Study and Campus Design
The academic world is rapidly changing under the demands of globalisation and this has created many new opportunities for adult education centres to develop and offer new services and study programmes. These opportunities also apply to those institutions that hitherto have offered awards, diplomas and training programmes that were not accredited, such as alternative education, arts and complementary medicine. Many dedicated professionals who acquired such non-accredited qualifications have realised that their professionalism and qualifications are not recognised. In an age of increasing regulation this can be a serious drawback.
Since the Bologna Process in Higher Education and the Copenhagen Process in vocational education the European Union has been working on a timetable towards convergence of academic and vocational qualifications. The aim is to facilitate mobility between member nations by creating a system in which qualifications gained in one country can be compared with those in another European country.
This has been achieved by:
· Creating the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), which describes three basic levels within higher education, Bachelors, Masters and PhD doctorate level.
· Creating a Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF-LLL) for key and core competencies and qualifications acquired through work and in life, as opposed to academic learning.
· Creating a European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) of awarding points, which indicate the workload value and level of academic grades.
· Creating an equivalent system for measuring the level and value of professional skills, using the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)
· Creating the Europass as a medium to document an individuals biography, language skills, work experience and academic qualifications in a standardised way. A Diploma Supplement model has been developed by the European Commission to provide independent transparency and fairness in academic and professional recognition.
These processes have had very wide-ranging consequences for Higher and Vocational education. The main effects can be summarised as follows:
· Higher Education institutions in mainland Europe have started re-designing their award bearing programmes into sequential Bachelors and Masters Degrees.
· This re-designing not only involves re-naming award-bearing programmes, but often includes a shift in teaching approaches towards a greater proportion of student-centred learning, including independent student study and research.
· The teaching is grouped into modules, each of which has transparent learning outcomes which govern the assessment requirements, and the degree is built up through the accumulation of passes/marks gained by students as they progress through a sequence of modules.
· Each module is awarded a number of credit points according to the demands of its contact time, independent study time, learning outcomes, assessed tasks and the known academic standards of other programmes at the same level. If students successfully complete the module the relevant credit points, which are becoming increasingly widely recognised by academic and professional communities world-wide, are attached to their academic record.
· It has led to a shortening of study time (a BA can be done in three years).
· It has led to a shift of emphasis to assessing learning outcomes in terms of competences, which by their very nature cannot be assessed theoretically but only though doing.
· It has led to a merging of professional training with academic studies.
· It has led to the possibility that other providers than universities can offer Higher Education awards.
Over recent years ipf has gained considerable experience in supporting institutions designing their study programmes, writing modules, assessing the credit value, creating student handbooks, coaching staff in new forms of student assessment, integrating practice and theory in new way compatible with the system. Much of this work has involved coaching individuals in institutions prepare their study programmes for accreditation in the fields of education (teacher and kindergarten training), special education, the arts (Eurythmy, art therapy) and banking at both Bachelors and Masters levels.
ipf has been supporting institutions develop their Diploma Supplements for use in the Europass.
Many companies and consortia are realising that the professional development of their staff can take on new forms involving practice-based research and can be accredited with academic grade awards. This has led the creation of campus setting in industry in which practitioners, academics, trainers and managers can work together within the newly creating frameworks to provide cpd qualifications. ipf is actively involved developing such campus models in cooperation with business, universities and state authorities.
ipf is also involved in a number of countries that are working to upgrade their educational provision at all levels from pre-school to university. In Kosova for example ipf is supporting the Ministry of Education, Science and technology (MEST) in establishing preschool programmes, vocational trainings, BA and MA awards as well supporting quality development in the national and private universities.