the EHEA is implemented comprehensively across Europe, situations may arise which would require universities to consider the legal aspects of learning that students may have experienced within different tertiary institutions. This paper considers what problems may arise, for example with fraudulent behaviour by students in the acquisition of ECTS credits in another university; with weaknesses or failure to prove quality of learning following an external quality assurance audit in another university; with the failure to deliver learning by one of the partner universities running joint degrees etc., and explores the possible legal implications of such situations as well as identifying the legal lacunae which exist and which need to be taken into consideration if the EHEA is to maintain the reputation that it aims for.
While higher education is regarded a high priority for economic development in many countries, public budgets often fall short to support desired levels of expansion in higher education. This leads to cost‐sharing: students and their families are required to contribute more to the costs of higher education. This paper explores worldwide trends to cope with this issue based on the following questions: Is it fair to ask for larger contributions from students? What are the global patterns and forms of higher private shares in the costs of higher education? And what is the impact of cost‐sharing on higher education access and equity?
This article presents a comparative study of the recent developments of the academic profession in European universities drawing on the results of a policy questionnaire. First, it outlines that the profession is highly diversified and hierarchical, with an unsolved gender issue. Second, it discusses the reasons behind its attractiveness, paying particular attention to the balance between duties and salaries. Third, it presents evidence regarding the evolution of the profession in the context of the broader changes operating in the European higher education arena. And finally, it highlights the political issues that are likely to shape the evolution of the profession in the coming years and the pending political agenda.
Most countries have experienced soaring enrolment rates into tertiary education. While this is beneficial both to involved students and to knowledge‐based societies, it also makes the funding issue even more crucial than it is usually seen to be. This paper presents first results from an analysis of the effectiveness of student loans as a funding strategy using unique student‐level data from Finland. The focus is on the effect of student loans on the likelihood of graduation, as well as on the socioeconomic background dimension of such an effect. We find no evidence in support of the latter effect being significant.
In 1999, the International Research Training Group ‘GRK532’ was founded as a pilot project for cross‐border European postgraduate education along the German/French/Luxembourg borders. The project consists of an interdisciplinary research programme on synthesis, isolation and characterization of new materials accompanied by an ambitious continuous and consecutive education programme between research groups from chemistry, pharmacy, physics, biochemistry, materials science and analytical chemistry. The education programme aims at qualifying doctoral students in international, interdisciplinary and soft skills during their thesis work. Key elements of the education programme are lectures, hands‐on workshops, scientific presentations and discussions in English. Alumni receive a certificate of successful participation, which is signed by the German and French speakers and the president of the Deutsch–Französische Hochschule/Université Franco–Allemande [Franco–German University].
Many researchers trained in Europe leave to work abroad, namely in the USA. This brain‐drain phenomenon is the result of a lack of openness and competition in European academic systems. Some aspects relating to the mobility of academic careers could make a difference in attracting – and maintaining – researchers, aside to serious structural reform. This article explains how, in terms of mobility, it is possible to distinguish four different higher education models in Europe, showing persistent heterogeneity in the tenth anniversary of the Bologna Declaration. Notes 1. German Rectors' Conference (HRK) “National Pension Schemes as an Obstacle to Mobility for Researchers in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)”. Berlin, Germany, 12–13 June 2008. Reports available at: ⟨http://www.hrk.de/bologna/de/home/1945_3448.php⟩ 2. “Europe of Higher Education: Reinforcing the Space for Mobility”, Nancy, France, 4–5 November 2008. Available at ⟨http://www.eu2008.fr/PFUE/lang/en/accueil/PFUE‐11_2008/PFUE‐04.11.2008/l_europe_de_l_enseignement_superieur_un_espace_de_mobilite_a_renforcer⟩ 3. Available at ⟨http://www.oecd.org/document/63/0,3343,en_2649_33703_39945471_1_1_1_1,00.html⟩ 4. Available at ⟨http://www.arwu.org/rank/2007/ranking2007.htm⟩ 5. Data provided by the Danish Center for Research Analysis from 2007. Available at ⟨http://www.cfa.au.dk/Welcome.htm⟩
Beginning with a view of the role of tertiary‐level educational institutions in the globalizing world and the condition of the Polish higher education system in 2007, the author presents the factors affecting the regional development as well as those that exert the strongest influence on long‐term regional development. While examining current ventures undertaken by the Wyzsza Szkola Biznesu – National‐Louis University (WSB‐NLU), the author postulates a new model of higher education institution, ‘the Fourth Generation University’, which has a significant impact on its environment and also transforms itself. The postulated model has been supported by a brief description of a large project, launched in 2006, of the Nowy Sącz Network of Innovation and Knowledge Transfer and the Multimedia City.
In 2006, an international comparison study investigated the organization and management of university continuing education (UCE). The Finnish continuing education system proved to be especially advanced in this study. On the other hand, it became clear that Germany was still lagging behind in continuing education. In this article, German and Finnish universities are compared with respect to organizational forms and management structures in order to derive potentials for UCE and to identify decisive factors of success.
As more countries are planning to inaugurate or enlarge student loan schemes, much of the debate is over the question of the optimal form of the repayment obligation: specifically, whether it should be according to a fixed schedule of payments or a percentage of earnings or income. This paper argues that the current fascination with income contingency is frequently based on a set of supposed advantages, some of which are mistakenly attributed to income contingency either out of misunderstanding on the part of advocates or for political purposes of overcoming resistance to the underlying notion not of loans, per se, but of cost‐sharing itself. The paper goes on to advocate a hybrid loan scheme, which can offer the best of both forms of repayment obligation.
European policy‐makers hope that by 2010 tertiary education in European countries will be ‘connected’ and become the much sought for European Higher Education Area. The reforms currently unfolding will modernize the daily practices of European higher education institutions. From transferability of degrees, employing a credit‐based system and improving the capital base of institutions, the shape and make‐up of tertiary systems will yield more alignment from disparate systems with heterogeneous parts. The policy innovations in Europe, as a consequence, have implications for American policy‐makers as well. As European tertiary education evolves, it will pressure American policy‐makers to adapt and react, especially as its leadership in educational capital has slipped as a result of Europe's surge in degree attainment.
The relatively short repayment periods of four or six years after graduation under the Government‐Subsidized Student Loan (GSSL), the main student loans programme in China, has, since its implementation in 1999, imposed considerable hardship in repaying loans. This paper presents a new diversified repayment model, the 'geometric proportion repayment' model in which the repayment ratio is kept within 10 per cent of income, thus both easing the burden of repayment and reducing subsequent default. The results of an ordinal regression model, based on data from a sample of university graduates, provides a method of estimating the (unknown) salaries of graduate borrowers on the basis of known information of their work/employment situation.
This article discusses the importance of emotional and social competences in higher education and presents a training model. In 1991, Ramon Llull University of Barcelona (Spain) created the Seminar methodology to tackle these challenges. A general model derived from the Emotional Intelligence concept and the general principles of this methodology are explained. As an example, a pilot programme for training emotional and social competences in an undergraduate major study is presented. Our perspective and experience from this programme may be useful in training academic professions where interpersonal and/or intrapersonal capacities are important competences to be developed. We propose rethinking the mission of the university by including the training of emotional and social competences, especially in view of the ongoing Bologna Process.
The constant assessment of the quality of higher education within the framework of European convergence is a challenge for all those universities that wish their degrees and diplomas to reflect a unified Europe. As is the case in any assessment, change and review process, the quest to improve quality implies measuring achievement of the objectives set, which in turn means defining the most relevant functions shared by universities. One of the many functions that a university fulfils in society is enabling university students to take up certain occupations. Thus, analyzing the employment pattern of a university’s graduates and identifying their competences becomes an indicator of the quality of the education provided by that university and, hence, one of the bases on which degrees are defined within the European Higher Education Area.
The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the current picture of higher education and conditions for the application of benchmarking. The chosen examples of benchmarking projects conducted in higher education illustrate the spectrum of benchmarking usage. The authors conclude the paper with a recommendation for the employment of benchmarking in the higher education environment, especially in the light of competition pressures and rapid economic development.
The Hungarian student loan system was introduced in 2001. It has four main attributes: universal access and universal conditions; income contingent repayment; private funding; and self‐sustaining (zero‐profit) operation without direct state subsidy. This latter characteristic makes the scheme quite unique in international practice. Empirical facts support the original idea: default rate is relatively low (1–2 per cent), administration costs per year are around 1 per cent of the portfolio value. This paper focuses on three issues: how the Hungarian model works; why a ‘specialized institution’ model is superior to a ‘retail bank’ model; and finally, why adverse selection is not as menacing as the literature may suggest.
Mass higher education, a characteristic recently unique to the United States of America, is now almost universal in scope in developed countries. This article contrasts the relative ease with which American higher education accommodated the rapid expansion of its student base with the difficulties that the United Kingdom, more particularly England, have experienced in following the same route. Are there lessons to be learnt; and, if so, can they be incorporated in the context of a different tradition of higher education, with values built upon different historical foundations? The article also seeks to address whether, in view of the apparent stagnation of higher education in the United States, it continues to offer a model that it is appropriate for others to emulate.
This article deals with reasons for the motivation to study in higher education. To find out about motives, around 200 A-level students in Germany and Great Britain were asked about their plans for the time after completion of their A-levels. Through socio-demographic data the authors could deploy facts about social backgrounds and the affiliations to socio-economic classes. There are some expected findings (e.g., British A-level students are more likely to study than their German comrades) and some pretty unexpected results (e.g., social classes do not seem to divide students into choosing university or not).
In recent times there has been considerable change and instability with respect to Thailand student loans policy. The contribution of what follows is to compare and contrast the consequences of disparate possible approaches to the payment of tuition in two main respects: the effect on internal rates of return for higher education investments; and the implications of different approaches for the time stream, and thus the present value, of tuition payments to the government. The authors find that, in general, income contingent loans are preferred to the current scheme, although this would not be the case if such a policy reform is poorly designed.
The Bologna Process is almost at its end and European policy‐makers currently reflect on appropriate objectives and policies for the next decade. Given that the Bologna Process is generally seen as an example of unprecedented change in European higher education and that the major overarching objective of the Process was to increase the competitiveness of European higher education vis‐à‐vis the USA and Japan, it is worthwhile to investigate how and to what extent US higher education has responded to the European developments. This article analyses to what extent elements of the Bologna Process are reflected in recent US higher education policy discourse, using Tolbert and Zucker's (1996 Tolbert, P. and Zucker, S. 1996; reprint in 2005. “The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory”. In Studying Organization Theory and Method, Edited by: Clegg, S. R and Hardy, C. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. [Google Scholar]) framework of institutionalization which assumes a gradual process of the diffusion of an innovation. This analysis stresses a more uneven, piecemeal and even haphazard process, particularly in the initial stages of the institutionalization process, and suggests an adaptation of the framework.
Student loans schemes have developed rapidly alongside China's move towards mass higher education. In this paper, the main features of the existing four types of student loan schemes are compared. In particular, the providers of principal loan, borrower eligibility, loan size, loan origination, interest subsidy, risk‐sharing, repayment conditions and loan collection are examined. The authors of this article will then predict the problems and challenges confronting the reform of the student loans system in China and suggest that the feasible option for the future is to allow for the co‐existence and competition of a variety of student loans schemes and to explore more mature student loans schemes through institutional innovations.
