Campus Europae Newsletter, November 2008
Table of contents
- Hook Up – launching of EU funded project to create a CE foreign language learning gateway
- Fast Facts
- CE Alumni meeting in Novi Sad
- Bachelors Employability: a State based problem
- Campus Europae Information Day at the University of Vienna
- Conference on student mobility in Nancy
- Upcoming events
- Natural Sciences Subject Committee meeting
- Engineering Subject Committee meeting
- Student Council plenary meeting
- Teacher Training Subject Committee meeting
Hook Up– launching of EU funded project to create a CE foreign language learning gateway
Campus Europae’s Foreign language teaching experts met on 14th and 15th November at the University of Vienna to discuss results of intensive language courses and launch its newest project: Hook Up!, a Campus Europae Foreign Language Learning Gateway.
Hook Up! implemented with the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, aims at providing a platform to learn the 12 language of CE member universities (Finnish, French, German, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, Russian and Turkish). Language learning opportunities will be offered before going abroad in order to enable a better integration of CE movers into the courses of the host university, during the stay abroad to provide students with specialized language requirements relating to their courses, and once CE movers return home, it will also assist to further foreign language learning so that students have the opportunity to continue practicing the foreign language they just learnt and assist others CE-movers in the learning of the language of their home and host universities. This collaborative project is expected to deliver already in April 2009 its first language modules which will take students to breaktrhough level (A1) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Others levels will continue to follow throughout the two year duration of the project.
The European Commission’s evaluation reports all point to the fact that acquiring foreign language skills are an absolute necessity. However, the belief that mobility is sufficient to bring about quality language acquirement has been proven wrong by various studies on mobility. So, although mobility endows students with a natural platform to acquire foreign languages, effective learning of host countries languages especially minority languages requires a concerted effort to prevent students and academics falling back into the lingua francas of namely English, but also French and German to the detriment of others. An element ignored is that students rarely receive language instruction before they embark on their year abroad and then upon their return fail to build on their new language competence and often lose it over time naturally if not practiced resulting in wasted effort, time and money.
Following recommendations, many efforts are undertaken to motivate all Europeans to learn languages in and outside school, through formal and informal ways, in classrooms and chat rooms, however the bulk of today’s university students rarely speak more than two or three languages, one of which is English and seldom those known as minority languages. Moreover, once they have reached universities, the doorstep to an ever increasingly competitive labour market, students’ preoccupations centre in achieving high grades in their area to the detriment of language learning unless specifically linked to the chosen studies. Simultaneously, universities locked into cost efficiency, seldom rescue foreign language teaching from cut backs. However if mobility is not to remain the prerogative of a minority and is to counter the perverse effect of accentuating the “minorisation” of certain languages, systems have to be put in place to enable students to learn a foreign language intensively, in a relatively short period of time and as enjoyably as possible.
Since Campus Europae students are expected to study in 2 foreign countries at bachelor and master levels and effectively acquire 2 foreign languages for their degree, a cost efficient approach to language learning is of the essence for an ambitious project like Campus Europae. Now with Hook up!, building upon existing resources and adopting a blended approach where online and face to face learning will be effectively combined, EUF-CE aims to address present foreign language learning limitations. From a methodological viewpoint Hook Up! will not invent anything if it already exists focusing instead in unifying the delivery of the various languages offered by several language networks and make these available at all universities. The platform will be offered to Campus Europae students.
With the present project, EUF-CE will take further its foreign language teaching and by doing so contribute to foster multilingualism and the “Europeanization” of today’s students and universities.
Fast Facts
CE Alumni meeting in Novi Sad
Twenty former CE movers accepted the invitation of the University of Novi Sad to convene on the 10th of November. The aims of the convivial session were two-fold: on the one hand, talk about their experiences abroad adding thus a perspective to the impressions gathered through standard evaluation questionnaires; and on the other, to discuss ways in which CE based networking could be maintained and fostered.
The two key ideas fueling the debate dealt with the kind of initiatives CE alumni could promote (such as the organization of debates in cooperation with local authorities focusing on issues where their “European citizenship” and experiences could contribute and broaden the spectrum of discussion) and with the notion that setting up an alumni structure could substantially ease future initiatives. It is expected that this debate will be followed up in the near future with more discussions of this kind.
Bachelors Employability: a State based problem
During the last years, universities have been very busy in describing and designing the new study programmes for Bachelor and Master. The first graduates who have finished these programmes are now “on the market”. For this occasion, the Luxemburg Minister of Culture, Higher Education and Research, Francois Biltgen, organised an Official Bologna Seminar on “Employability: The Employers’ Perspective and its implications” on the 6th and 7th November 2008.
The seminar, ensued from the London Communiqué, adopted by the Ministers of the Bologna follow-up conference in May 2007, complied with the requirement that “Governments and HEIs will need to communicate more with employers and other stakeholders on the rationale of their reforms”.
Two main recommendations were highlighted in the presentations and discussions of some 100 participants from all over Europe:
1. “Global Players” who had already a lot of experiences with Bachelors – or first cycle graduates - from different educational systems, outlined that some work experience before their studies or during their studies is an advantage.
2. A specialisation, as it is mostly combined with a Master, is helpful in certain cases. But, given that most of the graduates will not hold jobs in the research departments, such scientific specialisations will loose its edge after a very short time. It seems to be more efficient to return to university or to undertake study after some years of practice. Most of the represented companies seemed to have some form of “Lifelong Learning”- programmes inside their companies or developed them together with educational institutions offering company and/or subject-targeted programmes.
It was particularly interesting to hear about the difficulties faced by the civil service when implementing the new course structure in relation to its salary system which is based more or less on the number of years spent by the student in an educational institution.
Campus Europae Information Day at the University of Vienna
The Bologna Office of the University of Vienna, together with the CE Coordinator, organized an information day on the 14th of November for all students interested in going abroad with Campus Europae. Presentations by the Vice-Rector: Professor Arthur Mettinger, by the CE Coordinators: Prof. Ilse Schrittesser and Mr. Gerhard Wagner and by the CE’s Secretary-General: Prof. Christoph Ehmann, covered the basic aspects of why and how to consider to study one year abroad. More presentations from Prof. Ljiljana Subotic (University of Novi Sad) and Prof. Erik Lautenschlager (University of Luxembourg) provided substantial insight into the learning of foreign languages and the organization of Teacher Training specific curricular equivalences. Last but not least, students currently studying at Vienna and former CE movers were also active participants namely in providing detailed information about partner universities and exchange tips to many students in attendance.
Conference on student mobility in Nancy
Valérie Précresse, minister of Higher Education and Research of the Republic of France, opened the Conference about Student Mobility in Europe, held on the 4th and 5th of November in Nancy, with a surprising data: in 2007/2008, four thousand Erasmus grants were not taken up by French students even if French students have the opportunity to receive an additional state support of up to 846 € per month when they enrol at another European university. The second figure which made the participants of the conference thoughtful was that only four percent of the European students are “mobile” , i.e. they studied abroad for at least a whole semester.
Therefore, the French government has decided to give priority to mobility for students as well as for researchers during its presidency. Already in July, the Centre d’analyse strategique presented the government with a report stating that mobility is not a “natural” part of each study programme. If mobility were of some advantage in a CV, it should be shown more clearly. However, such benefits are not a straightforward affair as Prof. Teichler, who together with his colleagues from the university of Kassel has been evaluating the Erasmus programmes for over 15 years, mentioned in his presentation. On the one hand, students who studied abroad tend to have a better start in their professional career. But it cannot be said that it is the study abroad which is the determining factor since students who study abroad tend to be more open minded and creative and therefore also choose to go abroad and these attributes also help when entering the professional world.
The financial constraints against mobility do not play an important role in the above mentioned situation. Nevertheless, the student organisations – ESU as well as the French student union – asked again for a European Fund for Mobility comparable to the European Social Fund. Due to a lack of employers attending this conference, the issue of how to contribute to the financing of mobility by those who have a special interest in students with a European-wide experience fell on deaf ears.
Upcoming events
Natural Sciences Subject Committee meeting
University of Novi Sad, 21st and 22nd November
Engineering Subject Committee meeting
University of Novi Sad, 21st and 22nd November
Student Council plenary meeting
University of Lodz, 13th December
Teacher Training Subject Committee meeting
University of Aveiro, 15th and 16th December
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