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

fall within the scope of the state funding system; they have no function regarding access to thedoctorate. Virtually the same situation is observable in Poland, where a shortfall in financial supportfor doctoral studies is cited as one of the factors inducing students to embark on additional Masterprogrammes. The Swiss Master of Advanced Studies [MAS] is yet another post-Master Master.To some extent, the Belgian qualifications survive from older national structures. They may yet beabsorbed into a forward-looking lifelong learning framework. Only time and ‘optimisation’ will tellwhether and how they will endure.The post-Master-Master is not the only anomaly. In some Scottish universities, the Master of Artsis equivalent in level to the Bachelor of Science and is a first cycle qualification. In Italy, the MasterUniversitario di primo livello is also a first cycle qualification. These, effectively, are pre-MasterMasters.In addition, there are designations which, enshrined in tradition, may be open to misreading. InEngland, the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine [BVetMed] has the status of Masters. In the mostrenowned English universities, the Master of Arts is a non-academic distinction, available to alumnion payment of a fee.Such phenomena raise once more the question of nomenclature. It will become one of the refrains ofthis report, which will stress the critical importance of the transparency and cross-border readabilityof qualification systems. The Diploma Supplement [DS] can shed valuable light on what studentshave achieved, but it is legitimate to ask why it should be expected to bear the extra burden ofdeciphering dysfunctional terminology. Rather, it is for NQFs, under pressure from stakeholders, tobecome as user-friendly as possible.The research Master andprogression to the DoctorateAccess to the third cycle from the second is in principle assured in the Bologna Process. The researchMaster represents the classical model of transition. It is well established, although its designationand status across Europe is not readable at first glance.In some countries, the research Master is the absolute pre-condition for entry to the doctorateand is explicitly defined as such. Elsewhere, it is not the absolute pre-condition. In many instances,transition from Master to doctorate is a matter of academic discretion. In the UK tradition, forexample, good performance in the MPhil, a research degree, may lead to termination of registrationand re-enrolment as a doctoral student. This does not rule out the possibility of a student progressingto doctorate from the satisfactory completion of a taught (i.e. less research-intensive) Master. It isalso possible to progress to the doctorate direct from the Bachelor, given attainment of sufficientquality. In such matters, academic discretion is exercised within regulations established by dueprocess, but which are not necessarily identical in all institutions.Just as is the case in the Bachelor-Master sequence, so Bologna has enabled new patterns of Master-Doctor progression. In the Netherlands, many research-intensive universities now offer Top Masters.These may be either a specialist component embedded in a research Master, or a two-year freestandingEnglish-medium research Master giving access to the four-year doctorate, or a two-yearMaster in which the second year can count as the first year of the four-year doctoral programme.The third of these possibilities is also available at some German universities. It is worth noting, inpassing, the ambiguous title of Top Master.EUA’s 2007 report on Doctoral Programmes in Europe’s Universities considered that access to thedoctorate should not be from the Master alone. It called for flexibility of admission polices in a37