Ulixes EEIG-Central Office Budapest June 11th 2005
U L I X E S E.E.I.G
Artemisszio Foundation
Budapest, 11 June 2005
Attending Members:
Yves CourteaudPresident
Alessia PlanetaSecretary
Vera VárhegyArtemisszio Foundation-Hungary
Zsuzsanna KomjáthyArtemisszio Foundation-Hungary
Andrea BellaniIFOA
Luca BoettiIFOA
Sam CarlinNWIFHE
Fritz BirnstielVolkshochschule Passau
Edith EckerVolkshochschule Passau
Zbigniew SzczepanczykKielce School of Economics
Eugenia VagnerenieKaunas Business College-Lithuania
Birde BergBerg International Consultancy
Apologies for Absence:
Gunnar UmbreitWeiterbildungsakademie Dresden
Marta LippHungarian Institute for Culture
Cristina SancristovàlCamara De Comercio Industria y Navegaciòn De Oviedo
Derek SmithConsultant
AGENDA
Saturday 11th
09:30 - 09:40 / WelcomeYves Courteaud- President
Ulixes EEIG
09:40 - 09:50 / Opening the meeting
Apologies for absence
Alessia Planeta - Secretary
Ulixes EEIG
09:50 - 11:30 / Network of higher education institutes: increasing cooperation on joint programmes, placements and student exchanges
Alessia Planeta
Ulixes EEIG
Discussion among partners
11:45 - 12:15 / Cooperation with the US and EU countries: mutual exchange of students/students placement
Birde Berg
Ulixes EEIG
12:15 - 12:45 / EU programmes and call for proposals
Alessia Planeta
Ulixes EEIG
Discussion among partners
12:45 - 13:00 / Administrative and Financial Matters
Alessia Planeta
Ulixes EEIG
Saturday 11
- Welcome speech
The President, Mr.Yves Courteaud, opens the meeting welcoming all the participants, thanking them for their attendance. He apologises for the absence of Ms Sancristoval, Mr.Smith, Prof Umbreit and Ms Marta Lipp.
- Aims and contents of the meeting
The Secretary, Ms. Planeta, shortly reminds the audience that the main aim of the meeting is to improve the cooperation among members, especially colleges and Higher Education Institutes, even beyond the lifespan of a funded project. During the meeting the members will have the possibility to get information about EU funded programmes and to share thought and ideas on possible projects.
- Network of higher education institutes: increasing cooperation on joint programmes, placements and student exchanges(see also attached slides)
Ms. Planeta underlines the rich pool of resources of the partnership and propose to promote a tightened cooperation among education and vocational training partners ,through forms of long lasting cooperation to exchange students, information, staff, to joint develop curricula or parts of them, to develop DL courses or supporting didactic tools.
The European Union is strongly encouraging the creation of stable “learning networks” and Ulixes as a high potential to exploit in that field. She notes that the cooperation should be among similar Institutes and makes a distinction between Vocational Training and Higher Education. Ms. Berg then proposes to shortly clarify the understanding of the 2 concepts and every partner describes the education and training system in their own countries.
It soon appear clear that in Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and Germany, it is not possible to separate Vocational training from Education, being rather preferable to speak about Vocational and Higher Education till the academic level and then to talk about Adult Learning. The Vocational education is embedded in a national framework ensuring the recognition and, in many cases, the “bridges” to the prosecution to academic education.
In France after the recent reform (2001) the trend is to help the convergence between the education stream and the vocational training path. The partner Groupe Esci delivers courses within the ECTS framework, besides short courses that can be labelled as “Adult learning” products.
Similarly to WSEiA they offer academic courses with a strong “practical” (Vocational) orientation. The trend is more evident with the increasing use of Assessment of Work Based (experiential) Prior Learning, aimed at recognising pure vocational competencies to facilitate the acquisition of education qualifications.
In Italy on the other hands the Vocational Training stream is completely separated from the Education one, the responsibility of the first is of the Ministry of Labour, while the second is managed by the Ministry of Education. In addition in Italy the Regions have a full autonomy on the definition of the Vocational training qualifications and, apart from the pilot experience of IFTS there are no links between the two streams.
Hungary it is currently undergoing a big reform of VET and still it is not clear the final structure, anyway Artemisszio Foundation offers courses on intercultural competencies that definitely falls in the framework of Adult learning, and therefore can be put in the category (to which most IFOA’s products belong) having no credits valid in the Education paths.
The first conclusion is:
1) As any long lasting cooperation allowing mutual recognition and exchanges must be structured and formalised it is clear that IFOA and Artemisszio Foundation cannot take part in it. The two organisation can willingly cooperate in training contents delivery or placements in the framework of Leonardo Da Vinci mobility scheme or of private agreements.
The partners then explore the various forms of cooperation as listed in the slides, describing the activities they are involved in, like the Leonardo da Vinci K-Competencies Project. Mr.Szczepanczyk states that the easiest way to start would be to sign agreements in the framework of the Erasmus scheme.
Ms. Berg proposes then to illustrate the product delivered by the Roskilde Business College (see for details the slides)and then to discuss the system set up as a possible proposal for a cooperation model.
- Cooperation with the US and EU countries: mutual exchange of students/students placement (see also attached slides)
Ms Berg proceed to illustrate the Datamatician Course underlining the fact that every subject corresponds to a number of credits (ECTS) up to 135, the remaining 45 can be gained at a partner University leading to a Bachelor degree. The Course is built on a practical (vocational) preparation rather then on a pure academic pattern. The modules are a mixture of compulsory and eligible ones plus a final dissertation written with the support of the experience in a company.
This model can be easily reproduced to become an International Bachelor, for example the first 2 semesters can be done in Lithuania (delivering the Danish programme)then the study programme could be completed in Denmark, the placement period in a company to prepare the dissertation could be made in another country as well as the additional study period required to gain the Bachelor degree in a partner University accepting the ECTS Scheme.
Such a scheme would only require a preliminary agreement between the Institutes to deliver the course and with a University to offer the possibility to continue into the Bachelor degree. The placement abroad could be easily found through cooperation with Ulixes partners.
The Secretary reminds that some years before the Ulixes European School made an attempt to implement such a model but the great differences between Latin and Scandinavian system of courses designing and delivery impeded a full success, therefore she recommends to refer to ECTS system as standard and to check for homogeneity in delivery methodology.
The partners therefore agree on:
2) Receiving from Ms. Berg a list of Universities accepting the ECTS scheme;
3) Filling a template (sent by the Head Office) with a description of undergoing activities and type of cooperation offered/sought
Eugenjia Vagneriene describes her current cooperation with the network SPACE in a Minerva Project, the Secretary informs the partner that she has been contacted by this Network a few days before the departure and that she will gain information and explore possibility for cooperation. (see box below)
SPACE
SPACE is a non-profit International Association composed of a network of European Institutions of Higher Education.
It organizes examinations and exchanges leading to Language and Business Diplomas with a European label and wants to give priority to the development of online courses.
SPACE offers networking opportunities for sharing information and initiating projects between partners.
The European Studies, Intercultural Communication Minerva project presents a new way of creating virtual development communities in Higher Business Education involving partners and associated partners from the business school network SPACE.
Ms.Berg concludes introducing the CCID (Community College International Development) a US-based association of Community College, colleges, deeply rooted in their local community, offering two years vocational education programmes. The CCID is a network aimed at developing the international activities (exchanges of students and staff, cooperation on curricula development etc.)f its members and affiliated partners.
As a cooperation with this network could be advantageous for Ulixes the partners agree that
4) the Secretary will investigate over the forms of membership (if any) that can link Ulixes and CCID (see box below)
Ulixes and CCID
By Statute Ulixes can accept only EU based organisation.
By Statute CCID recognise full membership only to colleges and similar HE institutes, the Ulixes EEIG could be Educational partner or affiliate member (at a reduced fee).
The colleges that are member of Ulixes can on individual basis adjoin CCID either as full members or affiliates and will receive further information from Mr.Halder.
5.EU programmes and call for proposals (see also attached slides)
The Secretary introduces some programmes that can be used by the partners to submit proposals the programmes are:
E-Learning: so far no member of Ulixes has submitted proposals in the framework of this programme, anyway it could be useful to support some forms of Distance learning joint training;
Leonardo Da Vinci: the programme’s last call is reviewed and Mr. Courteaud informs the partner of submitting a Leonardo proposal for the September 30th deadline.
Art 6: The Call is the second one on management of Change again Mr. Courteaud states Groupe Esci intention to submit a proposal.
INTERREG: The Secretary shows a short highlight of the Interreg Actions and suggests the partners having good contacts and links with local authorities to investigate if those regional, local, and national bodies will work on Interreg in the near future.
The partners then agree that:
5) The Secretary will send a template to collect the interest of the partners in the various programmes and their intention to submit proposals.
6.Administrative and Financial matters (see also attached slides)
The Secretary reviews the accounts of the consortium and informs the partner of the decision of the Brno Business school to withdraw from the consortium. Mr. Courteaud reminds that such intention shall be formalised with an official letter and that anyway any outstanding fee shall be paid. The President also suggest to write a letter to Prof Umbreit to check the reason for the 2004 and 2005 outstanding fee.
Anyway the statement of accounts shows a positive advance that could be used to improve the communication (brochure and web site).
6)The Head Office staff and the President will collect proposals for the new brochure and web site and draft a communication plan
Before concluding the meeting the Secretary ask the partners their opinion on holding a meeting in Bruxelles as in the past years, the partners consider it a very good idea even to give the opportunity to the consortium to establish close contacts with EU officers, therefore the meetings ends with the commitment of the Secretary to choose an appropriate venue and to check whether the meeting shall be hold in February or in December to approve the definitive balance.
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