VORACEK, Jan1 & ZEMCIK, Pavel2
1
2 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Technical University of Brno, Bozetechova 2, CZ-612 66, Brno, Czech Republic, zemcik@dcse.fee.vutbr.cz, http://www.fee.vutbr.cz/~zemcik/
Abstract: new system of international education, knowledge and human resources transfer is presented in this paper. The system combines educational activities with scientific and prepares new international industrial and business connections. The presented activity, which is oriented mostly on students from Russia and former eastern block countries, has been prepared by Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland) and started in January 1999.
The reasons, organization background, and the practical experience with the new type of international studies are presented.
Keywords: education, globalization, Russia, Finland, industry
An international educational cooperation and mutual students' exchanges nowadays found their way into the universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Students of these universities can use various offers resulting from bilateral agreements, programs sponsored by the European Union or other international authorities, public or private foundations’ proposals etc. Majority of them represents short or medium term target-oriented stays (specific courses attendance, joint research projects participation, or master thesis elaboration). Rather different situation can be seen in Russia. Unstable political and economical situation constantly excludes this country from the majority of the present development programs although the interest of Russian students in international experience is enormous.
Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) specializes in technology and economics and location at the border between Finland and Russia enables it to keep close relations with universities from neighboring St.Petersburg's region. Traditional informal events, such as joint conferences, summer schools, common research interests or short educational exchanges have culminated with the presented International Master Program in Information Processing and Telecommunications (IMPIPT). This program represents new qualitative level in existing system of international education and its main distinctions can be characterized as follows:
More detailed information about the project can be found on its web homepage [1].
In addition to financing, which was the primary issue of the project, we had to solve two principal non-financial tasks during the preparatory stage : how to address possible candidates and how to evaluate them. The system of cooperation with so-called partner universities was selected rather than individual applications processing. Based on our contacts, four foreign universities, two Czech and two Russian, were addressed:
A preliminary version of the program was proposed to the partner universities and the final version of program content and administration was elaborated altogether with our foreign colleagues from the partner universities.
This approach primarily enabled LUT to formulate exact requirements concerning educational and personal background of prospective applicants, to specify general selection criteria, and then to depute the responsibility for initial decision to the partner universities. Moreover, frequent discussions and meetings with foreign partners involved incorporating their experience and suggestions into the program.
Another asset of this principle is the acceptance of applicants' actual amount of study credits. Due to the different educational systems, it is very difficult to compare single courses and the final knowledge level of applicants among the participating universities. To prevent complicated and slow explicit enumeration and to ensure the start of IMPIPT program in reasonable time, only general knowledge areas were fixed. Concrete details concerning the consonance of applicants' knowledge with LUT's wishes were completely left on their domestic teachers. Nowadays we can confirm the suitability of such authority decentralization.
Though described selection system is flexible and helped us to originate presented activity smoothly and quickly, the more precise academic comparison, based on credit units compatibility must be prepared for the future applicants.
To fully clarify the presented LUT international activity, two primary questions should be explained:
Complete conversion of advanced university courses into English and organization of IMPIPT program represents significant conversion of the structure of teaching, lecture notes, and other course material for the local Department of Information Technology. The related changes affected directly teachers, students, and supporting staff. Existing study materials and lecture notes were translated into English. The necessity of additional educational and social facilities is evident. Hence the expected benefit must definitely compensate suggested disadvantages. The main expected IMPIPT results can be summarized in the following items:
It is clear that that the presented activity is really worthwhile.
The answer to the second essential question, the project financing, is illustrated in Fig. 1. Current money flow is marked with continuous lines with thickness reflecting its total amount. The expected final money flow is drawn with dotted lines. Dual line represents graduated international students.
Figure 1. Current and expected future IMPIPT financing
While the teaching and all related educational activities are free of charge, general living expenses in Finland are high for prospective applicants. Considering these facts, the following financing structure was designed:
The exact position of the participating companies in the presented scheme is subject of further negotiations. According to our experience, companies are interested in cooperation and generally do agree with some reasonable kind of direct future financial contribution.
The duration of IMPIPT program is two years. The first one and half year is reserved for learning, while the last study quarter is dedicated for master thesis preparation and writing, preferably on industrial topics and under external supervision.
To ensure smooth start of program, balance students' knowledge, and compensate possible educational differences, the teaching process is divided into two periods - transition and regular:
The discussions with various companies lead in the establishment of two parallel professional branches. First one will contain only standard university courses just as at this moment; the second direction will include specialized, industry-oriented courses and practical training. Such arrangement will emphasize application orientation of IMPIPT program and make it more attractive for the Finnish industry.
Organizing regular meetings with companies' management is another way to establish and maintain future industrial contacts. Beyond detailed information about program and individual students, also preliminary rules concerning their future employment and general cooperation-related matters can be discussed. Currently we have a list of external partners willing to employ foreign students both as summer trainees and part-time workers in order to work out valuable master thesis. Subsequent regular full employment should finalize industrial idea of the program proposed.
Study structure on LUT includes mandatory and optional courses, the total number T of credits necessary for successful graduation is 180. Regular student is obliged to reach 120 credits in predefined courses to be considered a bachelor. Remaining 60 credits consist of 40 units reached in advanced courses and 20 for successful master thesis defense.
To preserve the compatibility during the last two study years, LUT has accepted all foreigners with the certain initial amount of credits. Current IMPIPT study valuation formula looks as follows:
T = A + B1 + B2 + B3 + C
5 Valuation of study
|
where |
T |
means total the number of credits required for the Finnish M.Sc. degree equivalent |
|
A |
means the accepted number of credits from home universities |
|
|
B1,B2,B3 |
mean the credits received in LUT regular courses during the first, second and third study semester |
|
|
C |
means the number of credits for successful master thesis defense |
For the current stage of the program, the following values are valid:
A = 117
B1 = 18
B2 = 19
B3 = 6
and T and C are the same as for Finnish students, e.g.:
T = 180
C = 20
At the moment all B1 - B3 courses are mandatory for all IMPIPT students. Later we are planing to increase the offer of courses taught in English and enable the option of selection of the courses also to participants of our foreign program.
Quadripartite program governing board received results of selection interviews from the candidates’ home universities and the required set of documents from the individual applicants, that includes:
Several decision criteria were combined (general professional background, the study specialization, personal qualities, classification in principal courses and expectations for successful professional career in Finland) to select twenty suitable participants from more than two times higher number of applicants.
Our future intention is to introduce also reviewers from cooperating companies to the selection stage. In this manner they can pick the most appropriate applicants and preliminarily guarantee them the later employment.
After the final decision, an informative package including the official documents (invitation, study contract, and a bank account application) and general information was posted to our future students. We didn't register any extraordinary complications in processing the package; everybody was able to manage all necessities and arrive to Lappeenranta in time. For all related practical details in this period, the care was taken by the International Office of LUT. In cooperation with the local Students Union and personal tutors, all possible initial troubles were minimized and new students were able to really deal only with study matters since the very beginning of the project. In the practice, we didn't have any serious problems or misunderstandings and all initially accepted students continue their education till now.
Basic characteristics of the advanced international educational program already running on Lappeenranta University of Technology were described. Program importance is not only in the education itself, but also in its close industrial connections. Courses lectured in English became standard for all advanced students of information technology on LUT and the different study system did not cause any serious problems to them. Also the local students' community accepted foreign students very kindly.
Finnish companies are interested in all aspects of IMPIPT program. They organized several presentations and discussed individually with foreign students about their interests and abilities. Almost all of them have already found the allocation for this summer and also a system of further cooperation was outlined.
Assumed future activities depend very closely on the current results. IMPIPT program is thoroughly followed and evaluated not only with the companies, but also with its main founders and current supporters - Finish Ministry of Education and Lappeenranta University of Technology. Very important and useful is also feedback from partner universities, Finnish students and, of course, from IMPIPT participants themselves. After the first specific conclusions of the program are available, the strategy for next year will be refined.
From the global point of view, described program represents only the first step of prepared wider framed cross-border cooperation within which we would like to join all similar Finnish-Russian activities and realize general international training and educational cross-border infrastructure.
References