Campus Europae Newsletter, February 2007

Table of contents

  • The past, present and future of 20 years of student mobility
  • Fast Facts
    • The University of Novi Sad CE Certificate awarding ceremony
    • New Presidency of the Campus Europae Student Council
    • TNP3-D Launch Meeting at the Freie Universitaet Berlin
  • Upcoming events
    • Meeting of the Subject Committees Chairs assistants
    • International Day and CE Certificates Awarding Ceremony
    • Certificates Awarding Ceremony in Luxembourg
    • Meeting of the Student Representatives in the Subject Committees
    • First meetings of the CE Language Experts Group
    • International Day and CE Certificates Awarding Ceremony

The past, present and future of 20 years of student mobility

The European Commission Erasmus Programme is celebrating its 20 years in 2007. This is an event to which Campus Europae is by no means indifferent, if not for no other reason than because Erasmus provides the underlying financial support to the majority of the CE movers.

The Erasmus 20th anniversary also provides an excellent opportunity to look into its history and development. Its birth in 1987 was the product of more than 10 years of experience with the then so called “Common Programme”. The Common Programme itself was only put in place 20 years after the Treaty of Rome. During the first 15 years of European cooperation many spheres had been touched, but not the educational one. In 1972 the Ministers of Education of the European Community member’s states came together for the first time, and then it took another four years until the “Common Programme” was established.

What have been the outcomes of such lengthy preparations? A primitive version of the European Credit Transfer System was one of them, followed by the radical change in the administration that was set from 1987 onwards, where universities no longer applied for support directly to the Commission but handle most matters with the newly created respective National Agencies. While this has probably done much good for the scalability of a project that grew from 3,250 students in the academic year 1987/1988 to more than 140,000 in the academic year 2005/2006, it also reflects a political stance where national governmental agencies play a bigger role in the administration of the process and attenuates the impact of bolder university-level internationalisation policies.

On the other hand some aspects of the programme still haven’t gone full circle and matters such as guaranteeing recognition of the credits and grades earned abroad and preventing the prolongation of the complete study period have remained high on the agenda throughout the last 30 years. The other big challenge is accessibility and increase of participation: on the one hand socio-economic obstacles still seem to deter participation, while on the other the growth of the programme has to be analysed taking into account the continuous increase of participating countries and a possible institutionalisation of former non-organised mobility.

All in all it’s time to congratulate the Erasmus Programme and all who strived for its continuous development for a job well done. Campus Europae sees itself as a important player in the process to strengthen the quality of student exchange and is looking forward to celebrating together with Erasmus the next decade of European student exchange!
 

Fast Facts

The University of Novi Sad CE Certificate awarding ceremony

The University of Novi Sad was the first to organise the Campus Europae Certificate awarding ceremony on the 23rd of January 2007. The ceremony was presided by Rector Prof. Radmila Marinkovic-Neducin and was attended by Vice-Rector Prof. Miroslav Plancak, Vice-Rector Dr. Branislav Djurdjev, most professors engaged in the CE Subject Committees, representatives of local government and the press, and at the heart of the ceremony were the UNS students who have studied abroad in the academic years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006.

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Picture 1 – Rector Prof. Radmila Marinkovic-Neducin awarding the CE Certificates

Similar ceremonies are starting to take place in most universities of the network from January on and a symbolic ceremony will also take place in Luxembourg on the 16th of February. One student from each participating university will be invited to attend a ceremony in the Neumunster Abbey that is to be presided by European Parliamentarian Erna Hennicot-Schoepges. Erna Hennicot-Schoepges was Minister of Education of the Luxembourg Government at the time Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker took over the patronage of the initiative and has been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the project.

The decision of issuing a Campus Europae Certificate to all students who take part in the exchange programme was taken in the October 2006 General Assembly. The CE Certificate confirms the completion of an academic year abroad, the successful completion of the study requirements and that the CE-mover has acquired sufficient knowledge of the language of the host country to be able to communicate on a scientific level in their academic subjects. It is issued by the Campus Europae secretariat in Luxembourg.

Presidency of the Campus Europae Student Council

On the 17th of December 2006 the Campus Europae Student Council took place at the University of Lodz. The main topic on the agenda was the election of the new Student Council Presidency. The results of this election were that Krzysztof Kałużny of the University of Lodz and Joao Almeida of the University of Aveiro were elected, replacing the outgoing presidency of Natasa Radic of the University of Novi Sad and Michal Skrzek of the University of Lodz. Commenting on their election, Krzysztof Kalunzy and Joao Almeida pledged under their presidency to increase the visibility among the student population in each of the Campus Europae member universities and to work towards the aims and objectives as outlined in the global action plan 2006. Thanking the outgoing Presidency, Kaluzny and Almeida reiterated the importance and significant contribution that the Student Council makes to the overall Campus Europae project, as it is essentially the first point of contact for many CE movers prior to them embarking abroad on their CE year.

Other business covered in the Student Council was the proposal and appointment of new student subject committee representatives, as well as the updating of the LIVIS system and the on-line accommodation database on the Campus Europae website. New members who were welcomed to their first Student Council meeting, were Olga Feredov and Victoria Yandex from the State University of St. Petersburg. Each Student Council representative gave an oral report regarding the status of Campus Europae in each of their universities.

A motion from the University of Greifswald was unanimously passed which stated that the CE Student Council should adopt a pro active approach in encouraging students with disabilities to participate in Campus Europae. The Student Council has resolved to undertake an audit of each university regarding facilities which are in place for students who have such needs. The CE Student Council also resolved to organise their International days in the coming months to advertise the opportunities available in going abroad with Campus Europae for the next academic year. In conclusion the Presidency encouraged the members to continue lobbying and promotional activities for CE, and to move forward with renewed vigour for the upcoming academic year.

TNP3-D Launch Meeting at the Freie Universitaet Berlin

Campus Europae is an active partner of the EU Socrates funded Thematic Network Project TNP3-D co-ordinated by the Freie Universitaet Berlin, which organised the launch meeting on the 27th of January in Berlin. TNP3-D is a network for the decentralised and centralised dissemination of TNP3 results and outcomes of the last meetings.

The Thematic Network Project in the Area of Languages III (TNP3) constitutes the first determined effort at European level to arrange a structured, comprehensive and continuous dialogue between higher education institutions and other stakeholders about changing and future linguistic and intercultural needs on the European labour market. The overarching objective of TNP3 is to bring about a clear understanding on the part of all stakeholders of the linguistic and language-related needs arising from European integration and globalisation both in higher education itself and in the non-academic environments as well as a willingness on the part of universities to gear the content, learning outcomes, and quantity of provision to the needs identified.

Campus Europae wants to be a strong partner in the TNP3-D project and will actively participate in the next four decentralised meetings in Aarhus, Minho, Southampton, and Warszawski. CE will also be active in the final centralised conference on 27 September 2007 in Brussels.

Upcoming events

Meeting of the Subject Committees Chairs assistants

Luxembourg - 9th of February

International Day and CE Certificates Awarding Ceremony

University of Aveiro - 14th of February

Certificates Awarding Ceremony in Luxembourg

Luxembourg - 16th of February

Meeting of the Student Representatives in the Subject Committees

Luxembourg - 17th of February

First meeting of the CE Language Experts Group

Luxembourg - 21st of February

International Day and CE Certificates Awarding Ceremony

University of Latvia - 21st of February

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