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ESIB - Monthly Newsletter - 16th Edition - 8th April 2005 |
Contents
Luxembourg Student Declaration - the students' message to Bergen 2005
At the 9th European Student Convention in Luxembourg in March, ESIB issued a declaration to the next ministerial meeting within the Bologna process, to be held in Bergen, Norway, in May this year. The so called �Luxembourg Student Declaration� calls upon the ministers that the social dimension on student mobility should be made a priority in the Bologna process after the Bergen summit and to remove the main financial and political obstacles to student mobility in Europe. This should be done through establishing a European Mobility Fund and through committing their countries to ease or abolish the conditions for obtaining visa and residence permits for mobile students.
Related link:
Luxembourg Student Declaration
Financing higher education
ESIB held the 9th European Student Convention under the Luxembourg EU-presidency. The convention, which featured more than 90 student representatives from all over Europe and speakers from EUA, OECD, the European Commission and the minister of education of Luxembourg, was held at the new University of Luxembourg on the 17-21 March.
In the conclusions of the convention, ESIB chair Ms. Vanja Ivosevic, said that �The delegates thought that more effort should be devoted to use existing funds in a better way and to attract alternative funding. But tuition fees are a not necessary and inappropriate way to deal with the lack of funds, and usually it is only the consequence of desperate attempts to solve the public budget holes.�
The general report from the convention will be published on the ESIB website shortly.
Related link:
Convention website
Bologna, Bergen and Beyond - ESIB seminar in Bergen
This year, ESIB will hold the first of its two annual seminars in Bergen, Norway, the week before the European ministers of education will meet there for the third Bologna follow-up summit since 1999. The seminar is aptly titled "Bologna, Bergen and Beyond" and will feature different aspects of the Bologna process, especially from the viewpoint of the students. A special ESIB survey for the Bergen summit will be presented at the seminar, as will surveys from Eurydice and EUA (Trends IV). There will also be a joint workshop with Education International (EI) and workshops preparing the Ministerial Meeting workshops on Doctoral studies and the synergy between higher education and research, Lifelong learning, Quality assurance and accreditation in a global perspective and Insitutional autonomy and governance
After the seminar, ESIB will hold its 48th Board Meeting, where the organisation will adopt policy papers and elect new members of committees. The next seminar and board meeting will be held in France in the autumn of this year.
Related link:
Seminar website
Other organisations
EUA convention in Glasgow - the universities' message to Bergen 2005
The European University Association (EUA) held its 3rd Convention in Glasgow, Scotland on April 2-4. At the convention, EUA elected professor Georg Wincker, Rector of the University of Vienna as president for the period 2005 - 2009. The convention adopted a Glasgow Declaration that will be presented to Ministers of Education meeting in Bergen in May to discuss the future of the Bologna Process. The EUA members called for greater recognition of the vital cultural, social and economic role of Europe's universities and underlined the importance of strong universities in responding to the growing and varied societal demands on universities.
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The EU Commission President Jose Manual Barroso attended the closing ceremony of the Convention. He addressed the participants with a speech in which he outlined the importance of education, research, and brain gain of researchers, for the attainment of the Lisbon Objectives. He also spoke of legal and other initiatives by the EU in these fields. ESIB's chair, Vanja Ivosevic, put forward a concern regarding the mobility of students with disabilities, balanced mobility throughout Europe (including non-EU countries) and the need for a European fund for Mobility. This concern was visibly shared by the participants of the Convention in the support they showed ESIB when Ms. Ivosevic voiced this concern. Here President Barroso identified 'education as the first step to overcoming disability'.
President Barroso also met up specifically with the students for one hour in the afternoon. Present, there was a large number of ESIB representatives, as well as past Scottish and current incoming Erasmus students in Glasgow. In his opening speech to the students, President Barroso stressed that it is necessary for Europe not to compromise its values when trying to achieve monetary aims. He agreed with ESIB on the 'importance of the social and external dimension of the Bologna Process' and the necessity to also try to make these a reality.
Related link:
EUA
Possible end of the five weeks strike of students in Quebec
The some 185 000 Quebec students on strike since last month will decide in the next days if they accept the first proposal of agreement made by the Canadian government about the loan schemes reform. The deal calls for CDN$70 million to be injected into the program this fall, then the full CDN$103 million will be put back in the program over the next four years. The government cut CDN$103 million from the program last year.
The F�d�ration �tudiante universitaire du Qu�bec (FEUQ), who represents around two thirds of the Qu�bec students asks its members to vote for it, whereas the F�d�ration �tudiante coll�giale du Qu�bec (FECQ) is neutral. However, the Coalition de l'Association pour une solidarit� syndicale �tudiante �largie (CASSEE) rejects the deal and calls for the continuation of the strike. Voting is ongoing at all campuses in Quebec.
Related link:
La FEUQ
Third draft of UNESCO/OECD guidelines presented in Paris
The third draft of the UNESCO/OECD Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Higher Education were presented in Paris in January. These guidelines aim to ensure learner protection, to have a greater transparency of qualifications, to have fair and transparent recognition procedures and to accelerate international cooperation in Quality Assurance.
Angele Attard (Coco) who represented ESIB at this meeting, informed that there was �a general agreement on the basic parts of the draft, but a number of amendments were proposed�. Attard also stressed the openess of the system followed in the preparation of the guidelines. �The guidelines themselves provide with inclusive methods of ensuring Quality Assurance in cross-border Higher Education�, she said.
The final version of the guidelines was presented on the 4 and 6 of April to the decision making bodies for OECD�s Education. The reactions to the process were very positive, informed Keiko Momii, from OECD. The UNESCO�s execute board will discuss on this issue in the next weeks and their final version will be finally adopted before the end of this year.
Campus Europae seminar in Luxembourg
Campus Europae, a network of universities backed by the Luxembourg based European University Foundation, organised a seminar about �Social fairness in student exchange programmes" on the 4th of April in Munsbach (Luxembourg). ESIB was represented at the seminar and in the closing debate by the Social Affairs Working Group chair VVS (Belgium).
In the plenary debate, Michael H�rig from VVS criticised the Foundation's view on tuition fees and the concept of vouchers, explaing that if the government was willing to give the money in voucher form to the students, they might as well give it directly to a compensation fund or to the institution the student is going to.
"The seminar was a typical example of how the phrase 'social dimension' was used to lobby for more money for the institutions", said Michael in a comment afterwards. Another striking fact was that the emphasis lay so strongly on the costs of mobility for the institutions whereas social services for students are frequently independent of institutions and carry a heavier burden.
EU and higher education
EU students can claim social support if they are "integrated" in the host EU country
In a ground breaking holding, the European Court of Justice has ruled that EU students, residing legally in another EU country and being able to proof that they are integrated sufficiently in that host country, cannot be refused access to social support: they have to be treated equally to the nationals of that country. In this case, the fact that the French student Bidar attended the three final years of secondary education in the UK and only then applied for the student loan upon entering university (which was refused to him) was considered by the court as being enough to have this "genuine link with the host country" and therefore having the right to claim social support on par with UK nationals. In future judgments, the Court will have to specify other examples of "genuine link with the host country".
ESIB chair Vanja Ivosevic said: "This is a very profitable ruling for students in the EU. The problem of the huge difference in living costs is being tackled but preventing �social support tourism�. It is a very sensible ruling creating more equality between students in the EU."
There have been quite a few cases in front of the ECJ relating to student support and to the portability of it. Two main categories of rulings/holdings can be identified: those relating to eligibility to student support and the second to the portability of it.
Therefore, the general principle is that you are, according to the ECJ, eligible for student support from a particular country if you fulfill the following conditions:
1. you hold the nationality of any other EU member state (home country)
2. reside legally in other EU member state (host country)
3. either work/have worked for a certain number of hours in an effective and genuine way.
4. either have at least one parent working in the home country
Latest EP CULT meeting
The European Parliament�s Committee on Culture and Education met on March 14-15. The main topics of this meeting were the Information and communication strategy of the EU and the Directive on Services in the Internal Market. Mrs. Descamps (EPP-ED, France), rapporteur on the matter, presented her report where she insisted on excluding audiovisual and cultural issues from the scope, and the reminded of the fact that education is a member state competence and should be respected.
Regarding education, Mr. Guardans (ALDE, Spain) pointed out that the term used in the amended report, �national education�, does not mean anything. He would like it to be replaced by �compulsory schooling provided by the state�. As far as Mr. Portas (GUE/NGL, Portugal) was concerned, HE should also be excluded. The entire second day of the meeting was devoted to a hearing on the Services Directive�s impact on the audiovisual sector.
7th Framework Programme presented
The European Commission presented the 7th Framework Programme on April 6th. The Commission plans to finance research with 73 billion euro during 2007-2013 under a structure based on four specific programmes: Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities. 12 billion euro of these funds will be in the hands of the European Research Council, a proposed body governed by researchers and directed at high quality basic research. Collaborative research, under the �Cooperation� heading, will constitute the bulk and core of EU research funding, with nearly 45 billion euro of the total budget would be channelled towards this priority. | 