Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

6. These concerns and uncertain outputs (for example, with one third of the studentsgraduating can go on to Master level according to the plans), and those especiallyregarding the unemployment of graduates (nowadays more than 45% of the generationin question studies in the higher education) make many people uncertain aboutsupporting this reform.The new system restructures education to a great extent. In Hungary, there are400 university and college programmes available for students, whereas, the numberof the undergraduate programmes will be cut down to 100−105 from 2006 onwards.This also means that the parallelism of university and college training will disappear,complying with some relatively well determined rules, where the institutionsmay be accredited for undergraduate and Masters education. Thus, a college mayprovide Masters level education if it can produce the personal resources and assetsrequired in order for it to be accredited. In addition, theoretically, it is also possiblethat an existing university will mainly only offer undergraduate education. So, likeother systems in Europe, two-cycle education does not consist of two but rather offour levels. Apart from the above-demonstrated undergraduate and Masters education,studies could begin with post-secondary training, which is not very popular inHungary, and might end in doctorate education.Professional background for the undergraduate level Geography programmeThe professional background of the new undergraduate programmes actually meansan easier transfer, an increased willingness to mobility and that students can morefreely acquire knowledge, but first of all, that students can acquire skills that can beapplied in the labour market. The new undergraduate education strongly requires thatat the end thereof students shall possess skills. As far as Geography is concerned,in order to solve this problem, we would suggest (the situation is supposedly similarto programmes of sciences and teacher training programmes of Arts) dividingthe education at least into three professional streams. Those undergraduates wholeave the system after the completion of the undergraduate education (“acquiring adegree”) should acquire knowledge that can be applied in actual practice, as a partof their curriculum, as well. The HAC calls it practical stream. Those students whowould like to continue their studies in a narrower field on Masters level (academicstream) should study “more courses on the special subject”, and those who wouldlike to become teachers should learn something different. As we know it now, theremay exist undergraduate programmes – such as Physics -, where other streams couldbe added to these three main streams (practical, academic and teacher). Anyway, wedo not intend to increase the number of internal streams at the undergraduate levelin the practical stream, of course. The government intends to support the differenttrainings, which are considered to be very important, in a way that it gives a statesupport for further 30 credits (ca. one term) to those students who would like to leavethe undergraduate education with a supplementary profession in order to acquirethe necessary knowledge.This is the point where we should really think of the situation of Geography. Itis said in many institutions of England that Geography is not a profession but an163