Faculty of Architecture | RWTH Aachen

Compatibility Study 2010/2011 Preface IX
1.01
Prologue
When the Faculty of Architecture started its first Erasmus exchange programme
in 1988 things were relatively simple. Students within the Diploma programme in
architecture signed up spontaneously for a year in Rome at Università degli Studi di
Roma ‘La Sapienza’ or a year in Florence at Università degli Studi, di Firenze, the first
two universities to participate in the programme.
Of course preparatory meetings predated the students´ studies abroad as professors
from RWTH Aachen visited the according universities to meet their counterparts
sponsored by specific funds from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
in support of the Erasmus exchange programme.
Students on either side were granted scholarships sufficient to cover the travel costs
and boarding and lodging.
Most important, however, was the lacking of ´red tape´ (complicated administration)
enjoyed by Erasmus students. They were subject neither to tedious formalities and
registration procedures nor to controlling entry exams. The students could pick up
effectively their studies the moment they arrived at the partner university. Lecturers
offered personal assistance.
Since the launching of this programme more than thousand students could join,
encompasses by now over 40 universities across Europe. Some of those students
decided to stay and to complete their final examination at their partner university,
some even married partners of their host country. All honed their language skills and
broadened their horizons.
All in all, the focus of the programme always was on gathering experiences abroad,
on deepening the language skills and on furthering knowledge by gaining a new
perspective.
With the beginning of the 21st century conditions for student exchanges changed.
Funds that supported meetings between lecturers and professors, once a solid
column of the program, were withdrawn and student scholarships were cut back to a
minimum.
What remained throughout were some administrative advantages like the waving of
study fees, simplified entry conditions, mutual recognition of study results as well as
an overall reciprocity of the exchange programms.
With an annual exchange of up to 70 students which is up to a third of students within
the year, the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen took a leading role within the
RWTH exchange. The main partners of the faculty´s exchange remained Italy and
Spain.
It is fair to say that linguistic barriers always caused considerable problems mainly
for students from abroad who studied in Aachen, making effective tutoring sometimes
difficult. Knowledge of the English language was helpful on either side. Throughout,
the idea of Europe prevailed.
The introduction of the ‘Bologna‘ Bachelor and Master programms, amongst other
factors, caused a major shift in mobility. Whilst it was one of the founding ideas of the
‘Bologna‘ declaration to standardize study programms throughout Europe, it emerges
that standards can be implemented on the formal (quantitative) level (ECTS) but not
on the qualitative level without interacting negatively into the diversity and individuality
of academic education, a basic principle of academism itself.
The quantitative approach: Even after more than 12 years of the signing of the
‘Bologna’ Declaration the implementation of the Bachelor and Master ECTS system
with a total of 300 ECTS Credits up to the Master has not been completed. Countries
like Spain and Italy, to name a few are still practicing diverse systems, making an
exchange on the basis of ‘Bologna’ rather difficult.
Faculty of Architecture | RWTH Aachen