Jan GC Meeting: 3-Year Foreign Degree Discussion

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1 Jan GC Meeting: 3-Year Foreign Degree Discussion Council Members: This document is a collection of Council discussion on the subject of Bologna degrees. The text was cut directly from approved Council minutes, but I ve noted the urls for your convenience. Page 6 is an excerpt from the proposal submitted by Michele Sandlin to the Provost. Policy for admitting students with 3-year foreign degrees (from GC Minutes) Graduate Schools in the United States are increasingly receptive to admitting at least some of the applicants with 3-year European degrees. Several universities say they accept such degrees. A minority will not accept applicants from European universities unless they complete four or more years of university education. Oregon State University has fallen into the middle ground of insisting on the equivalent of a four-year accredited U.S. university, but relying on various guides, plus information from OSU programs, to determine which applicants meet this equivalency standard. T. McLain informed the Council that this topic has been on the Graduate Council agenda each year that he has been a member and he feels that it is important to learn how the European Union s movement to 3-year undergraduate degrees will affect OSU s graduate admissions policies. He said that the Council might want to express an opinion on how the Graduate Admissions Committee (GAC) should handle applications from students with 3-year degrees. He added that it is the Graduate Council s purview to advise the GAC and to modify admissions policies. M. Fisk then provided the Council members with an overview of the EU decision and information on how these applications are currently handled at OSU. T. McLain suggested that we could encourage more applicants from Europe if the language in the OSU catalog is modified to indicate that 3-year degrees are considered on a case by case basis. Sally Francis (Graduate School) agreed that modifying the catalog language would be effective but it would represent a marketing change only. If the Council wants to effect a policy change, the members could decide, for example, that OSU will accept 3-year Bologna degrees only (3-year degrees from other countries would continue to be inadmissible). After additional discussion T. McLain summarized that Council members agreed to ask M. Fisk to perform additional research to learn the admissions policies of OSU s peer institutions and other select universities and to 1 of 6 (prepared 1/9/08)

2 examine the language in their catalogs for the purpose of possible adoption/adaptation. The Bologna Process (3-year European Degrees) (Supplemental Material GC Meeting) A declaration signed in Bologna, Italy, in 1999 has been identified as the key starting point for a major curricular reform in higher education in Europe. This process, which uses 2010 as a target date, is intended to develop common standards of higher education throughout Europe. The "three cycles" begin with a bachelor's degree lasting a minimum of three years followed by a master's degree lasting a minimum of two years (unless the bachelor's degree was four years, allowing a one-year master's degree) followed by a doctoral degree lasting a minimum of three years. For a brief summary of status that carries you to two other reports by the European Commission, please see Graduate schools in the United States are increasingly receptive to admitting at least some of the applicants with 3-year European degrees. Several universities say they accept such degrees. A minority will not accept any European unless they complete a longer program. Oregon State University has fallen into the middle ground of insisting on the equivalent of a four-year accredited U.S. university, but have used various guides, plus information from OSU programs, to determine which applicants meet this equivalency standard. One very helpful site at a top-tier program that accepts some of the degrees, but not all, is the University of Wisconsin. This agenda item is a brief introduction to the topic to determine whether the Graduate Council wishes to form a study group on this topic at this time. II. Admission of students with 3-year Bachelor s degrees from Europe (from GC Minutes) Graduate Schools in the United States are increasingly receptive to admitting at least some of the applicants with 3-year European degrees. Several universities say they accept such degrees. A minority will not accept applicants from European universities unless they complete four or more years of university education. Oregon State University has fallen into the middle ground of insisting on the equivalent of a four-year accredited U.S. university, but relying on various guides, plus information from OSU programs, to determine which applicants meet this equivalency standard. Koenig asked the Council if they felt that now is an appropriate time to examine this issue since these special admissions cases will become more prevalent as more and more 2 of 6 (prepared 1/9/08)

3 European universities move to the 3-year system. He noted that applicants from Europe are more common in some fields than in others. Koenig asked the Council if they wanted to form a subcommittee to explore the subject in depth. Rettig advised the Council of the current admission policy that requires that an applicant to an OSU graduate program have the equivalent of a four-year US bachelor s degree from an accredited institution. Rettig informed the Council that OSU has admitted one student with a 3-year European degree. He wasn t sure which Engineering program had requested the exception, but that Department s admission committee had made a very strong case for that applicant s admission. A special flag was placed on the student s record in the Banner student information system so that Admissons and the Graduate School could track and evaluate his/her performance. Sally Francis (Graduate School) told the Council that she was surprised to learn that OSU admits applicants with 3 year bachelor s degrees. Rettig confirmed it but added that that fact is not advertised. Francis wonders if the Office of Admissions changed the policy without the approval of the Graduate Council. Francis stated that the Graduate Council is in charge of graduate admissions policy not the admissions office. Graduate Council should set the requirements. Discussion on whether or not we should amend the catalog language ensued. Some questions asked were: Does the current catalog language discourage International applicants? Are we losing them to other universities with more lenient admissions standards, or has the current language worked to our advantage by discouraging applicants with insufficient preparation from applying? What does equivalency mean? How do you decide which degrees are equivalent to an OSU undergraduate degree? In the end, the Council members felt that OSU s pool of applicants from Europe has been quite small and thought this unlikely to change. The process of dealing with the files on a case by case basis seems to be working well. As long as the exception process is clearly articulated and there is a process available, we should continue to allow the department chairs and admissions groups to decide which 3-year degrees are equivalent. Rettig, however, will contact the admissions office to learn what programs are currently dealing with these cases to learn if they have issues or need guidance. Additionally, Francis will request an annual admissions report to track how many students with a 3-year degree are admitted annually. She also felt it would be worthwhile to monitor the performance of these students. 3 of 6 (prepared 1/9/08)

4 III. Status report on European three-year degrees (from GC Minutes) Rettig offered two recommendations to the Council for their consideration: (1) Postpone consideration of admissions policy changes for this year year to allow informed discussion to take place by professionals who are more fully informed on the changes and their impact on U.S. graduate schools. (2) Ask the Office of Admissions to collaborate with any departments or programs that may receive an application from a student with a three-year European bachelor s degree. He based these recommendations on the following premises: (1) Current European degrees are highly diverse, just as they are in the U.S. This is why our Office of Admissions relies on detailed guidance from the national association of admission professionals to advise us on what is equivalent to a four-year U.S. bachelor s degree. (2) This diversity is likely to continue, requiring us to rely on updated information from the professional associations to which Admissions, the Office of International Education, and the Graduate School belong. The Council of Graduate Schools had a useful discussion, which Mary Strickroth summarized for the Council committee. The organizations to which Admissions and OIE belong (AACRAO and NAFSA) have meetings this spring that include multiple sessions on this topic. (3) There is a lag from the time that the professional associations conclude the appropriate way to handle new credentials to the date when the professional reference literature is revised. (4) The uncertainty about this issue and the fact that many of our peers are not revising their admission requirements from Europe just yet suggests that we should delay any action to change university policy. Recent examples of no change are found at the University of Washington at and at Stanford University at (5) The very tight focus on a specific course of study in many European universities means that the students will have mastered a subject thoroughly at the end of three years, but they may not have sufficient breadth to pursue a degree unless it is closely related to their area of study. For example, someone with a three-year degree in Physics from a strong European university should be well prepared for MS and possibly PhD work in physics in the U.S., but may have substantial problems crossing over into a different field of study such as a biological science without additional undergraduate preparation. (6) The discussions in Europe suggest that many agencies and employers are not convinced that a three-year degree is sufficient for employment. It is not unreasonable to believe that initial graduates of three-year degrees are most likely to continue for a European master s degree. (7) If any students do apply, our Admissions Office is prepared to partner with academic programs and departments to make exceptions while waiting for sufficient information to make complete policy changes. 4 of 6 (prepared 1/9/08)

5 Brent Steel (Liberal Arts) added that the amount of learning currently present in European degrees varies significantly from country to country. Pehrsson noted that the emergence of three-year bachelor s degrees in Europe is related to a trend in Europe to improve the accountability of higher education and insure conformity to a minimum standard. Rettig said the he understood that the apparently narrow focus of many European higher education programs may require OSU programs to provide for additional background if a European student or OSU wishes to add breadth to their education or change areas of study. Dan Brown asked how the changes in higher education in Europe would affect OSU degree programs with large international student populations. Rettig noted that several of the international students at OSU now come as participants in exchange programs. Some of them choose to continue for an OSU degree and some of them return later for an OSU degree. Brown agreed that exchange opportunities are useful, but that international students make up an important part of some graduate majors including his own (Electrical and Computer Engineering). Strickroth understood that some universities in Europe would graduate students with the new three-year European degrees this year, but that parallel tracks/degrees, such as the German diplom, will remain available until the new degrees are fully implemented and widely accepted by employers.. Rosemary Garagnani (Associate Director of the Office of Admissions for Operations) said that her unit expects to have a better sense of direction after the AACRAO and NAFSA meetings this spring. Rettig shared his perception that the commitment to these new degrees by administrators in Europe has not always been accompanied by additional funding. Therefore, making these new degrees operational may be a challenge at many universities. Selker reported that he heard much excitement and commitment to the new degrees when he was in Switzerland recently. He is convinced that many U.S. universities will be accepting these students eventually. Strickroth said that there is resistance to the new degrees in Germany because the Germans believe their educational system, including design of degrees, is doing very well in its current form. But, they have also said that they will adopt the new degrees. The Council decided to proceed as Rettig recommended: to defer changes in policy until additional information is available and to ask Admissions and the Graduate School to work with any department or program that receives an admission application from someone with a three-year European bachelor s degree to determine eligibility for admission. 5 of 6 (prepared 1/9/08)

6 Excerpt from Sandlin dated Jan 4 08: From: Sandlin, Michele Sent: Friday, January 04, :22 PM To: Randhawa, Sabah; Peterson, Kate Cc: Johnson, Becky - AcadAff; Francis, Sally K.; Fisk, Martin; Rosenberg, Valerie; Walkin, Julie G.; Garagnani, Rosemary Subject: Urgent International proposal Sabah and Kate, After Valerie, Julie and I visited California State University Northridge and met with Mary Baxton, their head of Int l Admissions and a national expert on international admissions, we felt we needed to move forward with a few pivotal initiative efforts now and not wait for the final report this summer, which would be too late to affect Fall 2008 or 2009 enrollment. 3) Accept 3 year international Bologna and India (A List schools only) degrees for graduate admission on a 3 year pilot basis with annual review. OSU has been debating this issue and watching the national landscape since this topic originated a few years ago. University of California System schools, specifically Berkeley, just started accepting the Bologna and India 3 year degrees for graduate study. Purdue is also now accepting Bologna degrees and many of our comparator institutions are now wording their admissions requirements for flexibility in acceptance of 3-year bachelor s degrees. (India A List of schools is available at: India 3 year degrees not on the A list or Deemed University list of approved institutions will require the Indian 3-year Bachelor s degree plus one year of the BED (a two year Bachelor s of Education program for teachers). With the Graduate Schools approval on this 3 year pilot, we propose a quiet pilot launch. 6 of 6 (prepared 1/9/08)