MED-NET Conferences 1998, Lille & 1999, Maastricht
Anthology of presentations 7.1.

MED-NET & ECTS

M. Vijande (Oviedo, Spain)

Student exchange problems

• Uncertainty: programs, calendar, contacts, recognition, housing
• Financial
• Language
• Social integration

ECTS as a tool

• Eliminates or diminishes the uncertainty in students exchange providing programs, calendar, contacts, recognition
• ECTS does not solve financial, social integration and language problems
• Developed from 1989 to 1995 by the Inner Circle Institutions
• Proved by practice and by external auditory
• Since 1995 (Socrates), it has been recommended as a suitable method for improving the quality in student exchanges

ECTS basics

• Information packages
  • Description of the Institution
  • Contact addresses
  • Content of the courses and examinations
  • Work load of every subject
  • Calendar
  • Overview of the Plan of Studies
• Provided documents :
  • Identification of the student
  • Understandable Programme of Studies
  • Learning agreement that gives legal coverage to all three parties: student, sending Institution, receiving Institution
  • Official transcript of records: name of the subjects studied, workload, local and standardised marks

ECTS in MED-NET

• Helps to use ECTS to less acquainted Co-ordinators
• Further development of ECTS procedures according to practice in Medicine
• Housing the former Inner Circle of ECTS

What MED-Net can do for ECTS

• Offer the accumulated experience of several long-time users of ECTS procedures to all interested Institutions
• Help to implement the ECTS in Institutions
• Facilitate the exchange of information and experiences among participants

ECTS - Recognised Problems

1. Marks system: different interpretations
   • Needs unification (implementation of numerical ranking in groups of students at institutional level)
2. Work load interpretation:
   • Differences among countries and teaching methods
3. Lack of unified documents:
   • Bilateral agreements and forms
   • Relaxation of former unified forms provided by Brussels

Absence of a defined calendar

• Advantage: some flexibility
• Disadvantage: difficulty to "force the own Institution" (at home), to produce reliable timetables in advance to allow serious commitments (for exchanges)

Desirable Objectives of ECTS in MED-NET

• Visit MED-NET Home page: med-net.nl, a reliable electronic link among members, where you will find the necessary information.
• Produce a calendar for every step in ECTS use
  • Deadline for Info pack publication and exchange
  • Deadline for sending Application Forms
  • Deadline for (preliminary) Learning Agreements
  • Deadline for returning the final Transcript of Records
• Provide examples of good and bad practice to members
• Provide Guide-lines to the use of ECTS i.e. Explanatory Table of the technical aspects of bureaucracy in ECTS, numbering documents and giving concise details of the who, when, where, etc. For every step in the process.
• To put in contact members with different level of experience in the use of ECTS in order to ease the extension of ECTS use along Europe

ECTS use in the OWN country

• Difficulties of consolidation of subjects among different universities of the same country
• Paradoxically, it is easier now to get recognised studies completed abroad
• Why not use the same procedures in your own country?
• Programa CAJAL in Spain

Hints to the success of ECTS

Combination of: flexibility, respect of the rules, institutional commitment, individual commitment (co-ordinators), good selection of students.

ISBN Number 90.805758.1.X

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