Newsletter, November 2006

The more languages you know...
Fast Facts

Is teacher training immune to Europeanisation?
Campus Europae study programmes for 2006/2007 about to be unveiled

Turning the spotlight on... Vienna
Upcoming events

“The more languages you know the more of a person you are”

The title of this article is an old Slovak proverb, one of the headlines of the European Commission 2005 “Framework Strategy for Multilingualism” and a nice introduction for one of the main instruments of the CE concept: delivering high quality language courses to all exchange students within the project.

Following the CE expert seminar “How to achieve Multilingualism in Higher Education” (Munsbach, November 2005) clear guidelines for CE Intensive Language Courses (CEILC) were issued and already adopted by some universities: CEILC should last up to six weeks, with six to eight hours of study per day and take place before the beginning of the academic year in groups of six to eight students. These recommendations are comparable to the ones the European Commission has put forward and while some of the 2006 pilot courses were financed directly by the European University Foundation, others benefited from the Erasmus intensive language courses programme.

The introduction of the CE Language Courses in 2006/2007 has been carefully monitored by the Campus Europae Secretariat, who started conducting interviews with the CE Movers as early as in October this year. While more detailed results are expected for February, when the mid-term questionnaire will be distributed, the first conclusions are proving very interesting.

Attending the 6 weeks intensive language course seems to enable students to start following classes in the foreign language from the beginning of the year on, while those who only attend “general” language courses throughout the semester will hardly gain the necessary competences for such a challenge. Moreover, attending the classes in the foreign language from the beginning on is greatly facilitated by the fact that most Professors will provide résumés and bibliography in English, or even arrange for tutoring sessions for the foreign students. Hence this combination of efforts, methodologies and strategies may provide for an even greater promotion of language diversity across the network than initially envisaged, when it was thought that English would be an absolutely necessary bridge language throughout the entire first semester of the stay abroad.

If the analysis of the efficiency of the language learning concept confirms these preliminary results much effort has to and will be put into ensuring that these courses will be made widely available across the network from the next year on, and while the general guidelines for the CE Language Courses are already outlined, more technical issues remain to be dealt with. Such issues will constitute the working agenda of the CE Language Experts Network, whose first meeting is set to happen during the first quarter of 2007, while the exchange of best practices will commence via the mailing list even before that.

Fast Facts

Is teacher training immune to Europeanisation?

Prof. Dr. Ilse Schrittesser, representative of the University of Vienna in the Campus Europae General Assembly and member of the Teacher Training Subject Committee, organised an international “Symposium about Teacher Training in Europe” on the 7th of November in Vienna.

cenews_november_01

Picture 1: Prof. Herbert Schendl (head of the Teacher Trainign reform commission of the University of Vienna), Vice-Rector Prof. Arthur Mettinger, Prof. Dr. Ilse Schrittesser, representive of the University of Vienna in the CE General Assembly and Professor Christoph Ehmann, Secretary General of the EUF-CE

Teacher Training is one of the most “nationalistic” fields in European university education, in spite of the growing cultural diversification of pupils in the classrooms. The Symposium analysed aspects such as the impact of school administrations, in most of the European countries, forcing future teachers to make their internships only in the home country, and the lack of a European concept for teacher training. In this context Prof. Schrittesser’s report of her experience in the CE Teacher Training Subject Committee was warmly welcomed, as it stands as an unusual and inspiring initiative for this study field.

Campus Europae study programmes for 2006/2007 about to be unveiled

The Subject Committees are finishing the process of fine-tuning the study programmes for the next academic year. The information about the study programmes will go public in early December, together with the pre-registration system in the Campus Europae website. Pre-registration is a one step procedure that is meant to facilitate the application and selection processes that are to be conducted at all participating universities from early 2007 on.

Turning the spotlight on… Vienna

The University of Vienna was founded by Duke Rudolf IV in 1365, being modelled after the universities of Bologna and Paris. The University of Vienna is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and one of the largest universities of Central Europe. The University is proud of having been the home of several Nobel Prize Laureates.
The University of Vienna has 63,000 enrolled students and offers about 130 degree programmes, among them 22 Bachelor programmes and 27 Master programmes. Its participation in Campus Europae is most active in the field of Teacher Training, an area that accounts for 15 percent of all studies currently done in the University. Teacher Training in Vienna is available in the following areas: Religion (catholic and evangelic ), Philosophy & Psychology, History, Social Studies & Political Education, German, Latin, Greek, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Environmental Research, Biology and Economy, Geography, Culinary Arts & Nutritional Science, Sports and Informatics.

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Picture 2: University of Vienna, historical Main Building in the Ringstrasse

History of the University of Vienna in relation with the Teacher Training activities

1772 First lectures in "Art of Education and Instruction"
1783 Lectures in German replace Lectures in Latin, the former "lingua franca"
1849 Teacher training for grammar schools is transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy, which is completely restructured.
1854 First lectures in education for Teacher Training Students
1985 Rearrangement of Teacher Training-Studies: 4 columns of academic development: branches of science (subjects), didactics, professional pedagogical qualification, school practice (starting in the 3rd year of study); University Centre for school practice is implemented
1997 Lectures in foreign languages are foreseen and regulated in the law
2000 New rearrangement of Teacher Training-Studies; Pedagogical and practical orientation at the beginning, afterwards school practice (beginning in the 2nd year of study)
2004 Teacher Training has increased significance in the Development Plan of the University of Vienna
2005 The Centre for Teacher Education and Professionalism Research (CTEPR) is formed as a subdivision of the Department of Educational Sciences, at the University of Vienna. It is based upon an interdisciplinary department known as The Department of Teacher Education (DTE), which was founded in January 2000 during the course of a redefinition of teacher education at the University of Vienna. The original aims of the DTE were to develop the pedagogical and educational principles within teacher education, thus enhancing professionalisation as well as educational and didactic knowledge of future teachers. The CTEPR continues this effort to improve and develop the pedagogical education and the practical training of future teachers of secondary education.
currently: implementation of Centres of didactics for Teacher Training subjects. Development of Bologna-Teacher-Training study plans

External links:
University of Vienna
Nobel Laureates at the University of Vienna
An Historical Tour of the University of Vienna
Vienna on the Wikipedia

Upcoming events:

University of Nancy CE International Day

on the 21st of November

Law Subject Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Law SC will take place in the University of Lodz, on the 28th of November

Örebro University CE International Day

on the 30th of November

Teacher Training Subject Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Teacher Training SC will take place in the University of Hamburg, on the 3rd of December

Business Subject Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the Business SC will take place in the University of Luxembourg, on the 15th of December

Student Council Plenary Meeting

The next meeting of the Campus Europae Student Council will take place in the University of Lodz, on the 16th of December