Campus Europae Newsletter, February 2009

On the 22nd and 23rd of January the European Investment Bank organized a conference on “Student Loans for Promoting Access, Quality and Mobility in EU Education and Training”, aimed at bringing the topic of student loans to the forefront of the European policy arena and to discuss European and other student loan initiatives that are currently in place in EU.

The conference was opened by Philippe Maystadt, President of the European Investment Bank, drawing the participants’ attention to the role student loans may play as a key contribution to a Higher Education Financing Model. Particularly worth of note, were the  contributions by Nicholas Barr and Bruce Chapman who presented in detail the British and Australian schemes as well as their views on the do’s and don’ts of designing such systems. The conference continued with study cases from Hungary, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands and Portugal succeeded by a roundtable on critical success factors for Student Loans.

The second half of the conference was a brainstorm on possibilities for collaboration at EU level to facilitate access to loan facilities for students wishing to undertake part of their studies in another country, inter alia, the viability of a pan-European scheme to enhance mobility at EU-level. This session was chaired by Maria João Rodrigues (President of the High Level Expert Group on Mobility in Europe) who steered the debate towards the need and possible configuration of a European Fund for Mobility.

Campus Europae Secretary General, Prof. Christoph Ehmann, was amongst the speakers, presenting the Bologna Meets Lisbon programme and some of the more intricate details concerning the way private partners are co-financing mobile students and the underlying fiscal strategies.

Towards the end of the conference one of the most debated questions was the social fairness that different approaches to student loans systems entail and in this respect income contingent loans merited both attention and praise due to their potential efficiency and flexibility. However, there were no signs from the European Commission that significant policy changes may be in the pipeline with regard to improving the current Erasmus financing system, which is run by a largely disjointed network of National Agencies.

More information about the conference can be found online here.

Fast facts

Student Council urges for progress in recognition and the CE-Degree

The Presidency of the Student Council has formulated the policy goals for 2009. Having analyzed the feedback from the member universities after the last meeting Bernd Justin Jütte and Nikola Lakovic isolated the crucial points that need to be tackled during the next months. The biggest potential and need for improvement certainly lies in the improvement of the CE language infrastructure, the establishment of reliable recognition procedures and the creation of the CE-Degree. “It is decisive and absolutely indispensable to finally establish the cornerstones of the Campus Europae concept. We cannot continue making false promises to students.” Bernd Justin Jütte said.

With the Board meeting in March the Council expects that the rectors will agree on guaranteed reciprocal recognition procedures based on the matrices the Subject Committees have presented so far. The procedures must be transparent and the information must be published to be available for students as soon as possible.
Furthermore, all students going abroad should be guaranteed free language courses. Those universities, which do not offer those courses, must establish them as quickly as possible. Jütte states that as members of the Campus Europae network all universities should feel obliged to offer those courses. A qualitative imbalance within the network is not acceptable. If students are supposed to learn the language of their host university in one year, students must be offered the essential infrastructure. This does not necessarily include the Hook-Up! Standards right away, but at least intensive language courses prior to the beginning of the academic year and accompanying language courses at least during the first semester, both free of charge for the students.
 
Finally, the Council expressed its deep concern about the state of implementation of the CE-Degree. Already at the last Board meeting the Presidency had argued that the criteria for the Degree should not be subject to ex-post considerations such as recognition procedures. They must be fair and reliable; most importantly though, the criteria must be communicated to the student already during the application process. A retrospective application of conditions would only have effects to the detriment of students moving within the network.

The Council appeals to all universities to take their commitment in Campus Europae seriously to increase the quality of the network. It assures and reinforces its continuous commitment and willingness to cooperate with all other bodies involved in the process.

Largest Campus Europae event ever on the 22-24th of March

The end of March will see the largest Campus Europae event ever, as all seven subject committee meetings as well as the Board of Directors will convene in Luxembourg. Some 80 participants from all 18 universities are expected to attend, which will provide an extraordinary opportunity for the representatives in and across different organs to exchange their views and experiences and discuss new avenues for cooperation. Please find the detailed schedule of the meetings bellow.

Upcoming events

Business Subject Committee Meeting

Luxembourg, 22nd of March

Engineering Subject Committee Meeting

Luxembourg, 22nd of March

Humanities Subject Committee Meeting

Luxembourg, 22nd of March

Natural Sciences Subject Committee Meeting

Luxembourg, 22nd of March

Teacher Training Subject Committee Meeting

Luxembourg, 22nd of March

Joint Meeting of the Board of Directors and Subject Committees

Luxembourg, morning of the 23rd of March

Board of Directors Meeting

Luxembourg, afternoon of the 23rd of March

Subject Committees Chairs Meeting

Luxembourg, 24th of March

Student Council Plenary Meeting

Vilnius, 24th to 26th April

The next Campus Europae newsletter is due for the 16th of March. To unsubscribe please visit this link.