of subject content and learning outcome is a delicate balance, and one in which – supported byacademic counselling – the student must be involved. The personal study plan worked out by eachFinnish student and her or his university is an example of this approach.Anxiety about the teaching time available at <strong>Master</strong> level may also be generated by insufficientdifferentiation of the curriculum from the Bachelor. Once the <strong>Master</strong> is uncoupled from its referenceto continuation and articulated instead to the dimension of lifelong learning, the scope for innovativepedagogy broadens. <strong>In</strong> stressing the learning outcome in preference to the teaching outcome,Bologna encourages not only student-centred learning, but also student participation in curriculumdevelopment.This tendency will accelerate as the Bologna countries move to implement quality assuranceprocedures based on the ESG, in which the strong focus on learning outcomes has somethingapproaching regulatory force.50
8MobilityOn-course mobilityIt is important to distinguish between on-course (horizontal) mobility offered within a particularprogramme – and the so-called transnational vertical mobility that takes a student from a wholecourse in one Bologna cycle in one country to the next Bologna cycle in another. The former is oftenfunded by transnational programmes like ERASMUS and NORDPLUS, or by national sources such asDAAD in Germany, or even at institutional level. Vertical mobility is more likely to be self-funded.On-course mobility is well established and has been extensively researched. It is an eloquent fact thatthe ERASMUS Programme aims to reach its three millionth student by 2012. The target is ambitious.It requires a further million mobile students in the next three academic years and prompts thequestion of how the volume of mobility has been or will be affected by the implementation of thethree-cycle system.<strong>In</strong> the course of its investigations, <strong>EUA</strong> learnt that in Austria mobility was rising again after atemporary fall. <strong>In</strong> Finland and in Spain it was thought that Bologna reforms would boost mobility,although it was too soon to say. <strong>In</strong> Flanders, on the other hand, there were difficulties. Many factorswere cited: asymmetric curricular change in partner institutions; the labour intensity of producinginformation packs in English and of checking the transcripts of incoming students. <strong>In</strong>formants inother countries mentioned the familiar and frequently cited barriers: financial constraints, foreignlanguage problems, family and work commitments, mismatch of academic calendars.<strong>In</strong> Germany, it was suggested that mobility had declined in both Bachelor and <strong>Master</strong>, whencompared to the third year of the old long degree. The obligation to work to support the cost ofstudy at home, the low level of ERASMUS grants, and the slowness of national procedures weresignificant factors. <strong>In</strong> addition, it was felt that foreign study periods were being crowded out byresearch modules, by work placements and by delivery of the core curriculum. <strong>In</strong> order to protectthem, some institutions were contemplating the possibility of opening a ‘mobility window’ in the<strong>Master</strong>, to the value of 30 ECTS points.The issue has been taken up at <strong>Europe</strong>an level. German MEP Doris Pack’s own-initiative report to the<strong>Europe</strong>an Parliament in September 2008 ‘emphasises that the three-cycle degree system (Bachelordegree, <strong>Master</strong>s Degree and Doctorate) could become more flexible especially by using a “4+1”instead of “3+2” system for the first and second cycles [and] notes that for some studies this couldbe more appropriate in order to enable greater mobility and employability of graduates’.Pack also ‘calls on universities in the Union to undertake an innovative, far-reaching and methodicalcurricular reform, since ambitious and high-quality content and restructuring of organisation iscrucial for student mobility and for greater flexibility [and] calls for a “mobility study period” to beintroduced into all degree programmes to enable students to go abroad’. It is not clear whether thissuggestion concerns the <strong>Master</strong> as well as the Bachelor. The tenor of her argument suggests thatit could not be both. <strong>In</strong>stituting a <strong>Europe</strong>-wide system of 4+1, moreover, is a daunting proposition,when seen in the light of the diversity of practice described earlier in section 4.The recent report by Eurostudent floats the possibility of compulsory international semesters, butthis is on the assumption that the prescribed duration of a Bologna Bachelor is three years, which isnot the case. The forthcoming report by the <strong>Europe</strong>an Commission’s Expert Group on mobility willshed further light and make proposals.<strong>In</strong>ter-cycle mobilityOne alternative to on-course mobility is the inter-cycle window created by the student – the gapsemester or gap year which can be intercalated between Bachelor and <strong>Master</strong>. Anecdotal evidencesuggests that this is growing in importance, particularly when the gap is filled with work placement51
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