Campus Europae Newsletter, May 2006

Table of contents

  • The unbearable costs of studying abroad
  • Fast Facts
    • Campus Europae under scrutiny
    • Increasing scepticism towards a European Institute of Technology
    • European Humanities University high on the agenda of the Council of Europe
    • Deal on the EU budget for 2007-2013
  • Turning the spotlight on... Limerick
  • Upcoming events
    • EUF-CE Administrative Board and Coordinators meeting

 
The unbearable costs of studying abroad

“Mobility is too expensive” is an often voiced impediment to a greater student participation in academic exchange programmes. The notion that overcoming this barrier is of crucial importance has been gaining momentum ever since the Bologna Process started and it was comprehensively articulated in the last reports adopted by the European Parliament, as well as in the European Commission’s proposal for a considerable increase of the mobility grants awarded to Erasmus’ students.

Unfortunately, the EU heads of state went on a strongly dissonant note, enforcing budgetary constraints on the financial perspectives until 2012 that cast a shadow of doubt if the student support system that is in place will receive any noteworthy improvements in the years to come. However, evidences exist that the efficiency of the current Erasmus grant system could be considerably improved without increasing the running costs of the programme, according to the Campus Europae studies and analysis.

The Campus Europae pursuit for ways to improve the coverage and the social fairness of the available exchange student support structures started back in 2004 and its first step was to question if mobility really rhymes with financial burden – or if, more than an accurate perception of the costs of mobility, the popularity of this view implicitly expresses some scepticism about the financial, social, cultural and academic “costs” of studying abroad. The rationale of the CE Living Cost Information System (Livis) is to determine living cost differences (LVD) amongst all universities of the network and its main purpose is to make such information easily available to prospective exchange students, thus empowering them to objectively consider and plan their stay abroad.

In order to look at expenses from a student’s point of view three fundamental innovations have been built into the design of Livis. The first addresses the gap between student’s expenses baskets and those which are used to compare families or executives living costs across the world - to tackle this limitation Livis has rearranged the categories and items that are considered relevant for statistical analysis. The second innovation is that data is gathered at each city /university with complete disregard from national average values. This enhances greatly the potency of the system, as living costs differences among cities situated in the same country can easily be equal or superior to 25%. Last but not least the Campus Europae Student Council plays a pivotal role in ensuring that all data is revised on a yearly basis.

The first findings indicate that the costs of mobility are rather diverse – in many cases the LVDs are either negligible or have the potential to enhance the financial situation of the mobile students; in others, however, the costs that students have to face are much higher than the grants available. Turning a blind eye to this reality has hefty social and financial consequences. On the financial side rationalizing the system taking into account LVDs could allow for gains in efficiency (and therefore coverage) up to 45%, according to a simulation discussed in the Campus Europae expert seminar “Social Fairness in Student Exchange Programmes” (Munsbach, 4th April 2005). An important side effect of such change would be to pave the way to a financial support system that also considers the student’s social background. The way student support is currently handled does little to promote equal opportunities for students of all social economical classes, given the towering economical bias that is evidenced by the profile of mobile students in Europe.

Introducing substantive changes in the existing student support systems should also be viewed along the lines of increasing the quality of the available services. Students coming from cities/countries where the living costs are considerably higher than in the country of destination may very well reap more tangible benefits in participating in well structured exchange programmes where information, accommodation, language learning and recognition are all superiorly organized, rather than simply going abroad with little more than a symbolic grant.

While a substantial upgrade to the Livis database is on the making, the Campus Europae member universities call for policy makers to consider ways to address some of the weaknesses of the current student support systems. It remains to be seen if that can be better done by a disarticulated network of national agencies rather than by “open laboratories” where all criteria, regulations and support measures for intensifying student-exchange are to be tested and further developed by partner universities.

External links:
Campus Europae Living Cost Information System (Livis)
Campus Europae policy papers on the social dimension of student mobility (pdf file)
Eurostudent Report 2005 (pdf file)
European Parliament report for a decision establishing an integrated programme in the field of lifelong learning (pdf file)

 
Fast facts:


Campus Europae under scrutiny

The first phase of the evaluation of the Campus Europae study programmes commenced in mid-April. CE movers all over Europe are currently reviewing a number of aspects implied in their participation in the exchange programme, notably the curricular and language learning arrangements. A second evaluation phase will follow in September and will focus on matters of recognition and overall satisfaction.

Increasing scepticism towards a European Institute of Technology

The European Institute of Technology (EIT) had been put forward as one of the cornerstones of the European Commission strategy to relaunch the Lisbon Agenda and went on to win the support of the European leaders on the last spring summit in Brussels. The European Council has however stipulated that the EIT is to be implemented in the form of a network of existing institutions. Some actors regarded such structural change as being in direct relation with concerns previously voiced by institutions such as the European Research Advisory Board. However, on the 30th of March the Council of the European University Association unanimously approved a position paper where it states that the EIT proposal “threatens to fragment Europe’s Universities” thus putting the EIT back at the centre of the ongoing discussions about how to attain the goals of the Lisbon Agenda.

European Humanities University high on the agenda of the Council of Europe

The Committee on Culture, Science and Education of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly held a colloquy on university autonomy and accountability in the 21st century in Prague on March 30-31. The Committee heard testimony from the Rector of the European Humanities University, Professor Anatoly Mikhailov, and a number of students from Belarus who had been thrown out of their universities in Belarus as an act of political harassment.
At the conclusion of this colloquy, the Committee adopted a statement on academic freedom in Belarus. In the statement, the Council of Europe parliamentarians strongly condemned denial of academic freedom in Belarus. Furthermore, “the Committee welcomed the support that the international community and in particular Lithuania provided to the European Humanities University which had to go into exile from Minsk (Belarus) to Vilnius (Lithuania). It encouraged member governments as well as universities in Europe to co-operate with the European Humanities University and facilitate student and faculty exchanges.”

Deal on the EU budget for 2007-2013

The European Parliament, the European Union presidency and the European Commission sealed a long awaited deal on the EU budget for 2007-2013. The budget for the upcoming five years will be of about 866.3 billion euros – far bellow from the 1,025 billion euros initially proposed by the Commission but still a noticeable improvement if compared with the 862,3 billion euros agreed in the last EU summit.
The new integrated lifelong programme will benefit from an increase of about 800 million euros which should allow for an additional 40.000 students participating in European exchange programmes.


Turning the spotlight on… Limerick

The University of Limerick is the only English speaking university in the Campus Europae network and was founded by the Vikings over a thousand years ago, Limerick City is a most lively, interesting and attractive place to live and study. The city is magnificently sited on one of Europe’s finest rivers, the Shannon which is the longest in Ireland.
The University is situated on an attractive riverside campus at the heart of the National Technological Park at Plassey, four kilometers from Limerick City. Over 6,000 full-time and 3,000 part-time students are enrolled at the University.86% of Limerick graduates entered directly into employment or further study or training within 6 months of graduating. The university is renowned for its high quality teaching and cutting-edge research The Glucksman Library is well equipped with more than 300,000 volumes, subscriptions to over 5,000 journals and periodicals and seating for 1,500 people Student exchange links with 167 European universities. Unrivalled sporting facilities include the University Arena with almost 150,000 square feet of indoor sports facilities and Ireland’s first 50-metre swimming pool. Over 70 student sports clubs and societies are active on Campus. More than 1,000 computers are available for student use across the Campus.

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Picture 1: The Atrium of the University of Limerick Foundation Building

The University of Limerick is fortunate in enjoying a truly outstanding physical setting. The University is located in 200 acres of parkland provides more on-site residence accommodation than any University in Ireland. Pride of place is the a 1000-seat concert hall which serves as the cultural nucleus of the region. The University of Limerick is a sporting paradise being the only centre of physical education training in Ireland is particularly proud of the successes enjoyed by their men’s and women’s sports teams. In recent years, they have won national championships in hurling, camogie Ireland’s national game, women’s football, soccer, rugby, indoor and outdoor athletics cross country and equestrian events. Limerick is easily accessible by air from the nearby Shannon airport. Limerick is an innovative centre of excellence and has pioneered links with industry and employers not just in Ireland and Europe but all over the world. The compulsory period of cooperative education where all students no matter what their discipline are placed for a period of 6 to 8 months in paid employment is an attractive feature of Limericks study programmes. This in turn gives students of the University of Limerick a competitive edge in job market once they graduate with many students returning to their former cooperative education placement. Industry links range from Boeing and Airbus to major international banks and the Irish civil service.

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Picture 2: Student residences, University of Limerick

The City of Limerick and the surrounding region offer an ideal blend of modern shops, restaurants, bars and high tech companies, together with a rich cultural heritage, physical beauty with the longest river in Ireland and the highest cliffs in Ireland - the Cliffs of Moher. Limerick offers a rounded education that allows its students to develop to their fullest making it one of the 16 jewels in the Campus Europae network.

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Picture 3: Cliffs of Moher, Limerick

External links:
University of Limerick

Upcoming events:

EUF-CE Administrative Board and Coordinators meeting

The next Administrative Board and Coordinators meeting will take place in the University of Aveiro, on the 16th of June. The Chairs of the Subject Committees will convene on the same venue on the 15th.