Problems of Recognition In Making Erasmus PRIME 2010

Eren Dicle Julia Fellinger Luyedan Huang Igor Kalinic Justyna Pisera Julia Trawińska Edona Vinca Problems of Recognition In Making Erasmus PRIME 2010 PRIME Problems of Recognition in Making ErasmusCopyright © 2010 by the Erasmus Student Network. All rights reserved. This Information may be freely used and copied for non-commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged (© Erasmus Student Network). For ordering additional copies of the publication, please contact secretariat@esn.org or write to: Erasmus Student Network AISBL Rue Hydraulique 15 1210 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 256 7427 A free electronic version of this report is available at http://www.prime.esn.org/final-reportPRIME Report 2010 Project Management: Justyna Pisera Project Supervision: Eva Ntovolou, Tania Berman Report and Research Coordination: Justyna Pisera Descriptive Statistics: Madara Apsalone, Eren Dicle, Julia Fellinger Inferential Statistics: Madara Apsalone Qualitative Analysis: Luyedan Huang, Igor Kalinic, Julia Trawińska, Edona Vinca Text: Madara Apsalone, Eren Dicle, Julia Fellinger, Luyedan Huang, Igor Kalinic, Julia Trawińska, Edona Vinca, Justyna Pisera Design: Michael Magin Published by Erasmus Student Network AISBL This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.Index Foreword 6 Acknowledgements 7 Executive Summary 9 1 Introduction 12 1.1 Background of the project 13 1.2 Aims of the study 14 1.3 Basic information about the Erasmus programme and the European Higher Education Area 15 2 The PRIME study 17 2.1 Methodology 18 2.1.1 Questionnaire for students 18 2.1.2 e for Higher Education Institutions 18 2.1.3 Interview with National Agencies 19 2.2 Description of data 19 2.2.1 Student level 19 2.2.2 Institution / Faculty level 22 2.2.3 National Agencies level 23 2.3 Research limits 25 3 Facts and figures 26 3.1 Information provision 27 3.2 Learning Agreement 33 3.3 ECTS and recognition 38 3.4 Grade transfer 51 3.5 Erasmus grants, portability of grants and tuition fees 53 4 Index4 Recognition of studies abroad 59 4.1 Concept of “full recognition” 60 4.2 Factors influencing recognition 61 4.3 Recognition and general perception of the Erasmus experience 64 5 Problems of recognition and suggestions for improvement 70 5.1 Incompatibility of study programmes 72 5.2 Problems with the credit calculation 74 5.3 Problems with the grade transfer 75 5.4 Bureaucratic issues 77 5.5 Attitude of professors 78 5.6 Insufficient information provision 80 5.7 Other problems 81 5.8 Comparative perspective: PRIME 2009 and PRIME 2010 82 6 Conclusions and further steps 86 References 89 Appendices 90 A Discussion 90 Vilnius University: Study Period Abroad Recognition Experience 91 Minimise Recognition Problems – The Campus Europae Project 92 Ghent University 93 B Index of tables 94 C Index of figures 94 D PRIME 2010 Students’ questionnaire 97 E PRIME 2010 HEIs’ questionnaire 103 F PRIME 2010 NAs’ interview 109 G Learning Agreement 111 H Erasmus Student Charter 113 5Foreword How to make European citizens feel European? How to get them to experience Europe so that they feel European? The visionary and very successful Erasmus programme is one of the best answers to this question. It has enabled young European students to experience Europe in the framework of their studies, while learning for their diploma, without “losing” a year or a semester, since this time spent abroad could be recognised as an equivalent by their home university. Recognition. This key word has been a promise for young students that they could study abroad and gain new experiences, in the very framework of their studies. Almost 25 years after the creation of the programme, have all barriers to the academic recognition of a stay abroad been removed? Is the promise of recognition kept for all students? Is the Erasmus programme as successful as its popularity says? For the second time, the Erasmus Student Network, dedicated to the quality of the Erasmus programme and its improvement whenever possible, surveyed the Problems of Recognition in Making Erasmus, with its project PRIME. The results of this second study are presented in this booklet. Many actors were involved to find these results. ESN thanks first of all the European Commission for its great support throughout the year. We thank our PRIME Coordinator, Justyna Pisera, who dedicated one year to this project, we thank the former International Board of ESN and in particular Eva Ntovolou, the former ESN President. We thank the PRIME team that supported Justyna throughout the different phases of the project. All this work would not have been possible without the contribution of the universities, the National Agencies and the international students, who filled in our questionnaires and gave us the necessary data to conduct our survey. Many thanks therefore to the disseminators of the project, our National Representatives, National Coordinators and Local Coordinators. We wish you an enjoyable reading. May all our recommendations find the right reader – and find their way outside this booklet, to university offices, National Agencies offices – and to the European Commission while preparing the framework of the Erasmus programme for the years 2014-2020. Enjoy the reading, Tania Berman President of the Erasmus Student Network 2011/2012 6 ForewordAcknowledgements The idea of a study project which investigates obstacles to recognition and suggests solutions for the situation was born almost five years ago. Since then, many devoted people were working on its accomplishment and development. Thanks to the hard work of the former presidents of the Erasmus Student Network, Giorgio Marinoni, Matthias Fenner and Marketa Tokova as well as many ESN volunteers the first edition of the project was successfully conducted 2008-2009. The report you are reading now is the result of the second edition of the study. It is the outcome of almost one year work of motivated students from the whole ESN network. They contributed to the project through all of its stages: development of the questionnaires, through the everyday administration and promotion, up until the analysis of the results and the production of this publication. Without their hard work this study would have never been possible. Therefore, I would like to acknowledge and thank the following contributors: • The members of the ESN International Committee for Education, especially Liliya Buyukliyska, Igor Kalinic, Daphne Scherer and Marketa Tokova, for the preparation of the PRIME 2010 project structure; • Eren Dicle, Julia Fellinger, Luyedan Huang, Igor Kalinic, Julia Trawinska, Edona Vinca for creating the questionnaires, analysing the results, writing the report and for their general support through all the project phases; • Madara Apsalone for statistical analysis and writing of the report; • Eva Ntovolou, President of ESN 2010/2011, for the huge support to the project at all its stages and kind help; • Tania Berman, President of ESN 2011/2012, for the supervision and the support in the finalisation of the publication; • Marco La Rosa, Communication Manager of ESN 2010/2011 for the design of new PRIME logo; • Madara Apsalone, Emanuela Ascoli, Stefan Friedrich, Daphne Scherer and Marketa Tokova, members of PRIME 2009 team for their guidance and help in creating the questionnaires; • Rania Chantzopoulou, Web Project Administrator of ESN 2010/2011 for the technical implementation of questionnaires; • Madara Apsalone, Antonio Avigliano, Liliya Buyukliyska, Denis Dreano, Miriam Eid, Irene Forzoni, Laurynas Gancauskas, Katarina Jasicova, Kadi Kenk, Artur Kozinski, Vivian Maar, Liljana Pantovic, Diana Pati, Adriana Perez, Karin Persdotter, Tiago Pombeiro, Nicoleta - Cristina Popa, Nihada Prnjavorac, Nikolas Spanoudakis, Julia Svozil, Ayta Recai, Andreas Reumann, Andrzej Sochacki, Foreword 7Johannes Trommer, Edona Vinca, Klemen Vovsek, Dicle Secil Yilmaz and Andreas Zenz, the national coordinators of PRIME project for their help in the coordination and promotion of the questionnaire and conducting the interviews with National Agencies; • Almost two hundred local coordinators of PRIME project for their help in the promotion of student and Higher Education Institutions questionnaire; • Michael Magin for the design of the booklet; • Leo Smith and Tania Berman for the proofreading. I would like to thank also our official partner in the project – Vilnius University and supporting partners – Campus Europae and Ghent University for their general support for the project and contribution to the publication and discussion on the topic. Moreover, during the whole period of the project we received a lot of encouraging words and support from institutions and people who are working on an every day basis on student mobility and the Erasmus programme. Their support encouraged us to continue our work and they contributed essentially throughout the whole project. I would like to thank especially: • Mr Ruard Wallis De Vries from the DG of Education and Culture of the European Commission, Unit Higher Education - Erasmus for his general support and guidance as well as his help during the development of the questionnaires and their dissemination; • Dr. Prof. Cipriano Forza from the University of Padova, Mrs Raimonda Markeviciene from the Vilnius University, Mrs Ewa Krzaklewska from Jagiellonian University, Ms Katerina Galanaki-Spiliotopoulos form the Athens University of Economics and Business and Mr Uwe Brandenburg from CHE Consult for their help in developing questionnaires and their constructive feedback; Last but not the least; I would like to acknowledge the person who provided us with indispensable support in the complicat