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04.02.2009

Student Council urges for progress in recognition and the CE-Degree

The Presidency of the Student Council has formulated the policy goals for 2009. Having analyzed the feedback from the member universities after the last meeting Bernd Justin Jütte and Nikola Lakovic isolated the crucial points that need to be tackled during the next months. The biggest potential and need for improvement certainly lies in the improvement of the CE language infrastructure, the establishment of reliable recognition procedures and the creation of the CE-Degree. „It is decisive and absolutely indispensable to finally establish the cornerstones of the Campus Europae concept. We cannot continue making false promises to students.“ Bernd Justin Jütte said.


With the Board meeting in March the Council expects that the rectors will agree on guaranteed reciprocal recognition procedures based on the matrices the Subject Committees have presented so far. The procedures must be transparent and the information must be published to be available for students as soon as possible.

Furthermore, all students going abroad should be guaranteed free language courses. Those universities, which do not offer those courses, must establish them as quickly as possible. Jütte states that as members of the Campus Europae network all universities should feel obliged to offer those courses. A qualitative imbalance within the network is not acceptable. If students are supposed to learn the language of their host university in one year, students must be offered the essential infrastructure. This does not necessarily include the Hook-Up! Standards right away, but at least intensive language courses prior to the beginning of the academic year and accompanying language courses at least during the first semester, both free of charge for the students.

 

Finally, the Council expressed its deep concern about the state of implementation of the CE-Degree. Already at the last Board meeting the Presidency had argued that the criteria for the Degree should not be subject to ex-post considerations such as recognition procedures. They must be fair and reliable; most importantly though, the criteria must be communicated to the student already during the application process. A retrospective application of conditions would only have effects to the detriment of students moving within the network.


The Council appeals to all universities to take their commitment in Campus Europae seriously to increase the quality of the network. It assures and reinforces its continuous commitment and willingness to cooperate with all other bodies involved in the process.