FUTURE STARTEGIES OF THE NETWORKS
Draft
Strategic document for the ENIC Network 2001-2005
this document in rtf format for printing
Introduction
The present
document is intended to launch a discussion on the strategies for the ENIC network in the
period 2001 – 2005. Traditionally, the ENIC
Network has discussed its work plan at the annual network meetings, but it is felt that a
medium term consideration of the main issues is called for.
This is all the more important as the Bologna Process has clearly put recognition
issues on the policy agenda of higher education in Europe.
The present
document is intended as the basis for a first discussion in the meeting of the ENIC Bureau
and the NARIC Advisory Board on 8 March. On
the basis of this discussion, the document will be elaborated further and be submitted to
the ENIC/NARIC meeting in Rîga on 3 – 5 June. The
Secretariats would like to thank Jindra Divis and Andrejs Rauhvargers for their work on
this first draft, which in large parts grows out of the ENIC Working Party on Recognition
Issues in the Bologna Process.
Background
The joint
Council of Europe/UNESCO European Network of National Information Centres on Academic
Mobility and Recognition (ENIC) includes the national
information centres for academic recognition and mobility. ENICs currently exist in 42
countries of the European Region, including besides the geographical Europe also
Australia, Canada, Israel, USA and some non-European countries successors of the former
USSR. The setting up of national ENIC centres is stipulated in the Lisbon Recognition
Convention (Article IX.2) as one of the duties of parties to the Convention.
Purpose
of the Network: the objectives
According to
the terms of reference for the ENIC Network, as formulated by the competent authorities for 1998 – 2000 (and renewable
every two years) the objectives of the Network are the following.
The ENIC
Network is set up with a view to facilitating cooperation between national information
centres on academic mobility and recognition in Europe.
The
objectives of the Network shall be to
(i) promote the exchange of information among its member
Centres;
(ii) provide a forum for the exchange of views on salient
issues in European academic mobility and recognition;
(iii) further
practical cooperation among its member Centres;
(iv) support
the development of the services offered by its members to the higher education community,
such as publications and other information services.
The ENIC Network shall seek to cooperate closely
with the NARIC Network of the Commission of the European Communities
The ENIC
Network shall draw up proposals for its activities and submit them to the CDCC and
UNESCO-CEPES as the Secretariat of the Regional Committee (UNESCO) for inclusion in their
respective work programmes.
Achievements
of the Network
The ENIC Network (together with the NARIC Network)
has contributed to facilitating recognition in Europe in many ways over the years
1) The Network forms an indispensable source
of information for national credential evaluators, in the first place within ENICs/NARICs
themselves. Both an ENIC-mailing list and a web site under construction confirm this role.
The ENIC mailing list has become a forum where a member ENIC centre can ask for
information to sister centres in 42 countries at a time. This helps to rapidly get answers
regarding of less well known education systems, status of individual institutions all over
the world and current practices of recognition of particular credentials. Many ENICs
report that they issue publications, organize information events to higher education and
answer individual questions on the daily basis.
2) The Network is the most important
international forum for identifying, discussing and solving recognition problems. An
important instrument is that of the Working Parties, which address certain recognition
problems or regions. A few examples of Working Parties (WP) and their results are:
A WP (with the European Commission) on the Diploma
Supplement, leading to a revised Diploma Supplement that is now being disseminated and
used quite widely.
A WP on transnational education, resulting in a draft
Code of Good Practice in the Provision of Transnational Education.
A WP on the methodology of credential evaluation in the
light of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, resulting in draft Recommendation on
Criteria and Procedures for the Assessment of Foreign Qualifications and Periods of Study.
A WP on the Russian educational system, resulting in Mutual
Recognition of Qualifications: The Russian Federation and the Other European Countries.
A WP on the consequences of the Bologna Process for
international recognition, resulting in the document Recognition Issues In The Bologna
Process – Final Report.
3) The
Network is an important advisor to national and international authorities in designing and
implementing policy strategies in recognition matters.
In the context of the Bologna Process, the Network – as well as individual ENICs
at national level – can offer important advise on the design of qualifications
structures and policies.
4) The
Network is an important advisor to national and international authorities in designing and
implementing recognition legislation. The Network played a crucial role in the elaboration of the Lisbon Recognition Convention as well as subsidiary
texts to the Convention (so far on the recognition of international access qualifications
(adopted), transnational education (under consideration) and criteria and procedures for
the assessment of foreign qualifications (under consideration).
5) The
Network plays an important role in the promotion and dissemination of transparency
instruments such as the Diploma Supplement and, to some extent, the
European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
The
Network and individual ENICs
The main
issue to be kept in mind while discussing the future role of the Networks is the
difference in role, status and size of the individual ENICs in their own national
settings. The Network as a whole has to take these differences into account in proposing
actions, because it is important that as many ENICs as possible can support and ideally
implement actions as suggested by the Network in their countries. However, it is not
necessary that all ENICs have to take upon themselves to take part in all the actions
proposed. That is up to the national situation, the national role of the individual ENIC
and its capacity. The Network itself should take the lead and point out the direction in
which the Network and the ENICs should move in the (near) future.
Foreseen
developments and activities
The framework
for a strategic discussion of ENICs is, of course, the state of art and, more important,
the expected future developments in education in Europe and beyond. In this document the
environment is being defined as the ‘Bologna Process’, and more specifically, the
developments and their consequences for international recognition. These developments and
consequences are elaborated in the ENIC Working Party document Recognition Issues in
The Bologna Process – Final Report, which is the source for the policy issues
mentioned below.
The Network
should focus on certain clusters of activities, which can roughly be divided in traditional
and new or relatively new activities.
Traditional
activities of ENICs
Traditional activities of ENICs, apart from
credential evaluations on a case-by-case basis, regard the production and dissemination of
information, and the provision of advise regarding policy, legislation and instruments for
recognition. But because many achievements have already been attained, the traditional
activities will progress in new directions, with different challenges.
1) From
legislation to standards and codes
One of the
core premises for international recognition is that the international legal framework is
principally in place. Besides, legislation is not the only way of regulating recognition.
The Network should focus on implementing activities, which entails promoting of both the
ratification of the Lisbon Convention where appropriate (towards national authorities) and
the proper enforcement of international legislation (towards recognition and/or higher
education institutions). At the same time the
Network should focus on elaborating, codifying and promoting common, European-wide
standards for recognition, for example in the form of codes of good practice. This entails
both the methodological and procedural aspects of international recognition. In this way
the Network applies a flexible approach to the ever-changing field of education.
2) The
growing importance of information
The
Europe-wide harmonisation of the structure of degrees will eventually ease recognition of
the degrees involved. Still, a huge and reliable flow of information will be necessary to
support this development. The Network and individual ENICs are very experienced in
gathering and disseminating information on educational systems, individual qualifications,
recognition and also higher education quality issues with regard to recognition. In this
respect, they have much to offer to the education community.
3) Regional
differentiation and extending the scope to new regions
From its broad experiences in the matter, the
Network is in a very good position to assist specific regions of the world to introduce an
institutional infrastructure for recognition where necessary. This goes for the ‘home
region’, i.e. the Europe Region of UNESCO, as well as other parts of the
world. In the latter case the assistance does not only regard the institutional
infrastructure for national settings, but also the establishment of a regional networks,
where appropriate. Besides, the international
activities of the Network should also be relevant from the perspective of the ‘external
dimension’ of the Bologna Process. The Network is pre-eminently suited to make clear or
transparent the new developments in European higher education in such a way that European
credentials will receive proper recognition ‘overseas’, which is currently seen as an
important part in the further developments of the Bologna Process.
New
activities
The activities mentioned below regard the growing importance of a relatively new
clientele (labour market), and new developments in education that ask for different
methods of assessments. Last but not least, new relationships (employers, quality
assurance agencies) will develop.
1) Recognition
for the labour market: a new approach
Although many
ENICs do already evaluate credentials for individuals searching employment, or for
employers, and even function as information points for the EU Directives, in general the
labour market is not the traditional clientele of most of the ENICs. Historically, the
national equivalence centres are mainly involved in academic recognition and have extended
their services to the labour market. But with the changes of principles of academic
recognition from equivalence to recognition and from course-to-course comparison to
comparison of level assessment and learning outcomes, the evaluations do not differ from
the ones for academic purposes any more. Do
the ENICs in the latter case take into account the specific needs of the labour market?
Are there regular contacts with the social partners? Yet, with the growing mobility of
professionals professional, the professional recognition de facto will have to be
dealt with. It is advisable that the Network takes up the challenge.
This
entails the screening and adapting of methodologies and procedures used, and, which is of
crucial importance, in close cooperation with the social partners. For this purpose the
Network should establish the necessary formal contacts at the international level and
should promote the elaborating and promoting of the methodologies and procedures
necessary.
2) Credential
evaluation will shift from the evaluation of diploma’s to the assessment the
competencies
Education is
in a stage of rapid development and change. In many countries higher education
institutions are offering educational courses of different level and duration outside the
formal higher education programmes. Many institutions enter the field of transnational
education and are offering programmes ‘overseas’. New providers are getting well
established on the educational market: private providers in co-operation with companies
and providers of virtual education. The share of private education in on-the-job and
in-company training is very large. Besides,
many institutions have discovered the value of work experience, which leads both to
work-based learning courses and to accreditation of prior learning in terms of their own
qualifications structure. In describing
programmes and qualifications, the new trend is to focus on output in terms of
competencies of graduates, rather than relating output to the educational process or
curricula.
The
consequences for credential evaluation are that the traditional evaluation of diplomas by
comparing regular HE curricula will not cover all ranges of education. The solution is to
address competencies of the holder of the credential or qualification.
Another way
to look at the issue just mentioned is the perspective of, again, the labour market. Employers are interested in the knowledge,
experience, attitude and capacities, in short in the competencies of their employees. They
are less interested in the process in which the competencies have been acquired, whether
through formal education, post-graduate courses, private courses, on-the-job training or
work-based learning. And, as we have mentioned above, it is the great variety of forms of
education outside the realm of higher education that is booming at the moment.
Credential
evaluation will have to be adapted to these new developments. New approaches, new
methodologies and procedures have to be elaborated. The Network should play an initiating
and co-ordinating role in this respect.
3) Formal
contacts and a wider cooperation with quality assurance agencies/ENQA
Quality and
therefore accreditation of educational courses and institutions is one of the core issues
for credential evaluators. Especially in a rapid changing educational environment reliable
information on quality is crucial for the process of international recognition. In this respect, the concerns of ENICs coincide
with those of the national quality assurance agencies. Transnational education, virtual
education, private education, all these issues are priorities on the agendas of networks
of quality assurance experts and credential evaluators. Therefore the respective networks
should intensify contacts, identify joint interests and where possible unite forces.
On the
basis of the issues above mentioned an action plan with clearly stated priorities should
be elaborated by the ENIC Network.
____________
The Committee
of Ministers for the Council and Europe, and for the UNESCO the Regional Committee for the
application of the UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees
concerning Higher Education in the States belonging to the Europe Region
Coresponding grosso modo to the European Region of the Lisbon Recognition
Convention.