AlmaLaurea News
University reform: a new change.Fewer exams and a more definite transition from 1st level to 2nd level degrees. “But students should carefully plan their path of studies”. Here there are the opinions and advices given by the Pro-Rectors for Didactics of the universities of Bologna, Florence and Padua.
A limit to the proliferation of degree courses and, above all, fewer exams. Moreover, the basis for accessing the 2nd level degree course will not just be the 1st level degree, but also some specific requirements. Each university may set additional access requirements, such as graduation mark, and should assess students skills and grounding. University will change as follows. Many universities have already started to conform to the new changes –although there is still one year left to complete this updating process- and they will start with the new courses in October. These changes have not yet involved both the old degree courses (created previously to the University reform) of the faculty of Medicine and the 1st level degree courses of the health sector, for which there aren’t yet any guidelines from the Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research.
These changes, which are a kind of reform of the so-called “3+2 reform”, derive from the ministerial decree nr. 270 of 22nd October 2004, whose application has been subsequently defined through other decrees. AlmaLaurea is trying to understand which kinds of changes will involve students, both those who enrol in a given faculty for the first time and those who want to access a 2nd level degree course after having obtained a 1st level degree course. Here there are the opinions of the Pro-Rectors for Didactics of the universities of Bologna, Florence and Padua, who talk about the changes and the new courses which will start in their universities and they also give advices to the newly enrolled students.
“Duplicate” courses and courses having a very low number of students will be cut
“This is not just a mere reduction in the number of courses, which will be decreased by 25%, but a real rationalisation”, says Sandro Rogari, Pro-Rector for Didactics at the University of Florence. “Although the new degree courses will be fewer than now, the wealth of study opportunities that has always been offered through the years will be kept in each path of study through the different subjects characterising them and not through a split into different degree courses, as it has happened until recently. This means that the choices that students make during studies and at the time of they have access to the labour market will be simplified". Besides this cut in the number of the degree courses, the Ministry has imposed to universities a minimum number of full professors and associate professors (3 for each year) which is necessary to activate the degree courses.
Fewer exams, but it will not be an “easier university”
In the 1st level degree courses the exams will be decreased from about 30 to no more than 20; in the 2nd level degree courses they will be decreased from 20 to 12. These changes had been frequently required by the students themselves, in order to make up for the excessive fragmentation of degree courses, which was caused by the University reform between 2000 and 2001. “It doesn’t mean that the degree courses will become easier”, explains Guido Masetti, Pro-Rector for University Studies at the University of Bologna. “We have noticed that it had become difficult for students to find all necessary connections between the subjects they studied and to develop strong and coherent skills and knowledge, since their subjects had been excessively divided into smaller parts. Moreover, an inferior number of exams has the positive effect of reducing the emotional stress that everyone of us experience at university. To sum up, it was a necessary change to make. It urges students to have a synthetic view of the subjects they study, without decreasing the quality level of their studies, quite the contrary” For Professor Sandro Rogari, “a strong reduction in the number of courses and- as a consequence- of the exams make university studies more fluent”. “The worst aspect of the reform was the proliferation of degree courses, although this phenomenon had not been so excessive in Padua”, explains Cesare Voci, Pro-rector for Didactics at the university of Padua. “Our guidelines were: reducing the number of exams, avoiding the fragmentation of courses and trying to merge similar courses which in 2001-2002 had been started as separate courses. In particular, within the 1st level degree courses we tried to give more importance to the main subjects, whereas the more specific subjects have been kept only in those courses- such as Engineering- were they were actually necessary”.
And what about the exams?
“They have been reduced to 19 +1 in the 1st level degree courses and to 11+1 in the 2nd level degree courses, where “+1”means that there is one exam which can be chosen by the students themselves".
From 3+2 to 3 and 2
“It may seem just a matter of names, but it is not. The “plus” is replaced by an “and”. What does it mean? It means that 1st level degree courses (the so-called “3”, because they are 3-year courses) and the 2nd level degree courses (the “2”, because they are 2-year courses) will be not so much bound anymore. It will become a more definite passage, like passing from high school to university. And this will foster mobility”. This is the opinion of Guido Masetti.
Can you give us an example?
“For example, the 2nd level degree course of Mechanical Engineering in Bologna will be attended by anyone in Italy having a 1st level degree in Mechanical Engineering. This has not been possible up to now, since a university could not recognize all the 180 credits acquired by a student with the first level degree, if this degree had been obtained in another university, somewhere else in Italy. But it doesn’t mean that there will be no requirements for university access”.
Accessing 2nd level degree courses: graduation mark and an interview
It’s very important to know that those who want to continue studies by attending a 2nd level degree course must make plans for their access to it when they are still attending a 1st level degree course and consult the regulations of the university where they would like to attend it. This passage should not be considered traumatic, but more definite. As Professor Voci explains: “It would be better if students started to collect information in advantage. Otherwise, there is the risk to make an improvised choice which may cost them to loose one year of studies. “The decree nr. 270 provides for two important steps of this passage: students must meet the requirements set by universities, which will assess their grounding. Maybe the majority of universities will choose to select students on the basis of an interview and of their graduation mark. At this point, the faculty of Psychology of Padua set the minimum graduation mark for selection at 95/110. Moreover, each student will plan studies in advantage with a view to the access to a given 2nd level degree. In case there is something lacking, for example the number of philosophy exams a student has taken during the 1st level degree course is not sufficient to access the Philosophy 2nd level degree course, then the student has two alternatives: either graduating later in order to take the additional exams which would allow him to attend the 2nd level degree course, or first graduating, then attending the single courses for the exams he needs to take and finally accessing the 2nd level degree course”. But is a loss of time. “A good planning of studies will become more and more important”, says Professor Voci. “In case the graduation mark is a criterion for selecting students, then they should know from the very first beginning of the 1st level degree course which mark has been set as the minimum mark required for accessing the 2nd level degree course. Setting the graduation mark as a criterion for selection is not compulsory for universities, but it will foster students’ achievement of good results. However, I think that setting a too high graduation mark as a requirement for selection would be unacceptable".
What is happening in the different universities?
The university of Bologna and many others have re-organised 90% of their courses. These changes have not yet involved the degree courses of the health sector and the 2ndlevel degree courses of Engineering, which will start in the academic year 2009/2010. "We have started a policy of re-organisation of didactics. We cut all degree courses having a very low number of students and we applied thresholds that are higher than those imposed by the Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research”. Now the study opportunities include 223 degree courses and the number of 2nd level degree courses is higher than the number of the 1st level ones. “In compliance with the strategic plan of our university, we have reduced the 1st level degree courses and we have focused our attention on the 2nd level ones, which is more strictly connected with the aim to quality". Another change: there are eight new 2nd level degree courses which are held in English (Engineering, Economics, Industrial Chemistry and Political Sciences). The university of Padua has also re-organised 90% of the courses. “We started to discuss about this project in 2005 and now we can offer 91 first level degree courses, (12 courses less than the previous amount) and 89 second level degree courses (with an increase of another 3 courses this year and even more in the following years). To sum up, we have a kind of tree-shaped structure: there are more 2nd level degree courses than the 1st level ones and the access to 2n level degree courses is less strict, in order to allow the access of students coming from different universities and having different a grounding. The “3+2 system” had many disadvantages, because universities received no help, suggestions or rules for the application of this system. Now the situation is different: the Ministry has set rules which will never allow universities anymore to offer autonomously the most varied study opportunities. Among all these changes made in Padua there are new 2nd level degree courses, such as Neurosciences and neuropsychological re-habilitation at the faculty of Psychology, Mechatronic Engineering and Industrial safety engineering at the faculty of Engineering. “The great challenge is to improve the quality of study opportunities, which had actually lowered during the last few years and make sure that students graduate within the official time limits” The university of Florence has also decided to start this process as soon as possible: the majority of the study opportunities offered for the academic year 2008/2009 is still based on the decree nr.270 of 2004. "We are sure that these efforts will foster an improve in the quality and time length of the paths of study chosen by students", says Professor Rogari. “The reform provided for strict requirements for the activation of the different courses of study, such as the fact that at least 50% of the main subjects of a course should be held by full professors and associate professors. The university of Florence has followed this choice, in most of the cases it has increased up to 70% the amount of courses that should be held by full professors and associate professors”.