EJTA

Competences Questionnaire

2008-01-11T11:23:02+01:00

Dear Colleagues,

At EJTA’s Annual General Meeting in Paris last June, we decided to strengthen the basis of the Competence profile (Tartu-declaration) and to make it even more useful. We concluded we want more:

1. Insight in the relative importance of the competences.

2. Insight in the way new developments and trends influence the competence profile: which aspects will become more important and which will loose relative weight?

3. Insight in whether or not EJTA-members want to make adjustments to the competence profile.

Our colleagues from Winterthur, Vinzenz Wyss and his team, have developed an online questionnaire[1].We would like you to select one key person from your organisation who has expertise on educating journalists as well as on trends and developments in the field. This key person should fill in the online questionnaire that can be found at

http://dimensions.oxy.ch/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=EJTA

before

January 25th 2008.

It will take only about 12 minutes to fill in this questionnaire and it is very important for EJTA that all members do so. If you have any problems filling in the questionnaire, please contact Carmen Koch from the Winterthur-team ().

The data will be analyzed by the Winterthur team and the Pilot group Competences. All participants will get a copy of the analysis and the results will also be presented on June 14th 2008 at the AGM in Valencia.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Kind regards,

Pilot Group Competences EJTA Board

Nico Drok Marianne Peters

Chairman Chairman

Summary Luzern meeting Competence Group March 8th 2007

2007-03-22T14:34:38+01:00

Pilotgroup Competences
Luzern March 8th 2007

Present: Inger Munk (Aarhus), Anna McKane (London), Sylvia Egli von Matt (Luzern, female host), Epp Lauk (Tartu), Laurent Passicousset (Paris), Bernd Merkel (Luzern), Vinzenz Wyss (Winterthur), Nico Drok (Zwolle, chairman).
Absent (with notice): Wilfried Vanden Bossche (Mechelen)

Summary of the consultation

The Bologna process is a key element in realizing the right of free movement of people and an important contribution to realizing the objective of improving European citizenship and democracy. The Pilotgroup Competences plays a role in EJTA’s way of dealing with the Bologna goals.

The Bologna process includes
o the adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees (bachelor, master),
o a European credit-system to express workload and to ease transfer (EC’s)
o a European dimension in higher education especially through student mobility
o European quality assurance and accreditation

In most European countries the Bachelor/Master-system and the European Credit Transfer System are implemented or will be implemented before long. In the coming years the focus will be on Mobility and Quality Assurance. European Institutions for Higher Education – be it for initial or for lifelong/mid-career learning – will have to develop a common language in order to fine tune their educational content. This ‘tuning’ must lead to transparency, mutual recognition of qualifications, of courses and of grades and diplomas across Europe.

As in all other sectors of higher education, two main objectives for Journalism in the period 2007 -2010 lie in the field of:

1. Student Mobility
2. Quality Assurance

Ad. 1 Student Mobility

The Pilotgroup discussed the following six questions:

a. WHY do we do it?

In the years ahead, Student Mobility will be expanded. And it will take place in a greater variety of ways, not merely (or perhaps not even mainly) on the basis of mutuality/exchange. To reach the goals of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) study programmes and periods of learning must become more comparable and compatible, especially in terms of size and goals. For describing Size we will use the European Credits as a common unit (1 EC = 28 hours workload); for describing Goals we will use EJTA’s competence profile.

b. WHO are we aiming at?

EJTA-members who want to offer interesting educational content to students from abroad.

c. WHAT do they have to give us?

 Information about the offering institution (name, city, country)
 Information about the course/unit: name, type, size, level, language, central goals, content, literature, entrance conditions. The Tartu Declaration plays a central role.

d. WHERE is their information to be found?

The information will be gathered in a Catalogue. The Catalogue will be put on EJTA’s website, and can be searched on the basis of type, size, level, language.

e. HOW is the procedure?

 The pilotgroup has developed a format (see appendix). One page of information is the maximum.
 A Catalogue Committee (to be appointed) assesses the offers and the way they are described in the format.
 Only courses/units that are in the Catalogue can be part of the EJTA Mobility Program.

f. WHEN will all this take place?

June 2007: the Pilot Group will ask the AGM to agree.
September – Dec 2007: EJTA-members get the opportunity to offer courses for the Catalogue by filling in the format and send it to the Catalogue Committee.
January – March 2008: assessment of the offers/formats by the Committee.
April – August 2008: preparing the Catalogue and put it on the website.
September 2008: launching of the website.

Ad. 2 Quality Assurance

In a growing number of European countries external accreditation is becoming an important element of systems of Quality Assurance and Enhancement. In most cases Accreditation Committees – which almost always contain educational and/or professional experts – focus on aspects such as:
 goals,
 program,
 staff (quantity/quality),
 material conditions (equipment, housing, finance),
 quality system,
 output (quality/quantity)

Competence profiles play an important role as a standard or reference point, especially in the process of assessing goals, program, quality system and quality of output. More emphasis is being laid on international/European agreement about these profiles.

Countries and/or institutions that do not work with a national system of accreditation nevertheless also find great importance in an agreed upon international competence profile as a central framework and reference point of quality; it can be used in the communication with stakeholders, for example potential students, the industry or the profession.

In the coming years three jobs have to be done:

i. Different stakeholders (employers, other professionals, students) will be asked what weight they attach to each of the 47 competences of the Tartu Declaration for the basic level, the advanced level and the master level.
ii. All courses (units/modules) have to be individually linked to the competence profile.
iii. The curriculum as a whole has to be linked to the competence profile.

These jobs are planned for the period 2008 – 2010. As a preparation we will

a. ask EJTA-members how they see the relative importance of each of the 47 competences of the Tartu Declaration for the basic level, the advanced level and the master level.
b. invite a Tartu-student to the AGM in Paris and propose to ask her to do research on how and to what extend the EJTA Competence profile is reflected in the curricula of Tartu, London and Arhus/Göteborg.

Zwolle, March 19th 2007

Luzern March 8th 2007

2007-02-05T14:17:30+01:00

On March 8th 2007 the Pilotgroup competences will meet in Luzern (hosted by MAZ).

The main task in Luzern is to find out the best way to describe our educational program (while making use of the competence profile) so that in the end (2010) students from all over Europe can easily find their way to get a degree or diplom while using elements from different European schools.

A first step in that process is to have a format that works best for everyone. A format that does not take to much time and effort to fill in, but gives sufficient information. So we designed a rather simple format. Here it is:

A. Institution [ => name of the institution (only EJTA-members), city, country]
B. Type [ => mid-career, university, polytechnic/professional university, other (specify)]
C. Course information:
1. Name [=> name/ title of the course (only names that give a clear indication about the content)]
2. Size [=> size in European Credits (1 EC = 28 hours of work)]
3. Level [=> Level 1 = Beginners (first or second year); Level 2 = Bachelor (third or fourth year); Level 3 = Master]
4. Language [=> the official language of the course]
5. Competence goals [=> which of the 47 are central in this course (min. 1 – max. 5)]
6. Content [=> short content description (min. 200 – max. 300 words)]
7. Literature [=> compulsory literature]

If you have comments or suggestions: please let us know!

Member Pilot group

2007-02-05T14:03:08+01:00

Here are the names and addresses of the Members of the EJTA Pilot Group Journalism Competences.

Please feel free to contact them.

MEMBERS OF THE PILOTGROUP JOURNALISM COMPETENCES

Aarhus Danmarks Journalisthøjskole
Olof Palmes Alle 11 8200 Arhus N
Denmark Tel. +45 89 440550
Website http://www.cfje.dk
Inger Munk

London City University London - Department of Journalism
Northampton Square London EC1V 0HB
Great Britain Tel. +44 207 040 8241
Website http://www.city.ac.uk/journalism
Anna McKane

Luzern MAZ - Die Schweizer Journalistenschule
Murbacherstrasse 3 6003 Luzern
Switzerland Tel. +41 41 226 33 33
Website http://www.maz.ch
Sylvia Egli von Matt

Mechelen Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen - Afdeling Journalistiek - De Ham
Raghenoplein 21b 2800 Mechelen
Belgium Tel. +32 15 36 91 50
Website http://www.khm.be
Wilfried Vanden Bossche

Paris Centre de Formation et de Perfectionnement des Journalistes
35, rue du Louvre 75002 Paris
France Tel. +33 1 44 82 20 77/78/42
Website http://www.cfpj.com
Fabrice Jouhaud

Tartu Tartu University, Department of Journalism
Ulikooli 18, 50090 Tartu
Estonia Tel. +37 27 37 51 88
Website http://www.jrnl.ut.ee
Epp Lauk

Winterthur Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur
Zur Kesselschmiede 35 CH-8401 Winterthur Switzerland Tel. +41-52 267 77 62
Website http://www.iam.zhwin.ch
Vinzenz Wyss

Zwolle Hogeschool Windesheim
School of Media Campus 2-6
8017 CA Zwolle Netherlands
Tel. +31 38 4699 615
Website http://www.windesheim.nl
Nico Drok