How can higher education institutions contribute to enhancing - - PDF document

Council of Europe seminar, Vienna 26-27 June 2012 Student and staff mobility in higher education: Challenges and opportunities

• n the two sides of the river Dniestr/Nistru

Per Nyborg

How can higher education institutions contribute to enhancing student and staff mobility?

Mobility of students and staff may have one of two purposes:

• Academic mobility for increased competence and personal development

(exchange of students and staff);

• Migration on the international (global) education or labour market.

The Bologna Process focuses on academic mobility. It is believed that a period abroad will benefit both the home country and the host country, both the home institution and the host

• institution. This means exchange and active participation of home and host institutions. That

will be my main topic. However, the EU Lisbon strategy also aims at facilitating the recruitment of highly qualified students and personnel from other countries – inside or outside the European Union. The home country and the home institution may then be at the loosing end, this will in particular be the case for countries outside the European Union: Bernd Wächter in his presentation told us that the student flow from Moldova to EU countries was nearly 7 000 with only 400 going from EU to Moldova. Bernd refers to degree mobiliy. We don’t know how many of those going out will come back to Moldova. However, I fear there is a brain drain and I am not the

• nly one. In their 2012 Bucharest Communiqué, the “Bologna” ministers pointed out that they

wanted better balanced mobility in the European Higher Education Area. Brain drain should not cripple the poorer European countries and regions. I shall focus on exchange of students, that is a two-way process, not a brain drain. Student exchange is based on credit mobility, students must have their study periods and exams recognised both going abroad and coming back to their home institution. As Bernd told us, we have very little information on credit mobility. The assumption is that it is low. However, this means that exchange mobility can be improved, it should be improved – for the benefit of both students and institutions. How then can higher education institutions contribute to this? The basic responsibility for mobility is with governments: The legislation must make it possible; mobility must be recognised and supported. However, within the framework set up by the authorities, higher education institutions should support their own students who want to go abroad for one or two semesters, and the institutions should also welcome students from

• abroad. Institutions may gain a lot by the exchange of students and staff with institutions in

neighbouring countries. This topic was on our agenda already a year ago, but the seminar had then to be postponed. However, preparing for that seminar, I was approached by the rector of the Shevchenko University in Tiraspol, confronting me with three challenges very relevant to mobility:

2

• How to find ways by which the university diplomas can be recognised in EU countries
• How to set up direct inter-university relations with European universities
• How to be accepted as a member of the European University Association (EUA)

These challenges are equally relevant today, and they are relevant to universities on both sides

• f the river Dniestr. I shall take them as the starting point for my presentation.

First: Both for outgoing and incoming mobility, your university must be known outside your home region. If you will be looking towards the West, a presentation of the university must be available on the world-wide-web, not only in Russian, but also in English. There should be a link to an official presentation of the higher education system to which your university belongs – Transnistrian or Moldovan. This presentation should also include a description of the quality assurance and accreditation procedures in the higher education system. Such information is relevant for each of the three challenges mentioned previously. For university diplomas to be recognised by institutions in other countries in the European Higher Education Area, the Lisbon Recognition Convention is a key instrument. The convention says that each country shall recognise qualifications (for access to higher education, for periods of study or for degrees) as similar to the corresponding qualifications in its own system unless it can show that there are substantial differences between its own qualifications and the foreign qualifications. 46 European countries, including Moldova, have ratified this Council of Europe / UNESCO

• convention. You will realise that recognition “unless there are substantial differences” is

something very different from the system of “nostrification” that has been used in Moldova and also in the Transnistrian Region. Your diplomas may be accepted abroad, but you must yourselves have an open mind for the recognition of foreign qualifications. To set up a direct inter-university relation with another institution, an exchange agreement will be necessary. Usually this formal agreement is a result of an informal cooperation over some time, a cooperation that partners want to continue and possibly also strengthen and widen, for instance including the development of joint courses or research

• projects. A mutual trust and understanding will probably have prepared the ground for

constructive negotiations. Each party may have its own ideas on how to set up an agreement, each party may have positive experiences from previous agreements with other partners. In any case, it is important that each partner has an idea not only of the privileges one want to achieve from the partnership, but equally important, the responsibilities one must be able to take on to make the partnership a success. If the institution really wants to contribute to enhancing mobility, the institutional responsibility must be in focus. The best way to visualise the institution’s challenges and responsibilities for academic mobility may be to draft a model exchange agreement. I have drafted a model for this presentation, based on one of many agreements signed by my own Alma Mater, the University of Oslo. I’ll use it as a check-list for elements to be agreed between partners.

3 Purpose of the Exchange Agreement

• The general purpose of the agreement is to establish educational relations and

cooperation between the two participating institutions.

• The purpose of each student exchange is to enable students to enrol in subjects at the

host institution for credit towards their degree at the home institution.

• The purpose of exchanges between faculty members is to promote educational

developments and to further mutual understanding. Responsibilities of Participating Institutions

• Exchange students shall be enrolled both at their home and their host institution in the

exchange period. They shall not pay for tuition at the host institution.

• Exchange students will be provided with the same academic resources and support

service that are available to all students at the host institution.

• The home institution will have responsibility for recognition of credits for subjects

taken at the host institution, following the Lisbon Recognition Convention. Responsibilities of Participating Students

• It is the responsibility of each student to obtain official recognition from the home

institution for subjects to be taken at the host institution.

• It is the responsibility of the student to receive a copy of the official academic results
• btained during the period of exchange.
• Exchange students will be financially responsible for
• travel, accommodation and living expenses
• books and other learning material
• adequate health insurance coverage.

Numbers

• Each institution will offer X places free of tuition each academic year during the

period of the agreement.

• In principle, the exchange of students will occur on a one for one basis.

Selection and Enrolment of Students

• It is expected that only students of high academic quality will be selected to
• participate. The selection of participants is the responsibility of the home institution

but the host institution has the right of final approval of the admission of a student.

• Students must have obtained agreement from their home faculty, that upon successful

completion of the subjects at the host institution, full credit will be granted towards the degree at their home institution. Faculty and Staff Exchanges

• The two institutions recognise the benefit derived from the exchange of staff. The

details of such arrangements will be negotiated will be governed by institutional staffing rules and relevant approval processes. Implementation

• The operational units/officers for implementing the terms of this agreement are:

For Institution1: xxxx For Institution 2: xxxx

4 Period of Agreement

• This agreement will remain in force for an initial period of five years and may be

renewed by mutual consent. The agreement may be terminated by either party provided six months written notice is given the other party. Signature

• The agreement has been accepted by

For Institution1: Rector (date) For Institution 2: Rector (date) Institutions in the Transnistrian Region may meet formal challenges in their development

• f international relations. These challenges are related to the EU and Bologna requirements

concerning recognition and quality assurance agreed between the member states. However, easily available information on your institution and your higher education system is a good start. A next move may be an application for membership in the EUA, the European University Association. A EUA membership will underline the place of your university in the European sphere. Two Moldovan universities are members. Normally an application to the EUA should be supported by the National Rectors’ Conference of the home

• country. However, rector conferences of Moldova or the Transnistrian Region are not

members of the EUA. What will then be needed are recommendations from three EUA member universities in three different countries - possibly Russia, Ukraine, Italy? The Moldovan universities may perhaps support your application? Also the EUA will also ask you to describe national quality assurance arrangements. This would be the quality assurance system for higher education institutions in the Transnistrian

• Region. I assume that such arrangements must be in place for higher education institutions to

be recognised in the Region. You will also be asked to explain the quality assurance provisions in your own institution. Here it would be wise to refer to the European standards for internal quality assurance within higher education institutions as decided by the 2005 Bologna Ministerial Conference in Bergen. I think this exercise is worth while: EUA is asking the same questions that your potential university partners may ask. The Bologna Process builds on quality assurance and recognition as prerequisites for mobility. Requirements are the same for all universities in the whole European Higher Education Area. For all of us.

Vienna presentation PN June 2012