Campus Europae Newsletter, February 2008
Table of contents
- The Campus Europe Subject Committees: Evolution and Evaluation
- Fast Facts
- EUF-CE Charter comes into force upon ratification by His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
- Added value to an invaluable activity - outcomes of CE’s seminar on language teaching
- University of Novi Sad Campus Europae International Day
- Translation from English into Lithuanian available online
- Upcoming events
- Campus Europae International Day at Luxembourg University
- Chairs Assistants Meeting
- Subject Committee Student Representatives Meeting
- Business Subject Committee Meeting
- Teacher Training Subject Committee
- Engineering Promotion Day at Nancy University
- Coordinators and Language Experts Meeting
Campus Europe Subject Committees: Evolution and Evaluation
Since the inception five years ago the CE subject committees have been an instrumental organ of EUF–CE and have played a pivotal role in the establishment of generally binding compatibility matrices which have resulted in potential CE students being equipped with adequate knowledge about the study programmes which exist in CE member universities and are in the position to make an informed choice of the destination that suits their individual needs and is tailor made to be first and foremost student centered and student friendly. By virtue of the fact through the input of the student subject committee representatives, students are at the heart of the decision making process. Meeting on a bi–annual basis ensures that all committees constantly evaluate, evolve and monitor the quality of programmes that they produce under the auspices of EUF–CE.
The Seven Campus Europae Subject Committees include the following:
Law
• Ankara University
• Gazi University
• University of Greifswald
• University of Hamburg
• University of Joensuu
• University of Luxembourg
• University of Lódz
• European Humanities University
• University of Novi Sad
• St Petersburg State University
The Law subject committee has evolved to provide dynamic and effective study programmes which serve the unique and special needs of today’s Law student. Owing to the exceptional nature of Law which is directly influenced by national legislation and constraints and differs in elements in country to country the committee despite these challenges and obstacles have sought to adhere to the core tenets of CE within these parameters. As a result the committee and its work programme aim to keep to a core curriculum while serving the requirements of individual students whilst constantly and consistently monitoring content and quality to an academic filed which is in constant state of flux. Additionally the Law committee aims to accommodate students where at all possible in ensuring that their full year abroad fulfils all their personal requirements in terms of subjects and modules and that this does not impinge on any national exams that they may have to take upon their return. When they do the Law committee envisages that the CE Law student will be more rounded in their overall outlook and equipped with a unique blend of skills and experiences which will serve them well in their future careers and that will allow them to stand out from the crowd in their home country upon their return whether in the legal field or outside of it. .
Humanities
• University of Alcalá
• Ankara University
• Gazi University
• University of Aveiro
• University of Greifswald
• University of Latvia
• University of Lódz
• University of Novi Sad
• St Petersburg State University
• Vytautas Magnus University
• European Humanities University
• University of Joensuu
The Humanities subject committee due to wide depth and breadth of subject committees which exist in the various fields face more challenges than most other committees. The Humanities committee has further sub divided into the fields of Philosophy, Languages and literatures, Tourism, and Sociology to facilitate the work process and make the transfer of students more streamlined. Due to the multi faceted nature of Humanities and those definitions of where subjects lie in different fields leads to a multitude of different permutations for CE exchange students. Being one of the larger committees and with the fact those humanities is more generally associated with exchange than other academic fields the prospects for exchange are endless. However due to that very fact that the range of options is so diverse throws up issues which can impede on a smooth transfer of potential CE movers. The Humanities committee works intensively to overcome these by being as flexible as possible when cooperating in CE exchange between institutions. An extensive analysis of all modules has been undertaken by the committee which allows students to examine where best they can facilitate their requirements in terms of compatibility of modules which will fulfill their academic requirements
Teacher Training
• University of Alcalá
• Ankara University
• University of Aveiro
• University of Hamburg
• University of Joensuu
• University of Latvia
• University of Luxembourg
• University of Lódz
• University of Vienna
• Vytautas Magnus University
The largest of the CE subject committees has a diverse membership and seeks to extend the opportunity of exchange to an area which is also not traditionally associated due to the national character of teacher training education and with the fact that all student teachers must complete some element of practical classroom based teacher training experience. Teacher Training has addressed this problem by arranging and offering these pre requisite teaching practice periods in destination universities which will allow student teachers to embark on a year abroad with CE without effecting their obligations to acquire a practice under the CE (L.E.P) Learning Employability places programme . This programme is in place during the current academic year kicking off in the University of Vienna. It is envisaged to spread this programme to all participating members in time and members are exploring all possibilities at their respective home universities. The Teacher Training committee has also discussed extensively the subject of intercultural learning which is of direct relevance to the classroom based environment but also serves as a reference point for all other committees being of mutual interest to all.
Business
• University of Alcalá
• Ankara University
• Gazi University
• University of Latvia
• University of Luxembourg
• University of Lódz
• University of Trento
• Vytautas Magnus University
The Business subject committee has had in recent years had the most success in terms of numbers of CE students exchanged. The committee has sought to create generally binding matrices where possible and to ensure that recognition is achieved in all cases. Business CE students are perhaps more aware of the importance of going abroad for a period of time and improving their language skills which is of vital importance in today’s globalised economy. The committee wishes to constantly evaluate and monitor the programmes that they have initiated to move away from ad hoc case by case basis exchange and to ensure that all academic requirements are being addressed. This goal is being realised by a constant appraisal of all members degrees utilising the services of a unique subject specific Business subject committee questionnaire. The results of this questionnaire ensures that the committee can make a judgement of which directions they should be taking in terms of effective exchange. Members are in constant contact to guarantee that academic standards are maintained and that CE Business students obtain a superior business education.
Medicine
• University of Alcalá
• Ankara University
• Gazi University
• University of Greifswald
• University Henry Poincaré
• University of Novi Sad
The medicine subject committee has evolved to produce effective programmes which assist CE movers in their new host universities. Like Law coming under the scrutiny of national legislation and national competences and under their direction at all times. As Medicine is not generally associated with international European exchange and coupled with these challenges necessitates innovative solutions to practical problems in student exchange including how best to integrate any practical medical internship element into their years exchange which is of vital interest to any prospective mover. Solutions have been formulated in respect of this issue and all medical students will be accommodated where at all possible should they require an internship place in a hospital or medical facility. At the last meeting of the Medicine subject committee held in Cochin Hospital Paris, members agreed to expand to the other health sciences of Dentistry and Pharmacy following approaches by colleagues from these disciplines in joining the programme. Initially Dentistry and Pharmacy will come under the umbrella of the medicine subject committee. An exploratory meeting of the Medical committee with invitees from the respective faculties of medicine and dentistry will convene in Luxembourg on the 14th of April, 2007 in Luxembourg to examine the multitude of possibilities available. Drawing upon the past experience of the committee should assist in the compilation of preliminary programmes for these fields as early the next academic year 2008/2009.
Engineering
• University of Alcalá
• Ankara University
• Gazi University
• University of Aveiro
• Technical University of Lódz
• University Henry Poincaré
• University of Novi Sad
The Engineering subject committee is an integrated group of universities which seeks to provide a quality exchange experience in terms of technical and academic content. The committee currently comprises the field of electrical, electronic and computer engineering owing to the profile of its members. The committee has worked in the past years to construct academic programmes which replicate the study programmes of students who wish to go abroad. With the advent of new members it is hoped to spread the scope of the committee to other areas. It is hoped that the committee can start to implement the CE (L.E.P) Learning Employability places programme which would be obviously conducive to such an initiative. The Engineering committee have addressed issues surrounding academic content and have created cohesive programmes which seek to give a distinctive European dimension to them and endow the programmes with skills and attributes which will be useful to students in an internationalised manufacture and Research and development environment. The Engineering committee will also be expanding to include Bio Medical engineering.
Natural Sciences
• University of Aveiro
• University of Latvia
• University of Lódz
• University of Novi Sad
• St Petersburg State University
• Vytautas Magnus University
• Gazi University
The Natural sciences subject committee is sub divided into the fields of Biochemistry Biology and physics and has the distinct advantage of not having the obvious issues associated with compatibility of content. However the modules can differ in elements, but the committee seeks to iron out any issues relating to this. Students have the possibility to pick and choose their modules which would satisfy their requirements across different years of study that best fulfills their needs. The Natural Sciences committee seeks to ensure that the core fundamentals of a student’s course of study are serviced. The Natural Sciences subject committee have taken on board the recommendations presented in a paper prepared by the Campus Europae grading Group, concerning problems of the differences in national systems and traditions in grading that Campus Europe faces and have implemented it where possible.
Fast Facts
EUF-CE Charter comes into force upon ratification by His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
The Charter of the European University Foundation – Campus Europae was formally approved by His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Minister of Justice Luc Frieden on the 28th of January, thus signalling the establishment of EUF-CE under the auspices of Luxembourg law. This event occurs less than two months after the Rector’s Conference on the 3rd of December 2007 where sixteen Rectors’ and their representative proxies signed the EUF-CE’s Charter which has now been ratified by the relevant Luxembourg authorities.
The European University Foundation’s new legal structure will come into force during the Luxembourg Higher Education Forum, which will be held on the 14th and 15th of April. The Forum will be the most important decision making organ within the EUF and a meeting point for Higher Education stakeholders, researchers, employers, employees and politicians.
Added value to an invaluable activity - outcomes of CE’s seminar on language teaching
Campus Europae promotes not only the notion of encouraging foreign language learning but also learning from innovative methodologies which assist students in gaining the communication skills necessary in the shortest period of time. Subscribing to this policy Campus Europae organized a Seminar on ‘Language Teaching Methodology’ which took place at the University of Alcala on the 19th and 20th January. It was a platform where foreign language experts from CE universities could share their experiences and take part in workshops provided by Professor Savickiene (Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas), Professor Waldemar Martyniuk (Jagiellonian University, Cracow) and Dr Robert O’Dowd (University of Leon).
Professor Savickiene opened the conference with a thought provoking introduction, covering topics of ‘Multilingualism and Motivation’ and ‘What is the importance of Multilingualism for the European Union and its economy’? A quote from the ELAN Study aptly illustrated these concerns.
‘Across the sample of nearly 2000 businesses, 11% of respondents (195 Small and Medium Enterprises) had lost a contract as a result of lack of language skills. Of these, 37 businesses had lost actual contracts which together were valued at between €8 million and €13.5 million. A further 54 businesses had lost potential contracts worth in total between €16.5 million and €25.3 million. At least 10 businesses had each lost contracts worth over €1 million. According to these findings, the average loss per business over a three year period is €325,000.’
‘A language can not be taught effectively without reference to the specific features of individual learners in a group’ was the message from Professor Martyniuk, member of Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe. He started by characterizing 4 main types of learners (spontaneous, routine, conceptual-specific and conceptual-global) and emphasised that the role of a teacher is to recognize these types and adjust the teaching approach to them. Teaching a language to a multinational group is a more difficult task because besides taking into account the socio-psychological characteristics the teacher has to consider the cultural differences.
Professor Martyniuk also provided extensive explanations about several technical aspects of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The core idea of the framework is to provide a common and comprehensive description system of linguistic skills in the whole Europe. The common assessment criteria could make one’s efforts recognizable Europe wide which would improve the academic and labour mobility. The concept of CEFR is plurilingual, hence none of the European languages should be excluded from that system. Implementing CEFR to all European languages entails the improvement of the language learning quality. The advantages of that solution are multifold and they don’t refer only to languages. The linguistic competences also encompass cultural competences, thus CEFR assessment doesn’t certify only one’s skills to speak a foreign language but approves the ability to act in the intercultural environment. However, Professor Martyniuk stressed that although the CEFR is ready to be implemented several countries remain reluctant to introduce the certification procedures which would be cohesive with CEFR.
By being fully committed to the ‘language = culture’ rule, Dr O’Dowd spoke about developing intercultural, communicative competences and the impact of a culture on the communication. When two individuals, representing two different cultures but speaking the same language which is not their native one talk with each other the communication can be hindered from two sides – whether a language is used incorrectly or the same expressions have different meanings or connotations in their cultures. Dr O’Dowd’s workshop focused on the second aspect: raising awareness that a language cannot be learnt nor taught without respecting the underlying cultural differences, an aspect which unfortunately is often neglected in foreign language classes. As a project Dr O’Dowd proposed an online exchange between two learners’ groups - for instance, a group of English students who learn Spanish and a group of Spanish students who learn English. They can write emails to each other about themselves and ask their partners from abroad questions. Of course the whole exchange happens under a teachers’ supervision. That kind of communication would be helpful to develop and be successful only if both partners will try to step outside their own cultures and understand a cultural background of the other side. O’Dowd calls it ‘ethnographic interviewing’, which basically means going deeper into a foreign culture. Student, taking part in the online exchange, have to be aware that some things which are obvious for them can be perceived in the totally different way by others. The ‘ethnographic interviewing’ is more about asking the questions, comparing, concluding, learning the other culture and, what is probably the most important, respecting the other point of view.
Dr O’Dowd contends that online learning is way more than just basic email exchange. He presented two models of e-learning of a foreign language: tandem and blended intercultural telecollaboration. In tandem two native speakers of different languages communicate together with one another with the aim of learning the other’s language. They learn a language by correcting partner’s mistakes and referring to the structures and vocabulary already used. The blended intercultural telecollaboration is more complicated and involves cultural aspects. Broadly speaking, it is international class-to-class partnership – structure and tasks developed by partner teachers. The example of such a task is collaborative research projects comparing both cultures. Students fill the questionnaires writing their associations with a country and culture of their partners using their native language. Then the answers are compared online and discussed in a classroom and on the online forum in the target language. In this model the teacher’s role is very important. He chooses or creates questionnaires, organizes class activities, facilitates students’ construction of hypotheses and cultural understanding but does not intervene in the forums’ content.
The seminar was an important step towards enabling the language experts to tailor CE foreign language learning courses and strategies to its own specific needs and types of public. Most experts from CE universities expressed interest in looking for ways to improve the designs of their own universities language courses, notably with regards to deepening multicultural competences/awareness and the usage of online platforms and media.
CE Info Days at the University of Novi Sad
Within the framework of the Campus Europae promotional activities, the University of Novi Sad organized two CE Info Days - at the Faculty of Technical Sciences and the Faculty of Sciences, on 25th and 31st January.
Students of the University of Novi Sad can now apply for participation in the CE exchange programmes in 8 fields: biochemistry, biology, electrical engineering, languages and literature, tourism, law, medicine and physics. This is the largest number of the exchange fields in which the University has participated since joining the CE university network in 2003.
The presentations of the CE mobility scheme and the direct contact with the University CE coordinator, academic coordinators and student representatives offered the possibility to get the latest information on CE. The CE info days raised a lot of attention among the students, who were interested to find out about their possibilities to become outgoing students in the academic year 2008/09.
Translation from English into Lithuanian is now available online
The first auto translation system for translation of web pages from English into Lithuanian is already available on the Internet. The project “Internet Information Translation Tool“, the creator of which was Vytautas Magnus University, was sponsored by EU Structural Funds and joined the efforts of best Lithuanian language specialists, IT developers and foreign partners with large experience in the development of machine translation tools. Though the new system, which is able to translate 200.000 words per minute, is available in the Internet since December, 2007, 3.000 registered users are already using the system. The number of unregistered users may be calculated from the number of translations – the number of translations exceeds 500.000. Approximately 25.000-30.000 translations are made through a new system per day. Every two seconds, a new sentence, text or a web site is translated. The translation machine is available at http://vertimas.vdu.lt/twsas/.
Upcoming events
Campus Europae International Day at Luxembourg University
Luxembourg, 20th February
Chairs Assistants Meeting - Luxembourg, 3rd March
The next meeting of the Campus Europae Chairs Assistants will convene on the 3rd of March in the Chateau de Munsbach Luxembourg in order to establish the final matrices for the upcoming academic year as a precursor to their publishing on the CE website which will serve as an invaluable guide for prospective students wishing to embark on their CE year abroad.
Subject Committee Student Representatives Meeting - Aveiro, 8th March
The Campus Europae Subject Committee student representatives will take place at the University of Aveiro on Saturday the 8th of March to discuss the upcoming round of subject committee meetings in relation to the next academic year, future directions for the subject committees and developments and potential developments and will include strategies outlining the student representatives input into the construction of student focussed academic programmes for next year.
Business Subject Committee Meeting - Trento, 14th March
The next meeting of the Campus Europe Business Subject Committee will take place at the University of Trento on the 14th of March and will deal with a final collation of the business and economics matrices for the next academic year 2008/2009.
Teacher Training Subject Committee - Vienna, 17th 18th March
The CE Teacher Training Committee will convene in the University of Vienna on the 17th and 18th of March. Topics on the agenda include Teacher training and educational studies in St. Petersburg, Russia and a special profile of Gazi University and Ankara Universities as the newest members of the committee. In addition participants will explore further bilateral discussions on compatibility.
Campus Europae Engineering Promotion Day, Nancy
A promotion day at ESTINN the University of Nancy’s Engineering school will take place on the 20th of March.2007
Coordinators and Language Experts Meeting
Luxembourg, 14th MarchThe next Campus Europae newsletter is due for the 17th March. To unsubscribe please visit this link.