Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

The Anglo-Saxon model was collectively chosen by the Ministers of Educationas the suggested system. Higher education based on Prussian traditions is applied inHungary. It is dual, consisting of two types described as college and the universityeducation. Colleges provided a shorter education (typically lasting 3 or 4 years), andthey trained teachers for teaching pupils aged between 10 and 14, they issued degreesof applicable knowledge for example in Information Technology. This educationwas not a sufficient basis to allow students to progress towards a PhD. Universitiesproviding a five-year long education trained professionals, e.g. graduate geographersand teachers (to teach pupils aged between 15 and 18).The reformed system is to be adapted to all training systems in Hungarian highereducation, though medical, law, and artist education are excluded, by 2006. Theintroduction has several features that are known in the similar efforts in Europe,however, there are a lot of education segments that feature individual characteristicsand it cannot be denied that this system still contains a lot of ambiguous elements.These include:1. Although the needs of the labour market cannot be forecasted precisely, there aresome well established international trends, such as that the future professionalsshould be available for the labour market within a shorter period of time, and thatthey should have practical knowledge and skills that will need to be improvedfurther. This is in harmony with the objectives of the government to increaseefficiency, that is, the educational programmes should last shorter and the studentswith useful knowledge should leave during the first cycle, the bachelor cycle earlierand should enter the labour market.2. An important objective was to increase mobility of labour force – to increase thefree movement of students (and teachers), to establish for transferability withinthe system, employable education abroad and professional training, and last butnot least, to achieve readable and comparable qualifications and degrees on aEuropean level.3. Regulating the system was an individual Hungarian feature. The bachelor andmaster educational levels should usually last 6 terms in a value of 180 credits, or4 terms in a value of 120 credits respectively. However, in order to introduce newprogrammes, it was necessary that the two thirds of the given professions agreedto it. The Hungarian Accreditation Committee – HAC accepted this as a foundationdocument.4. The colleges were generally able to produce BSc/BA programmes, but in order todeliver Master level courses, the HAC had to accredit it, and colleges were not inthe position to develop Masters courses automatically. This is a considerable sourceof conflict as far as the education reform process in Hungary is concerned.5. A big problem is that the labour market in Hungary does not know or understandthe BSc/BA education system, in addition, there is no experience concerning theextent to which it should be based on a professional or a more general, theorybasedsystem. The pattern solves this conflict by being based on the profiles ofthe previous university education of five years as a professional stream (based ona general professional basis).162