Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

What if university rankings could foster universities’ commitment to better outcomes related to the social dimension? The present work aims to: (1) encourage universities to work on improving their performance on a range of aspects of the social dimension; (2) publicly value the work of universities on this matter; and (3) provide students and society with more complete, accurate and balanced information on university outcomes according to the Higher Education objectives outlined by UNESCO and European Higher Education Area. In order to achieve these goals, we consider the development of certain methodological tools, and a proposal open to discussion and improvement is presented. This proposal is part of a broader project analysing the extent to which the social dimension has been developed in the most globally impactful international university rankings. One of the main conclusions is that there is a noticeable lack of attention to the social dimension in those rankings, although the inclusion of indicators focused on this dimension is not only important but also feasible and affordable.

Admission systems to higher education are the key point for determining which students go into which type of higher education institution. Based on how admission systems are designed, they will allow access to a smaller or larger number of students, but they will also shape participation by social background. However, the admission system is neither simply the transition point between upper secondary schooling and higher education nor simply a matter of procedures and regulations. This paper argues that who gets into which part of a higher education system is determined by three aspects: how the schooling system is organised, how higher education institutions (can) recruit students, and how prospective students make choices about where to go. Each of these three aspects also affects who ends up in a higher education programme, so they are relevant for any discussion on the social dimension of higher education participation. This perspective is operationalised through a four-field typology of admission systems. Understanding how each aspect ‘works’ and how they interact opens up the opportunity to review and change higher education admission policies to make higher education more inclusive.

In our paper, we discuss how and to what extent striving for “excellence” hinders the social dimension of contemporary higher education (HE) systems and higher education institutions (HEIs), taking the study success in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) as an example. We review national policies and institutional attitudes towards study success in the four selected countries to identify whether there are measures that could satisfy the demand for excellence and social dimension at the same time. A special case study is devoted to the Czech Republic. We argue that striving for excellence might lead to neglecting aspects not reflected in international rankings or rewarded by national policies such as the quality of teaching and learning, student support, diversity and other social aspects. We argue that various environmental pressures make many institutions invest more resources into excellence, research performance and international reputation rather than into promotion of study success.

Making higher education more inclusive is one of the main targets of the Bologna Process. During the last years, national governments set up strategies to widen the access; higher education institutions and stakeholders developed measures to ensure inclusion of learners from diverse backgrounds. Higher education institutions and stakeholders, such as students’ unions, play a crucial role in the development and implementation of strategies. One of the main measures to enable better access to higher education is student counselling. Counselling activities are undertaken by diverse actors with several purposes. It can be provided by universities, stakeholders (as professional associations), psychologists or students’ unions. Counselling activities can be provided to a general audience or to specific target groups, which can be an advantage for those who benefit from specific counselling (e.g. for disabled students) but can also be a barrier for those who do not want to out themselves as “disadvantaged”. The paper provides an overview of counselling activities in nine European countries (Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Liechtenstein, United Kingdom, Romania, Denmark, Slovenia) from a student’s perspective. It will focus on counselling activities provided by students’ unions, their cooperation with other counselling providers (e.g. university counselling, financial support, psychologists) and their approach to supporting disadvantaged learners. This includes the use of modern technology (online counselling, Facebook, Skype) to reach out to a wider audience, mentoring and tutoring activities as well as counselling activities for specific groups (e.g. first-generation students). The paper will conclude with an analysis of provided measures, their role in widening access to higher education as well as identified gaps.

Education is a crucial topic for asylum seekers and refugees. Many of them have high educational aspirations, and the level of education determines their chances of integration and success in the host country. Supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Academic Exchange Service, universities, universities of applied sciences and preparatory colleges started programs to assist refugees and asylum seekers on their way to and through higher education. Based on a system theoretical intersectional perspective, this article works out what first contacts for refugees, members of the international offices and a vice-president of internationalisation at 5 German higher education institutions identify as specific challenges for refugees and asylum seekers on their way to German higher education. Then, it comparatively introduces the support structures those 5 German HEI have implemented. It recommends supporting HEIs financially to help them institutionalise their support-structures and argues towards a framing of refugees as potentially highly performing international students and a positive enrichment of a diverse and international HEI.

Policymakers have recognised the significance of higher education for the individual’s social, economic and personal development. While the social dimension of education in the Bologna Process emphasises the need for widening access to education, at EU level it has received renewed interest in recent years, with a focus on increasing higher education attainment and the new skills agenda. Research shows that access to higher education remains highly selective and that the expansion of higher education in European and other OECD countries is characterized by increased student participation in the labour force during the time of studies. This development has attracted much interest in research on the impact of students’ paid work on their academic and employment outcomes. Following up on this research, this paper presents results from the 2016 EUROSTUDENT survey conducted in Malta (N = 1423), which describes the profile and experience of working students in Malta. It aims to increase awareness of this issue and to identify possible policy measures to address the challenges encountered by this group of students.

Forced migration has been a crucial social phenomenon in the last decade. It has had inevitable impacts on higher education in the world and EHEA in particular. Since 2011, the Syrian refugee population living in Turkey increased to 3.3 million, which makes Turkey the country with the most refugee population in the world. As of 2017, 14,740 Syrian students were enrolled in 140 Turkish higher education institutions. However successful, enrolling has been a challenging experience for both the students and the Turkish universities in terms of recognition of qualifications, admission procedures and quality among other difficulties. This paper, which aims to investigate the access routes, qualifications and social dimension of the Syrian refugees studying in Turkish universities, is based on quantitative data gathered during a project called “Elite Dialogue” completed in May 2017. The field research involved 497 university students who participated in the interviews, of whom 395 filled in the online interviews and 102 participated in the face to face interviews during workshops in four cities (İstanbul, Ankara, Gaziantep, and Mardin). The questions were designed to learn about their academic and social inclusion into the Turkish higher education system. Therefore, the interviews consisted of questions relating to their academic background to understand if they had attended a university or received any degree in their home country. The interviews also covered their experience in accessing Turkish universities, the quality of the education experience, their qualifications and the barriers they have faced so far. Lastly, the financial and social conditions they face, the social, financial and academic level of their families, and their future plans for employment were investigated. New legislative rules and implementations, a new understanding of the access routes in a centralized higher education system, new approaches to the recognition of prior learning, new programs to overcome language barriers and to keep the quality high are the challenges that Turkey has been facing in the last five years. The findings of the research, analyzed in the paper, will hopefully contribute to overcoming the new challenges of refugees in higher education in Turkey and in the EHEA.

The refugee influx to Germany has challenged institutions of higher education (HEI’s) to develop programs and policies that further support a diverse population of students. Building upon a small number of published works focusing on this highly dynamic environment, we present an analysis of two related studies focused on university administrators’ perceptions of approaches to refugee student support at their institutions. Data from interviews and analysis of programming indicate that attaining German language proficiency at the C1 level is a significant barrier for refugee students; that there are key differences in the types of programs offered in distinct university contexts, which may relate to the degree of university leadership or administrator background and interest; that the definition of “success” from the university perspective is often opaque and inconsistent; that managing refugees’ expectations is a challenge; that there is a desire to enable more Muslim refugee women university access; and that there are large gaps in the number of students interested in study and those actually enrolling in degree programs. This paper presents interview data and document analysis collected from twelve universities and suggests further areas for inquiry.

The future of the European Higher Education Area has been on the agenda at least since the run-up to the Bergen Ministerial conference in 2005, and discussion intensified as the first “Bologna milestone” approached in 2010. The first conference on “the future of Bologna” was held in spring 2008, and it was followed by the first thematic BFUG meeting, which was also the first held in a non-EU member country. The concerns considered since then have been fairly consistent: a declining political interest, exemplified by attendance at political level at Ministerial conferences, the tension between focusing on implementation of goals already defined and developing new policies and policy areas, concerns about a “two speed Bologna Process”, and the search for viable governance of a loosely organized European process. In considering whether to take up new policy areas, there has, however, been little explicit consideration of what issues the EHEA, with its specific characteristics, is actually a suitable framework for. The chapter explores the history of discussing the “future of Bologna”, as well as some key issues, building in part on the contributions to this session at the Bologna Researchers’ Conference. These include the reform of education systems, teaching and learning, fundamental values, the relationship of the EHEA to other parts of the world, and a set of issues around the implementation of commitments, adaptation to local circumstances, and the governance of the EHEA. 2020 will mark another milestone in the development of the EHEA, and the 2018 Ministerial Conference will be key to making the EHEA a framework fit for purpose for at least another decade. An EHEA that would not demonstrate a commitment to its own goals through implementation would lose credibility and relevance. A European Higher Education Area that considered itself “fully implemented”, on the other hand, would not only be increasingly irrelevant. It would be dead.

In this chapter, three conceptually distinct dimensions of EHEA governance are presented. One, the - dimension concerning the distribution of authority across governance levels (e.g. European, regional and national). Two, the - dimension reflecting the involvement of non-state actors (e.g. stakeholder organizations) and the acknowledgement that state is also not a unitary actor. Third, the - dimension stemming from the close relationship between higher education, research, and innovation in the knowledge society, and the ensuing spillovers from and into higher education policy domain. The chapter argues that the complexity of EHEA governance can be better understood utilizing what we call the ‘three multi-s’ framework. This is exemplified by exploring how ‘the three multi-s’ and the interactions between them allow for a more nuanced analysis of EHEA governance, its changes and implications.