Campus Europae Newsletter, June 2006

Table of contents

  • The thermodynamics of student exchange
  • Fast Facts
    • President of EUF-CE meets with Rector of Alcalá de Henares
    • Commission calls for modernization reforms in higher education
    • Humanities Subject Committee Meeting
    • ENLU closing conference – a benchmark in the promotion of multilingualism
    • Campus Europae Student Council and Subject Committees closer together
  • Turning the spotlight on... Kaunas
  • Upcoming events
    • EUF-CE Administrative Board and Coordinators meeting
    • Engineering Subject Committee meeting
    • Teacher Training Subject Comittee meeting

The thermodynamics of student exchange

The second law of thermodynamics states that “the total entropy of any isolated system tends to increase over time”, entropy being a measure of disorder. Heat, power and energy do not immediately evoke typical higher education discourse, but inquiring minds will agree that disarray may well do. In fact the Commission’s agenda increasingly reflects the concern that the continent’s disjointed network of universities may impact negatively on the global attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This concern peaked on the 19th of May, as a study on the perception of European Higher Education around the world was unveiled by ACA. Its key findings were unsurprising: “knowledge of Europe is limited to a very few countries, namely the UK, Germany and France” and “study opportunities in Europe must be made much better known outside of the European Union, by way of a coherent and convincingly implemented information policy”.

Another way to look at the attractiveness of the EHEA is to analyse the mobility flows of Erasmus students. The latest figures available clearly demonstrate that Europe is perceived unevenly firstly by its own citizens - Swedish, Maltese, Irish, British and Danish higher education institutions welcome, on average, more than double the number of students they send abroad, while all the new member states send 50% to 400% more students abroad than they welcome. The notion that student exchange programmes may be instrumental in increasing “Europeanship” is still an inspiring one, but in order to make the whole of Europe known, a “coherent and convincingly implemented information policy” could also be of use for its own students. There is nothing wrong in having fee-paying Asian students high enough in the agenda to make this happen, but the design of such an information policy should also bear in mind the needs of European students.

Negative repercussions arising from student exchange imbalance should also be analysed from the viewpoint of universities. In the framework of Erasmus, exchanges students are exempt from fees at the host institution. When incoming students outnumber outgoing students this becomes rather penalising for the institution’s budget and discourages it from furthering its attractiveness. The next logical step in the chain of events is a decrease of institutional interest in fostering European student exchange, which may in turn lead to a decrease of outgoing students, widening the financial institutional gap even further. In the long term, unbalanced mobility systems are not sustainable and could have dramatic consequences.

The way forward – in spite of the modest increase of funds for mobility – has to focus on ways to continuously increase the interest for mobility in all of Europe. The weaknesses of the current generation of programmes have long been identified: exchange programmes are not doing enough for multilingualism, financial obstacles to participation are still high, recognition is far from flawless and highly rigid study programmes put a cap on mobility. It is time to start giving European students a better sense of what studying abroad is really like and its potential benefits – and allowing them to benefit from it!

An encouraging example comes from the University of Novi Sad (UNS). Campus Europae has been the first structured exchange programme offered in the UNS and met immediate success among its students. However, in the first year exchange was established, the number of outgoing students from the UNS far outstripped the places available, while virtually no incoming students where registering to spend an academic year in Serbia. The UNS reacted tactically: it was obvious that something had to be done in order to change the way the region and the country were perceived abroad. The University’s strategy was two-folded. The first step was to develop a cost-transparent and hassle-free service package. This served both as an information system and as a service to prospective students, who could opt to let the University organize their accommodation, meals, language courses and insurances against a monthly fixed fee. Secondly quite some energy went into ensuring a warm and smooth welcome to all incoming students: in order to avoid making them run from office to office, each faculty appointed one central contact person for the Campus Europae students, who were in close contact with a peer-tutor. Novi Sad’s commitment to high quality mobility and the comfort of their incoming students is already paying off: the academic year 2006/2007 will meet a 5-fold increase of incoming students to the UNS, a growth that is driven mostly by encouraging word of mouth among CE-movers and their peers. And this growth happened even if Serbia is not included in Erasmus.

But making their own university attractive is not only an advantage for incoming students. Because of the “balance”- regulation, an increase of incoming students opens the chances for their own students to study abroad.  And the attractiveness of those universities who are not in the mainstream is growing, because it can be foreseen, that students having experiences in countries and with languages beside the mainstream will have the cutting edge in the near future.

Building a genuinely attractive European Higher Education Area is of crucial importance, both from an economic and political standpoint. A student centred attitude and high educational standards would be the perfect complement to Europe’s unmatched cultural heritage and could do a great deal to entice students, to go to all parts of this continent.

External link:

Perception of European Higher Education in Third Countries, final report (pdf file)

Fast Facts


The President of the EUF-CE meets with the Rector of Alcalá de Henares

On Monday the 29th of June Prof. Noel Whelan, President of the EUF-CE, met with Prof.Virgilio Zapatero Gómez, Rector of Campus Europae's newest member the University of Alcalá de Henares . The purpose of the visit was three fold: to formally welcome Alcalá into the CE family, to explore in depth the important role that Alcala will undoubtedly play in CE and discuss how CE can be a driving force in the University's internationalization programme.

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Picture 1: Prof. Noel Whelan visiting the Universidad de Alcalá

Prof. Whelan also met with the Vice Rector, Prof. Fernando Galván Reula in conjunction with representatives of the international office and the CE Coordinator Prof Teresa de Val. Mr. Michal Skrzek Vice President of the CE Student Council also participated in these meetings and met with representatives of the students government to inform them of the benefits that would accrue from Alcalá's membership and the opportunites  that would arise for Alcala students. Commenting on the event Prof Whelan said that Alcalá is a most welcome entrant into the Campus Europae family and that Campus Europae looked forward to working with them in the future in mutual cooperation.

Commission calls for modernization reforms in higher education 

On the 10th of May European Commissioners Ján Figel and Janez Potočnik followed up the request made at the Hampton Court Council to identify areas for action on universities that can be used to drive forward the Growth and Jobs agenda. The proposals put forward by the Commission include:

  • Boost the proportion of graduates spending at least one semester abroad or in industry.
  • Bring procedures for the recognition of academic qualifications in line with those for professional qualifications and make European degrees more easily recognised outside Europe.
  • Introduce training in intellectual property management, communication, networking, entrepreneurship and team-working as part of a research career.
  • Refocus courses to allow greater participation at later stages of the life-cycle, thereby addressing the skills needs of Europe’s workforce, and ensuring that universities are able to adapt to Europe’s ageing population.
  • Review national student fee and support schemes so that the best students can participate in higher education and further research careers whatever their background.
  • Review systems for funding universities, to be more focused on outputs and give universities more responsibility for their own long-term financial sustainability, particularly in research.
  • Allow universities greater autonomy and accountability, so that they can respond quickly to change. This could include revising curricula to adapt to new developments, building closer links between disciplines and focussing on overall research areas domains (e.g. renewable energy, nanotechnology) rather than disciplines. It could also include more autonomy at individual institution level for choosing teaching and research staff.

While the Communication will not lead to any legislative proposal much is going on in Scotland, where the Executive awarded the Universities of Glasgow, St Andrews and Glasgow £1.2 million (€1.75 million) to look at ways at increasing the amount of work-related learning carried out by undergraduates. The concept of compulsory work-related learning has brought along criticism from some academics, but interest both from students and employers has favoured discussion on how non-vocational courses could be awarded credits for carrying out study related work activities.

External link:
Communication from the Commission - delivering on the modernisation agenda for Universities: education, research and innovation (pdf file)

Humanities Subject Committee Meeting

The Humanities Subject Committee convened on the 26th and 27th of June in Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. At a well attended meeting the most pressing issues were the refinement of the subjects available under the CE study programmes and the finalisation of the matrices. Exchanged information was reviewed in view of consolidating the vast dossier of data which has been built up by the Subject Committee and the compatibility matrices for the following fields of study:

  • Applied languages
  • History
  • Languages, literatures and cultures
  • Philosophy
  • Political science
  • Sociology

Arising from Prof. Noel Whelan’s proposal at the last General Assembly on March 27th 2006, the Humanities Commitee has agreed to take on board the idea of creating the Campus Europae Master of European Governance programme.

The meeting was attended by Gillian Moreira (Chair of the Humanities Subject Committee, University of Aveiro), Ms Nina Szczygiel (technical assistant), Juliette Dor (University of Liège), Marek Gensler (University of Lödz), Jolanta Kuznecoviene (University of Kaunas), Tatiana Kouzina (EHU International), Matthias Schneider (University of Greifswald), Robert Carroll (EUF Office Luxembourg) and the student representative of  the subject commitee Niles Lailke (University of Greifswald).

ENLU closing conference – a benchmark in the promotion of multilingualism

The Closing Conference of the “European Network for the Promotion of Language Learning Among All Undergraduates” was held in the presence of Commissioner Ján Figel' in Nancy on 7-8 April 2006 and was attended by 200 representatives of the European higher education languages community and other stakeholders. ENLU Coordinator Wolfgang Mackiewicz told participants that the Europe-wide consultation conducted earlier this year had revealed that there was an urgent need, and substantial support for the creation of a more permanent European network devoted to the development and implementation of languages-for-all-undergraduates policies. Consequently the principal outcome of ENLU will be the launch of a more permanent network – HELP: Higher Education Language Policy. Campus Europae will be one of the founding members of the network.

External links:
ENLU website
European Language Council


Campus Europae Student Council and Subject Committees closer together

On the 13-14 May 2006 the Student Council Subject Committee representatives met in Munsbach in order to brainstorm about their role and contribute in the development of Campus Europae study programmes.

On each of the seven Campus Europae Subject Committees there is a provision made for the representation of student issues whereby one student is entitled to sit on the Committee. The student is mandated by virtue of the Student Council to represent the views and opinions of students in respect of formulating the compatibility matrices, in constructing the study plans and other areas of student interest. This ensures that the Campus Europe Subject Committees remain focused on students’ concerns and that the study programmes are devised to guarantee full recognition and no study prolongation at the home university, and in this way ensure that they are relevant to the needs of today’s modern European Student. The student representative has equal status on each Subject Committee and also works in close cooperation with their respective Chairpersons. The work and contribution of the Subject Committee student representatives is an exciting innovative departure in the development of the Campus Europe study programmes rendering them more student-centric and ultimately more attractive.

Turning the spotlight on… Kaunas

The history of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) mirrors the history of  Lithuania. The VMU was first established in 1922, shortly after Lithuania regained its independence. Kaunas was then the temporary capital of the country and VMU was the only university operating in the country. In 1940 it played a pivotal role in reestablishing the University of Vilnius, as its Faculties of Humanities and Law were transferred to Vilnius in the winter. In the summer of 1941 the Faculties of Mathematics and Sciences followed. Shortly after,  the German occupation government closed the university in March 1943. The Faculties of History-Philology, Medicine, Construction and Technology reopened in 1944, but transfer of the Faculty of Philosophy to Vilnius prompted the closing of VMU in the autumn of 1949.

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Picture 2: St. Michal’s Church, Kaunas

It took forty years for Vytautas Magnus University to reopen  -  it was the second in the then Soviet-occupied Lithuania, and the first independent higher education institution. The core principle of the university is academic freedom, while its main purpose is to prepare graduates with a broad humanistic orientation for Lithuania's needs in research, culture, education and for its economy.


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Picture 3: Kaunas old town

Following an exponential growth during its first decade the University adopted, as early as in 1991, a system of study based on Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Another exceptional feature of the VMU is that students themselves put together their study plans and make a final choice of their programme after the first two years of study. These are but examples of the crucial contribution VMU has been making to the development of higher education and research in Lithuania.

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Picture 4: view of the Neris river, Kaunas

Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania and was founded back in 1030. Its trademark is the 2km long Laisvés street, which connects the imposing St. Michal’s Church to the beautiful old town. The city is renowned by its bustling student life, its passion for basketball and the Devil’s Museum, a 2000 piece collection of sculptures and carvings of devils from all over the world (including one portraying Hitler and Stalin, doing the dance of death over a playground littered with human bones). The city is located in the very centre of the country, making it an ideal starting place for those who wish to see more of Lithuania: no visit to the country would be complete without a trip to the Baltic seaside in Klaipêda, as well as to the historical towns of Vilnius and Trakai.

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Picture 5: Kaunas City Hall

External links:
Vytautas Magnus University website
Overview of the educational reform in Lithuania, by Prof. Margarita Teresevičienė (word doc)

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.

Engineering Subject Committee meeting

The next meeting of the Engineering SC will take place in the University of Aveiro, on the afternoon of the 16th of June.

Teacher Training Subject Committee meeting

The Teacher Training SC meeting will take place in the University of Lodz, on the 25th and 26th of June.