High on the higher education policy
agenda … developments are already off
the ground … but there are still obstacles
to overcome.
ed professions in different countries. The
issue of the regulated professions is a
complex one that requires more thorough analysis involving specialists in
higher education, lawyers concerned with
internal market issues and professional
bodies at European level.
Joint degrees in Europe
More common at post-grad level
by Andrejs Rauhvargers
oint degrees are high on the political
agenda of the Bologna process. At the
2001 Prague Higher Education
Summit, ministers called upon the higher
education sector “to step up the development of modules, courses and curricula
offered in partnership by institutions
from different countries and leading to a
recognised joint degree”. Before launching the EU-funded project in which ten
European consortia are supported in the
development of joint Master degrees in
different disciplines, the European
University Association (EUA) commissioned a study in which the situation in
Master degrees and joint degrees in
Europe was surveyed and analysed.1 The
results demonstrated that while developing joint degrees is considered a timely
and relevant task, changes in national and
international legislation are still needed
in order to make the establishment of
recognised joint degrees legally possible.
This article gives some of the main points
from the EUA study.
J
The study showed that the development
of joint degrees is seen as relevant to virtually all the goals of Bologna process:
• joint quality assurance – to ensure
that joint degrees are recognised in all
countries where the partner institutions are located, cross-border quality
assurance will be needed
• recognition of degrees across the
EHEA – cooperation in curriculum
development and pursuing studies in
several countries should lead to easier
recognition of qualifications in the
European Higher Education Area
• convergence and transparency of systems – development of joint degrees
will require a comparative approach
in a variety of disciplines, leading to a
better understanding of each other’s
systems and to adaptation.
• mobility – joint degree programmes,
in which mobility is an essential component, will naturally boost the
mobility of students, teachers and
researchers and ultimately bring
down the formal barriers to it.
• European employability of graduates – once studies take place in several countries and in a jointly developed approved curriculum,
Photography: Paulo Duarte
Andrejs Rauhvargers (seated, centre) at the
2002 EAIE conference in Porto, chairing
ACE session 2.07 on international legal
instruments for recognition
Relevant to Bologna objectives
•
•
international employability of graduates should be a logical outcome.
European dimension – efforts to
establish joint degrees should
strengthen the European dimension
of education, introduce an international element into curricula and foster understanding of other cultures.
attractiveness of European education – the offer of joint degrees can
strengthen the attractiveness and
competitiveness of European education in various ways.
A new and growing phenomenon
In the vast majority of ‘Bologna countries’, higher education institutions have
already engaged in joint degree partnerships with foreign institutions in one
form or another and this trend is intensifying. Bilateral partnerships are still
more common than multilateral ones,
but strong joint degree networks along
subject lines have already emerged.
Joint degrees in Europe exist in most
fields of study. Although in most cases the
respondent countries for this study had
little statistical information at a central
level, it was still possible to estimate that
joint degrees are most often established in
economics/business and engineering, followed by law and management. European
studies/political science, communications
and media, foreign languages and social
sciences are also often cited. The languages of tuition are usually those of the
partner countries and/or English.
Regulated professions
A number of countries admit that more
efforts could and, indeed, should be made
in developing joint degrees in professional fields and, in particular, in the study
fields leading to regulated professions.
Such developments should be supported
because they not only stimulate the international employability of graduates, but
also eliminate the substantial differences2
in education and training for the regulat-
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Development of joint degrees is more
common at Master and doctoral levels
than at first degree level or outside the
university sector. ECTS or compatible
credit systems are used for the award of
most joint degrees at Bachelor and
Master levels.
Funding
While the allocation of funding for degrees
awarded jointly with foreign institutions
usually follows the same rules as in the case
of national programmes, more funding is
normally required, at the very least to
ensure the joint development of programmes, and student and staff mobility.
Recognition
Another important issue regarding joint
degrees is their national and international
recognition. It is self-evident that efforts
to develop joint programmes make no
sense if the result is not nationally and
internationally recognised.
As regards parts of joint programmes
undertaken by students at partner institutions, they are often (though, not always)
recognised automatically. Recognition of
joint degrees by the partner institutions is
usually ensured through cooperation
agreements.
The situation is less straightforward
where national and international recognition are concerned. When a joint degree
is awarded as a national degree, it is
recognised nationally and regarded internationally like any other foreign degree.
However, if it is a real joint award, it falls
outside the framework of both national
and international legislation and therefore encounters problems of recognition.
Recommendations
Legislation needs amendment
Very few countries have specific legal provisions regarding joint degrees. While this
does not normally deter the establishment
of joint programmes as such, it can cause
serious problems for the award and recognition of the joint degrees. Absence of legislation addressing joint degrees means
that all the legislation regulating national
degrees automatically applies to joint
degrees as well. Some of these regulations
make the joint awarding of degrees
impossible in practice. Respondent countries have mentioned the following examples of such problems: not being
allowed to enrol at several institutions at
the same time, the requirement to defend
a thesis at the home institution, regulations regarding the minimum period of
study at the national institution (often
above 50%), regulations governing the
precise text that appears on degree
certificates/diplomas, regulations restricting the names of the nationally recognised degrees and diplomas.
The award of a single degree in the name
of several institutions is still legally difficult. At present, a jointly awarded degree
certificate will be regarded as ‘unofficial’
by national legislation and it is also not
‘seen’ by international legislation. Joint
degrees are therefore usually awarded
either as double degrees (two separate
national qualifications) or as one national qualification with (yet often even without!) reference to the fact that it results
from a joint programme.
1
2
3
4
A more precise common definition of
a ‘joint degree’ is still required. It
should specify the following:
• the minimum number of
participating institutions;
• the joint nature of the curriculum;
• the minimal requirements for student and staff mobility;
• the procedures for award of the
degree.
National governments should examine and amend national legislation
with a view to:
• ensuring that development of
joint programmes with foreign
institutions is legally possible;
• ensuring that award of degrees
jointly by several institutions from
different countries is legally
possible;
• removing indirect obstacles to the
establishment of joint degrees,
which result from regulations
concerned with the award of
degrees or what may actually be
written on certificates, as well as
with the enrolment of students,
the language of instruction, or the
use of funding, etc.
The possibility of amending international legislation in order to extend
the scope of the Lisbon Convention to
such degrees should be examined.3
Common procedures should be
drawn up for the quality assurance/
accreditation of joint programmes.
5
6
7
Even wider use of ECTS and the
Diploma Supplement is required to
ensure the transparency of the joint
programmes and as a means of providing information about the joint
nature of the award.
The European employability of graduates is one of the most important
goals of the Bologna Process.
Attempts to establish joint degrees in
professional fields, and particularly
for the regulated professions, should
therefore be strongly encouraged. The
feasibility of exploiting the compatibility of different forms of training for
certain regulated professions, as well
as the EU directives on professional
recognition, should be further examined.
Additional funding should be sought
from national sources and European
cooperation programmes in order to
support student and staff mobility, in
the latter case with a view to financing
the development phase of joint curricula. Countries are encouraged to
ensure that students on a joint programme of study abroad can transfer
their national study allowances to the
country concerned.
1 Tauch, C. and Rauhvargers, A. (2002)
‘Survey on Master Degrees and Joint
Degrees in Europe’, European University
Association, pp.46 (available at
www.unige.ch/eua)
2 Substantial differences in education and
training are the legally stipulated reason for
non-recognition of foreign professional
qualifications or for insistence on additional requirements, cf directives 89/48/EEC
and 92/51/EEC.
3 The issues of amendments of national
and international law are already being
taken on board by the Council of Europe
Steering Committee for Higher Education
and Research. At its meeting on 3–4
October 2002, the Committee decided to
encourage national governments to examine their legislation and decided to support
a working party that will draft a supplementary legal text to the Lisbon
Convention with a view to recognition of
jointly awarded degrees.
Andrejs Rauhvargers is Secretary General
of the Latvian Rectors’ Conference and
Chair of the EAIE’s ACE Professional
Section
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