Working Procedures
1) Brain storming with all the participants together
2) Identification of the key points
3) Formulation of recommendations/comments according to key aspects
Theme 1Third Level of Education (PhD)
Key aspects:
- CASE STUDY- DURATION- FLEXIBILITY- JOINT DEGREES- COURSES OR NOT
Finland Case Study
Encouraging Industry to employ PhD graduates: established long ago and partially successful (more R&D funds)
Question still unanswered: do we need two kinds of PhDs: one more research oriented and one more R&D oriented ?
Encourage coming back to university with some industrial experience ?
Duration: Key Questions
When do we consider the student ready to carry out research autonomously ?
When can we consider the learning outcomes achieved ?
Can we put the word end to the formation of researchers ?
Duration: Recommendations
3 to 4 years (full time work) included, preferably, a period (1 semester ?) spent abroad preparing the thesis. This will allow the student to invest enough time to get publishable results
Flexibility: Key Questions
University/Industry Cooperation: 2 kinds of formation needed ?
It has been observed that one reason for Industry to like PhDs is their fitness for handling longer projects
Flexibility: Recommendations
No clear answer (it also depends on the country) but need to find a meeting point between the Academia and Industry
In case of interdisciplinary doctoral programmes doctoral colleges a good approach
Joint Degrees: Recommendation
Few cases taken into account but topic left out since it’s too specific
Courses or not: Key Questions
Do PhD students need to follow courses?
Can we quantify the amount of credits for the courses PhD students have to follow?
Courses or not: Recommendations
Establish a range of number of credits from courses (both on general and specialized skills) depending on the background of the student
Learning agreement between the student and the supervisor, possibly moderated by a committee in order to avoid a too strict connection between the student and his supervisor
Broadness of education
Theme 2Students Expectations from the European Reforms
Brain storming among the attendants. Few student representatives within the conference; nevertheless effort to focus on their expectations and point of view.
Top 1 expectation: get a job!!
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance and Accreditation as an added value for degree courses
BUT
Importance to reserve a special role for students in the accreditation procedures (e.g. within the
accreditation teams)
Student Centered Approach
Students are definitively in favor of a student centered approach of education however, it has been observed that this is not always easy especially with big groups of students
Mobility
Added value of mobility, which should be given also by Industry
BUT
Need to elaborate distribution curves of marks within European
schools/universities
(existing only in some fields)
Thematic Networks
Positive role of TNs in making formation more transparent
BUT Not enough communication among
students and TNs Only some TNs (smaller projects) are
constructing tools for enhancing students exchanges
Attractiveness of Scientific Education
Improve quality/awareness in Secondary Schools in order to make the scientific/technological fields more attractive
Focus on sustainability and environmental problems
Theme 3Multilingualism
Provocative Questions 2 linguistic competences General Remarks Suggestions Danger ! Optimistic Perspective
Provocative Questions
Why don’t we forbid English ? 3 years for the first level not enough for an
appropriate English preparation: why don’t we propose a first level of education of 4 years ? (4+2 instead of 3+2)
How do we want our Institutions to comply with respect to the multilingualism aspect from a “political“ point of view ?
2 linguistic competences
Use of the language for yourself (reading and writing)
VS
Use of the language for interaction (difficult to arrive at this step at the first
cycle education)
General Remarks
The requested level of English as foreign language should be obtained within the secondary school
Multilingualism a multifaceted topic and difficult to consider it with reference to the scientific technological field
Students need multilingualism and multiculturalism BUT there’s not enough time to get these competences at University
General Remarks
Let the students learn languages outside University, which should focus on classical scientific Technology education ?
Positions of Institutions/University with respect to the European Policy (a certain level of language proficiency should be obtained by each undergraduate)
Need of a technical oriented linguistic preparation
General Remarks
Is the competence in English as a second language enough or do we need also other languages?
Teachers too must have solid language skills competence and in some cases university could hire native speakers teachers
Enhanced employability of graduates who know another language
Suggestions
Use Erasmus also for teachers mobility
Take profit of sabbatical periods to increase the language competences of teachers
Suggestions
Offer courses in foreign languages at home universities
Use materials in other languages (but the students sometimes refuse this!)
English as lingua franca but don’t forget also the other languages. They can be learnt by the students through the participation in the Socrates Erasmus programme
Suggestions
Take CEFR into consideration Co-operation between universities of
language teachers Preparation and use of glossaries of
technical terms in different languages Provide support to universities towards
the creation of language centres
Suggestions
Creation of Tandem groups within the Erasmus programme
Inform the students about the added value of knowing foreign languages (increased employability within industry)
Give priority to the students who want to learn languages to get Erasmus scholarships
Danger!
Awareness of the danger of losing the advantages of European diversity by imposing the use of a lingua franca (especially in scientific/technological field)
Optimistic Perspective
Things are changing, especially where university are investing on the importance of multilingualism to be considered among the targets of the Institutions