Problems of Recognition In Making Erasmus

Students in Europe enjoy great opportunities of mobility through exchange programs such as the Erasmus Programme. However, they still have to face various barriers and obstacles, a continuous problem of course recognition among them. PRIME logo

Erasmus Student Charter states Erasmus students’ right of an obligatory learning agreement prior to departure and full recognition of their study courses abroad by their home higher education institution upon return. In the same time the 2006 and 2007 editions of the annual survey of the ESN reveal that slightly more than half of all Erasmus students receive full recognition of their courses taken abroad. This is supported by Trend V report of the European University Association (EUA) stating that 47% of higher education institutions in Europe admit that some their students have problems with the recognition of their credits gained abroad.

Clearly this situation requires more attention and more effective solutions. For this reason ESN with the financial support of the European Commission conducted in-depth qualitative research to point out the true causes of the above mentioned obstacles and to provide suggestions for improvements.

The final report of the PRIME research was finalised at the end of October and published at the end of November 2009. The analysis and report was written by the PRIME team composed of 6 devoted and motivated ESN members:

• Madara Apsalone
• Tomas Bort
• Stefan Fiedrich
• Tony Filoni
• Julia Panny
• Daphne Scherer

The report is available for downloading here.

PRIME in Latvia

Higher education institutions participating:

• Riga Medical College (Nursing department)
• Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy
• Riga Stradinš University
• School of Business Administration Turiba
• University of Latvia (Faculty of Economics and Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics)
• University of Liepaja
• Vidzeme University College

RESULTS (for Latvian HEI)

Students in all higher education institutions were provided with information about Erasmus and other exchange programs; this was done quite effectively, using a variety of information channels and on time (usually 4-6 month before going aboard).

All students, independently whether participating in Erasmus or other exchange programs, signed learning agreements. Program directors were generally the main people responsible for deciding about courses and the number of credits included in the learning agreement. Programme directors were also the people, who mainly recognized the courses studied aboard.

Latvian higher education institutions used ECTS along with the national credit point system. Process of transferring ECTS to national credits and vice versa should not be very sophisticated, as the general rule is that 1 national point equals 1.5 ECTS. ECTS were mainly calculated based on workload or both – workload and the type of course. Around 40% of institutions calculated ECTS just by the type of course.

International coordinators did not report major problems in the recognition of courses studied aboard and, according to the provided data, the 88.8% of Latvian students are supposed to get full recognition of their studies aboard. This number varied among institutions with majority of them reporting 100% full recognition, while the lowest reported number was 60%. That high number of students, who get a full recognition, was not supported by ESNSurvey 2007, where 63 Latvian former exchange students reported that only 29% of them got a full recognition of their studies aboard, as well the Trends V report of the European University Association, which indicted that less than 1/3 of Latvian higher education institutions do not have any problems with recognition of studies aboard.

There might be different reasons for this problem, what, hopefully, could at least partly be explained by the second part of PRIME research – the students’ questionnaire, staring in the end of March.

PRIME I part report for Latvia

Contact madara [at] esn.lv]