Learning Outcomes for Excellence: Integrated Social Competence for Lifelong Learning

1. Danube Rectors’ Conference University of Excellence 5-6 November, 2010 BBUCluj, Romania Salvage Value for the EHAE: Focusing on Learning Outcomes as a Prospect for an Equal-Chances Policy László I. Komlósi University of Pécs, Hungary Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

2. In my talk I intend to draw the outlines of a conceptual framework that effectively unifies the inputs of both the cultural environment and educational environment with respect to the social dimensions of higher education in what we may call integrated social competence for Life Long Learning. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

3. More precisely, I would like to call for an analysis of a viable higher educational system that is inherently reflective in its character and, therefore, is able to provide for the assessment of its impact on social cohesion and the relevance and place of societal values in the social fabric. For this purpose , I will argue for an integrated framework that rests on both the social contextualization and the cultural contextualization of the learning outcomes resulting in a flexible and adaptive set of competence based social skills.  Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

4. I will also argue that the university of the 21st century does have a central role in the society as it has clearly identifiable groups of stakeholders and social actors both inside and outside its campus. The university has to figure out and design its new status: (i) it has to have a re-conceptualized mission with a vision, (ii) it has to function as an argumentative community to generate knowledge and skills under the auspices of wisdom, (iii) it has to seek holistic solutions to encourage joint action in the society to help eradicate poverty, inequality and social exclusion. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

5. In order to do that I will survey briefly some recent developments in European higher educational policies. I will try to point out that the shaping of the European Higher Educational Area - unlike the formation of the European Research Area - has been dominated by a general philosophy based on two pillars: a fundamental pillar of a non-regulative approach in which each member state has the freedom to build on local or regional cultural and educational heritage and another pillar permitting coordination and harmonization of educational achievements facilitating international mobility. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

6. No contradiction was believed to reside in the liberal approach: the acknowledgement of diversity in educational heritage was deemed to be a straightforward added value to the EHEA. But what local values and educational heritage have been or are being identified and preserved amidst the overwhelming influences of globalization? Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

7. The major events and the mainstream of changes and trends of the past 20 years: Magna Charta Universitatum 1988 Sorbonne Joint Declaration 1998 Bologna Declaration 1999 policy papers and communiqués Prague 2001, Berlin 2003, Bergen 2005, London 2007, Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve 2009 GreenPaper2009 - Learning Mobility of Young People Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

8. The Bologna Process has been unfolding under the rather paradoxical concept of „continuity and permanent change”. The Bologna Process itself is a series of adjustments and corrections for improvement triggered by system-internal pressures. However, system-external conditions have also come into play. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

9. „The social dimension of higher education presents the most significant challenge to European cooperation as it is perceived, conceived, understood and applied so differently from one country to another. Very few countries have set specific targets to improve the participation of under-represented groups in higher education, and only about half of the Bologna countries systematically monitor their participation.” AndroullaVassiliou commissioner responsible for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth In: Focus on Higher Education in Europe 2010: The Impact of the Bologna Process. Eurydice 2010 Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

10. The London Communiqué definedthe objective of the social dimension as the 'societal aspiration thatthe student body entering, participating in and completing higher education at all levels should reflect the diversity of our populations'. In order to move towards this objective, countries agreed that thesocial dimension should be understood as an evolutionary processleading to the objective that requires the ongoing commitment andeffort from all relevant stakeholders. On this basis,each country pledged to develop its own strategy and action plan forthe social dimension, which would initially call for the identification ofpossible under-represented groups. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

11. How does the issue of the social dimension of higher education fit into the context of either the Bologna Process or the Copenhagen Process? Why has it not been an integral part of the Bologna Process or the Copenhagen Process at all? Why has it been left out from the guidelines and recommendations of the past ten years? Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

12. The Bologna Process, inaugurated in 1999, has a wide-ranging agenda to create a European Higher Education Area that will be more efficient and dynamic internally and more attractive internationally than the fragmented national systems that preceded it. Three main objectives set out for the Bologna framework :  (i) international transparency (ii) international recognition and (iii) international mobility. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

13. The Copenhagen Process was developed from 2002 within the perspective of lifelong learning, and aims to encourage individuals to make use of the wide range of vocational learning opportunities available, for example at school, in higher education, at the workplace, or through private courses. The lifelong learning tools should enable users to link and build on learning acquired at various times, and in both formal and non-formal contexts. It concerns the employment sector (human resource management) directly by identifying occupational competencesand specific behavioral and other attributes required of workers to complete a job. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

14. We have witnessed the introduction of two European frameworks: the Bologna Framework and the Copenhagen (LLL) Framework that have existed next to each other simultaneously for the past decade. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

15. Pedagogical approaches - in the domain of pedagogic theory and practice some reformers advocated the use of learning outcomes as a device for organizing the development of curricula and assessment. The Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area (Bologna framework) was adopted in May 2005 at the Bergen meeting of the ministers for higher education under the Bologna Process. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

16. A major OECD report in 2007 identified qualifications frameworks as one of the mechanisms whereby qualifications systems can better serve lifelong learning. As national qualifications frameworks spread, the question began to arise, particularly in Europe, as to how national qualifications systems could be related to each other. This gave rise to the idea of a meta-framework of qualifications. The qualifications frameworks developed under both the Bologna and CopenhagenProcesses are policy instruments voluntarily adopted by the political leadership of the countries concerned, rather than having the force of treaty or law. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

17. The European Recommendation on the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF-LLL) was adopted in April 2008 by joint decision of the European Parliament and Council as an outcome of the European Union’s education and training policy cooperation framework. It builds on developments in the Copenhagen Process and the Bologna Process. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

18. The Bologna Process and the Copenhagen Process had as goals the reform of national systems of higher education and vocational education and training (VET) within Europe. These in turn are linked to the goals of labor market development and improved economic competitiveness, as enshrined, for example, in the Lisbon goals of the European Union. The resultant meta-frameworks are tools to facilitate comparisons of qualifications between systems, but the intention is also to reform those national qualifications systems. The introduction of national qualifications frameworks has become, de facto, the principal mechanism for bringing about these reforms. NQFs introduced under these initiatives are invariably linked to quality assurance and are based on learning outcomes. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

19. The status of national qualifications frameworks varies from country to country, but in most countries they have statutory or regulatory force. Moreover, some countries now incorporate reference to either the Bologna Framework and/or EQF-LLL into relevant national legislation. The political cooperation at a European level is being translated into legal changes in the national systems. As far as the educational philosophy is concerned, many countries are lagging behind in finding the appropriate LOCAL solution. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

20. The next steps are to be made at the level of relevant national legislation. How can universities influence national level legal decisions? How can university representation be secured in the negotiations with local politicians? Are universities prepared for the negotiation with proposals of new content, new methods of learning and assessment? Are universities prepared at this crucial historical moment to speak up and act with critical solidarity towards their governments in order to secure the long-term status of the university: to function as an incubator for young adult people and provide refinement conditions for their graduates. Reform – anti-reformpressure Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

21. Migration Mobility Peregrination Academic mobility in light of educational processes These are universal phenomena to be analyzed from European and global perspectives. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

22. Main questions: What is the nature of knowledge that is useful for humanity? What types of educational processes can be effective today? What should be the character of international educational experience? Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

23. Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society as a cultural community deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

24. Education inoppositiontoErudition: a life experience How important is education? Is it still effective on a large scale? In what forms should it be conveyed to the citizens? Should it be a participatory practice? Is Life Long Learning a feasible objective and a realistic undertaking? What access conditions apply? Can it be financed on the long run? What is the reality of formal educatioinvsinformal education? Whar are the possibilities for higher learning and vocational trainig? How crucial are the informal levels? Education at the informal level: in museums and libraries, via the internet and in life experience, intercultural experiences included. Many non-traditional education options are now available which continue to evolve. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

25. A minor but not a trifle detour Education (1890) - Chittenden Memorial Window by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

26. Education is a stained-glass window commissioned from Louis Comfort Tiffany's Tiffany Glass Company during the building of Yale University's Chittenden Hall funded by Simeon Baldwin Chittenden. Personifications of Art, Science, Religion and Music are represented in the work as angels. Other angelic representations of related virtues, values and ideas attend them, each identified by words in their halos. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

27. Can we today aim at an educational process whose results will ultimately yield universal knowledge or universally applicable knowledge? How do skills and aptitudes relate to knowledge? Can we still cherish ideas about erudition and erudite citizens? Is knowledge going to be a possession of a few privileged ones as a private affair based on individual curiosity? Will knowledge be compartmentalized, fragmented and scattered? How to avoid the danger of mechanistic knowledge? What function will knowledge have in a knowledge society? Are we not cheating ourselves under the pretext of Knowledge and knowledge management? Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

28. Seats and centers of knowledge existed a long time ago in the history of mankind. We have evidence of places of higher learning in China, India, Egypt, Mezopotamy, Greece, Central-Asia, etc. even some 5.000 years back. There must have been mobility and migration of itinerant workers and farm hands, craftsmen, merchants and academics all the way through human history. We have evidence that the mosques in Damascus, Jerusalem or Cordoba were built and decorated not only by local builders, but by Byzantian, Persian, Indian and Egyptian migrants as well. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

29. We witness peregrinsstudying at European universities in the Middle-Ages. After the foundation of the first modern European university in Bologna in 1088, peregrinatiobecame a means of obtaining international educational experience. However, with Latin being the universal language of studies, education was relatively homogeneous across Europe. Vernaculars were used locally, thus peregrin students must have been exposed to local languages as well. The linguistic situation slowly changed after Reformation, thus Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, English, German, Czech, Polish, Swedish, Russian , Romanian, Hungarianbecame languages of instruction inEurope from Coimbra to Dorpat and Bologna to Oxford. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

30. World War II is definitely a water-shed in the history of global education. The term international educationhas acquired a completely new meaning. Education has become a commodity both in local and international contexts. Europe has changed dramatically – a long dream of many has come true: the European Union is an alliance of European states and nations to secure peace in Europe. However, the EU is also a huge bureaucratic organization with many hidden agendas. The educational market is not exempt from complex sets of interests, aspirations and diverse trends . Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

31. I have tried to show in my presentation that many aspirations and intentions at the level of the EHEA have identified inevitable and necessary directions to follow. However, short-term, local political interest have dominated over long-term academic vision. The elaboration of national qualification frameworks based on learning outcomes and integrated social competence offer a unique opportunity to many universities to take their own future in their hands: the Bologna proccess can be and should be revised critically and wisely by the universities themselves in the very near future. Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010

32. Thank you for your attention! Learning Outcomes for Excellence László I. Komlósi 6/11/2010