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Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-02-06
CONTENTS
[01] South Europe universities meeting in Thessaloniki on franchise
'colleges'
[01] South Europe universities meeting in Thessaloniki on franchise
'colleges'
Representatives of southern European universities met in the
northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Friday to hold talks on the
evaluation of degrees, both those awarded by state universities but
also those awarded by colleges working under a franchise from
universities abroad, as well as an objective international ranking
system for academic institutions.
The aim of the meeting was to agree on a common stance on these
issues by the universities of southern Europe, including France,
Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, in view of the European
Universities Association convention that will take place in Prague
this March.
On the issue of colleges based in other countries and the "export"
of academic qualifications, those present agreed that the relevant
European directive does not promote the interests of universities
and that academic issues should not be determined on the basis of
the economic criteria set by the European Commissioner for trade.
The said that such colleges should be assessed by either a single
European system with a set of commonly accepted criteria or on the
basis of criteria decided by each individual country.
They also noted a deficit in the reliability and objectivity of
international ranking system for higher learning institutes and
called for a set of common criteria "that will be compatible with
the culture and traditions of academic institutions in Europe and
will take into account all educational parameters."
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