EUA Survey Of Master Degrees In Europe - European University ...

• Lifelong Master: used in some systems to designate second cycle provision delivered quiteseparately from the Consecutive Master• Professional Master: used in binary systems to distinguish the Master awarded by non-universityHEIs from the university-based MasterThe ‘Master’ designationAfter nearly a decade of Bologna usage, the Master and its variants are well established in EuropeanHE. Although new in many instances, the term has a historical resonance, harking back to themedieval Magister qualification, which is still the official title in some systems. In a few countriesother designations are current. The Holy See has retained the licenza. The Greek metaptychiakodiploma eidikefsis is unsurprisingly pre-latinate. But these, with the Danish kandidat and the Turkishyüksek lisans, are the only major exceptions.To cross any frontier, in a tour of the 46 Bologna countries, is nevertheless to encounter a differentshade of meaning, even where the English word ‘Master’ is used. It is a mistake to assume that theterm universally conforms to the British definition. The English (with the Welsh and Northern Irish),the Irish and the Scottish HE systems are a few among many and have no statutory pre-eminence.In any case, they speak of the Masters, or the Master’s, rather than the Master.Terminology is never neutral and context is all-important. The Association pour l’emploi des cadresreported in 2007 that the introduction of the term Master by French universities had been doublybeneficial. Not only had it shed the sense of incompletion carried by the maîtrise, it had also achieved– at least in the eyes of employers – parity of esteem with the Master (and the Mastère spécialisé)offered by the écoles de commerce and the grandes écoles.This report will use the term ‘Master’. In doing so, it marks its line of descent from the influential‘Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe’, compiled for EUA by Christian Tauch andAndrejs Rauhvargers in 2002.What is the Bologna Master?• Normally carrying ECTS 90-120, of which at least 60 should be at Master level• Typical duration of one to two full-time equivalent years• Disciplinary content consistent with generic level descriptors• Curriculum design and pedagogy defined by learning outcomes• A recognised point of entry to the European labour marketTen years after the Bologna Declaration of 1999, what stage of development has the BolognaMaster reached? At the very least, it is specifiable in terms of its location in the second cycle, itsbandwidth in the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System [ECTS], its level descriptors,and its typical duration in full-time equivalent years. It is recognisable – at least to the professionals,agencies, institutions and governments active in higher education.However, it has yet to be fully implemented. It has still to achieve a stable European profile in termsof pedagogy, labour market relevance, research-relatedness, funding and finance. It lacks sucha profile, partly because of the persistence of strong pre-Bologna traditions in certain countries,partly because in many others new legislation has not yet delivered a complete portfolio of up-andrunningpostgraduate programmes, and partly because the Master has to respond to the imperativeof lifelong accessibility.Its classical delivery mode and function, based on full-time attendance in a single higher educationinstitution [HEI], linking sequentially with Bachelor and with doctorate, is no longer the presumed13