Showing posts with label higher education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label higher education. Show all posts

September 1, 2010

Despre cei mai tari 1%


Mi s-au intamplat multe lucruri minunate in ultimul timp dar am inteles ca toate se leaga, mai ales dupa ce i-am vazut pe Vlady si pe Paul la TV.
Nu pot sa descriu in cuvinte ce am simtit in timp ce ma uitam la emisiune, dar din cate imi amintesc, a fost mandrie, bucurie, entuziasm, pasiune si putina frustrare in acelasi timp. Sunt mandra de ei si ma bucur pentru ei si pentru ce valori se gasec in societatea romanesca. Am simtit pasiunea care se gaseste in spatele cuvintelor si pasiunea pentru ceea ce fac. Pe de alta parte eram putin frustrata, pentru ca baietii astia ridica standardele la un nivel foarte inalt, care mie imi dau impresia ca stau pe loc, dar si pentru ca am impresia ca sunt prea departe de intamplarile reale.
Ma identific cu 80% din ceea ce au spus ei, prin experientele avute, prin tariri si prin visele si planurile mele de viata.
Ceea ce am vazut si auzit ma indruma sa fac, printre altele, urmatoarea analiza:
Mediul asociativ studentesc din Romania este foarte valoros si mai bine dezvoltat decat in multe tari Europene. Studentii din ONGS-uri in Romania sunt mai proactivi, mai dornici sa invete, mai deschisi spre nou, mai responsabili si mai centrati pe viitor.
Tot mai des, competentele cerute la majoritatea locurilor de munca (sociale, de organizare, uneori chiar si profesionale etc.) nu se invata in universitate sau nu sunt cuprinse in educatia formala. Scrisesem intr-un post anterior - eu am invatat 90% din ceea ce stiu sa fac in organizatiile studentesti in care am activat. Si datorita acelor experiente am ajuns sa fac ceea ce imi place sa fac cel mai mult: educatie. Am prieteni pentru toata viata si am vise care imi dau energie si putere in fiecare zi.
S-a evitat putin discutia studentilor care pleaca din tara si cred ca e foarte bine ca Vlady s-a concentrat pe acei studenti care "isi dovedesc in fiecare zi ca se poate" (Doamne, cat mi-a placut asta!). Eu am avut emotii cand Eli a pus intrebarea respectiva si cred urmatorul lucru: studentii astia din ONGS-uri invata sa aiba scopuri foarte clare in viata, sunt responsabili pentru deciziile pe care le iau si sunt convinsi, indiferent daca pleca sau raman, de unde vor sa ajunga in viata (si aici nu ma refer la o destinatie geografica). Andi, Mariana, Cornelia, Stefania, voi ce credeti?
Va invit sa urmariti emisiunea Business Responsibility, iar de la minutul 12 pe Vlady si pe Paul de la CROS - Centrul de Resurse pentru Organizatii Studentesti:


Cat de frumos!

July 2, 2010

My Intercultural Experience

I'm every day more and more excited about my intercultural experiences in Kassel. A long journey ended yesterday, even though I'd say, it is just the beginning.
For the last 6 months, a team of 20 international students in Kassel, from 17 different countries, got together to learn (about) intercultural communication and competence. An amazing group of students, motivated, responsible, highly engaged, straight forward, with a rich intercultural background - each of them enriched our project remarkably! We took the innitiative, found a great trainer - the best I met so far in this area and the best I've met so far in any area in Germany - got some financial support from the university and here we go!
For me it was an amazing experience! We learned to understand intercultural communication by doing this, by getting out on the campus in small multicultural teams, interacting with people, discussing with them, analyzing, sharing, etc. etc. We connected their experiences with ours and put together a great documentary film. It is a short film prepared to explore the theme of cultural interaction between German and international students at the University of Kassel.

Enjoy:

Meet More, Mix More from Carmen Muresan on Vimeo.


Maybe this project ended, but to me, it just opened new doors, gave me new ideas and an area I am highly motivated to further explore.

Wish you all wonderful intercultural experiences and let's "meet more, mix more"!

June 26, 2009

Sharing Experience

I met yesterday a Bologna Expert from Turkey (this is how he calls himself even if he is questioning the term). During his visit in our Centre this week, he gave a presentation on the current developments in the implementation of the Bologna Process in Turkey.
It was quite interesting to observ the commonalities between the importance of the Bologna Reform for Turkey and for Romania: European integration, globalization of higher education and a framework for the reform of the national higher education system.

I found it amusing when he stated about the change to the new cycle structure: "Well, we have cycles since 1981, so it was not a real challange to design the new structure to 4(BA)+2(MA)+4(PhD)". Probably, Turkey belongs also to those countries who just moved forward or backward the time of graduation from the first cycle. Recently, Prof. Teichler commented, in a TV show, the problem of the new Bachelor-Master structure in Germany. The phenomenon, which in my eyes seems to happen in the majority of the European higher education systems, is that all systems want to keep their previous levels of qualification (e.g. 'Diplom' or Master), sqeeze somehow the former courses into the new Bachelor programmes and make hereby a "Bonsai-Bachelor" (Teichler, 2009).
The story of ECTS is also funny. In Turkey an own credit system is used, based on contact hours. ECTS is mainly an instrument for recognition of mobility periods. Therefore, the calculation of ECTS points for a course in Turkey is very simple: 30 credits a semester for 6 mandatory courses... that means 5 credits per course.
At least, in Germany, they tried to take over some principles of ECTS, but they tend to fall to the other extreme and increased in this way the student workload very much (which is never evaluated!!): papers, presentations, reviews for each session/course and the obligatory TEST at the end of the semester for each discipline.
German students and pupils started a national education strike last week, against the new system, against tuition fees, against grades for behavior, against the 12th grade high school degree, for more authonomy, more student participation and student voice: Education for all and for free!
We discussed this issue with our guest as well and I was surprised to find out about the the different levels of internalisation of students rights among the student community in Turkey: the social dimension is confused with social activities and the opportinity for a student representative to talk to his/her students in an university event, should be given by the professors. I find this quite sad and it will take some time to change the mentality of students and other stakeholders of the universities in favour of collaboration and partnership. Nevertheless developments in this direction start to appear, because our colleague in Turkey was also student representative before he started his PhD and got a job at the university. And he is very much involved in student information and awareness campaigns, as well as in fostering change in the university through several projects: new teaching techniques trainings for young lecturers, trainings for the students' unions, building a student centre where social and learning activities will be combined, etc.

One student... reminds me on my first contacts with this issue, on Traian and then Vlady and then the community of Bologna Instigators...

We change education! ;)

Reference:
Teichler, U. (Author) (June 16. 2009). Prüfungen im Bachelorstudium [Television broadcast]. 3Sat. Retrieved June 26. 2009 from URL: http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/mediathek.php?obj=13231&mode=play.

July 4, 2008

My article on e-MaHE

I did it and I'm proud of it! :)
My first article on the effects of the Bologna Process on the European higher education systems is finally published on e-MaHE.

I'm looking forward for your reactions and feedbacks!


"Publish your papers on e-MaHE and bring your contribution to the development of Higher Education"