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France from Re.ViCa

2009-02-03T21:57:13Z

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== Partners situated in France ==
[[Université Louis Pasteur]]

[[Image:France map ULP.JPG|thumb|left|250px|(map cf: Eugris)]]

==France in a nutshell ==

France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents. After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). With a population of over 63 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany). Its territory is split into (administrative) regions. 22 of them are in Metropolitan France (the part of the country that is in Europe):

French is the official language of France, but each region has its own unique accent; in addition to French, there are several other languages of France traditionally
spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. French is also an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of Frenchspeaking nations.

== French education policy ==

The current priorities of the ministry responsible for national education are conveyed in a series of measures in accordance with the law of 23 April 2005. This involves, in particular:

* Defining the common core
* Personalised academic achievement programmes (PPRE)
* Revival of priority education
* Giving marks for school life
* The development of apprenticeship
* Improving education for disabled pupils
* Teacher training

For more details please see [[French education policy]]

Moreover secularism is an important principle in French education. It is based on the Napoleonic concordat of 1801 and the separation law of Church and State in 1905. School must be neutral and nondenominational. For example, religion does not constitute a teaching subject, teachers do not have the right to talk of their personal beliefs and all religious propaganda is banned within the school establishment. The law 2004-228 of 15 March 2004 stipulates that "in state schools, collèges and lycées, pupils are forbidden to wear signs or clothes which conspicuously show any religious affiliation."

== French education system ==

French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into four different stages:
* Pre-primary education
* primary education (enseignement primaire);
* secondary education (enseignement secondaire);
* higher education (enseignement supérieur).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_France Education in France] ''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia''

[[Image:French academies]]

[[Image:French education system.jpg]]

=== Pre-primary education ===
France has a long tradition of ‘pre-elementary’ education. Despite the fact that it is not compulsory, all children attend the école maternelle (nursery school) from the age of 2 to 5, though provision to children aged 2 is based on availability.
Public-sector ‘pre-elementary’ or ‘nursery’ schools are the responsibility of the education ministry and attendance at them is free of charge. In the private schools that cater for close to 2.4 % of children, parents pay a share of the tuition fees. Nursery schools are indeed schools in the full sense with programmes of teaching and learning activity. The main educational areas of activity contribute to the overall development of children and prepare them for ‘elementary’ school.

=== Compulsory education ===
Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. It is divided into three stages:
* Primary education (école primaire) Ages 6-11
* Lower secondary education (collège) Ages 11-15
* General and technological lycée (lycée général et technologique) or vocational lycée (lycée professionnel) Compulsory only between ages 15 and 16

The enrolment of pupils in state schooling is based on a ‘sectorial’ principle: pupils are normally registered in the primary school, ''collège'' or ''lycée'' of the geographical area in which their parents live. State education is free of charge. Private education is mostly Roman Catholic. Although the French constitution proclaims that the state is secular, a 1959 law allows private establishments to sign government contracts that procure financial support in exchange for some control.

The ‘elementary’ school curriculum concentrates on the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as on physical education (normal motor skills, etc.) and enhancing awareness and sensitivity. The lower secondary education curriculum consists of eight or nine compulsory subjects depending on the year of study, and becomes increasingly diversified with the inclusion of optional subjects. Primary school classes have a single teacher for all subjects, whereas secondary school classes have different teachers for each subject. The education ministry determines school curricula and the aims underlying the acquisition of knowledge and skills by pupils. Teachers choose their own teaching methods and school textbooks.

On completion of their ''collège'' schooling, pupils are awarded a brevet (national certificate) on the basis of their marks in the final two years and a national examination. The brevet is not a compulsory qualification and continuation of their schooling in a lycée is not dependent on their passing the examination.

=== Post-compulsory education/upper secondary and post-secondary level ===
On completion of collège, pupils are offered three educational options:
** general studies;
** technological studies;
** vocational training.
At the ''lycée d’enseignement général et technologique'', which caters for pupils who have chosen either of the first two possibilities, provision lasts three years and leads to the general and technological baccalaureate examination that may be chosen among the three general categories (economic and social, literary, or scientific) or among the seven technological categories. The ''lycée professionnel'' prepares students in two years for the first level of vocational qualification, corresponding to the ''certificat d’aptitude professionnelle'' (CAP) or ''brevet d’études professionnelles'' (BEP). These qualifications are designed to provide direct access to employment including in-company placements or may lead to a vocational baccalaureate in one of 48 specialised fields on offer. The baccalaureate, whether general, technological or vocational, gives access to higher education.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

=== Administration of French education system ===
School education comes under the minister responsible for education throughout the country. Free public-sector provision exists alongside education offered by private schools whose population has remained stable for several years, at 2 027 700 (primary and secondary education, 2006).

At the beginning of the 2006/07 academic year, the school population in metropolitan France and its overseas ''départements'' (DOM) for public and private sectors stood at 12.4 million students. In order for the education system to operate, the state employs more that 1.3 million people, 850 000 of whom are public sector teachers. There are almost 2.287 million students in higher education, which employs 147 000 people, 88 000 of whom are teachers in public HEIs. The language of instruction is French. The regional languages are taught as part of the modern languages branch of studies.

Notwithstanding certain decentralisation measures under which responsibility for the construction and maintenance of public-sector school buildings has been entrusted to the local area authorities, the central government has retained a decisive role in the area of educational policy. The ministry responsible for national education draws up in detail the curriculum for each subject and level of education, and provides guidelines for teaching without however obliging teachers to adopt a particular method. It administers the recruitment, training and management of teaching staff, determines the status and regulations of schools, allocating them their appropriate quota of staff. The ministry also organises examinations and awards national qualifications, in particular the baccalaureate which testifies to the satisfactory completion of secondary schooling.

In order to implement this policy and the accomplishment of its numerous management tasks, France is divided into 30 such ''académies'' each headed by a rector acting directly on behalf of the minister. An ''académie'' is the administrative level enabling the regional application of education policies as defined by the government. It allows action to be taken according to local contexts in collaboration with regional groups: ''communes'' (town) for primary education, ''départements'' (district) for ''collèges'' and ''régions'' (province) for ''lycées''.

The system is supervised by several inspectorates. Three general inspectorates are entrusted with very broad responsibilities for evaluation at national level in addition to two regional inspectorates, one that visits primary schools and monitor the performance of teachers, and one responsible for marking and assessing school teachers at secondary level.

== Higher education in France ==

''Please visit this page for a full [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_France List of HEIs in France]''

Obtaining the baccalauréat is a pre-requisite to being admitted to an institution of higher education. The baccalauréat is a diploma that acknowledges the successful completion of secondary education and the first level of university studies. This is a very important feature of the French education system, one which has several consequences, particularly with regard to university studies and student orientation during the premier cycle (first cycle) at university.

There are four types of programmes in the French tertiary education system:
* University education,
* Preparatory classes for grandes écoles,
* Higher technical education sections,
* Specialised schools or grandes écoles.

Then, depending on the duration involved, there are two types of studies :

* Shorter technical and vocational studies undertaken in university technology establishments (Instituts Universitaires de Technologies) leading to the DUT: Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie), the universities (leading to the DEUST: Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Scientifiques et Techniques) or higher secondary establishments (leading to the BTS: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur). Entry into these channels is based on a selection process and account is taken of pupils' record of achievement during their secondary schooling.

* Lengthier studies undertaken at a university or one of the "Grandes Ecoles" (to which entry is after two years of preparation in the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (CPGE). After admission into these schools, the studies themselves generally last three years and lead to the "diplômes d'écoles". There is no selection for entry into university. Universities issue generic qualifications and also vocational qualifications. Teacher training is also undertaken at university.

Higher education in France also has specialised schools, recruitment being based on the baccalaureate, competitions or dossiers. They concern the paramedical sector (nursing schools, physiotherapists, etc.), the social sector (schools for specialised educators, social assistants, etc.), the arts sector or architecture. Studies vary in duration and lead to state-recognised diplomas or specific school diplomas.

These categories can also be broken down further into:
* those which can be accessed directly with a baccalauréat or an equivalent diploma, involving no pre-entry selection process: university programmes, with the exception of university institutes of technology;

* those which are accessed through a pre-entry selection process: preparatory classes for grandes écoles (CPGE), higher technical education sections (STS), Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT or University institutes of technology) and specialised schools. Selections are made based on an admissions application. The type of baccalauréat earned and the marks obtained by the pupil in the last two years of lycée are determining factors;

* those for which the selection process occurs after the student has obtained a licence. This is the case for IUFM (university teacher training institutes) programmes, Grandes écoles recruiting by competitive examination following two or three years of preparatory classes (CPGE mostly).

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/FR_EN.pdfEurybase, the Information Database on Education Systems in Europe; The Education System in France 2007/08]

Teacher training is provided at Instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres (IUFM) after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies. Access to the profession for all levels of education takes place by means of a competitive examination, followed by a practical placement which must be validated by a certificate of competency or successful performance in a professional qualification examination. Those who are successful in competitive examinations for permanent posts are offered teaching positions in an académie.

Two categories of teachers exist at the level of higher education:
1) research teachers: lecturers and university professors who have the dual task of ensuring the development of basic and applied research and of conveying the resulting knowledge to students. They are permanent state employees;
2) other higher education teaching staff: associate or guest professors; second-degree teaching staff in higher education; professors who teach classes préparatoires (CPGE); assistant teachers (which is disappearing); temporary teaching and research assistants; foreign language teachers and lecturers; part-time lecturers and part-time staff.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

[[Image:French higher education.JPG]]

=== Universities in France ===
French universities are organized by academy because this is how the French educational system is organized. France is divided into thirty-five academies, of which thirty-one host the principal administrative seats of universities. Although the rectors or vice-rectors who head the academies do not have administrative control over the universities, the division into academies is nonetheless important because it governs admissions. Students in France have the right to be admitted to a university in the academy in which they passed the baccalauréat, and in some cases to a university in another specified academy.

''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_universities_in_France List of public universities in France]

=== Polytechnics in France ===
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Polytechnic_Institutes_(France) The National Polytechnic Institutes] or ''Instituts Nationaux Polytechniques'' (INPs) in France are three consortiums of grandes écoles that offer engineering degrees. They were established in 1970. They are classed together with French universities although they are quite different from the public universities, both in their organization and in the fact that they have competitive admissions.

The three institutions are:
* The National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse or INP Toulouse)
* The Grenoble Institute of Technology (Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble or INP Grenoble)
* The National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine)

=== Universités de Technologie ===
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_of_Technology_(France) Universities of Technology] are public institutions awarding degrees and diplomas that are accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Although called "universities", the universities of technology are in fact non-university institutes (''écoles extérieures aux universities'') established since 1972.

They possess the advantage of combining all the assets of the engineering ''Grandes Ecoles'' and those of universities as they develop simultaneously and coherently three missions: education, research and transfer of technology.

They maintain close links with the industrial world both on national and international levels and they are reputed for their ability to innovate, adapt and provide an education that matches the ever changing demands of industry.

This network includes three institutions:
* The University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard or UTBM)
* The University of Technology of Compiègne (Université de Technologie de Compiègne or UTC)
* The University of Technology of Troyes (Université de Technologie de Troyes or UTT)

=== Grandes Ecoles ===
In France [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%A9coles Grandes écoles] or Graduate schools (literally in French "Grand Schools" or "Elite Schools") are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system. Unlike French public universities which have an obligation to accept all candidates of the same region who hold a Baccalauréat, the selection criteria of Grandes écoles rests mainly on competitive written and oral exams, undertaken by students of dedicated preparatory classes. They do not have a large student body (3,000 at the largest establishment; most have a few hundred students each year) and are generally focused on a single subject area, mainly engineering, business or humanities. They have traditionally produced most of France's high ranking civil servants, politicians and executives as well as many scientists and philosophers.

== Higher education reform ==

In May 2006, the Commission issued a [http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/comuniv2006_en.pdf communication] making detailed recommendations on how to modernise higher education in Europe. In its most contested suggestion, the report urged member states to give universities more autonomy and accountability and encouraged governments to "open up universities to the business community".

A French Universities' Freedoms and Responsibilities law to implement EU recommendations on reforming higher education was presented on 24 May 2007 and adopted by the French Parliament in August 2007. The law, set to be implemented over the next five years, will:

* give French universities more autonomy to decide upon their budget and staff (by creating foundations to collect money and devise their own recruitment processes), and;
* enable universities to open their administration to external staff, allowing representatives of the business world to take part in university governance.

While the reform is now under way and has broad support of university presidents, opposition remains among some members of the university community. Lecturers' and students' representatives fear 'privatisation' of the university sector and that the state will stop financing courses it regards as not cost-effective. (…) All students, university staff and the French association of researchers fear that state disengagement could lead to excessive private-sector influence over higher education curricula and unequal development of universities.

The majority students' union Unef claimed law could lead to selection, higher fees, domination by business and increased inequality between universities, and called on its supporters to take action this month.

''Adapted from'' : [http://www.euractiv.com/en/education/french-university-funding-reform-faces-renewed-opposition/article-173586 EurActiv.com]

[[Image:French autonomous HEIs.JPG]]

In addition, the reforms of French higher education in 1968-1971 broke apart several public universities into numerous autonomous successor universities. For example, the University of Paris was split into thirteen universities, Paris I through Paris XIII. These universities have subsequently formed groupings in order to pool resources and better advance their joint activities. Some of these groupings, which typically take the legal form of a groupement d'interêt public, or GIP, are themselves called universities or university centers. In addition to universities, they may include other institutions of higher education and research as well as municipal and regional governments. The process has accelerated with the law of 18 April 2006 on the reform of research in France. This has permitted the creation of tighter groupings called pôles de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur, or PRES. In addition, there are a number of consortia of engineering schools, such as the Grenoble Institute of Technology, that the Ministry of Higher Education and Research lists as if they were universities.

''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_university_systems_and_consortiums_in_France List of public university systems and consortiums in France]

=== The Bologna Process ===

Initiated in 1999, adjustments to the higher education system in accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process have been accompanied by a series of regulations published since April 2002 to adapt the French higher education system to the development of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area) for the purpose of implementing the LMD reform (Licence-Master-Doctorat or Bachelor-Master-Doctorate) and promoting the widespread use of ECTS and the Diploma Supplement.

Institutions have begun an overhaul of programmes offered in ECTS credits since 2002, and of the organisation of modular programmes allowing more flexibility and better gradual study guidance of students. ECTS is already used for transfer and accumulation and will be fully implemented by 2007/08 for all programmes related to the LMD system.

Within the framework of the LMD reform, the Diploma Supplement (DS) is being implemented progressively by all HEIs. By 2008, it will be issued automatically by all institutions free of charge, in French and in another language chosen by the institution.

The ''Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles'' (RNCP, or National Repertory for Qualifications), representing the National Framework for Qualifications (diplomas, degrees and certificates), was also introduced in 2002.

In the meantime, the market-oriented Bachelor’s degree, in accordance with the agreed on principle of employability especially for first-level studies, was introduced in 1999. The (market-oriented or research-oriented) Master’s degree was introduced in the 2002/03 academic year and requires 120 ECTS credits after the Bachelor’s degree, i.e. 300 credits after the baccalauréat.

The LMD reform will involve all higher-education institutions (HEIs). Its implementation has been effective since the beginning of the 2006 academic year for all universities. By 2010, it should apply to all HEIs and most of their programmes. Some branches, mostly in the field of medicine and engineering, are still based on the long-cycle structure although architecture studies were reformed in 2005. Moreover a Bachelor’s/Master’s structure does not exist yet at specialised schools that are usually organised as single-cycle studies lasting two years (or up to four years for paramedical studies), plus a second cycle lasting one year (leading to a market-oriented Bachelor’s degree) that is offered for technology studies.

Therefore, the implementation of the LMD reform, which gears the structure of French higher education to the European system by offering three levels of studies (licence/master/doctorat), brings with it a new degree structure for higher education in France:

• Degrees obtained after 2 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 120 ECTS: technological university degree (DUT), scientific and technical university degree (DEUST), higher technician's diploma(BTS), or general university degree (DEUG);

• Degrees obtained after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 180 ECTS credits: national specialised technology diploma (DNTS), vocational licence and licence;
• Intermediate degree, obtained after 4 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 240 ECTS: master's degree;

• Degrees obtained after 5 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 300 ECTS credits: master's degree, diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA, or advanced studies degree), diplôme d’études supérieures spécialisées (DESS, or specialised higher studies degree);

• Degrees obtained after post-master's studies, corresponding to 480 ECTS credits: doctorate.

Doctoral studies were also restructured in April 2002 and August 2006. Organized in doctoral schools, they are accessible after graduation with a master degree or by special authorisation to students who have completed the equivalent level of studies abroad or who benefit from the recognition of prior learning. As a general rule, after three years, these studies lead to a PhD’s degree after a thesis defence. The possibility to prepare a PhD within the framework of ‘joint international thesis supervision’ has been widened since 2005.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

== Administration and finance ==

French university funding system has often been criticised for its opacity and complexity. The reform proposes to introduce a more market-oriented approach basing university funding more on universities' performance rather than on the number of registered students. Indeed, the current system pushes universities to enrol more first-year students than they can handle to ensure cash flow. To evaluate performance, several criteria were proposed like to evaluate the amount of outside funding attracted by university research laboratories, namely business sources, or employment and salary levels of students graduated from different universities at intervals of six months and three years, as well as to allocate university funding on the basis of the number of students actually taking exams rather than the number of registered ones. The union argues that cutting funding for those most in need will not help resolve huge rates of failure among students. On the contrary, UNEF argues that the funds for universities recording huge failure rates need to be increased to help them implement more ambitious policies.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

Funding priorities of Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research, are:

* Making careers in university teaching and in research more attractive, including improved pay, administrative structures and pensions.

* Encouraging student success, with the aim of halving the first-year failure rate within five years and achieving the objective of 50% of young people attaining licence (bachelor's equivalent) level. State spending per student will rise by EUR 450 to EUR 8,530, including increased grants, loans and emergency financial aid for students; more student accommodation, restaurants and access for disabled students. Licence reform will be introduced (see[http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080117161421945 Plan to halve student failure rate]).

* Transition of universities to autonomy, renovating and updating buildings and facilities (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080731155128679 First wave of autonomous universities]). The 10 successful projects selected under Operation Campus, the government scheme to create internationally competitive, top-ranking centres of higher education and research, will share an additional EUR5 billion (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080717164201410 More super-campuses announced]). For the others, EUR 800 million will be made available during the period 2009-2011 for them to enter private partnerships.

* Promoting public research "in a strategy of excellence", including increased spending on environmental research in the areas of agricultural and biodiversity, health and environment, climate change and transversal programmes.

* Developing private research, with more generous tax breaks for private companies engaging in R&D, and public-private research

[[Image:French-super-campuses.JPG]]

Twenty of France's 80-plus universities assumed new powers of autonomy on 1 January under the government's Universities' Freedoms and Responsibilities law. The legislation gives the universities control over their budgets, staff recruitment and salaries, and other areas that were previously the responsibility of the state. All universities must adopt the reform by 2012, though academics and students continue to express their opposition. (…)

The autonomous institutions will have total control of their budgets, instead of only a quarter of their spending. To ensure a smooth transition, each university will receive grants totalling EUR 250,000 (US$335,000) to meet expenses such as staff training and recruitment of consultants and specialists.

The law also enables universities to create foundations and seek sponsorship from individuals and businesses to fund teaching and research projects such as professorships, mobility grants and laboratories. They may also apply to become owners of their university's buildings.

Higher education and research are the government's chief priority in the 2009 budget which totals more than EUR 24 billion (US$30 billion), an increase of 6.5% compared with 2008, plus the introduction of 'Operation Campus', a project to create 10 top-ranking centres of higher education and research with extra funds of up to EUR5 billion. The EUR1.8 billion increase is due to be matched by the same amount annually, resulting in an extra EUR9 billion for higher education, research and innovation by 2012.

The extra resources are in line with promises made by President Nicolas Sarkozy during his election campaign last year to promote higher education and research, and increase funding to French universities to be internationally competitive and arm France for the "worldwide battle for intelligence" (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20071206163217917 Adapting to the global battle of intelligence]. Sarkozy has undertaken to increase finance for higher education by EUR5 billion, and for research and innovation by EUR4 billion, during the five years up to 2012.

However the sector has not escaped 900 job cuts although these are proportionally less severe than those imposed on other ministries. Current government policy is non-replacement of one in two public sector employees leaving to take retirement. But higher education and research have fared relatively lightly: the total of 900 axed posts represents only one in 12 departing workers, and tenured teaching and research posts will not be cut at all, according to the ministry.

''Adapted from'' : Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com]

== Quality assurance ==

With regard to quality assessment, the general principle established by regulations in 2002 is that of regular internal and external assessments of HEIs as well as programmes and qualification award measures. The regulation is based on periodic assessment, and no decisions (recognition, labelling, funding) are taken by the Ministry without such an external evaluation.

The results of the external evaluation of all activities – scientific, educational and management – are considered during negotiation of the four-year contract between a university or HEI and the state. They are also taken into account when the state, which guarantees the quality of degrees, takes decisions regarding the habilitation (a kind of accreditation) to award them. Engineering, business and management programmes must be assessed by specific national committees in order for institutions to receive the habilitation to award national degrees.

In terms of internal evaluations, the methods for evaluating the training and teaching provided by universities are set by the administrative board upon proposal from the board for curricular and student life, boards on which elected student representatives sit. In accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process, the contractual agreement with universities and other HEIs has emphasised the reinforcement of internal evaluation systems as a priority.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/085DN/085_FR_EN.pdf Focus on the Structure of Higher Education in Europe 2006/07 National Trends in the Bologna Process]

From 2007, the new French Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education, AERES (Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur) covers all external evaluation activities. It took over the activities of the three former evaluation bodies: the ''Comité national d’évaluation'', CNE (for evaluation of HEIs and research institutions), the ''Comité national d’évaluation de la recherche'', CNER, (for the evaluation of national research organisations), and the ''Mission scientifique, technique et pédagogique'' , MSTP (for the evaluation of research teams, study programmes and degrees).

The agency is therefore responsible for assessing strategy, research and teaching in all state-run higher education and research establishments: universities, grandes écoles, engineering and business schools and research organisations as well as inspecting all national higher education and research establishments

State funding and accreditation of university courses and research projects are carried out by the Ministry for Higher Education and Research on the basis of the agency's findings. Organisations operate through four-year contracts with the ministry, and AERES will assess each research unit in situ during that period.

Evaluations cover the development of internal quality assurance mechanisms, consistency and relevance of evaluation procedures, feedback on evaluation programmes and training of specialists and staff. Reflecting increased internationalisation, at least a fifth of the members are from abroad.

In line with France's commitment to European Union higher education and research programmes, AERES will itself be reviewed for the European Quality Assurance Register in 2009. The agencies or bodies responsible for quality assurance at the national level are not subject to peer review.

''Adapted from'' : Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com]

== French HEIs in the information society ==

'''Information society strategy'''
On 20 October 2008, the State Secretary in charge of digital economy development presented the main features of the '''DIGITAL FRANCE 2012 plan''' which aims at converting France in a driving force of the digital revolution.

There are 154 measures that can be split in four priorities :
1/ give all French people access to digital networks

2/ develop the production and the offer of digital contents

3/ diversify the digital uses and services

4/ modernize digital services and governance

'''Higher Education'''

Actually there are two chapters that concern higher education and that imply the following actions :

* 3.5/ Build the digital universities

''Action n°94''
Develop digital services for all students, teachers, researchers and univesity staff :
digital workspaces & ENTs, wireless coverage, online administrative procedures, electronic voting for students elections, multi-service cards for all by 2010, lifetime e-mail account.

''Action n°95''
100 % digital educational resources for 100 % students :
audio recording, automatisation, podcasting, digital documents instead of hardcopies, promote UNT's educational materials via Canal U, give free access to information media, enhance collaborative and innovative methods via blogs or wikis.

''Action n°96''
Training in ICT for education :
to help teachers integrate ICT in their pedagogical practices.

''Action n°97''
Build a science digital library that is accessible to all users of higher education or research.

''Action n°98''
Foster the development of distance courses available online.

''Action n°99''
Develop a distance education offer on line especially for active workers.

* 3.6/ Adapt the training offer to the needs of the digital economy

''Action n°100''
Adapt initial raining to the companies' needs :
include vocational modules into ICT curricula, create new courses of ICT careers.

''Action N°101''
Offer young professionnals some additional university courses aimed at completing their training towards ICT jobs

''Action n°102''
Implement lifelong learning university courses in order to keep professionals updated

''Action n°103''
Create a framework of skills and competences for ICT careers :
ensure interoperability with European portals like E-skills and E-career services, build partnership with employment platforms.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

=== Virtual Campus Case-study===
[[Nancy-Université - case study]]

=== Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives ===

''National Virtual Campus programmes''

* [[Campus Numériques Français - Part1]]

* [[Campus Numériques Français - Part 2 : ENT]]

* [[Universités numériques en région : UNR]]

''National Open Educational Resources programmes''

* [http://www.canal-u.tv/ Canal U]

It is a web-TV for HE and Research. It offers a set of free channels that boradcasts university and research produced contents, especially by the Universités Numériques Thématiques. Canal-U is actually a consortium of university-web-TVs coordinated by CERIMES (Centre of Resources and Information on multimedia for Higher Education) which encompasses several organisations dealing with the broadcasting of digital materials towards HE.

Launched in 2001, the CanalU website is experiencing a growing success (almost 298 000 visits by March 2006) and comes among significant references in the university audiovisual landscape by giving students free access to an impressive audiovisual collection (more than 2 000 films et 4 000 conferences on varied topics).

* [[Universités Numériques Thématiques : UNT]]
The UNTs are also descripted in detail in the [http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/workpackage3.html MegaTrends survey of megaproviders for France]
- Université médicale virtuelle francophone (The French Medical Virtual University)
- Université numérique juridique francophone (The French Digital University Law progamme)
- Université numérique ingénierie et technologie (The Digital Engineering and Technology University)
- [http://www.aunege.org AUNEGE], Association des universités pour l'enseignement numérique en Economie-Gestion (University Association for Digital Teaching in Economics and Management)
- Université virtuelle environnement et développement durable (The Environmental and Sustainable Development Digital University programme)
- Université ouverte des humanités (Humanities Open University)
- Université des sciences fondamentales (Basic Sciences University)
- [http://www.canege.org CANEGE] (digital campus in Economics and Management)

''Main Institutions''

*[http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance - CNED]
The National Centre for Distance Learning is the number one distance learning operator in Europe and the French-speaking world. It was established in 1939 and is now a public administrative institution under the authority of the National Education Ministry. In 1999, it celebrated its 60th anniversary with 320,000 individual enrolments. [http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/figures.htm Cned in figures]
Digital Cned : on the Internet for the last ten years, Cned has integrated digital technology to aid the spread of learning and favour exchanges: virtual classrooms, online tutoring, electronic correction, student forum, online resources (Campus électronique®).

*[http://www.fied-univ.fr/index.php Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance - FIED] ''in French only !''
The Federation of distance education universities is an association that was created in 1987 by the Ministry for National Education. It gathers now 36 universities and aims at uniting in a network all univeristies that develop all sorts of distance and online trainings. It also provides for an international representation for French distance education in connection with the institutional organisations (Ministry of foreign affairs, Ministry for cooperation, etc...). It is also implicated, as a partner or a project leader, in various projects on education and ICT with a view to improve quality in training and support to students. Finally, it aims to open up to all universities or institutions involved in open distance education.

*[[Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie - AUF]]

''Other initiative''

* [[EduContact]] - The European center for higher distance education

=== Interesting Programmes===

[[Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance]] [[CNED]]

[[Université Virtuelle en Pays de la Loire]]

== References ==

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/085DN/085_FR_EN.pdf Focus on the Structure of Higher Education in Europe 2006/07, National Trends in the Bologna Process]

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/FR_EN.pdfEurybase, the Information Database on Education Systems in Europe; The Education System in France 2007/08]

Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com ]

Campus Numériques Français - Part1 [http://www.educnet.education.fr/chrgt/synthesefinal.pdf synthèse finale]

Canal U [http://www.canal-u.tv/]

Universités Numériques Thématiques [http://www.educnet.education.fr/en/higher-educatio/tdus UNT]

MegaTrends book on [http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/Book1.pdf The Provision of E-learning in the
European Union] and the report on [http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/UK.pdf Megatrends in e-learning provision project; Report on United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg]

Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance [http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ CNED]

Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance [http://www.fied-univ.fr/index.php FIED]

Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie [http://www.auf.org/langues/en/the-auf-in-brief/accueil.html AUF]

European Distance Universities Contact [http://www.educontact.eu/ EduContact ]

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[[Internal evaluation france]]

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> [[Countries]]

[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:European Union]]

France from Re.ViCa

2009-02-03T21:49:42Z

Widad: updated France page

== Partners situated in France ==
[[Université Louis Pasteur]]

[[Image:France map ULP.JPG|thumb|left|250px|(map cf: Eugris)]]

==France in a nutshell ==

France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents. After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). With a population of over 63 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany). Its territory is split into (administrative) regions. 22 of them are in Metropolitan France (the part of the country that is in Europe):

French is the official language of France, but each region has its own unique accent; in addition to French, there are several other languages of France traditionally
spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. French is also an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of Frenchspeaking nations.

== French education policy ==

The current priorities of the ministry responsible for national education are conveyed in a series of measures in accordance with the law of 23 April 2005. This involves, in particular:

* Defining the common core
* Personalised academic achievement programmes (PPRE)
* Revival of priority education
* Giving marks for school life
* The development of apprenticeship
* Improving education for disabled pupils
* Teacher training

For more details please see [[French education policy]]

Moreover secularism is an important principle in French education. It is based on the Napoleonic concordat of 1801 and the separation law of Church and State in 1905. School must be neutral and nondenominational. For example, religion does not constitute a teaching subject, teachers do not have the right to talk of their personal beliefs and all religious propaganda is banned within the school establishment. The law 2004-228 of 15 March 2004 stipulates that "in state schools, collèges and lycées, pupils are forbidden to wear signs or clothes which conspicuously show any religious affiliation."

== French education system ==

French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into four different stages:
* Pre-primary education
* primary education (enseignement primaire);
* secondary education (enseignement secondaire);
* higher education (enseignement supérieur).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_France Education in France] ''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia''

[[Image:French academies]]

[[Image:French education system.jpg]]

=== Pre-primary education ===
France has a long tradition of ‘pre-elementary’ education. Despite the fact that it is not compulsory, all children attend the école maternelle (nursery school) from the age of 2 to 5, though provision to children aged 2 is based on availability.
Public-sector ‘pre-elementary’ or ‘nursery’ schools are the responsibility of the education ministry and attendance at them is free of charge. In the private schools that cater for close to 2.4 % of children, parents pay a share of the tuition fees. Nursery schools are indeed schools in the full sense with programmes of teaching and learning activity. The main educational areas of activity contribute to the overall development of children and prepare them for ‘elementary’ school.

=== Compulsory education ===
Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. It is divided into three stages:
* Primary education (école primaire) Ages 6-11
* Lower secondary education (collège) Ages 11-15
* General and technological lycée (lycée général et technologique) or vocational lycée (lycée professionnel) Compulsory only between ages 15 and 16

The enrolment of pupils in state schooling is based on a ‘sectorial’ principle: pupils are normally registered in the primary school, ''collège'' or ''lycée'' of the geographical area in which their parents live. State education is free of charge. Private education is mostly Roman Catholic. Although the French constitution proclaims that the state is secular, a 1959 law allows private establishments to sign government contracts that procure financial support in exchange for some control.

The ‘elementary’ school curriculum concentrates on the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as on physical education (normal motor skills, etc.) and enhancing awareness and sensitivity. The lower secondary education curriculum consists of eight or nine compulsory subjects depending on the year of study, and becomes increasingly diversified with the inclusion of optional subjects. Primary school classes have a single teacher for all subjects, whereas secondary school classes have different teachers for each subject. The education ministry determines school curricula and the aims underlying the acquisition of knowledge and skills by pupils. Teachers choose their own teaching methods and school textbooks.

On completion of their ''collège'' schooling, pupils are awarded a brevet (national certificate) on the basis of their marks in the final two years and a national examination. The brevet is not a compulsory qualification and continuation of their schooling in a lycée is not dependent on their passing the examination.

=== Post-compulsory education/upper secondary and post-secondary level ===
On completion of collège, pupils are offered three educational options:
** general studies;
** technological studies;
** vocational training.
At the ''lycée d’enseignement général et technologique'', which caters for pupils who have chosen either of the first two possibilities, provision lasts three years and leads to the general and technological baccalaureate examination that may be chosen among the three general categories (economic and social, literary, or scientific) or among the seven technological categories. The ''lycée professionnel'' prepares students in two years for the first level of vocational qualification, corresponding to the ''certificat d’aptitude professionnelle'' (CAP) or ''brevet d’études professionnelles'' (BEP). These qualifications are designed to provide direct access to employment including in-company placements or may lead to a vocational baccalaureate in one of 48 specialised fields on offer. The baccalaureate, whether general, technological or vocational, gives access to higher education.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

=== Administration of French education system ===
School education comes under the minister responsible for education throughout the country. Free public-sector provision exists alongside education offered by private schools whose population has remained stable for several years, at 2 027 700 (primary and secondary education, 2006).

At the beginning of the 2006/07 academic year, the school population in metropolitan France and its overseas ''départements'' (DOM) for public and private sectors stood at 12.4 million students. In order for the education system to operate, the state employs more that 1.3 million people, 850 000 of whom are public sector teachers. There are almost 2.287 million students in higher education, which employs 147 000 people, 88 000 of whom are teachers in public HEIs. The language of instruction is French. The regional languages are taught as part of the modern languages branch of studies.

Notwithstanding certain decentralisation measures under which responsibility for the construction and maintenance of public-sector school buildings has been entrusted to the local area authorities, the central government has retained a decisive role in the area of educational policy. The ministry responsible for national education draws up in detail the curriculum for each subject and level of education, and provides guidelines for teaching without however obliging teachers to adopt a particular method. It administers the recruitment, training and management of teaching staff, determines the status and regulations of schools, allocating them their appropriate quota of staff. The ministry also organises examinations and awards national qualifications, in particular the baccalaureate which testifies to the satisfactory completion of secondary schooling.

In order to implement this policy and the accomplishment of its numerous management tasks, France is divided into 30 such ''académies'' each headed by a rector acting directly on behalf of the minister. An ''académie'' is the administrative level enabling the regional application of education policies as defined by the government. It allows action to be taken according to local contexts in collaboration with regional groups: ''communes'' (town) for primary education, ''départements'' (district) for ''collèges'' and ''régions'' (province) for ''lycées''.

The system is supervised by several inspectorates. Three general inspectorates are entrusted with very broad responsibilities for evaluation at national level in addition to two regional inspectorates, one that visits primary schools and monitor the performance of teachers, and one responsible for marking and assessing school teachers at secondary level.

== Higher education in France ==

''Please visit this page for a full [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_France List of HEIs in France]''

Obtaining the baccalauréat is a pre-requisite to being admitted to an institution of higher education. The baccalauréat is a diploma that acknowledges the successful completion of secondary education and the first level of university studies. This is a very important feature of the French education system, one which has several consequences, particularly with regard to university studies and student orientation during the premier cycle (first cycle) at university.

There are four types of programmes in the French tertiary education system:
* University education,
* Preparatory classes for grandes écoles,
* Higher technical education sections,
* Specialised schools or grandes écoles.

Then, depending on the duration involved, there are two types of studies :

* Shorter technical and vocational studies undertaken in university technology establishments (Instituts Universitaires de Technologies) leading to the DUT: Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie), the universities (leading to the DEUST: Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Scientifiques et Techniques) or higher secondary establishments (leading to the BTS: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur). Entry into these channels is based on a selection process and account is taken of pupils' record of achievement during their secondary schooling.

* Lengthier studies undertaken at a university or one of the "Grandes Ecoles" (to which entry is after two years of preparation in the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (CPGE). After admission into these schools, the studies themselves generally last three years and lead to the "diplômes d'écoles". There is no selection for entry into university. Universities issue generic qualifications and also vocational qualifications. Teacher training is also undertaken at university.

Higher education in France also has specialised schools, recruitment being based on the baccalaureate, competitions or dossiers. They concern the paramedical sector (nursing schools, physiotherapists, etc.), the social sector (schools for specialised educators, social assistants, etc.), the arts sector or architecture. Studies vary in duration and lead to state-recognised diplomas or specific school diplomas.

These categories can also be broken down further into:
* those which can be accessed directly with a baccalauréat or an equivalent diploma, involving no pre-entry selection process: university programmes, with the exception of university institutes of technology;

* those which are accessed through a pre-entry selection process: preparatory classes for grandes écoles (CPGE), higher technical education sections (STS), Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT or University institutes of technology) and specialised schools. Selections are made based on an admissions application. The type of baccalauréat earned and the marks obtained by the pupil in the last two years of lycée are determining factors;

* those for which the selection process occurs after the student has obtained a licence. This is the case for IUFM (university teacher training institutes) programmes, Grandes écoles recruiting by competitive examination following two or three years of preparatory classes (CPGE mostly).

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/FR_EN.pdfEurybase, the Information Database on Education Systems in Europe; The Education System in France 2007/08]

Teacher training is provided at Instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres (IUFM) after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies. Access to the profession for all levels of education takes place by means of a competitive examination, followed by a practical placement which must be validated by a certificate of competency or successful performance in a professional qualification examination. Those who are successful in competitive examinations for permanent posts are offered teaching positions in an académie.

Two categories of teachers exist at the level of higher education:
1) research teachers: lecturers and university professors who have the dual task of ensuring the development of basic and applied research and of conveying the resulting knowledge to students. They are permanent state employees;
2) other higher education teaching staff: associate or guest professors; second-degree teaching staff in higher education; professors who teach classes préparatoires (CPGE); assistant teachers (which is disappearing); temporary teaching and research assistants; foreign language teachers and lecturers; part-time lecturers and part-time staff.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

[[Image:French higher education.JPG]]

=== Universities in France ===
French universities are organized by academy because this is how the French educational system is organized. France is divided into thirty-five academies, of which thirty-one host the principal administrative seats of universities. Although the rectors or vice-rectors who head the academies do not have administrative control over the universities, the division into academies is nonetheless important because it governs admissions. Students in France have the right to be admitted to a university in the academy in which they passed the baccalauréat, and in some cases to a university in another specified academy.

''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_universities_in_France List of public universities in France]

=== Polytechnics in France ===
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Polytechnic_Institutes_(France) The National Polytechnic Institutes] or ''Instituts Nationaux Polytechniques'' (INPs) in France are three consortiums of grandes écoles that offer engineering degrees. They were established in 1970. They are classed together with French universities although they are quite different from the public universities, both in their organization and in the fact that they have competitive admissions.

The three institutions are:
* The National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse or INP Toulouse)
* The Grenoble Institute of Technology (Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble or INP Grenoble)
* The National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine)

=== Universités de Technologie ===
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_of_Technology_(France) Universities of Technology] are public institutions awarding degrees and diplomas that are accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Although called "universities", the universities of technology are in fact non-university institutes (''écoles extérieures aux universities'') established since 1972.

They possess the advantage of combining all the assets of the engineering ''Grandes Ecoles'' and those of universities as they develop simultaneously and coherently three missions: education, research and transfer of technology.

They maintain close links with the industrial world both on national and international levels and they are reputed for their ability to innovate, adapt and provide an education that matches the ever changing demands of industry.

This network includes three institutions:
* The University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard or UTBM)
* The University of Technology of Compiègne (Université de Technologie de Compiègne or UTC)
* The University of Technology of Troyes (Université de Technologie de Troyes or UTT)

=== Grandes Ecoles ===
In France [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%A9coles Grandes écoles] or Graduate schools (literally in French "Grand Schools" or "Elite Schools") are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system. Unlike French public universities which have an obligation to accept all candidates of the same region who hold a Baccalauréat, the selection criteria of Grandes écoles rests mainly on competitive written and oral exams, undertaken by students of dedicated preparatory classes. They do not have a large student body (3,000 at the largest establishment; most have a few hundred students each year) and are generally focused on a single subject area, mainly engineering, business or humanities. They have traditionally produced most of France's high ranking civil servants, politicians and executives as well as many scientists and philosophers.

== Higher education reform ==

In May 2006, the Commission issued a [http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/comuniv2006_en.pdf communication] making detailed recommendations on how to modernise higher education in Europe. In its most contested suggestion, the report urged member states to give universities more autonomy and accountability and encouraged governments to "open up universities to the business community".

A French Universities' Freedoms and Responsibilities law to implement EU recommendations on reforming higher education was presented on 24 May 2007 and adopted by the French Parliament in August 2007. The law, set to be implemented over the next five years, will:

* give French universities more autonomy to decide upon their budget and staff (by creating foundations to collect money and devise their own recruitment processes), and;
* enable universities to open their administration to external staff, allowing representatives of the business world to take part in university governance.

While the reform is now under way and has broad support of university presidents, opposition remains among some members of the university community. Lecturers' and students' representatives fear 'privatisation' of the university sector and that the state will stop financing courses it regards as not cost-effective. (…) All students, university staff and the French association of researchers fear that state disengagement could lead to excessive private-sector influence over higher education curricula and unequal development of universities.

The majority students' union Unef claimed law could lead to selection, higher fees, domination by business and increased inequality between universities, and called on its supporters to take action this month.

''Adapted from'' : [http://www.euractiv.com/en/education/french-university-funding-reform-faces-renewed-opposition/article-173586 EurActiv.com]

[[Image:French autonomous HEIs.JPG]]

In addition, the reforms of French higher education in 1968-1971 broke apart several public universities into numerous autonomous successor universities. For example, the University of Paris was split into thirteen universities, Paris I through Paris XIII. These universities have subsequently formed groupings in order to pool resources and better advance their joint activities. Some of these groupings, which typically take the legal form of a groupement d'interêt public, or GIP, are themselves called universities or university centers. In addition to universities, they may include other institutions of higher education and research as well as municipal and regional governments. The process has accelerated with the law of 18 April 2006 on the reform of research in France. This has permitted the creation of tighter groupings called pôles de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur, or PRES. In addition, there are a number of consortia of engineering schools, such as the Grenoble Institute of Technology, that the Ministry of Higher Education and Research lists as if they were universities.

''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_university_systems_and_consortiums_in_France List of public university systems and consortiums in France]

=== The Bologna Process ===

Initiated in 1999, adjustments to the higher education system in accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process have been accompanied by a series of regulations published since April 2002 to adapt the French higher education system to the development of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area) for the purpose of implementing the LMD reform (Licence-Master-Doctorat or Bachelor-Master-Doctorate) and promoting the widespread use of ECTS and the Diploma Supplement.

Institutions have begun an overhaul of programmes offered in ECTS credits since 2002, and of the organisation of modular programmes allowing more flexibility and better gradual study guidance of students. ECTS is already used for transfer and accumulation and will be fully implemented by 2007/08 for all programmes related to the LMD system.

Within the framework of the LMD reform, the Diploma Supplement (DS) is being implemented progressively by all HEIs. By 2008, it will be issued automatically by all institutions free of charge, in French and in another language chosen by the institution.

The ''Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles'' (RNCP, or National Repertory for Qualifications), representing the National Framework for Qualifications (diplomas, degrees and certificates), was also introduced in 2002.

In the meantime, the market-oriented Bachelor’s degree, in accordance with the agreed on principle of employability especially for first-level studies, was introduced in 1999. The (market-oriented or research-oriented) Master’s degree was introduced in the 2002/03 academic year and requires 120 ECTS credits after the Bachelor’s degree, i.e. 300 credits after the baccalauréat.

The LMD reform will involve all higher-education institutions (HEIs). Its implementation has been effective since the beginning of the 2006 academic year for all universities. By 2010, it should apply to all HEIs and most of their programmes. Some branches, mostly in the field of medicine and engineering, are still based on the long-cycle structure although architecture studies were reformed in 2005. Moreover a Bachelor’s/Master’s structure does not exist yet at specialised schools that are usually organised as single-cycle studies lasting two years (or up to four years for paramedical studies), plus a second cycle lasting one year (leading to a market-oriented Bachelor’s degree) that is offered for technology studies.

Therefore, the implementation of the LMD reform, which gears the structure of French higher education to the European system by offering three levels of studies (licence/master/doctorat), brings with it a new degree structure for higher education in France:

• Degrees obtained after 2 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 120 ECTS: technological university degree (DUT), scientific and technical university degree (DEUST), higher technician's diploma(BTS), or general university degree (DEUG);

• Degrees obtained after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 180 ECTS credits: national specialised technology diploma (DNTS), vocational licence and licence;
• Intermediate degree, obtained after 4 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 240 ECTS: master's degree;

• Degrees obtained after 5 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 300 ECTS credits: master's degree, diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA, or advanced studies degree), diplôme d’études supérieures spécialisées (DESS, or specialised higher studies degree);

• Degrees obtained after post-master's studies, corresponding to 480 ECTS credits: doctorate.

Doctoral studies were also restructured in April 2002 and August 2006. Organized in doctoral schools, they are accessible after graduation with a master degree or by special authorisation to students who have completed the equivalent level of studies abroad or who benefit from the recognition of prior learning. As a general rule, after three years, these studies lead to a PhD’s degree after a thesis defence. The possibility to prepare a PhD within the framework of ‘joint international thesis supervision’ has been widened since 2005.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

== Administration and finance ==

French university funding system has often been criticised for its opacity and complexity. The reform proposes to introduce a more market-oriented approach basing university funding more on universities' performance rather than on the number of registered students. Indeed, the current system pushes universities to enrol more first-year students than they can handle to ensure cash flow. To evaluate performance, several criteria were proposed like to evaluate the amount of outside funding attracted by university research laboratories, namely business sources, or employment and salary levels of students graduated from different universities at intervals of six months and three years, as well as to allocate university funding on the basis of the number of students actually taking exams rather than the number of registered ones. The union argues that cutting funding for those most in need will not help resolve huge rates of failure among students. On the contrary, UNEF argues that the funds for universities recording huge failure rates need to be increased to help them implement more ambitious policies.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

Funding priorities of Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research, are:

* Making careers in university teaching and in research more attractive, including improved pay, administrative structures and pensions.

* Encouraging student success, with the aim of halving the first-year failure rate within five years and achieving the objective of 50% of young people attaining licence (bachelor's equivalent) level. State spending per student will rise by EUR 450 to EUR 8,530, including increased grants, loans and emergency financial aid for students; more student accommodation, restaurants and access for disabled students. Licence reform will be introduced (see[http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080117161421945 Plan to halve student failure rate]).

* Transition of universities to autonomy, renovating and updating buildings and facilities (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080731155128679 First wave of autonomous universities]). The 10 successful projects selected under Operation Campus, the government scheme to create internationally competitive, top-ranking centres of higher education and research, will share an additional EUR5 billion (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080717164201410 More super-campuses announced]). For the others, EUR 800 million will be made available during the period 2009-2011 for them to enter private partnerships.

* Promoting public research "in a strategy of excellence", including increased spending on environmental research in the areas of agricultural and biodiversity, health and environment, climate change and transversal programmes.

* Developing private research, with more generous tax breaks for private companies engaging in R&D, and public-private research

[[Image:French-super-campuses.JPG]]

Twenty of France's 80-plus universities assumed new powers of autonomy on 1 January under the government's Universities' Freedoms and Responsibilities law. The legislation gives the universities control over their budgets, staff recruitment and salaries, and other areas that were previously the responsibility of the state. All universities must adopt the reform by 2012, though academics and students continue to express their opposition. (…)

The autonomous institutions will have total control of their budgets, instead of only a quarter of their spending. To ensure a smooth transition, each university will receive grants totalling EUR 250,000 (US$335,000) to meet expenses such as staff training and recruitment of consultants and specialists.

The law also enables universities to create foundations and seek sponsorship from individuals and businesses to fund teaching and research projects such as professorships, mobility grants and laboratories. They may also apply to become owners of their university's buildings.

Higher education and research are the government's chief priority in the 2009 budget which totals more than EUR 24 billion (US$30 billion), an increase of 6.5% compared with 2008, plus the introduction of 'Operation Campus', a project to create 10 top-ranking centres of higher education and research with extra funds of up to EUR5 billion. The EUR1.8 billion increase is due to be matched by the same amount annually, resulting in an extra EUR9 billion for higher education, research and innovation by 2012.

The extra resources are in line with promises made by President Nicolas Sarkozy during his election campaign last year to promote higher education and research, and increase funding to French universities to be internationally competitive and arm France for the "worldwide battle for intelligence" (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20071206163217917 Adapting to the global battle of intelligence]. Sarkozy has undertaken to increase finance for higher education by EUR5 billion, and for research and innovation by EUR4 billion, during the five years up to 2012.

However the sector has not escaped 900 job cuts although these are proportionally less severe than those imposed on other ministries. Current government policy is non-replacement of one in two public sector employees leaving to take retirement. But higher education and research have fared relatively lightly: the total of 900 axed posts represents only one in 12 departing workers, and tenured teaching and research posts will not be cut at all, according to the ministry.

''Adapted from'' : Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com]

== Quality assurance ==

With regard to quality assessment, the general principle established by regulations in 2002 is that of regular internal and external assessments of HEIs as well as programmes and qualification award measures. The regulation is based on periodic assessment, and no decisions (recognition, labelling, funding) are taken by the Ministry without such an external evaluation.

The results of the external evaluation of all activities – scientific, educational and management – are considered during negotiation of the four-year contract between a university or HEI and the state. They are also taken into account when the state, which guarantees the quality of degrees, takes decisions regarding the habilitation (a kind of accreditation) to award them. Engineering, business and management programmes must be assessed by specific national committees in order for institutions to receive the habilitation to award national degrees.

In terms of internal evaluations, the methods for evaluating the training and teaching provided by universities are set by the administrative board upon proposal from the board for curricular and student life, boards on which elected student representatives sit. In accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process, the contractual agreement with universities and other HEIs has emphasised the reinforcement of internal evaluation systems as a priority.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/085DN/085_FR_EN.pdf Focus on the Structure of Higher Education in Europe 2006/07 National Trends in the Bologna Process]

From 2007, the new French Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education, AERES (Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur) covers all external evaluation activities. It took over the activities of the three former evaluation bodies: the ''Comité national d’évaluation'', CNE (for evaluation of HEIs and research institutions), the ''Comité national d’évaluation de la recherche'', CNER, (for the evaluation of national research organisations), and the ''Mission scientifique, technique et pédagogique'' , MSTP (for the evaluation of research teams, study programmes and degrees).

The agency is therefore responsible for assessing strategy, research and teaching in all state-run higher education and research establishments: universities, grandes écoles, engineering and business schools and research organisations as well as inspecting all national higher education and research establishments

State funding and accreditation of university courses and research projects are carried out by the Ministry for Higher Education and Research on the basis of the agency's findings. Organisations operate through four-year contracts with the ministry, and AERES will assess each research unit in situ during that period.

Evaluations cover the development of internal quality assurance mechanisms, consistency and relevance of evaluation procedures, feedback on evaluation programmes and training of specialists and staff. Reflecting increased internationalisation, at least a fifth of the members are from abroad.

In line with France's commitment to European Union higher education and research programmes, AERES will itself be reviewed for the European Quality Assurance Register in 2009. The agencies or bodies responsible for quality assurance at the national level are not subject to peer review.

''Adapted from'' : Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com]

== French HEIs in the information society ==

'''Information society strategy'''
On 20 October 2008, the State Secretary in charge of digital economy development presented the main features of the '''DIGITAL FRANCE 2012 plan''' which aims at converting France in a driving force of the digital revolution.

There are 154 measures that can be split in four priorities :
1/ give all French people access to digital networks

2/ develop the production and the offer of digital contents

3/ diversify the digital uses and services

4/ modernize digital services and governance

'''Higher Education'''

Actually there are two chapters that concern higher education and that imply the following actions :

* 3.5/ Build the digital universities

''Action n°94''
Develop digital services for all students, teachers, researchers and univesity staff :
digital workspaces & ENTs, wireless coverage, online administrative procedures, electronic voting for students elections, multi-service cards for all by 2010, lifetime e-mail account.

''Action n°95''
100 % digital educational resources for 100 % students :
audio recording, automatisation, podcasting, digital documents instead of hardcopies, promote UNT's educational materials via Canal U, give free access to information media, enhance collaborative and innovative methods via blogs or wikis.

''Action n°96''
Training in ICT for education :
to help teachers integrate ICT in their pedagogical practices.

''Action n°97''
Build a science digital library that is accessible to all users of higher education or research.

''Action n°98''
Foster the development of distance courses available online.

''Action n°99''
Develop a distance education offer on line especially for active workers.

* 3.6/ Adapt the training offer to the needs of the digital economy

''Action n°100''
Adapt initial raining to the companies' needs :
include vocational modules into ICT curricula, create new courses of ICT careers.

''Action N°101''
Offer young professionnals some additional university courses aimed at completing their training towards ICT jobs

''Action n°102''
Implement lifelong learning university courses in order to keep professionals updated

''Action n°103''
Create a framework of skills and competences for ICT careers :
ensure interoperability with European portals like E-skills and E-career services, build partnership with employment platforms.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

=== Virtual Campus Case-study===
[[Nancy-Université - case study]]

=== Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives ===

''National Virtual Campus programmes''

* [[Campus Numériques Français - Part1]]

* [[Campus Numériques Français - Part 2 : ENT]]

* [[Universités numériques en région : UNR]]

''National Open Educational Resources programmes''

* [http://www.canal-u.tv/ Canal U]

It is a web-TV for HE and Research. It offers a set of free channels that boradcasts university and research produced contents, especially by the Universités Numériques Thématiques. Canal-U is actually a consortium of university-web-TVs coordinated by CERIMES (Centre of Resources and Information on multimedia for Higher Education) which encompasses several organisations dealing with the broadcasting of digital materials towards HE.

Launched in 2001, the CanalU website is experiencing a growing success (almost 298 000 visits by March 2006) and comes among significant references in the university audiovisual landscape by giving students free access to an impressive audiovisual collection (more than 2 000 films et 4 000 conferences on varied topics).

* [[Universités Numériques Thématiques : UNT]]
The UNTs are also descripted in detail in the [http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/workpackage3.html MegaTrends survey of megaproviders for France]
- Université médicale virtuelle francophone (The French Medical Virtual University)
- Université numérique juridique francophone (The French Digital University Law progamme)
- Université numérique ingénierie et technologie (The Digital Engineering and Technology University)
- [http://www.aunege.org AUNEGE], Association des universités pour l'enseignement numérique en Economie-Gestion (University Association for Digital Teaching in Economics and Management)
- Université virtuelle environnement et développement durable (The Environmental and Sustainable Development Digital University programme)
- Université ouverte des humanités (Humanities Open University)
- Université des sciences fondamentales (Basic Sciences University)
- [http://www.canege.org CANEGE] (digital campus in Economics and Management)

''Main Institutions''

*[http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance - CNED]
The National Centre for Distance Learning is the number one distance learning operator in Europe and the French-speaking world. It was established in 1939 and is now a public administrative institution under the authority of the National Education Ministry. In 1999, it celebrated its 60th anniversary with 320,000 individual enrolments. [http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/figures.htm Cned in figures]
Digital Cned : on the Internet for the last ten years, Cned has integrated digital technology to aid the spread of learning and favour exchanges: virtual classrooms, online tutoring, electronic correction, student forum, online resources (Campus électronique®).

*[http://www.fied-univ.fr/index.php Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance - FIED] ''in French only !''
The Federation of distance education universities is an association that was created in 1987 by the Ministry for National Education. It gathers now 36 universities and aims at uniting in a network all univeristies that develop all sorts of distance and online trainings. It also provides for an international representation for French distance education in connection with the institutional organisations (Ministry of foreign affairs, Ministry for cooperation, etc...). It is also implicated, as a partner or a project leader, in various projects on education and ICT with a view to improve quality in training and support to students. Finally, it aims to open up to all universities or institutions involved in open distance education.

*[[Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie - AUF]]

''Other initiative''

* [[EduContact]] - The European center for higher distance education

=== Interesting Programmes===

[[Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance]] [[CNED]]

[[Université Virtuelle en Pays de la Loire]]

== References ==

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/085DN/085_FR_EN.pdf Focus on the Structure of Higher Education in Europe 2006/07, National Trends in the Bologna Process]

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/FR_EN.pdfEurybase, the Information Database on Education Systems in Europe; The Education System in France 2007/08]

Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com ]

Campus Numériques Français - Part1 [http://www.educnet.education.fr/chrgt/synthesefinal.pdf synthèse finale]

Canal U [http://www.canal-u.tv/]

Universités Numériques Thématiques [http://www.educnet.education.fr/en/higher-educatio/tdus UNT]

Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance [http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ CNED]

Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance [http://www.fied-univ.fr/index.php FIED]

Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie [http://www.auf.org/langues/en/the-auf-in-brief/accueil.html AUF]

European Distance Universities Contact [http://www.educontact.eu/ EduContact ]

----

[[Internal evaluation france]]

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> [[Countries]]

[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:European Union]]

France from Re.ViCa

2009-02-03T21:44:54Z

Widad: finalized France country report

== Partners situated in France ==
[[Université Louis Pasteur]]

[[Image:France map ULP.JPG|thumb|left|250px|(map cf: Eugris)]]

==France in a nutshell ==

France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents. After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). With a population of over 63 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany). Its territory is split into (administrative) regions. 22 of them are in Metropolitan France (the part of the country that is in Europe):

French is the official language of France, but each region has its own unique accent; in addition to French, there are several other languages of France traditionally
spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. French is also an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of Frenchspeaking nations.

== French education policy ==

The current priorities of the ministry responsible for national education are conveyed in a series of measures in accordance with the law of 23 April 2005. This involves, in particular:

* Defining the common core
* Personalised academic achievement programmes (PPRE)
* Revival of priority education
* Giving marks for school life
* The development of apprenticeship
* Improving education for disabled pupils
* Teacher training

For more details please see [[French education policy]]

Moreover secularism is an important principle in French education. It is based on the Napoleonic concordat of 1801 and the separation law of Church and State in 1905. School must be neutral and nondenominational. For example, religion does not constitute a teaching subject, teachers do not have the right to talk of their personal beliefs and all religious propaganda is banned within the school establishment. The law 2004-228 of 15 March 2004 stipulates that "in state schools, collèges and lycées, pupils are forbidden to wear signs or clothes which conspicuously show any religious affiliation."

== French education system ==

French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into four different stages:
* Pre-primary education
* primary education (enseignement primaire);
* secondary education (enseignement secondaire);
* higher education (enseignement supérieur).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_France Education in France] ''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia''

[[Image:French academies]]

[[Image:French education system.jpg]]

=== Pre-primary education ===
France has a long tradition of ‘pre-elementary’ education. Despite the fact that it is not compulsory, all children attend the école maternelle (nursery school) from the age of 2 to 5, though provision to children aged 2 is based on availability.
Public-sector ‘pre-elementary’ or ‘nursery’ schools are the responsibility of the education ministry and attendance at them is free of charge. In the private schools that cater for close to 2.4 % of children, parents pay a share of the tuition fees. Nursery schools are indeed schools in the full sense with programmes of teaching and learning activity. The main educational areas of activity contribute to the overall development of children and prepare them for ‘elementary’ school.

=== Compulsory education ===
Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. It is divided into three stages:
* Primary education (école primaire) Ages 6-11
* Lower secondary education (collège) Ages 11-15
* General and technological lycée (lycée général et technologique) or vocational lycée (lycée professionnel) Compulsory only between ages 15 and 16

The enrolment of pupils in state schooling is based on a ‘sectorial’ principle: pupils are normally registered in the primary school, ''collège'' or ''lycée'' of the geographical area in which their parents live. State education is free of charge. Private education is mostly Roman Catholic. Although the French constitution proclaims that the state is secular, a 1959 law allows private establishments to sign government contracts that procure financial support in exchange for some control.

The ‘elementary’ school curriculum concentrates on the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as on physical education (normal motor skills, etc.) and enhancing awareness and sensitivity. The lower secondary education curriculum consists of eight or nine compulsory subjects depending on the year of study, and becomes increasingly diversified with the inclusion of optional subjects. Primary school classes have a single teacher for all subjects, whereas secondary school classes have different teachers for each subject. The education ministry determines school curricula and the aims underlying the acquisition of knowledge and skills by pupils. Teachers choose their own teaching methods and school textbooks.

On completion of their ''collège'' schooling, pupils are awarded a brevet (national certificate) on the basis of their marks in the final two years and a national examination. The brevet is not a compulsory qualification and continuation of their schooling in a lycée is not dependent on their passing the examination.

=== Post-compulsory education/upper secondary and post-secondary level ===
On completion of collège, pupils are offered three educational options:
** general studies;
** technological studies;
** vocational training.
At the ''lycée d’enseignement général et technologique'', which caters for pupils who have chosen either of the first two possibilities, provision lasts three years and leads to the general and technological baccalaureate examination that may be chosen among the three general categories (economic and social, literary, or scientific) or among the seven technological categories. The ''lycée professionnel'' prepares students in two years for the first level of vocational qualification, corresponding to the ''certificat d’aptitude professionnelle'' (CAP) or ''brevet d’études professionnelles'' (BEP). These qualifications are designed to provide direct access to employment including in-company placements or may lead to a vocational baccalaureate in one of 48 specialised fields on offer. The baccalaureate, whether general, technological or vocational, gives access to higher education.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

=== Administration of French education system ===
School education comes under the minister responsible for education throughout the country. Free public-sector provision exists alongside education offered by private schools whose population has remained stable for several years, at 2 027 700 (primary and secondary education, 2006).

At the beginning of the 2006/07 academic year, the school population in metropolitan France and its overseas ''départements'' (DOM) for public and private sectors stood at 12.4 million students. In order for the education system to operate, the state employs more that 1.3 million people, 850 000 of whom are public sector teachers. There are almost 2.287 million students in higher education, which employs 147 000 people, 88 000 of whom are teachers in public HEIs. The language of instruction is French. The regional languages are taught as part of the modern languages branch of studies.

Notwithstanding certain decentralisation measures under which responsibility for the construction and maintenance of public-sector school buildings has been entrusted to the local area authorities, the central government has retained a decisive role in the area of educational policy. The ministry responsible for national education draws up in detail the curriculum for each subject and level of education, and provides guidelines for teaching without however obliging teachers to adopt a particular method. It administers the recruitment, training and management of teaching staff, determines the status and regulations of schools, allocating them their appropriate quota of staff. The ministry also organises examinations and awards national qualifications, in particular the baccalaureate which testifies to the satisfactory completion of secondary schooling.

In order to implement this policy and the accomplishment of its numerous management tasks, France is divided into 30 such ''académies'' each headed by a rector acting directly on behalf of the minister. An ''académie'' is the administrative level enabling the regional application of education policies as defined by the government. It allows action to be taken according to local contexts in collaboration with regional groups: ''communes'' (town) for primary education, ''départements'' (district) for ''collèges'' and ''régions'' (province) for ''lycées''.

The system is supervised by several inspectorates. Three general inspectorates are entrusted with very broad responsibilities for evaluation at national level in addition to two regional inspectorates, one that visits primary schools and monitor the performance of teachers, and one responsible for marking and assessing school teachers at secondary level.

== Higher education in France ==

Obtaining the baccalauréat is a pre-requisite to being admitted to an institution of higher education. The baccalauréat is a diploma that acknowledges the successful completion of secondary education and the first level of university studies. This is a very important feature of the French education system, one which has several consequences, particularly with regard to university studies and student orientation during the premier cycle (first cycle) at university.

There are four types of programmes in the French tertiary education system:
* University education,
* Preparatory classes for grandes écoles,
* Higher technical education sections,
* Specialised schools or grandes écoles.

Then, depending on the duration involved, there are two types of studies :

* Shorter technical and vocational studies undertaken in university technology establishments (Instituts Universitaires de Technologies) leading to the DUT: Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie), the universities (leading to the DEUST: Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Scientifiques et Techniques) or higher secondary establishments (leading to the BTS: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur). Entry into these channels is based on a selection process and account is taken of pupils' record of achievement during their secondary schooling.

* Lengthier studies undertaken at a university or one of the "Grandes Ecoles" (to which entry is after two years of preparation in the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (CPGE). After admission into these schools, the studies themselves generally last three years and lead to the "diplômes d'écoles". There is no selection for entry into university. Universities issue generic qualifications and also vocational qualifications. Teacher training is also undertaken at university.

Higher education in France also has specialised schools, recruitment being based on the baccalaureate, competitions or dossiers. They concern the paramedical sector (nursing schools, physiotherapists, etc.), the social sector (schools for specialised educators, social assistants, etc.), the arts sector or architecture. Studies vary in duration and lead to state-recognised diplomas or specific school diplomas.

These categories can also be broken down further into:
* those which can be accessed directly with a baccalauréat or an equivalent diploma, involving no pre-entry selection process: university programmes, with the exception of university institutes of technology;

* those which are accessed through a pre-entry selection process: preparatory classes for grandes écoles (CPGE), higher technical education sections (STS), Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT or University institutes of technology) and specialised schools. Selections are made based on an admissions application. The type of baccalauréat earned and the marks obtained by the pupil in the last two years of lycée are determining factors;

* those for which the selection process occurs after the student has obtained a licence. This is the case for IUFM (university teacher training institutes) programmes, Grandes écoles recruiting by competitive examination following two or three years of preparatory classes (CPGE mostly).

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/FR_EN.pdfEurybase, the Information Database on Education Systems in Europe; The Education System in France 2007/08]

Teacher training is provided at Instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres (IUFM) after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies. Access to the profession for all levels of education takes place by means of a competitive examination, followed by a practical placement which must be validated by a certificate of competency or successful performance in a professional qualification examination. Those who are successful in competitive examinations for permanent posts are offered teaching positions in an académie.

Two categories of teachers exist at the level of higher education:
1) research teachers: lecturers and university professors who have the dual task of ensuring the development of basic and applied research and of conveying the resulting knowledge to students. They are permanent state employees;
2) other higher education teaching staff: associate or guest professors; second-degree teaching staff in higher education; professors who teach classes préparatoires (CPGE); assistant teachers (which is disappearing); temporary teaching and research assistants; foreign language teachers and lecturers; part-time lecturers and part-time staff.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

[[Image:French higher education.JPG]]

=== Universities in France ===
French universities are organized by academy because this is how the French educational system is organized. France is divided into thirty-five academies, of which thirty-one host the principal administrative seats of universities. Although the rectors or vice-rectors who head the academies do not have administrative control over the universities, the division into academies is nonetheless important because it governs admissions. Students in France have the right to be admitted to a university in the academy in which they passed the baccalauréat, and in some cases to a university in another specified academy.

''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_universities_in_France List of public universities in France]

=== Polytechnics in France ===
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Polytechnic_Institutes_(France) The National Polytechnic Institutes] or ''Instituts Nationaux Polytechniques'' (INPs) in France are three consortiums of grandes écoles that offer engineering degrees. They were established in 1970. They are classed together with French universities although they are quite different from the public universities, both in their organization and in the fact that they have competitive admissions.

The three institutions are:
* The National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse or INP Toulouse)
* The Grenoble Institute of Technology (Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble or INP Grenoble)
* The National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine)

=== Universités de Technologie ===
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_of_Technology_(France) Universities of Technology] are public institutions awarding degrees and diplomas that are accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Although called "universities", the universities of technology are in fact non-university institutes (''écoles extérieures aux universities'') established since 1972.

They possess the advantage of combining all the assets of the engineering ''Grandes Ecoles'' and those of universities as they develop simultaneously and coherently three missions: education, research and transfer of technology.

They maintain close links with the industrial world both on national and international levels and they are reputed for their ability to innovate, adapt and provide an education that matches the ever changing demands of industry.

This network includes three institutions:
* The University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard or UTBM)
* The University of Technology of Compiègne (Université de Technologie de Compiègne or UTC)
* The University of Technology of Troyes (Université de Technologie de Troyes or UTT)

=== Grandes Ecoles ===
In France [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%A9coles Grandes écoles] or Graduate schools (literally in French "Grand Schools" or "Elite Schools") are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system. Unlike French public universities which have an obligation to accept all candidates of the same region who hold a Baccalauréat, the selection criteria of Grandes écoles rests mainly on competitive written and oral exams, undertaken by students of dedicated preparatory classes. They do not have a large student body (3,000 at the largest establishment; most have a few hundred students each year) and are generally focused on a single subject area, mainly engineering, business or humanities. They have traditionally produced most of France's high ranking civil servants, politicians and executives as well as many scientists and philosophers.

== Higher education reform ==

In May 2006, the Commission issued a [http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/comuniv2006_en.pdf communication] making detailed recommendations on how to modernise higher education in Europe. In its most contested suggestion, the report urged member states to give universities more autonomy and accountability and encouraged governments to "open up universities to the business community".

A French Universities' Freedoms and Responsibilities law to implement EU recommendations on reforming higher education was presented on 24 May 2007 and adopted by the French Parliament in August 2007. The law, set to be implemented over the next five years, will:

* give French universities more autonomy to decide upon their budget and staff (by creating foundations to collect money and devise their own recruitment processes), and;
* enable universities to open their administration to external staff, allowing representatives of the business world to take part in university governance.

While the reform is now under way and has broad support of university presidents, opposition remains among some members of the university community. Lecturers' and students' representatives fear 'privatisation' of the university sector and that the state will stop financing courses it regards as not cost-effective. (…) All students, university staff and the French association of researchers fear that state disengagement could lead to excessive private-sector influence over higher education curricula and unequal development of universities.

The majority students' union Unef claimed law could lead to selection, higher fees, domination by business and increased inequality between universities, and called on its supporters to take action this month.

''Adapted from'' : [http://www.euractiv.com/en/education/french-university-funding-reform-faces-renewed-opposition/article-173586 EurActiv.com]

[[Image:French autonomous HEIs.JPG]]

In addition, the reforms of French higher education in 1968-1971 broke apart several public universities into numerous autonomous successor universities. For example, the University of Paris was split into thirteen universities, Paris I through Paris XIII. These universities have subsequently formed groupings in order to pool resources and better advance their joint activities. Some of these groupings, which typically take the legal form of a groupement d'interêt public, or GIP, are themselves called universities or university centers. In addition to universities, they may include other institutions of higher education and research as well as municipal and regional governments. The process has accelerated with the law of 18 April 2006 on the reform of research in France. This has permitted the creation of tighter groupings called pôles de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur, or PRES. In addition, there are a number of consortia of engineering schools, such as the Grenoble Institute of Technology, that the Ministry of Higher Education and Research lists as if they were universities.

''From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_university_systems_and_consortiums_in_France List of public university systems and consortiums in France]

=== The Bologna Process ===

Initiated in 1999, adjustments to the higher education system in accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process have been accompanied by a series of regulations published since April 2002 to adapt the French higher education system to the development of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area) for the purpose of implementing the LMD reform (Licence-Master-Doctorat or Bachelor-Master-Doctorate) and promoting the widespread use of ECTS and the Diploma Supplement.

Institutions have begun an overhaul of programmes offered in ECTS credits since 2002, and of the organisation of modular programmes allowing more flexibility and better gradual study guidance of students. ECTS is already used for transfer and accumulation and will be fully implemented by 2007/08 for all programmes related to the LMD system.

Within the framework of the LMD reform, the Diploma Supplement (DS) is being implemented progressively by all HEIs. By 2008, it will be issued automatically by all institutions free of charge, in French and in another language chosen by the institution.

The ''Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles'' (RNCP, or National Repertory for Qualifications), representing the National Framework for Qualifications (diplomas, degrees and certificates), was also introduced in 2002.

In the meantime, the market-oriented Bachelor’s degree, in accordance with the agreed on principle of employability especially for first-level studies, was introduced in 1999. The (market-oriented or research-oriented) Master’s degree was introduced in the 2002/03 academic year and requires 120 ECTS credits after the Bachelor’s degree, i.e. 300 credits after the baccalauréat.

The LMD reform will involve all higher-education institutions (HEIs). Its implementation has been effective since the beginning of the 2006 academic year for all universities. By 2010, it should apply to all HEIs and most of their programmes. Some branches, mostly in the field of medicine and engineering, are still based on the long-cycle structure although architecture studies were reformed in 2005. Moreover a Bachelor’s/Master’s structure does not exist yet at specialised schools that are usually organised as single-cycle studies lasting two years (or up to four years for paramedical studies), plus a second cycle lasting one year (leading to a market-oriented Bachelor’s degree) that is offered for technology studies.

Therefore, the implementation of the LMD reform, which gears the structure of French higher education to the European system by offering three levels of studies (licence/master/doctorat), brings with it a new degree structure for higher education in France:

• Degrees obtained after 2 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 120 ECTS: technological university degree (DUT), scientific and technical university degree (DEUST), higher technician's diploma(BTS), or general university degree (DEUG);

• Degrees obtained after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 180 ECTS credits: national specialised technology diploma (DNTS), vocational licence and licence;
• Intermediate degree, obtained after 4 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 240 ECTS: master's degree;

• Degrees obtained after 5 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 300 ECTS credits: master's degree, diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA, or advanced studies degree), diplôme d’études supérieures spécialisées (DESS, or specialised higher studies degree);

• Degrees obtained after post-master's studies, corresponding to 480 ECTS credits: doctorate.

Doctoral studies were also restructured in April 2002 and August 2006. Organized in doctoral schools, they are accessible after graduation with a master degree or by special authorisation to students who have completed the equivalent level of studies abroad or who benefit from the recognition of prior learning. As a general rule, after three years, these studies lead to a PhD’s degree after a thesis defence. The possibility to prepare a PhD within the framework of ‘joint international thesis supervision’ has been widened since 2005.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

== Administration and finance ==

French university funding system has often been criticised for its opacity and complexity. The reform proposes to introduce a more market-oriented approach basing university funding more on universities' performance rather than on the number of registered students. Indeed, the current system pushes universities to enrol more first-year students than they can handle to ensure cash flow. To evaluate performance, several criteria were proposed like to evaluate the amount of outside funding attracted by university research laboratories, namely business sources, or employment and salary levels of students graduated from different universities at intervals of six months and three years, as well as to allocate university funding on the basis of the number of students actually taking exams rather than the number of registered ones. The union argues that cutting funding for those most in need will not help resolve huge rates of failure among students. On the contrary, UNEF argues that the funds for universities recording huge failure rates need to be increased to help them implement more ambitious policies.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

Funding priorities of Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research, are:

* Making careers in university teaching and in research more attractive, including improved pay, administrative structures and pensions.

* Encouraging student success, with the aim of halving the first-year failure rate within five years and achieving the objective of 50% of young people attaining licence (bachelor's equivalent) level. State spending per student will rise by EUR 450 to EUR 8,530, including increased grants, loans and emergency financial aid for students; more student accommodation, restaurants and access for disabled students. Licence reform will be introduced (see[http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080117161421945 Plan to halve student failure rate]).

* Transition of universities to autonomy, renovating and updating buildings and facilities (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080731155128679 First wave of autonomous universities]). The 10 successful projects selected under Operation Campus, the government scheme to create internationally competitive, top-ranking centres of higher education and research, will share an additional EUR5 billion (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080717164201410 More super-campuses announced]). For the others, EUR 800 million will be made available during the period 2009-2011 for them to enter private partnerships.

* Promoting public research "in a strategy of excellence", including increased spending on environmental research in the areas of agricultural and biodiversity, health and environment, climate change and transversal programmes.

* Developing private research, with more generous tax breaks for private companies engaging in R&D, and public-private research

[[Image:French-super-campuses.JPG]]

Twenty of France's 80-plus universities assumed new powers of autonomy on 1 January under the government's Universities' Freedoms and Responsibilities law. The legislation gives the universities control over their budgets, staff recruitment and salaries, and other areas that were previously the responsibility of the state. All universities must adopt the reform by 2012, though academics and students continue to express their opposition. (…)

The autonomous institutions will have total control of their budgets, instead of only a quarter of their spending. To ensure a smooth transition, each university will receive grants totalling EUR 250,000 (US$335,000) to meet expenses such as staff training and recruitment of consultants and specialists.

The law also enables universities to create foundations and seek sponsorship from individuals and businesses to fund teaching and research projects such as professorships, mobility grants and laboratories. They may also apply to become owners of their university's buildings.

Higher education and research are the government's chief priority in the 2009 budget which totals more than EUR 24 billion (US$30 billion), an increase of 6.5% compared with 2008, plus the introduction of 'Operation Campus', a project to create 10 top-ranking centres of higher education and research with extra funds of up to EUR5 billion. The EUR1.8 billion increase is due to be matched by the same amount annually, resulting in an extra EUR9 billion for higher education, research and innovation by 2012.

The extra resources are in line with promises made by President Nicolas Sarkozy during his election campaign last year to promote higher education and research, and increase funding to French universities to be internationally competitive and arm France for the "worldwide battle for intelligence" (see [http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20071206163217917 Adapting to the global battle of intelligence]. Sarkozy has undertaken to increase finance for higher education by EUR5 billion, and for research and innovation by EUR4 billion, during the five years up to 2012.

However the sector has not escaped 900 job cuts although these are proportionally less severe than those imposed on other ministries. Current government policy is non-replacement of one in two public sector employees leaving to take retirement. But higher education and research have fared relatively lightly: the total of 900 axed posts represents only one in 12 departing workers, and tenured teaching and research posts will not be cut at all, according to the ministry.

''Adapted from'' : Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com]

== Quality assurance ==

With regard to quality assessment, the general principle established by regulations in 2002 is that of regular internal and external assessments of HEIs as well as programmes and qualification award measures. The regulation is based on periodic assessment, and no decisions (recognition, labelling, funding) are taken by the Ministry without such an external evaluation.

The results of the external evaluation of all activities – scientific, educational and management – are considered during negotiation of the four-year contract between a university or HEI and the state. They are also taken into account when the state, which guarantees the quality of degrees, takes decisions regarding the habilitation (a kind of accreditation) to award them. Engineering, business and management programmes must be assessed by specific national committees in order for institutions to receive the habilitation to award national degrees.

In terms of internal evaluations, the methods for evaluating the training and teaching provided by universities are set by the administrative board upon proposal from the board for curricular and student life, boards on which elected student representatives sit. In accordance with the principles of the Bologna Process, the contractual agreement with universities and other HEIs has emphasised the reinforcement of internal evaluation systems as a priority.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/085DN/085_FR_EN.pdf Focus on the Structure of Higher Education in Europe 2006/07 National Trends in the Bologna Process]

From 2007, the new French Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education, AERES (Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur) covers all external evaluation activities. It took over the activities of the three former evaluation bodies: the ''Comité national d’évaluation'', CNE (for evaluation of HEIs and research institutions), the ''Comité national d’évaluation de la recherche'', CNER, (for the evaluation of national research organisations), and the ''Mission scientifique, technique et pédagogique'' , MSTP (for the evaluation of research teams, study programmes and degrees).

The agency is therefore responsible for assessing strategy, research and teaching in all state-run higher education and research establishments: universities, grandes écoles, engineering and business schools and research organisations as well as inspecting all national higher education and research establishments

State funding and accreditation of university courses and research projects are carried out by the Ministry for Higher Education and Research on the basis of the agency's findings. Organisations operate through four-year contracts with the ministry, and AERES will assess each research unit in situ during that period.

Evaluations cover the development of internal quality assurance mechanisms, consistency and relevance of evaluation procedures, feedback on evaluation programmes and training of specialists and staff. Reflecting increased internationalisation, at least a fifth of the members are from abroad.

In line with France's commitment to European Union higher education and research programmes, AERES will itself be reviewed for the European Quality Assurance Register in 2009. The agencies or bodies responsible for quality assurance at the national level are not subject to peer review.

''Adapted from'' : Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com]

== French HEIs in the information society ==

'''Information society strategy'''
On 20 October 2008, the State Secretary in charge of digital economy development presented the main features of the '''DIGITAL FRANCE 2012 plan''' which aims at converting France in a driving force of the digital revolution.

There are 154 measures that can be split in four priorities :
1/ give all French people access to digital networks

2/ develop the production and the offer of digital contents

3/ diversify the digital uses and services

4/ modernize digital services and governance

'''Higher Education'''

Actually there are two chapters that concern higher education and that imply the following actions :

* 3.5/ Build the digital universities

''Action n°94''
Develop digital services for all students, teachers, researchers and univesity staff :
digital workspaces & ENTs, wireless coverage, online administrative procedures, electronic voting for students elections, multi-service cards for all by 2010, lifetime e-mail account.

''Action n°95''
100 % digital educational resources for 100 % students :
audio recording, automatisation, podcasting, digital documents instead of hardcopies, promote UNT's educational materials via Canal U, give free access to information media, enhance collaborative and innovative methods via blogs or wikis.

''Action n°96''
Training in ICT for education :
to help teachers integrate ICT in their pedagogical practices.

''Action n°97''
Build a science digital library that is accessible to all users of higher education or research.

''Action n°98''
Foster the development of distance courses available online.

''Action n°99''
Develop a distance education offer on line especially for active workers.

* 3.6/ Adapt the training offer to the needs of the digital economy

''Action n°100''
Adapt initial raining to the companies' needs :
include vocational modules into ICT curricula, create new courses of ICT careers.

''Action N°101''
Offer young professionnals some additional university courses aimed at completing their training towards ICT jobs

''Action n°102''
Implement lifelong learning university courses in order to keep professionals updated

''Action n°103''
Create a framework of skills and competences for ICT careers :
ensure interoperability with European portals like E-skills and E-career services, build partnership with employment platforms.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

=== Virtual Campus Case-study===
[[Nancy-Université - case study]]

=== Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives ===

''National Virtual Campus programmes''

* [[Campus Numériques Français - Part1]]

* [[Campus Numériques Français - Part 2 : ENT]]

* [[Universités numériques en région : UNR]]

''National Open Educational Resources programmes''

* [http://www.canal-u.tv/ Canal U]

It is a web-TV for HE and Research. It offers a set of free channels that boradcasts university and research produced contents, especially by the Universités Numériques Thématiques. Canal-U is actually a consortium of university-web-TVs coordinated by CERIMES (Centre of Resources and Information on multimedia for Higher Education) which encompasses several organisations dealing with the broadcasting of digital materials towards HE.

Launched in 2001, the CanalU website is experiencing a growing success (almost 298 000 visits by March 2006) and comes among significant references in the university audiovisual landscape by giving students free access to an impressive audiovisual collection (more than 2 000 films et 4 000 conferences on varied topics).

* [[Universités Numériques Thématiques : UNT]]
The UNTs are also descripted in detail in the [http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/workpackage3.html MegaTrends survey of megaproviders for France]
- Université médicale virtuelle francophone (The French Medical Virtual University)
- Université numérique juridique francophone (The French Digital University Law progamme)
- Université numérique ingénierie et technologie (The Digital Engineering and Technology University)
- [http://www.aunege.org AUNEGE], Association des universités pour l'enseignement numérique en Economie-Gestion (University Association for Digital Teaching in Economics and Management)
- Université virtuelle environnement et développement durable (The Environmental and Sustainable Development Digital University programme)
- Université ouverte des humanités (Humanities Open University)
- Université des sciences fondamentales (Basic Sciences University)
- [http://www.canege.org CANEGE] (digital campus in Economics and Management)

''Main Institutions''

*[http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance - CNED]
The National Centre for Distance Learning is the number one distance learning operator in Europe and the French-speaking world. It was established in 1939 and is now a public administrative institution under the authority of the National Education Ministry. In 1999, it celebrated its 60th anniversary with 320,000 individual enrolments. [http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/figures.htm Cned in figures]
Digital Cned : on the Internet for the last ten years, Cned has integrated digital technology to aid the spread of learning and favour exchanges: virtual classrooms, online tutoring, electronic correction, student forum, online resources (Campus électronique®).

*[http://www.fied-univ.fr/index.php Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance - FIED] ''in French only !''
The Federation of distance education universities is an association that was created in 1987 by the Ministry for National Education. It gathers now 36 universities and aims at uniting in a network all univeristies that develop all sorts of distance and online trainings. It also provides for an international representation for French distance education in connection with the institutional organisations (Ministry of foreign affairs, Ministry for cooperation, etc...). It is also implicated, as a partner or a project leader, in various projects on education and ICT with a view to improve quality in training and support to students. Finally, it aims to open up to all universities or institutions involved in open distance education.

*[[Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie - AUF]]

''Other initiative''

* [[EduContact]] - The European center for higher distance education

=== Interesting Programmes===

[[Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance]] [[CNED]]

[[Université Virtuelle en Pays de la Loire]]

== References ==

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/085DN/085_FR_EN.pdf Focus on the Structure of Higher Education in Europe 2006/07, National Trends in the Bologna Process]

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

EU report [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/eurybase/pdf/0_integral/FR_EN.pdfEurybase, the Information Database on Education Systems in Europe; The Education System in France 2007/08]

Jane Marshall's articles in [http://www.universityworldnews.com/advancedsearch.php?mode=search&country=75 UniversityWorldNews.com ]

Campus Numériques Français - Part1 [http://www.educnet.education.fr/chrgt/synthesefinal.pdf synthèse finale]

Canal U [http://www.canal-u.tv/]

Universités Numériques Thématiques [http://www.educnet.education.fr/en/higher-educatio/tdus UNT]

Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance [http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ CNED]

Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance [http://www.fied-univ.fr/index.php FIED]

Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie [http://www.auf.org/langues/en/the-auf-in-brief/accueil.html AUF]

European Distance Universities Contact [http://www.educontact.eu/ EduContact ]

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[[Internal evaluation france]]

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> [[Countries]]

[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:European Union]]

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France from Re.ViCa

2009-02-02T02:55:10Z

Widad: updated France country report

EduContact

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EduContact (European contact centre for distance higher education) is a three-year-duration project for global promotion and partnership among European distance higher education. Its twofold objectives are to enhance the global promotion of European distance higher education by organising access to a selection of courses offered by participating universities, through a European contact centre, and to survey the motivation and demand for European distance higher education. EduContact aims to show the diversity of contexts, cultures and languages of distance higher education in Europe within one contact centre acting for all present and future partners of the project.

[http://www.educontact.eu/ EduContact website]

The members to the project are :
* France – Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance (CNED) => project leader
* Estonia – Eesti Infotechnoloogia Sihtasutus
* The Netherlands – Open Universiteit Nederland
* Spain – Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
* United Kingdom – The Open University (OUUK)
* France – Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignementà Distance (FIED)
* European Association of Distance Teaching Universities
* Turkey : Anadolu University

Participants :

* Italy : UNINETTUNO
* United Kingdom : College of Law
* United Kingdom : LSHTM New
* Portugal : Universidade Alberta

Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie

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Since 1989, the Francophone Universities Agency is a vector for French-speaking institutions. As a partner to establishments for higher education and research who have chosen French as their teaching language, the AUF proposes several cooperation programmes, designed in particular to support research and education in French. The AUF is now the link between a network of 693 establishments covering every continent, in 81 countries, 47 of which are members of the International Francophonie Organisation. France, Vietnam, Algeria and Canada are, respectively, the countries where the Agency has the largest number of members.

In 2007, the AUF’s initial budget amounted to EUR 40.5 million, 82% of which came from France (EUR 33.2 million), followed by Canada (EUR 2.6 million), Quebec (EUR 1.2 million), the French Community of Belgium (EUR 0.6 million) and Switzerland (EUR 0.09 million).

Programme expenditures account for 78.6 % (EUR 31.9 million), while 3.5% were dedicated to institutional expenses and 17.3% to administrative expenses.

[http://www.auf.org/langues/en/the-auf-in-brief/accueil.html AUF website]

'''The “Innovation through Information and Communications Technologies In Education” Program'''

The AUF wanted to buid its capacity for competitiveness in this field, to keep its lead in technological innovation and to consolidate its leadership as an academic agency. The purpose of this programme is thus to find new ways of appropriating knowledge, using ICTs. The concrete initiatives are found in the field of new uses, new methods for creating and disseminating scientific and educational content, new professions (Transfer), large-scale standardisation and governance projects, and partnership creation.

In accordance with its ideals of solidarity, partnership and co-development, the AUF has established four operational objectives in order to foster the use of information and communication technologies in higher education and research :
* building human capacity in training [http://foad.refer.org/ FOAD: Open Distance Training]
* bridging the digital divide by helping establish networks with southern universities
* developing a policy for scientific content in French
* promoting French-language presence and research on international committees (standardisation, normalisation and regulation)

Through its 45 open and distance learning programmes, the AUF participates directly in the attainment of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and the UNESCO programme, Education for All. The AUF deploys a network of 29 French-speaking digital campuses and 11 information access centres bringing together over 15 000 subscribers, at the heart of member universities.
Open and distance training

For the 5th consecutive year, the AUF offers a range of Open and distance trainings that can be financed by a student allowance granted to a limited number of shortlisted applicants among the partner universities. This grant covers for great part of academic and tuition fees. For the year 2008-09 the AUF shall provide 535 student allowances to take one of the 54 degrees available at the distance.

France from Re.ViCa

2009-02-01T22:52:55Z

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Universités Numériques Thématiques

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Created in 2004, presently running [http://www.educnet.education.fr/en/higher-educatio/tdus UNTs] (Thematic digital universities) are seven in total, which represents 110 higher education or research institutions, among them 69 being universities.

Their corresponding “themes” are :
* medicine: UMVF - Université Médicale Virtuelle Francophone
* business and management: AUNEGE - Association des universités pour l’enseignement numérique en économie-gestion
* technologies: UNIT - Université numérique ingénierie et technologie
* law: UNJF - Université numérique juridique francophone
* environment & sustainability: UVED - Université virtuelle environnement et développement durable
* humanities: UOH - Université ouverte des humanités (sciences humaines et sociales, langues et cultures)
* sciences: UNISCIEL - Université des sciences fondamentales

In the framework of a national mutualization, UNTs aim at fostering enhancement, production and dissemination of digital educational materials in order to:
- encourage students' achievement by offering them comprehensive set of digital tools and contents that are supplied by HEI's staff and their partners;
- give a large national and international exposure to digital contents to contribute to French higher education's appeal in the fields broached by the UNTs.

The UNTs activities encompasses :
* editing of pedagogical resources;
* certification at both educational and technological levels;
* indexing resources, thus making them more valuable towards UNT's criteria;
* promoting resources among teaching staff;
* dissemination via an institutional webportal;

Inter UNT task forces : the UNTs should lean on processes offered by their institutions and therefore involve teachers, ICT in Education services, resource centers, technology and multimedia departments. Each HEI might be part of several UNT thus UNT should adopt a functioning that enables them to make joint decisions on technological and organizational issues.

Three inter UNT task forces have been set up to deal with common issues to all partners :
- using editorial channels, evaluating digital pedagogical tools;
- building standards for resource indexing;
- giving access to contents via OAI portal networks
- legal issues

Campus Numériques Français - Part1

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The Ministry for National Education and Research launched three calls in 2000, 2001 and 2002 in order to spread the use of ICT. The first and second calls concerned distance training offers, the third call included a specific measure for new working environments (7 % of total projects). The objective was to build a quality open distance training offer that would be structured in a national network able to compete internationally. In April 2003, almost 400 partners had joined forces in consortia to create 64 labeled digital campuses, in addition to four more campuses dedicated to ENT (environnements numériques de travail = digital working environnements). Therefore this program financed : the creation of training materials, the quality and relevance of dissemination channels, the setting of remote tutoring and support services, the organization of face-to-face meetings.

A digital campus was defined as a training system composed of innovative services, via digital technologies, and that is focused on the learner. It gives access to a training from any place (close or remote), at any time of his/her life (lifelong) and at a rhythm chosen by the learner. The interconnections between participating institutions and the possibility of opening up to public/private or international institutions helped improve the quality of materials and services offered.

'''Final evaluation of the program'''

[http://www.educnet.education.fr/chrgt/synthesefinal.pdf Synthèse finale] ''available only in French !''

The training system met the learners' expectations and their overall satisfaction level was very promising. From the learners' point of view, the main asset was to have at their disposal efficient collaborative working tools.
Part of the evaluation aimed to assess the system's efficiency, the overall impact and effects and the program's added value.

It resulted that both the impact on their own institutions and their integration were limited because :
* the online training offers were in great part existing courses and only half of them (81) were proposing a degree;
* most of the existing services strongly contributed to the projects, especially the ICT or multimedia departments, whereas the implication of technical and and administrative sevices was variable and sometimes insufficient;
* the planning in producing digital materials (highest category in expenditures) seems to require some improvements;
* the overall organization of the system should be improved, especially the lack of staff, due to high operating costs (in average, each project mobilizes 45 staff members).

NB : Half part of the budget was roughly shifted as follows :
* 39% for digital resources production;
* 15% for coordination, support, pedagogics, technical logistics, training course design;
* 2% for resource purchase (this low rate implies a strong involvement and mobilization of internal production teams).

By contrast, some very positive aspects came out of these initiatives :
* strong participation of teachers in design and production of materials;
* recognition of ICTE and development of related skills and competences;
* project-based operative functioning and creation of an ad hoc steering and coordination structure (critical success factor);
* contribution to setting up the “LMD scheme” by reinforcing modularity, flexibility and individualization of programs in * accordance with the ECTS;
* opening-up towards international projects in the field of e-learning, especially at the European level that may benefit from European funds

'''Example of a Campus numérique initiative'''

{| border="1" width="100%"
| colspan=2 | [http://uns.u-strasbg.fr UNIVERSITE NUMERIQUE DE STRASBOURG]
|-
| width="25%"| [[Image:France ULPconsortium UNS.JPG]] ||

In 2000, all 3 universities of Strasbourg – Université Louis Pasteur (ULP),Université Marc Bloch (UMB) and Université Robert Schuman (URS) – gathered in a consortium to launch a common enhancement policy of ICT in education.
On 15 April 2002, all 3 Presidents signed an agreement (l’accord-cadre UNS) to build their cooperation on 3 strategical focuses : creation, dissemination and storage/management of both contents and new pedagogics.
In this framework the Université Numérique de Strasbourg offered :
– trainings in Computer sciences : networks and systems, digital development, multimedia design
– distance trainings with 6 available modules, 6 recognised degrees and 7 under construction
|}

Universités numériques en région

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'''Towards a system of digital regional policy and spatial planning'''

In order to spread the use of digital services and to industrialize the ENT process (digital workspaces), and also to maintain and make durable the whole system, it was necessary to involve a critical mass of stakeholders on a mutualization basis.

Via the call for proposals “UNR” ('''Regional digital universities'''), the experience gained through the selected projects allowed a transfer of method and competences among the HEI. It also affected the institutions' “four-year-plans”.

The UNR projects were built on tripartite contracts of agreed objectives whose signatories were the French government, regional authorities and other partners) for a two-year-period with the pledge to:
* develop digital services -especially ENTs- and offer them to all students
* respect regional planning principles
* provide support to faciliter the use of digital services

These are the services that are offered via the ENT :
* Digital office
* Tuition services
* Services communs
* Services documentaires
* Services de communication
* Services pédagogiques

'''Regions where a project was financed :'''
* Alsace-UNERA,
* Aquitaine-ACOR,
* Bretagne-UNB,
* Grand Est-UNIRE,
* Languedoc-Roussillon-UOMLR,
* Nord Pas de Calais-UNRNPDC,
* Poitou-Charentes-UNR-PC,
* Provence Alpes Côtes d'Azur-UNRPACA,
* Réunion-UNR Réunion, Rhône Alpes-UNRA.

'''Update in 2006''' :
Out of 11 active projects involving around 580 000 students, nine UNR (regional digital universities) made of 35 institutions chose the ESUP ; one UNR (Alsace-UNERA), made of 3 institutions, chose EPPUN ; and one last UNR (Rhône-Alpes UNRA) gathering 5 institutions chose ENCORA.

Some services have reached a high level of deployment : common services, communication, digital office and pedagogics, whereas the integration of certain services is more complex, such as documentation and pedagogical services.

Campus Numériques Français - Part 2 : ENT

2009-02-01T22:19:46Z

Widad: created this page in order to reduce content on France's country report page

'''ENT : Environnement Numérique de Travail''' (Digital Workspaces)

The second phase of ''Campus Numériques Français'' was launched in March 2002 and consisted of a call for proposal on ENTs (digital workspaces). The aim was to offer HEIs a range of varied technological solutions related to ENTs. The “''environnement numérique de travail''” is a platform to provide HEIs users with online access to all resources, services and digital tools connected with their activities. It has the appearance of a personalized desktop portal.

The overall budget amounted to 3 million € and was split between four selected consortia : ENCORA, EPPUN, ESUP and MONTE-CRISTO.

In April 2005, the submitted projects were evaluated in line with the recommendations of the Ministery's outline plan for ENTs (SDET: ''Schéma Directeur des Espaces Numériques de Travail'') and the conventions betweetn the government and the consortia, on the following aspects : functional coverage, project's organization, deployment, technical architecture of the solution.

CONCLUSIONS:

- Organisation and management : the project teams were efficient and well-integrated in their institution, moreover they managed strictly resources and time schedules, however the resources specifically committed to the projects were poor and the strategical cross-institutional coordinating structures rare;

- Solution development : the SDET's operational and technical recommendations were respected and a good functional documentation was provided;

- Project's finances : all the projects respected the budgets they were initially allocated although very few foresee future financing opportunities;

- Functional coverage : despite the lack of a maintenance strategy, the coverage of services was effective and respected the SDET;

- Technical architecture : although the SDET's recommendations were respected, the quality of service was not enough shaped and formalized;

- Deployment : a stabilization period is necessary in order to integrate the new solutions to the existing context, and despite the lack of precise indicators, some preliminary actions were taken (information, training) as well as some user profiles were previously set up (students, teachers...).

Campus Numériques Français - Part1

2009-02-01T22:03:04Z

Widad: created this page in order to reduce content on France's country report page

=== Les Campus Numériques Français - Part 1===

[http://www.educnet.education.fr/chrgt/synthesefinal.pdf Synthèse finale] in French !

The Ministry for National Education and Research launched three calls in 2000, 2001 and 2002 in order to spread the use of ICT. The first and second calls concerned distance training offers, the third call included a specific measure for new working environments (7 % of total projects). The objective was to build a quality open distance training offer that would be structured in a national network able to compete internationally. In April 2003, almost 400 partners had joined forces in consortia to create 64 labeled digital campuses, in addition to four more campuses dedicated to ENT (environnements numériques de travail = digital working environnements). Therefore this program financed : the creation of training materials, the quality and relevance of dissemination channels, the setting of remote tutoring and support services, the organization of face-to-face meetings.
A digital campus was defined as a training system composed of innovative services, via digital technologies, and that is focused on the learner. It gives access to a training from any place (close or remote), at any time of his/her life (lifelong) and at a rhythm chosen by the learner. The interconnections between participating institutions and the possibility of opening up to public/private or international institutions helped improve the quality of materials and services offered.

FINAL EVALUATION

The training system met the learners' expectations and their overall satisfaction level was very promising. From the learners' point of view, the main asset was to have at their disposal efficient collaborative working tools.
Part of the evaluation aimed to assess the system's efficiency, the overall impact and effects and the program's added value.

It resulted that both the impact on their own institutions and their integration were limited because :
the online training offers were in great part existing courses and only half of them (81) were proposing a degree;
most of the existing services strongly contributed to the projects, especially the ICT or multimedia departments, whereas the implication of technical and and administrative sevices was variable and sometimes insufficient;
the planning in producing digital materials (highest category in expenditures) seems to require some improvements;
the overall organization of the system should be improved, especially the lack of staff, due to high operating costs (in average, each project mobilizes 45 staff members).

NB : Half part of the budget was roughly shifted as follows :
-39% for digital resources production;
-15% for coordination, support, pedagogics, technical logistics, training course design;
-2% for resource purchase (this low rate implies a strong involvement and mobilization of internal production teams).

By contrast, some very positive aspects came out of these initiatives :
strong participation of teachers in design and production of materials;
recognition of ICTE and development of related skills and competences;
project-based operative functioning and creation of an ad hoc steering and coordination structure (critical success factor);
contribution to setting up the “LMD scheme” by reinforcing modularity, flexibility and individualization of programs in accordance with the ECTS;
opening-up towards international projects in the field of e-learning, especially at the European level that may benefit from European funds

French education policy

2009-02-01T20:40:59Z

Widad:

The current priorities of the ministry responsible for national education are conveyed in a series of measures in accordance with the law of 23 April 2005. This involves, in particular:

* Defining the common core
The education system must provide each student with the necessary means to acquire a 'common core' of knowledge and skills which are essential in order to do well at school, continue one's studies, build one's personal and professional future and succeed in life and society. The seven major skills that schools undertake to impart are:
** proficiency in French;
** knowledge of a foreign language;
** background in mathematics and science;
** openness towards information technologies;
** knowledge of the humanities;
** social and civic skills;
** independence and initiative.

* Personalised academic achievement programmes (PPRE)
PPRE will be implemented to benefit pupils who do not meet the requirements of the common core via an individualised project which refines the types of support available at school and at home. It allows the progress of pupils to be assessed regularly. In the 'priority education' areas, these measures are combined with existing measures.

* Revival of priority education
The priority education policy, implemented in 1981, aims at repairing the effects of social, economic and cultural inequality by reinforcing educational efforts where school failure rates are the highest. In 2006, this policy was re-launched with new foundations following serious disruptions of public order in autumn 2005 in some underprivileged neighbourhoods. The objectives of priority education have been redefined and resources have been redistributed.

* Giving marks for school life
Teaching pupils to have a sense of civic responsibility is one of the major challenges for the education system. Giving marks for school life (note de vie scolaire) is part of this educational approach at collège. It becomes an element of pupil’s evaluation in itself.

* The development of apprenticeship
Within the framework of the policy for commitment to employment and social cohesion, the government plan is to increase the total number of apprentices over the next five years from 370 000 to 500 000. Introductory courses may be offered, in particular to pupils over the age of 14 who make the request, in order to allow them to acquire the common core of skills and knowledge and at the same time learn through practical placements.

* Improving education for disabled pupils
Actions to improve education for disabled pupils are reinforced by the 11 February 2005 law concerning equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of disabled people. This law has been in force since 1 January 2006, and asserts the right of disabled pupils to education, as well as the responsibility of the education system to guarantee continuity in schooling for all pupils.

* Teacher training
Teacher training is an important responsibility which the state has bestowed on universities. On one hand, the specifications for teacher training emphasize the importance of professional training with practical placements and periodic assessment, and on the other hand, they define the 2 main missions of a host school, ''collège'' or ''lycée'' for trainee and new teachers. This involves creating an environment of support for trainee and new teachers, guiding them in their mission as state employees.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

Moreover secularism is an important principle in French education. It is based on the Napoleonic concordat of 1801 and the separation law of Church and State in 1905. School must be neutral and nondenominational. For example, religion does not constitute a teaching subject, teachers do not have the right to talk of their personal beliefs and all religious propaganda is banned within the school establishment. The law 2004-228 of 15 March 2004 stipulates that "in state schools, collèges and lycées, pupils are forbidden to wear signs or clothes which conspicuously show any religious affiliation."

French education policy

2009-02-01T20:40:30Z

Widad:

French education policy

2009-02-01T20:29:44Z

Widad: created this page to reduce content on France's country report page

The current priorities of the ministry responsible for national education are conveyed in a series of measures in accordance with the law of 23 April 2005. This involves, in particular:

* Defining the common core
The education system must provide each student with the necessary means to acquire a 'common core' of knowledge and skills which are essential in order to do well at school, continue one's studies, build one's personal and professional future and succeed in life and society. The seven major skills that schools undertake to impart are: proficiency in French; knowledge of a foreign language; background in mathematics and science; openness towards information technologies; knowledge of the humanities; social and civic skills; independence and initiative.

* Personalised academic achievement programmes (PPRE)
PPRE will be implemented to benefit pupils who do not meet the requirements of the common core via an individualised project which refines the types of support available at school and at home. It allows the progress of pupils to be assessed regularly. In the 'priority education' areas, these measures are combined with existing measures.

* Revival of priority education
The priority education policy, implemented in 1981, aims at repairing the effects of social, economic and cultural inequality by reinforcing educational efforts where school failure rates are the highest. In 2006, this policy was re-launched with new foundations following serious disruptions of public order in autumn 2005 in some underprivileged neighbourhoods. The objectives of priority education have been redefined and resources have been redistributed.

* Giving marks for school life
Teaching pupils to have a sense of civic responsibility is one of the major challenges for the education system. Giving marks for school life (note de vie scolaire) is part of this educational approach at collège. It becomes an element of pupil’s evaluation in itself.

* The development of apprenticeship
Within the framework of the policy for commitment to employment and social cohesion, the government plan is to increase the total number of apprentices over the next five years from 370 000 to 500 000. Introductory courses may be offered, in particular to pupils over the age of 14 who make the request, in order to allow them to acquire the common core of skills and knowledge and at the same time learn through practical placements.

* Improving education for disabled pupils
Actions to improve education for disabled pupils are reinforced by the 11 February 2005 law concerning equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of disabled people. This law has been in force since 1 January 2006, and asserts the right of disabled pupils to education, as well as the responsibility of the education system to guarantee continuity in schooling for all pupils.

* Teacher training
Teacher training is an important responsibility which the state has bestowed on universities. On one hand, the specifications for teacher training emphasize the importance of professional training with practical placements and periodic assessment, and on the other hand, they define the 2 main missions of a host school, ''collège'' or ''lycée'' for trainee and new teachers. This involves creating an environment of support for trainee and new teachers, guiding them in their mission as state employees.

''Adapted from'' : [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_FR_EN.pdf National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms-2007]

Moreover secularism is an important principle in French education. It is based on the Napoleonic concordat of 1801 and the separation law of Church and State in 1905. School must be neutral and nondenominational. For example, religion does not constitute a teaching subject, teachers do not have the right to talk of their personal beliefs and all religious propaganda is banned within the school establishment. The law 2004-228 of 15 March 2004 stipulates that "in state schools, collèges and lycées, pupils are forbidden to wear signs or clothes which conspicuously show any religious affiliation."

Mexico

2009-02-01T19:34:48Z

Widad: /* Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives */

== Partners situated in Country==

none

== Mexico in a nutshell==
[[Image:mapa-mexico.gif|alt www.paises.com.mx/mapas/mapa-mexico.gif]]

Area 1,972,550 km2 (15th)

Population
- mid-2008 estimate 106,682,500
- 2005 census 103,263,388

Currency
Peso (MXN)

The United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico, is a federal constitutional republic in North America comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
Mexico is a newly industrialized country and the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven distribution of income and the increase in insecurity are issues of concern.
Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.

== Mexican education policy==
In the field of education, many improvements have been achieved through the years especially to broaden access to basic education, to lower gender and regional inequities and to decentralize the traditional highly bureaucratic and centralized education system. Moreover one third of Mexican population have not accessed or completed their basic education cycle.
During the previous program period (PNE: ''Programa Nacional de Educación 2001–2006''), the government tackled several key issues, one of them being to take responsibility in supervising and reforming preschool education and to make it mandatory by 2008 for children aged 3 to 5; the first step was to carry out an in-depth status study and then to reach 100% coverage for children aged 5 and to extend it gradually to those aged 3 to 4;

Nevertheless several deficiencies have to be dealt with to allow the full human development of Mexican society: to fight high rates of dropout and low levels of achievement and qualification towards the labour market.

Therefore the SEP designed the “''Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012''” with six objectives, each accompanied of quantitive goals and indicators applied to each level of education (primary, secondary and HE).

* Objective 1: to increase quality in education to improve students’ educative achievement and opportunities to gain welfare in order to contribute to the national development.

* Objective 2: to extend educative opportunities in order to reduce social disparities, gaps and to enhance equity.

* Objective 3: to encourage the use of ICT in the education system in order to support learning processes, to expand students’ skills for their future life and to facilitate their integration to the knowledge society.

* Objective 4: to provide a comprehensive educative offer that is a balance between providing citizenship values and developing skills and knowledge via regular classroom activities, practical teaching and an institutional context, in order to enhance democratic and intercultural coexistence.

* Objective 5: to offer quality education services to provide people with a high sense of social responsibility that participate to the labor market in a productive and competitive way.

* Objective 6: to promote a management system that encourages the participation of education centers in the decision-making process, involves the responsibility of different social and educational stakeholders and foments both the students’ and the teachers’ security, transparency and reporting.

The official language of instruction is Spanish. However, increasing attention is being paid to Indigenous education. Mexico recognizes 62 indigenous ethnic groups that speak more than 80 languages. These groups are found in 24 of the 31 Mexican states. More than 1 million indigenous children receive bilingual instruction at the preschool and elementary school levels; this education is offered in 72 dialects from 49 parent languages.

== Mexican education system==
The education system of Mexico is organized as follows:
* Preschool Education (Educación Preescolar)
* Primary Education (Educación Primaria)
* Lower-Seconary (Educación Secundaria)
* Upper-Secondary Education (Educación Media Superior)
* Higher Education (Educación Superior)

[[Image:Mexico-sistema-educativo.gif]]

Education in Mexico is provided by institutions under the jurisdiction of the federal, state and municipal government, as well as private institutions. Private institutions with academic programmes must be accredited by the SEP.

Article Three of the Mexican Constitution and the General Law of Education comprise the main legal framework regulating the Mexican education system. Article Three stipulates that all individuals have a right to receive education and that the State has an obligation to provide compulsory and free basic education services and to promote all levels. The General Law of Education (GLE), passed in 1993 and further amended in 2002, widens and reinforces the above principles. Among other things, it clarifies rights and obligations for federal and state authorities. It states that it is SEP’s responsibility to guarantee the national unity of basic education, improve its quality, and seek equity in the access to these services. It also establishes that it is the states’ obligation to provide initial and basic education, including indigenous and special education services, as well as teacher training programs.

For the year 2007-08, the total number of students was 33.3 millions. Among them, 76.5 % are enrolled in basic education levels, 11.5 % in upper-secondary education (or Educación media superior that is the fastest-growing level) and 7.9 %, in Higher Education, which represents 2.6 million students. Besides 71.6 % enrolments are attributed to State institutions (due the massive decentralisation of basic education) and 13.5 % enrolments to private institutions.

Within Higher Education, the level of Técnico superior (technological studies) accounts for 3.2%; Licenciatura (first level of undergraduate studies) accounts for 90.1 % and Posgrado (postgraduate studies up to doctorate) accounts for 6.7% of total students As for the institutional management, the student population is shifted as follows: 39.1 % are enroled in autonomously HEIs, 13.2 %, in State HEIs; 14.3 % in federal HEIs and 33.3% in private HEIs.

== Higher education==
Higher education is mostly delivered at large public universities. In addition to the large national higher education institutions (like UNAM and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), both located in Mexico City), each state has its own state university or state teachers’ college. Public universities are autonomous and are operated by their own organic laws, which means that even though they are publicly funded, their administrative and educational management is left to university boards and officials.

There are six subsystems of higher education institutions in Mexico:
- public universities,
- technological institutes,
- technological universities,
- private institutions,
- teacher training colleges,
- and other public institutions.
When all of them are counted, Mexico has 1,250 institutions of higher education.

A pattern of an increasing number of universities and enrolment began in 1940. The country had only 8 universities in that year, increasing its number to 124 in 1980. During the 1998-1999 academic year, ANUIES (National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education) listed 213 universities. Of these, 45 are public universities, where 50 percent of the academic research in Mexico takes place. These universities enroll 52 percent of students pursuing undergraduate education and 48 percent of those pursuing a graduate degree.

There are 147 technological institutes offering higher education. The Ministry of Education (SEP) coordinates 102, while state governments coordinate the other 45. In the latter, students can choose between regular and three-year programs: two years of general education requirements and one year of specialization. There is also another group of institutions of higher education that is not part of the previous two subsystems; some of these are under the SEP and other government ministries. One percent of those pursuing bachelor's degrees and 7.5 percent of those pursuing graduate degrees attend them.

Technological universities are institutions coordinated by state governments but created by federal, state and, in some instances, municipal governments. This educational modality was created in 1991 for students who want to obtain associate degrees. The length of studies is two years. As of 1999 there were 36 technological universities in 19 states.

In the subsystem of private institutions, there were 598 schools, not including teacher colleges. Private institutions are grouped into universities (168), institutes (171), and centres, schools, and other institutions (259). Accreditation for these academic institutions is issued by SEP, state governments, or other public academic institutions authorized to accredit them. Private institutions of higher education have 27.6 percent of the undergraduate enrolment and 36.5 of the graduate enrolment in Mexico.

Teacher training colleges offer bachelor degrees in preschool education, elementary school education, secundaria school education, special education, and physical education. Until 1984, elementary education teacher training was offered at upper-secondary institutions, “escuelas normales”. Currently, teachers for both elementary and secondary education are trained at tertiary level institutions, teacher-training institutes that are separate from general universities and generally offer a four-year curriculum.

So most of the students (two third) attend a public university. However, studying at a private university has become popular in the last decades: there are some high quality private universities that tend to offer what the market demands and therefore often focus on popular fields like business and engineering. Public universities generally offer a wider range of programs. Also research is mainly conducted at public universities, especially when it involves high investments like laboratories.

Public universities and technological institutes of higher education offer affordable education to all Mexicans. In some of the state public universities, semester fees are even lower. Tuition is free although there are fees for some administrative tasks. By contrast, in some of the technological institutes, for example, where the demand for education is high, a semester of fees amounts to nearly $150 dollars. Private universities, however, vary in the admission process and tuition prices.

== Higher education reform==

Relevant information could not be retrieved...

== Administration and finance==
The government is only officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved at the other three levels through public provision of preschool and upper secondary as well as public funding of higher education in most states. Public schools serve 87 percent of all students in the country. Governance is centralized as the national level with the Secretaria de Educación (SEP)—setting the curriculum, selecting textbooks, hiring and firing school personnel, and setting salary schedules. Although Mexico decentralized the basic education system to its 32 states in 1992, this reform was mostly administrative, and did not diminish the centralization of decisionmaking. Overall, teachers and school administrators have little autonomy in the system.

[[Image:Sistema_Educativo_Estados_Unidos_Mexicanos_Principales_cifras-ciclo_escolar2007-2008.JPG]]

Mexico’s public spending on education is by far the largest component of public spending (24 percent of programmable spending in 2003, i.e about $28 billion). It amounted to 5.9 percent of GDP per capita, above the OECD average of 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, the figure is misleading: since taxation is low, the government’s fiscal resources are scarce and per-capita public spending in education remains low compared to international standards.

All in all, Mexico spends annually about $42 billion on education. This includes all monetary resources that federal and state governments and families spend on education. On average, states fund 85 percent of education spending through federal transfers. However, the Mexican government spends five times as much on a higher education student as it spends on a primary education student.

== Quality assurance==
Mexico has more than two million students and more than 1000 higher education institutes but among them are many very small institutes or universities of poor quality. Besides, there is no national accreditation system that sets the standard.

In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria.

• Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have for each program an official recognition by the Mexican Ministry of Education (RVOE : Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios).

• Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education.

• FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.

== Mexican HEIs in the information society==

Due to the economic and social conditions of the country, ICTs continue to be tools used by the privileged sectors in Mexico. The country’s uneven state of digital access is due to differences in income, age, gender, urbanisation, and socioeconomic disparities between regions. However, since mobile telephony is experiencing the greatest growth in the telecommunications sector in Mexico, it could be deduced that it is the service offering the greatest access in the country.

Besides the low penetration of ICTs in business is notable. This varies according to company size, geographic region and economic sector. Reasons cited by various sources include telecommunications regulation, broadband rates, the unequal sizes of companies, and the lack of financing to acquire computer equipment. For this reason, there is a deep digital divide amongst Mexican companies compared to other countries (Tello, 2008).

Without doubt, Mexico needs a digital agenda in order to ensure equitable access. At present a comprehensive digital agenda in the country does not exist. Instead, at federal government level, there are a series of uncoordinated programmes and initiatives in different ministries.

The official initiative involving universal access and governmental information over the last seven years has been e-Mexico, which attempted to create a system of satellite connectivity However, since it was implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it did not receive support from either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health (Hofmann & García-Cantú, 2008). E-Mexico has not been successful, in spite of several governmental efforts. At present, government agencies are discussing a new strategy for universal access that takes advantage of WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, health centres and government offices across the country. The State Networks for Education, Health and Government, a new version of e-Mexico (without the satellite), and the University Corporation for the Development of the Internet (CUDI) will be the principal implementers of the project.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

The three largest initiatives on Distance Education and the use of ICT involved secondary basic educcation:
- Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV program production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
- the School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research
- Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitalization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.

=== Virtual Campus Case-study ===
No case study in the framework of the Re.ViCa project

=== Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives===

[http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/quienes_01.html ECOESAD-Common Area for Distance Higher Education] ''available only in Spanish !''

This initiative aims at creating a consortium of public universities in order to develop distance higher education by integrating each institution’s training offer and sharing it nationally. This consortium could be a preliminary step towards a national distance university.

[http://www.net-active.info/ NetACTIVE-TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME]

A Virtual Mobility Scheme has been developed as a part of the Net ACTIVE project, which aims to increase the number of virtual mobility students from Latin America participating in European distance and blended masters, using ECTS. The scheme has been based upon a comparative evaluation of Reports on the European and Latin-American offerings in virtual and blended courses.

[http://www.cuaed.unam.mx/ Coordinación de Universidad Abierta y Educación a Distancia] ''available only in Spanish !''

The UNAM coordinates this network portal for Open and Distance University Education.
Here is the English version of the UNAM's website [http://www.unam.mx/EN/ Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]

[http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual]] ''available only in Spanish !''

This is webportal of the UDGvirtual campus.
Here you can find a general presentation in English of [http://www.udg.mx/content.php?id_categoria=71 Universidad de Guadalajara]

[http://www.ipn.mx Polivirtual] ''available only in Spanish !''

This is the English website of the [http://www.ipn.mx/wps/wcm/connect/IPN%20HOME/ipn_en/home/ Instituto Politécnico Nacional]
The virtual campus program is managed by the [http://www.upev.ipn.mx/bienvenida.html Unidad Politécnica para la Educación Virtual (UPEV)]that encompasses the Department of New Media, the center of educational technology and the coordinating structure of Campus Virtual Politécnico.

=== Interesting Programmes===

[[Tecnologico de Monterrey]]

[[Universidad de Guadalajara]]

[[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]]

== For more details ==
See [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/45/37746065.pdf OECD THEMATIC REVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION, Country Background Report for Mexico, Ministry of Public Education, November 2006]

and [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/49/37746196.pdf OECD Reviews of Tertiary Education, MEXICO, 2008]

== References==
Mexico on the Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

El Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012 : http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/prog_sec.pdf

Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [http://dgpp.sep.gob.mx/Estadi/Principales%20cifras/Principales%20Cifras%202007-2008.pdf Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]

Mexican education system: http://neso.nuffic.nl/mexico/dutch-organizations/mexican-education-system

Education in Mexico, Challenges and Opportunities: http://www.worldfund.org/assets/files/RAND_Education%20in%20Mexico.pdf

Mexico – Higher education: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/984/Mexico-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html

Educación y nuevas tecnologías : http://www.oei.es/quipu/mexico/index.html#eval

GISWatch 2008 – Global Information Society Watch: http://www.giswatch.org/gisw2008/country/Mexico.html

ECOESAD : http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/index.html

NetACTIVE - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME: http://www.net-active.info/

----

[[Internal evaluation México]]

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> [[Countries]]

[[Category:North America]]

México

2009-02-01T19:17:27Z

Widad: deleted all content (actually this empty page could be now removed completely)

Mexico

2009-02-01T19:13:29Z

Widad: updated he country according to the internal evaluator remarks and general recommendations (OECDE reports, VC sub-sections, etc...)

== Partners situated in Country==

none

== Mexico in a nutshell==
[[Image:mapa-mexico.gif|alt www.paises.com.mx/mapas/mapa-mexico.gif]]

Area 1,972,550 km2 (15th)

Population
- mid-2008 estimate 106,682,500
- 2005 census 103,263,388

Currency
Peso (MXN)

The United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico, is a federal constitutional republic in North America comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
Mexico is a newly industrialized country and the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven distribution of income and the increase in insecurity are issues of concern.
Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.

== Mexican education policy==
In the field of education, many improvements have been achieved through the years especially to broaden access to basic education, to lower gender and regional inequities and to decentralize the traditional highly bureaucratic and centralized education system. Moreover one third of Mexican population have not accessed or completed their basic education cycle.
During the previous program period (PNE: ''Programa Nacional de Educación 2001–2006''), the government tackled several key issues, one of them being to take responsibility in supervising and reforming preschool education and to make it mandatory by 2008 for children aged 3 to 5; the first step was to carry out an in-depth status study and then to reach 100% coverage for children aged 5 and to extend it gradually to those aged 3 to 4;

Nevertheless several deficiencies have to be dealt with to allow the full human development of Mexican society: to fight high rates of dropout and low levels of achievement and qualification towards the labour market.

Therefore the SEP designed the “''Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012''” with six objectives, each accompanied of quantitive goals and indicators applied to each level of education (primary, secondary and HE).

* Objective 1: to increase quality in education to improve students’ educative achievement and opportunities to gain welfare in order to contribute to the national development.

* Objective 2: to extend educative opportunities in order to reduce social disparities, gaps and to enhance equity.

* Objective 3: to encourage the use of ICT in the education system in order to support learning processes, to expand students’ skills for their future life and to facilitate their integration to the knowledge society.

* Objective 4: to provide a comprehensive educative offer that is a balance between providing citizenship values and developing skills and knowledge via regular classroom activities, practical teaching and an institutional context, in order to enhance democratic and intercultural coexistence.

* Objective 5: to offer quality education services to provide people with a high sense of social responsibility that participate to the labor market in a productive and competitive way.

* Objective 6: to promote a management system that encourages the participation of education centers in the decision-making process, involves the responsibility of different social and educational stakeholders and foments both the students’ and the teachers’ security, transparency and reporting.

The official language of instruction is Spanish. However, increasing attention is being paid to Indigenous education. Mexico recognizes 62 indigenous ethnic groups that speak more than 80 languages. These groups are found in 24 of the 31 Mexican states. More than 1 million indigenous children receive bilingual instruction at the preschool and elementary school levels; this education is offered in 72 dialects from 49 parent languages.

== Mexican education system==
The education system of Mexico is organized as follows:
* Preschool Education (Educación Preescolar)
* Primary Education (Educación Primaria)
* Lower-Seconary (Educación Secundaria)
* Upper-Secondary Education (Educación Media Superior)
* Higher Education (Educación Superior)

[[Image:Mexico-sistema-educativo.gif]]

Education in Mexico is provided by institutions under the jurisdiction of the federal, state and municipal government, as well as private institutions. Private institutions with academic programmes must be accredited by the SEP.

Article Three of the Mexican Constitution and the General Law of Education comprise the main legal framework regulating the Mexican education system. Article Three stipulates that all individuals have a right to receive education and that the State has an obligation to provide compulsory and free basic education services and to promote all levels. The General Law of Education (GLE), passed in 1993 and further amended in 2002, widens and reinforces the above principles. Among other things, it clarifies rights and obligations for federal and state authorities. It states that it is SEP’s responsibility to guarantee the national unity of basic education, improve its quality, and seek equity in the access to these services. It also establishes that it is the states’ obligation to provide initial and basic education, including indigenous and special education services, as well as teacher training programs.

For the year 2007-08, the total number of students was 33.3 millions. Among them, 76.5 % are enrolled in basic education levels, 11.5 % in upper-secondary education (or Educación media superior that is the fastest-growing level) and 7.9 %, in Higher Education, which represents 2.6 million students. Besides 71.6 % enrolments are attributed to State institutions (due the massive decentralisation of basic education) and 13.5 % enrolments to private institutions.

Within Higher Education, the level of Técnico superior (technological studies) accounts for 3.2%; Licenciatura (first level of undergraduate studies) accounts for 90.1 % and Posgrado (postgraduate studies up to doctorate) accounts for 6.7% of total students As for the institutional management, the student population is shifted as follows: 39.1 % are enroled in autonomously HEIs, 13.2 %, in State HEIs; 14.3 % in federal HEIs and 33.3% in private HEIs.

== Higher education==
Higher education is mostly delivered at large public universities. In addition to the large national higher education institutions (like UNAM and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), both located in Mexico City), each state has its own state university or state teachers’ college. Public universities are autonomous and are operated by their own organic laws, which means that even though they are publicly funded, their administrative and educational management is left to university boards and officials.

There are six subsystems of higher education institutions in Mexico:
- public universities,
- technological institutes,
- technological universities,
- private institutions,
- teacher training colleges,
- and other public institutions.
When all of them are counted, Mexico has 1,250 institutions of higher education.

A pattern of an increasing number of universities and enrolment began in 1940. The country had only 8 universities in that year, increasing its number to 124 in 1980. During the 1998-1999 academic year, ANUIES (National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education) listed 213 universities. Of these, 45 are public universities, where 50 percent of the academic research in Mexico takes place. These universities enroll 52 percent of students pursuing undergraduate education and 48 percent of those pursuing a graduate degree.

There are 147 technological institutes offering higher education. The Ministry of Education (SEP) coordinates 102, while state governments coordinate the other 45. In the latter, students can choose between regular and three-year programs: two years of general education requirements and one year of specialization. There is also another group of institutions of higher education that is not part of the previous two subsystems; some of these are under the SEP and other government ministries. One percent of those pursuing bachelor's degrees and 7.5 percent of those pursuing graduate degrees attend them.

Technological universities are institutions coordinated by state governments but created by federal, state and, in some instances, municipal governments. This educational modality was created in 1991 for students who want to obtain associate degrees. The length of studies is two years. As of 1999 there were 36 technological universities in 19 states.

In the subsystem of private institutions, there were 598 schools, not including teacher colleges. Private institutions are grouped into universities (168), institutes (171), and centres, schools, and other institutions (259). Accreditation for these academic institutions is issued by SEP, state governments, or other public academic institutions authorized to accredit them. Private institutions of higher education have 27.6 percent of the undergraduate enrolment and 36.5 of the graduate enrolment in Mexico.

Teacher training colleges offer bachelor degrees in preschool education, elementary school education, secundaria school education, special education, and physical education. Until 1984, elementary education teacher training was offered at upper-secondary institutions, “escuelas normales”. Currently, teachers for both elementary and secondary education are trained at tertiary level institutions, teacher-training institutes that are separate from general universities and generally offer a four-year curriculum.

So most of the students (two third) attend a public university. However, studying at a private university has become popular in the last decades: there are some high quality private universities that tend to offer what the market demands and therefore often focus on popular fields like business and engineering. Public universities generally offer a wider range of programs. Also research is mainly conducted at public universities, especially when it involves high investments like laboratories.

Public universities and technological institutes of higher education offer affordable education to all Mexicans. In some of the state public universities, semester fees are even lower. Tuition is free although there are fees for some administrative tasks. By contrast, in some of the technological institutes, for example, where the demand for education is high, a semester of fees amounts to nearly $150 dollars. Private universities, however, vary in the admission process and tuition prices.

== Higher education reform==

Relevant information could not be retrieved...

== Administration and finance==
The government is only officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved at the other three levels through public provision of preschool and upper secondary as well as public funding of higher education in most states. Public schools serve 87 percent of all students in the country. Governance is centralized as the national level with the Secretaria de Educación (SEP)—setting the curriculum, selecting textbooks, hiring and firing school personnel, and setting salary schedules. Although Mexico decentralized the basic education system to its 32 states in 1992, this reform was mostly administrative, and did not diminish the centralization of decisionmaking. Overall, teachers and school administrators have little autonomy in the system.

[[Image:Sistema_Educativo_Estados_Unidos_Mexicanos_Principales_cifras-ciclo_escolar2007-2008.JPG]]

Mexico’s public spending on education is by far the largest component of public spending (24 percent of programmable spending in 2003, i.e about $28 billion). It amounted to 5.9 percent of GDP per capita, above the OECD average of 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, the figure is misleading: since taxation is low, the government’s fiscal resources are scarce and per-capita public spending in education remains low compared to international standards.

All in all, Mexico spends annually about $42 billion on education. This includes all monetary resources that federal and state governments and families spend on education. On average, states fund 85 percent of education spending through federal transfers. However, the Mexican government spends five times as much on a higher education student as it spends on a primary education student.

== Quality assurance==
Mexico has more than two million students and more than 1000 higher education institutes but among them are many very small institutes or universities of poor quality. Besides, there is no national accreditation system that sets the standard.

In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria.

• Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have for each program an official recognition by the Mexican Ministry of Education (RVOE : Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios).

• Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education.

• FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.

== Mexican HEIs in the information society==

Due to the economic and social conditions of the country, ICTs continue to be tools used by the privileged sectors in Mexico. The country’s uneven state of digital access is due to differences in income, age, gender, urbanisation, and socioeconomic disparities between regions. However, since mobile telephony is experiencing the greatest growth in the telecommunications sector in Mexico, it could be deduced that it is the service offering the greatest access in the country.

Besides the low penetration of ICTs in business is notable. This varies according to company size, geographic region and economic sector. Reasons cited by various sources include telecommunications regulation, broadband rates, the unequal sizes of companies, and the lack of financing to acquire computer equipment. For this reason, there is a deep digital divide amongst Mexican companies compared to other countries (Tello, 2008).

Without doubt, Mexico needs a digital agenda in order to ensure equitable access. At present a comprehensive digital agenda in the country does not exist. Instead, at federal government level, there are a series of uncoordinated programmes and initiatives in different ministries.

The official initiative involving universal access and governmental information over the last seven years has been e-Mexico, which attempted to create a system of satellite connectivity However, since it was implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it did not receive support from either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health (Hofmann & García-Cantú, 2008). E-Mexico has not been successful, in spite of several governmental efforts. At present, government agencies are discussing a new strategy for universal access that takes advantage of WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, health centres and government offices across the country. The State Networks for Education, Health and Government, a new version of e-Mexico (without the satellite), and the University Corporation for the Development of the Internet (CUDI) will be the principal implementers of the project.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

The three largest initiatives on Distance Education and the use of ICT involved secondary basic educcation:
- Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV program production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
- the School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research
- Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitalization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.

=== Virtual Campus Case-study ===
No case study in the framework of the Re.ViCa project

=== Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives===

[http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/quienes_01.html ECOESAD-Common Area for Distance Higher Education] ''available only in Spanish !''

This initiative aims at creating a consortium of public universities in order to develop distance higher education by integrating each institution’s training offer and sharing it nationally. This consortium could be a preliminary step towards a national distance university.

[http://www.net-active.info/ NetACTIVE-TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME]

A Virtual Mobility Scheme has been developed as a part of the Net ACTIVE project, which aims to increase the number of virtual mobility students from Latin America participating in European distance and blended masters, using ECTS. The scheme has been based upon a comparative evaluation of Reports on the European and Latin-American offerings in virtual and blended courses.

[http://www.cuaed.unam.mx/ Coordinación de Universidad Abierta y Educación a Distancia] ''available only in Spanish !''

The UNAM coordinates this network portal for Open and Distance University Education.
Here is the English version of the UNAM's website [http://www.unam.mx/EN/ Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]

[http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual]] ''available only in Spanish !''

This is webportal of the UDGvirtual campus.
Here you can find a general presentation in English of [http://www.udg.mx/content.php?id_categoria=71 Universidad de Guadalajara]

[http://www.ipn.mx Polivirtual] ''available only in Spanish !''

This the English website of the [http://www.ipn.mx/wps/wcm/connect/IPN%20HOME/ipn_en/home/ Instituto Politécnico Nacional]

=== Interesting Programmes===

[[Tecnologico de Monterrey]]

[[Universidad de Guadalajara]]

[[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]]

== For more details ==
See [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/45/37746065.pdf OECD THEMATIC REVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION, Country Background Report for Mexico, Ministry of Public Education, November 2006]

and [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/49/37746196.pdf OECD Reviews of Tertiary Education, MEXICO, 2008]

== References==
Mexico on the Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

El Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012 : http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/prog_sec.pdf

Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [http://dgpp.sep.gob.mx/Estadi/Principales%20cifras/Principales%20Cifras%202007-2008.pdf Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]

Mexican education system: http://neso.nuffic.nl/mexico/dutch-organizations/mexican-education-system

Education in Mexico, Challenges and Opportunities: http://www.worldfund.org/assets/files/RAND_Education%20in%20Mexico.pdf

Mexico – Higher education: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/984/Mexico-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html

Educación y nuevas tecnologías : http://www.oei.es/quipu/mexico/index.html#eval

GISWatch 2008 – Global Information Society Watch: http://www.giswatch.org/gisw2008/country/Mexico.html

ECOESAD : http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/index.html

NetACTIVE - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME: http://www.net-active.info/

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[[Internal evaluation México]]

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> [[Countries]]

[[Category:North America]]

Universidad de Guadalajara

2009-02-01T17:43:18Z

Widad:

{{stub}}

The '''Universidad de Guadalajara''' is an autonomous, public university with roughly 200,000 student enrolled. It has 16 campuses throughout the state of Jalisco, [[Mexico]], six of which are in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. One of these campuses is the Virtual University System, UDGVirtual, launched in 2005.The university is over 200 years old.

The Universidad de Guadalajara web site is at http://www.udg.mx/content.php?id_categoria=71

== More details ==
Through its Virtual University division, it offers an increasing number of online courses as for example a Masters in e-learning in a blended format

== Reports ==
Slides from Seminar by Dr. Rafael Morales may be available shortly.

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> [[Mexico]]
 
> [[Programmes]]

[[Category:Mexico]]

Tecnológico de Monterrey

2009-02-01T17:40:46Z

Widad:

''Tecnológico de Monterrey'' was founded in 1943 due to the vision of Eugenio Garza Sada and a group of businessmen who formed a non-profit association called Enseñanza e Investigación Superior, A. C. The Tecnológico de Monterrey is a private, non-profit institution which is independent and not related to any political party or religious group.

The work of the Tecnológico de Monterrey and of all of its campuses is supported by civil associations made up of a large group of outstanding leaders from all parts of the country, who are committed to quality in higher education.

Each year, the trustees of these civil associations meet in order to establish the goals which will guide the important decisions needed for the Tecnológico de Monterrey to achieve its mission of becoming a motor for the development of local communities and the country.

The Tecnológico de Monterrey enjoys the support of the national community which participates in the raffles which the Tecnológico de Monterrey organizes in order to expand the scholarship program and investment in infrastructure.
In order to function as an educational institution, the Tecnológico de Monterrey operates under the statute of a Free University.

Its web site is http://www.itesm.edu.

== Multi-campus university system ==

The Tecnológico de Monterrey is currently a multi-campus university system with academic centres in different regions of Mexico.

The prestige that the Tecnológico de Monterrey has enjoyed since its beginnings, not only for its academic level but also for the culture of entrepreneurship, hard work, efficiency and responsibility it promotes in its students, has motivated its graduates from different regions of the country to promote the formation of campuses of the Tecnológico de Monterrey in their native cities.

This has permitted the Tecnológico de Monterrey to perceive the different needs of each region and to educate professionals capable of solving them, without taking them out of their native environment; in addition, since it is a national system, it has accepted its responsibility to respond to the important challenges facing the country.

Some of the graduates of the Tecnológico de Monterrey are directors of successful companies in Mexico and Latin America; on the other hand, there are more and more graduates in important positions in the government and public administration.

== Virtual University ==

The coverage of the Virtual University of the Tecnológico de Monterrey extends to various countries in [[Central America]] and [[South America]].

The Virtual University of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, which has been in operation since 1989, has consolidated itself as a pioneering institution in distance education on the American continent.

By means of learning networks and advanced information technologies, the Virtual University offers graduate academic programs; continuing education programs for directors of Mexican and Latin American companies, as well as government and non-governmental organizations; programs for elementary and secondary school teachers; and programs for the development of marginalized communities.
Actually it offers a fully online Masters in Educational Technology, originally developed in partnership with UBC (Canada)as well as nearly all its graduate programs fully online, and undergraduate programs in a blended learning mode.

== Follow-up ==

Highly relevant but rather large.

The lack of a Spanish speaker in the consortium may be a barrier.

== Documents of Relevance ==
# [[Media:Mexico ANUIESPlan2001.pdf|Masterplan of Higher Education: Open and Distance Education. Development strategy (PDF)]], 118 pages, in Spanish
# [[Media:Karran eMexico UNESCO2005.pdf|E-MEXICO - BUILDING ON SUCCESS, FOR SUCCESS, by TERENCE KARRAN (member of our International Advisory Committee) (PDF)]], 4 pages, in English

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> [[Mexico]]
 
> [[Programmes]]

Mexico

2009-02-01T17:33:59Z

Widad: located the country report on this "Mexico" page (instead of "México") and removed the info on ITESM to place it on the existing "tecnologico de Monterrey" page

== Partners situated in Country==

none

== Mexico in a nutshell==
[[Image:mapa-mexico.gif|alt www.paises.com.mx/mapas/mapa-mexico.gif]]

Area 1,972,550 km2 (15th)

Population
- mid-2008 estimate 106,682,500
- 2005 census 103,263,388

Currency
Peso (MXN)

The United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico, is a federal constitutional republic in North America comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
Mexico is a newly industrialized country and the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven distribution of income and the increase in insecurity are issues of concern.
Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.

== Mexican education policy==
In the field of education, many improvements have been achieved through the years especially to broaden access to basic education, to lower gender and regional inequities and to decentralize the traditional highly bureaucratic and centralized education system. Moreover one third of Mexican population have not accessed or completed their basic education cycle.
During the previous program period (PNE: ''Programa Nacional de Educación 2001–2006''), the government tackled several key issues, one of them being to take responsibility in supervising and reforming preschool education and to make it mandatory by 2008 for children aged 3 to 5; the first step was to carry out an in-depth status study and then to reach 100% coverage for children aged 5 and to extend it gradually to those aged 3 to 4;

Nevertheless several deficiencies have to be dealt with to allow the full human development of Mexican society: to fight high rates of dropout and low levels of achievement and qualification towards the labour market.

Therefore the SEP designed the “''Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012''” with six objectives, each accompanied of quantitive goals and indicators applied to each level of education (primary, secondary and HE).

* Objective 1: to increase quality in education to improve students’ educative achievement and opportunities to gain welfare in order to contribute to the national development.

* Objective 2: to extend educative opportunities in order to reduce social disparities, gaps and to enhance equity.

* Objective 3: to encourage the use of ICT in the education system in order to support learning processes, to expand students’ skills for their future life and to facilitate their integration to the knowledge society.

* Objective 4: to provide a comprehensive educative offer that is a balance between providing citizenship values and developing skills and knowledge via regular classroom activities, practical teaching and an institutional context, in order to enhance democratic and intercultural coexistence.

* Objective 5: to offer quality education services to provide people with a high sense of social responsibility that participate to the labor market in a productive and competitive way.

* Objective 6: to promote a management system that encourages the participation of education centers in the decision-making process, involves the responsibility of different social and educational stakeholders and foments both the students’ and the teachers’ security, transparency and reporting.

The official language of instruction is Spanish. However, increasing attention is being paid to Indigenous education. Mexico recognizes 62 indigenous ethnic groups that speak more than 80 languages. These groups are found in 24 of the 31 Mexican states. More than 1 million indigenous children receive bilingual instruction at the preschool and elementary school levels; this education is offered in 72 dialects from 49 parent languages.

== Country education system==
The education system of Mexico is organized as follows:
* Preschool Education (Educación Preescolar)
* Primary Education (Educación Primaria)
* Lower-Seconary (Educación Secundaria)
* Upper-Secondary Education (Educación Media Superior)
* Higher Education (Educación Superior)

[[Image:Mexico-sistema-educativo.gif]]

Education in Mexico is provided by institutions under the jurisdiction of the federal, state and municipal government, as well as private institutions. Private institutions with academic programmes must be accredited by the SEP.

Article Three of the Mexican Constitution and the General Law of Education comprise the main legal framework regulating the Mexican education system. Article Three stipulates that all individuals have a right to receive education and that the State has an obligation to provide compulsory and free basic education services and to promote all levels. The General Law of Education (GLE), passed in 1993 and further amended in 2002, widens and reinforces the above principles. Among other things, it clarifies rights and obligations for federal and state authorities. It states that it is SEP’s responsibility to guarantee the national unity of basic education, improve its quality, and seek equity in the access to these services. It also establishes that it is the states’ obligation to provide initial and basic education, including indigenous and special education services, as well as teacher training programs.

For the year 2007-08, the total number of students was 33.3 millions. Among them, 76.5 % are enrolled in basic education levels, 11.5 % in upper-secondary education (or Educación media superior that is the fastest-growing level) and 7.9 %, in Higher Education, which represents 2.6 million students. Besides 71.6 % enrolments are attributed to State institutions (due the massive decentralisation of basic education) and 13.5 % enrolments to private institutions.

Within Higher Education, the level of Técnico superior accounts for 3.2% (technological studies); Licenciatura accounts for 90.1 % (first level of undergraduate studies) and Posgrado accounts for 6.7% of total students (postgraduate studies up to doctorate) . As for the institutional management, the student population is shifted as follows: 39.1 % are enroled in autonomously HEIs, 13.2 %, in State HEIs; 14.3 % in federal HEIs and 33.3% in private HEIs.

== Higher education==
Higher education is mostly delivered at large public universities. In addition to the large national higher education institutions (like UNAM and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), both located in Mexico City), each state has its own state university or state teachers’ college. Public universities are autonomous and are operated by their own organic laws, which means that even though they are publicly funded, their administrative and educational management is left to university boards and officials.

There are six subsystems of higher education institutions in Mexico:
- public universities,
- technological institutes,
- technological universities,
- private institutions,
- teacher training colleges,
- and other public institutions.
When all of them are counted, Mexico has 1,250 institutions of higher education.

A pattern of an increasing number of universities and enrolment began in 1940. The country had only 8 universities in that year, increasing its number to 124 in 1980. During the 1998-1999 academic year, ANUIES (National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education) listed 213 universities. Of these, 45 are public universities, where 50 percent of the academic research in Mexico takes place. These universities enroll 52 percent of students pursuing undergraduate education and 48 percent of those pursuing a graduate degree.

There are 147 technological institutes offering higher education. The Ministry of Education (SEP) coordinates 102, while state governments coordinate the other 45. In the latter, students can choose between regular and three-year programs: two years of general education requirements and one year of specialization. There is also another group of institutions of higher education that is not part of the previous two subsystems; some of these are under the SEP and other government ministries. One percent of those pursuing bachelor's degrees and 7.5 percent of those pursuing graduate degrees attend them.

Technological universities are institutions coordinated by state governments but created by federal, state and, in some instances, municipal governments. This educational modality was created in 1991 for students who want to obtain associate degrees. The length of studies is two years. As of 1999 there were 36 technological universities in 19 states.

In the subsystem of private institutions, there were 598 schools, not including teacher colleges. Private institutions are grouped into universities (168), institutes (171), and centres, schools, and other institutions (259). Accreditation for these academic institutions is issued by SEP, state governments, or other public academic institutions authorized to accredit them. Private institutions of higher education have 27.6 percent of the undergraduate enrolment and 36.5 of the graduate enrolment in Mexico.

Teacher training colleges offer bachelor degrees in preschool education, elementary school education, secundaria school education, special education, and physical education. Until 1984, elementary education teacher training was offered at upper-secondary institutions, “escuelas normales”. Currently, teachers for both elementary and secondary education are trained at tertiary level institutions, teacher-training institutes that are separate from general universities and generally offer a four-year curriculum.

So most of the students (two third) attend a public university. However, studying at a private university has become popular in the last decades: there are some high quality private universities that tend to offer what the market demands and therefore often focus on popular fields like business and engineering. Public universities generally offer a wider range of programs. Also research is mainly conducted at public universities, especially when it involves high investments like laboratories.

Public universities and technological institutes of higher education offer affordable education to all Mexicans. In some of the state public universities, semester fees are even lower. Tuition is free although there are fees for some administrative tasks. By contrast, in some of the technological institutes, for example, where the demand for education is high, a semester of fees amounts to nearly $150 dollars. Private universities, however, vary in the admission process and tuition prices.

== Higher education reform==

== Administration and finance==
The government is only officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved at the other three levels through public provision of preschool and upper secondary as well as public funding of higher education in most states. Public schools serve 87 percent of all students in the country. Governance is centralized as the national level with the Secretaria de Educación (SEP)—setting the curriculum, selecting textbooks, hiring and firing school personnel, and setting salary schedules. Although Mexico decentralized the basic education system to its 32 states in 1992, this reform was mostly administrative, and did not diminish the centralization of decisionmaking. Overall, teachers and school administrators have little autonomy in the system.

[[Image:Sistema_Educativo_Estados_Unidos_Mexicanos_Principales_cifras-ciclo_escolar2007-2008.JPG]]

Mexico’s public spending on education is by far the largest component of public spending (24 percent of programmable spending in 2003, i.e about $28 billion). It amounted to 5.9 percent of GDP per capita, above the OECD average of 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, the figure is misleading: since taxation is low, the government’s fiscal resources are scarce and per-capita public spending in education remains low compared to international standards.

All in all, Mexico spends annually about $42 billion on education. This includes all monetary resources that federal and state governments and families spend on education. On average, states fund 85 percent of education spending through federal transfers. However, the Mexican government spends five times as much on a higher education student as it spends on a primary education student.

== Quality assurance==
Mexico has more than two million students and more than 1000 higher education institutes but among them are many very small institutes or universities of poor quality. Besides, there is no national accreditation system that sets the standard.

In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria.

• Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have for each program an official recognition by the Mexican Ministry of Education (RVOE : Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios).

• Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education.

• FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.

== Country's HEIs in the information society==

Due to the economic and social conditions of the country, ICTs continue to be tools used by the privileged sectors in Mexico. The country’s uneven state of digital access is due to differences in income, age, gender, urbanisation, and socioeconomic disparities between regions. However, since mobile telephony is experiencing the greatest growth in the telecommunications sector in Mexico, it could be deduced that it is the service offering the greatest access in the country.

Besides the low penetration of ICTs in business is notable. This varies according to company size, geographic region and economic sector. Reasons cited by various sources include telecommunications regulation, broadband rates, the unequal sizes of companies, and the lack of financing to acquire computer equipment. For this reason, there is a deep digital divide amongst Mexican companies compared to other countries (Tello, 2008).

Without doubt, Mexico needs a digital agenda in order to ensure equitable access. At present a comprehensive digital agenda in the country does not exist. Instead, at federal government level, there are a series of uncoordinated programmes and initiatives in different ministries.

The official initiative involving universal access and governmental information over the last seven years has been e-Mexico, which attempted to create a system of satellite connectivity However, since it was implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it did not receive support from either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health (Hofmann & García-Cantú, 2008). E-Mexico has not been successful, in spite of several governmental efforts. At present, government agencies are discussing a new strategy for universal access that takes advantage of WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, health centres and government offices across the country. The State Networks for Education, Health and Government, a new version of e-Mexico (without the satellite), and the University Corporation for the Development of the Internet (CUDI) will be the principal implementers of the project.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

The three largest initiatives on Distance Education and the use of ICT involved secondary basic educcation:
- Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV program production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
- the School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research
- Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitalization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.

HIGHER EDUCATION

'''ECOESAD''' (Common Area for Distance Higher Education) aims at creating a consortium of public universities in order to develop distance higher education by integrating each institution’s training offer and sharing it nationally. This consortium could be a preliminary step towards a national distance university.

'''NetACTIVE''' - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME
A Virtual Mobility Scheme has been developed as a part of the Net ACTIVE project, which aims to increase the number of virtual mobility students from Latin America participating in European distance and blended masters, using ECTS. The scheme has been based upon a comparative evaluation of Reports on the European and Latin-American offerings in virtual and blended courses.

'''Coordinación de Universidad Abierta y Educación a Distancia''' [http://www.cuaed.unam.mx UNAM]

'''Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual''' [http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx Universidad Guadalajara]

'''Polivirtual''' [http://www.ipn.mx Instituto Politécnico Nacional]

----

== References==
Mexico on the Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

El Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012 : http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/prog_sec.pdf

Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [http://dgpp.sep.gob.mx/Estadi/Principales%20cifras/Principales%20Cifras%202007-2008.pdf Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]

Mexican education system: http://neso.nuffic.nl/mexico/dutch-organizations/mexican-education-system

Education in Mexico, Challenges and Opportunities: http://www.worldfund.org/assets/files/RAND_Education%20in%20Mexico.pdf

Mexico – Higher education: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/984/Mexico-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html

Educación y nuevas tecnologías : http://www.oei.es/quipu/mexico/index.html#eval

GISWatch 2008 – Global Information Society Watch: http://www.giswatch.org/gisw2008/country/Mexico.html

ECOESAD : http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/index.html

NetACTIVE - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME: http://www.net-active.info/

----

[[Internal evaluation Mexico]]

----
> [[Countries]]

[[Category:North America]]

Country reports

2009-02-01T17:17:37Z

Widad: corrected the internal link to Mexico (instead of México !) :::: actually there were two "Mexican" pages, I'm trying to tidy this up...

''This is an index page for the reports on the countries of interest to Re.ViCa team and its International Advisory Committee.''

''A country does not get into this list until its Country report is "reasonably complete".''

=== Disclaimer ===

''The concept of a "country" is a complex and sometimes contested issue. Inclusion of a country in any of our lists does not imply recognition of the country by any particular nation (or the EU) or approval of its regime by the Re.ViCa project or its advisors or funders.''

Use the [[Country template]] for authors

== Countries list ==

See also the "Category" entry on each country for institutions of relevance, e.g. [[:Category:Canada]].

# '''[[Australia]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[GEO]] - minimal information at present but in the right structure and of relevance to e-learning
# '''''[[Austria]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Bahrain]] - has an important regional centre for the [[Arab Open University]]
# '''''[[Belgium]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editors [[ATiT]] and [[AVNet]] - which regions? - good information
# '''[[Brazil]]''' - country editor [[EuroPACE]] - some information (lots more on file)
# '''''[[Canada]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[Cape Verde]]''' - some information on the universities
# '''[[China]]''' - a major player in e-learning - some information and see [[:Category:China|entities in China]]
# [[Colombia]]
# [[Costa Rica]]
# '''''[[Czech Republic]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[ATiT]] - has information now
# '''''[[Denmark]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[ATiT]] - has information now
# [[Egypt]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# '''''[[Estonia]]''''' ([[EU]]) - country editor [[TKK]]
# '''''[[Finland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[TKK]] - good information
# '''''[[France]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[ULP]]
# '''''[[Germany]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Ghana]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# ''[[Greece]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[UNINETTUNO]] - has information now
# '''[[Guernsey]]''' ([[Europe]]) - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# [[Hong Kong]] - minimal information, needs to be better since it is relevant - see [[Open University of Hong Kong]] and [[Hong Kong Polytechnic University]]
# '''''[[Hungary]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[GEO]] - good information
# '''[[India]]''' - minimal information, needs to be better - see [[NetVarsity]] and [[Indira Gandhi National Open University]]
# [[Indonesia]] - some information - see in particular [[Universitas Terbuka]]
# '''''[[Ireland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[Isle of Man]]''' - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# '''[[Italy]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[UNINETTUNO]] - good information
# '''[[Jersey]]''' - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# [[Kenya]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# [[Kuwait]]
# '''[[Latvia]]''' - adequate information building up
# '''''[[Luxembourg]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Malawi]] - a little information including delivery from the [[University of Derby]]
# '''[[Mexico]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[ULP]]
# [[Mozambique]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# The '''''[[Netherlands]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]]
# '''[[New Zealand]]''' ([[OECD]]) - some information
# [[Nicaragua]]
# '''[[Nigeria]]'''
# [[Northern Cyprus]]
# '''''[[Norway]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# [[Oman]]
# [[Palestine]]
# ''[[Poland]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[EuroPACE]]
# ''[[Portugal]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[AVNet]]
# [[Qatar]]
# '''''[[Russia]]''''' - country editor [[TKK]]
# [[Saudi Arabia]]
# '''''[[South Africa]]''''' - country editor [[ATiT]] - good information
# '''''[[Spain]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[EuroPACE]] - good information
# '''''[[Sweden]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[TKK]]
# '''''[[Switzerland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Syria]]
# [[Tanzania]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# [[United Arab Emirates]]
# '''''[[United Kingdom]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[United States]]''' ([[OECD]]) - some information

----

> [[Countries]]
 
>> [[Index]]

[[Category:Country reports| ]]

México

2009-02-01T16:38:16Z

Widad: uploaded image "financiamiento"

== Partners situated in Country==

== Country in a nutshell==
[[Image:mapa-mexico.gif|alt www.paises.com.mx/mapas/mapa-mexico.gif]]

Area 1,972,550 km2 (15th)

Population
- mid-2008 estimate 106,682,500
- 2005 census 103,263,388

Currency
Peso (MXN)

The United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico, is a federal constitutional republic in North America comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
Mexico is a newly industrialized country and the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven distribution of income and the increase in insecurity are issues of concern.
Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.

== Country education policy==
In the field of education, many improvements have been achieved through the years especially to broaden access to basic education, to lower gender and regional inequities and to decentralize the traditional highly bureaucratic and centralized education system. Moreover one third of Mexican population have not accessed or completed their basic education cycle.
During the previous program period (PNE: ''Programa Nacional de Educación 2001–2006''), the government tackled several key issues, one ofhttp://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/skins/common/images/button_italic.png them being to take responsibility in supervising and reforming preschool education and to make it mandatory by 2008 for children aged 3 to 5; the first step was to carry out an in-depth status study and then to reach 100% coverage for children aged 5 and to extend it gradually to those aged 3 to 4;

Nevertheless several deficiencies have to be dealt with to allow the full human development of Mexican society: to fight high rates of dropout and low levels of achievement and qualification towards the labour market.

Therefore the SEP designed the “''Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012''” with six objectives, each accompanied of quantitive goals and indicators applied to each level of education (primary, secondary and HE).

Objective 1: to increase quality in education to improve students’ educative achievement and opportunities to gain welfare in order to contribute to the national development.
Objective 2: to extend educative opportunities in order to reduce social disparities, gaps and to enhance equity.
Objective 3: to encourage the use of ICT in the education system in order to support learning processes, to expand students’ skills for their future life and to facilitate their integration to the knowledge society.
Objective 4: to provide a comprehensive educative offer that is a balance between providing citizenship values and developing skills and knowledge via regular classroom activities, practical teaching and an institutional context, in order to enhance democratic and intercultural coexistence.
Objective 5: to offer quality education services to provide people with a high sense of social responsibility that participate to the labor market in a productive and competitive way.
Objective 6: to promote a management system that encourages the participation of education centers in the decision-making process, involves the responsibility of different social and educational stakeholders and foments both the students’ and the teachers’ security, transparency and reporting.

The official language of instruction is Spanish. However, increasing attention is being paid to Indigenous education. Mexico recognizes 62 indigenous ethnic groups that speak more than 80 languages. These groups are found in 24 of the 31 Mexican states. More than 1 million indigenous children receive bilingual instruction at the preschool and elementary school levels; this education is offered in 72 dialects from 49 parent languages.

== Country education system==
[[Image:Mexico-sistema-educativo.gif]]

Education in Mexico is provided by institutions under the jurisdiction of the federal, state and municipal government, as well as private institutions. Private institutions with academic programmes must be accredited by the SEP.

Article Three of the Mexican Constitution and the General Law of Education comprise the main legal framework regulating the Mexican education system. Article Three stipulates that all individuals have a right to receive education and that the State has an obligation to provide compulsory and free basic education services and to promote all levels. The General Law of Education (GLE), passed in 1993 and further amended in 2002, widens and reinforces the above principles. Among other things, it clarifies rights and obligations for federal and state authorities. It states that it is SEP’s responsibility to guarantee the national unity of basic education, improve its quality, and seek equity in the access to these services. It also establishes that it is the states’ obligation to provide initial and basic education, including indigenous and special education services, as well as teacher training programs.

For the year 2007-08, the total number of students was 33.3 millions. Among them, 76.5 % are enrolled in basic education levels, 11.5 % in upper-secondary education (or Educación media superior that is the fastest-growing level) and 7.9 %, in Higher Education, which represents 2.6 million students. Besides 71.6 % enrolments are attributed to State institutions (due the massive decentralisation of basic education) and 13.5 % enrolments to private institutions.
Within Higher Education, the level of Técnico superior accounts for 3.2%, Licenciatura, for 90.1 % and Posgrado, for 6.7% of total students. As for the institutional management, the student population is shifted as follows: 39.1 % are enroled in autonomously HEIs, 13.2 %, in State HEIs; 14.3 % in federal HEIs and 33.3% in private HEIs.

== Higher education==
Higher education is mostly delivered at large public universities. In addition to the large national higher education institutions (like UNAM and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), both located in Mexico City), each state has its own state university or state teachers’ college. Public universities are autonomous and are operated by their own organic laws, which means that even though they are publicly funded, their administrative and educational management is left to university boards and officials.

There are six subsystems of higher education institutions in Mexico:
- public universities,
- technological institutes,
- technological universities,
- private institutions,
- teacher training colleges,
- and other public institutions.
When all of them are counted, Mexico has 1,250 institutions of higher education.

A pattern of an increasing number of universities and enrolment began in 1940. The country had only 8 universities in that year, increasing its number to 124 in 1980. During the 1998-1999 academic year, ANUIES (National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education) listed 213 universities. Of these, 45 are public universities, where 50 percent of the academic research in Mexico takes place. These universities enroll 52 percent of students pursuing undergraduate education and 48 percent of those pursuing a graduate degree.

There are 147 technological institutes offering higher education. The Ministry of Education (SEP) coordinates 102, while state governments coordinate the other 45. In the latter, students can choose between regular and three-year programs: two years of general education requirements and one year of specialization. There is also another group of institutions of higher education that is not part of the previous two subsystems; some of these are under the SEP and other government ministries. One percent of those pursuing bachelor's degrees and 7.5 percent of those pursuing graduate degrees attend them.

Technological universities are institutions coordinated by state governments but created by federal, state and, in some instances, municipal governments. This educational modality was created in 1991 for students who want to obtain associate degrees. The length of studies is two years. As of 1999 there were 36 technological universities in 19 states.

In the subsystem of private institutions, there were 598 schools, not including teacher colleges. Private institutions are grouped into universities (168), institutes (171), and centres, schools, and other institutions (259). Accreditation for these academic institutions is issued by SEP, state governments, or other public academic institutions authorized to accredit them. Private institutions of higher education have 27.6 percent of the undergraduate enrolment and 36.5 of the graduate enrolment in Mexico.

Teacher training colleges offer bachelor degrees in preschool education, elementary school education, secundaria school education, special education, and physical education. Until 1984, elementary education teacher training was offered at upper-secondary institutions, “escuelas normales”. Currently, teachers for both elementary and secondary education are trained at tertiary level institutions, teacher-training institutes that are separate from general universities and generally offer a four-year curriculum.

So most of the students (two third) attend a public university. However, studying at a private university has become popular in the last decades: there are some high quality private universities that tend to offer what the market demands and therefore often focus on popular fields like business and engineering. Public universities generally offer a wider range of programs. Also research is mainly conducted at public universities, especially when it involves high investments like laboratories.

Public universities and technological institutes of higher education offer affordable education to all Mexicans. In some of the state public universities, semester fees are even lower. Tuition is free although there are fees for some administrative tasks. By contrast, in some of the technological institutes, for example, where the demand for education is high, a semester of fees amounts to nearly $150 dollars. Private universities, however, vary in the admission process and tuition prices.

== Higher education reform==

== Administration and finance==
The government is only officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved at the other three levels through public provision of preschool and upper secondary as well as public funding of higher education in most states. Public schools serve 87 percent of all students in the country. Governance is centralized as the national level with the Secretaria de Educación (SEP)—setting the curriculum, selecting textbooks, hiring and firing school personnel, and setting salary schedules. Although Mexico decentralized the basic education system to its 32 states in 1992, this reform was mostly administrative, and did not diminish the centralization of decisionmaking. Overall, teachers and school administrators have little autonomy in the system.

[[Image:Sistema_Educativo_Estados_Unidos_Mexicanos_Principales_cifras-ciclo_escolar2007-2008.JPG]]

Mexico’s public spending on education is by far the largest component of public spending (24 percent of programmable spending in 2003, i.e about $28 billion). It amounted to 5.9 percent of GDP per capita, above the OECD average of 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, the figure is misleading: since taxation is low, the government’s fiscal resources are scarce and per-capita public spending in education remains low compared to international standards.

All in all, Mexico spends annually about $42 billion on education. This includes all monetary resources that federal and state governments and families spend on education. On average, states fund 85 percent of education spending through federal transfers. However, the Mexican government spends five times as much on a higher education student as it spends on a primary education student.

== Quality assurance==
Mexico has more than two million students and more than 1000 higher education institutes but among them are many very small institutes or universities of poor quality. Besides, there is no national accreditation system that sets the standard.

In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria.

• Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have for each program an official recognition by the Mexican Ministry of Education (RVOE : Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios).

• Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education.

• FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.

== Country's HEIs in the information society==

Due to the economic and social conditions of the country, ICTs continue to be tools used by the privileged sectors in Mexico. The country’s uneven state of digital access is due to differences in income, age, gender, urbanisation, and socioeconomic disparities between regions. However, since mobile telephony is experiencing the greatest growth in the telecommunications sector in Mexico, it could be deduced that it is the service offering the greatest access in the country.

Besides the low penetration of ICTs in business is notable. This varies according to company size, geographic region and economic sector. Reasons cited by various sources include telecommunications regulation, broadband rates, the unequal sizes of companies, and the lack of financing to acquire computer equipment. For this reason, there is a deep digital divide amongst Mexican companies compared to other countries (Tello, 2008).

Without doubt, Mexico needs a digital agenda in order to ensure equitable access. At present a comprehensive digital agenda in the country does not exist. Instead, at federal government level, there are a series of uncoordinated programmes and initiatives in different ministries.

The official initiative involving universal access and governmental information over the last seven years has been e-Mexico, which attempted to create a system of satellite connectivity However, since it was implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it did not receive support from either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health (Hofmann & García-Cantú, 2008). E-Mexico has not been successful, in spite of several governmental efforts. At present, government agencies are discussing a new strategy for universal access that takes advantage of WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, health centres and government offices across the country. The State Networks for Education, Health and Government, a new version of e-Mexico (without the satellite), and the University Corporation for the Development of the Internet (CUDI) will be the principal implementers of the project.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

The three largest initiatives on Distance Education and the use of ICT involved secondary basic educcation:
- Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV program production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
- the School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research
- Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitalization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.

HIGHER EDUCATION

'''ECOESAD''' (Common Area for Distance Higher Education) aims at creating a consortium of public universities in order to develop distance higher education by integrating each institution’s training offer and sharing it nationally. This consortium could be a preliminary step towards a national distance university.

'''NetACTIVE''' - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME
A Virtual Mobility Scheme has been developed as a part of the Net ACTIVE project, which aims to increase the number of virtual mobility students from Latin America participating in European distance and blended masters, using ECTS. The scheme has been based upon a comparative evaluation of Reports on the European and Latin-American offerings in virtual and blended courses.

'''Coordinación de Universidad Abierta y Educación a Distancia''' [http://www.cuaed.unam.mx UNAM]

'''Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual''' [http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx Universidad Guadalajara]

'''Polivirtual''' [http://www.ipn.mx Instituto Politécnico Nacional]

----

== References==
Mexico on the Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

El Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012 : http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/prog_sec.pdf

Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [http://dgpp.sep.gob.mx/Estadi/Principales%20cifras/Principales%20Cifras%202007-2008.pdf Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]

Mexican education system: http://neso.nuffic.nl/mexico/dutch-organizations/mexican-education-system

Education in Mexico, Challenges and Opportunities: http://www.worldfund.org/assets/files/RAND_Education%20in%20Mexico.pdf

Mexico – Higher education: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/984/Mexico-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html

Educación y nuevas tecnologías : http://www.oei.es/quipu/mexico/index.html#eval

GISWatch 2008 – Global Information Society Watch: http://www.giswatch.org/gisw2008/country/Mexico.html

ECOESAD : http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/index.html

NetACTIVE - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME: http://www.net-active.info/

----

[[Internal evaluation México]]

México

2009-02-01T16:33:43Z

Widad: uploaded image / mexico sistema educativo

== Partners situated in Country==

== Country in a nutshell==
[[Image:mapa-mexico.gif|alt www.paises.com.mx/mapas/mapa-mexico.gif]]

Area 1,972,550 km2 (15th)

Population
- mid-2008 estimate 106,682,500
- 2005 census 103,263,388

Currency
Peso (MXN)

The United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico, is a federal constitutional republic in North America comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
Mexico is a newly industrialized country and the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven distribution of income and the increase in insecurity are issues of concern.
Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.

== Country education policy==
In the field of education, many improvements have been achieved through the years especially to broaden access to basic education, to lower gender and regional inequities and to decentralize the traditional highly bureaucratic and centralized education system. Moreover one third of Mexican population have not accessed or completed their basic education cycle.
During the previous program period (PNE: ''Programa Nacional de Educación 2001–2006''), the government tackled several key issues, one ofhttp://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/skins/common/images/button_italic.png them being to take responsibility in supervising and reforming preschool education and to make it mandatory by 2008 for children aged 3 to 5; the first step was to carry out an in-depth status study and then to reach 100% coverage for children aged 5 and to extend it gradually to those aged 3 to 4;

Nevertheless several deficiencies have to be dealt with to allow the full human development of Mexican society: to fight high rates of dropout and low levels of achievement and qualification towards the labour market.

Therefore the SEP designed the “''Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012''” with six objectives, each accompanied of quantitive goals and indicators applied to each level of education (primary, secondary and HE).

Objective 1: to increase quality in education to improve students’ educative achievement and opportunities to gain welfare in order to contribute to the national development.
Objective 2: to extend educative opportunities in order to reduce social disparities, gaps and to enhance equity.
Objective 3: to encourage the use of ICT in the education system in order to support learning processes, to expand students’ skills for their future life and to facilitate their integration to the knowledge society.
Objective 4: to provide a comprehensive educative offer that is a balance between providing citizenship values and developing skills and knowledge via regular classroom activities, practical teaching and an institutional context, in order to enhance democratic and intercultural coexistence.
Objective 5: to offer quality education services to provide people with a high sense of social responsibility that participate to the labor market in a productive and competitive way.
Objective 6: to promote a management system that encourages the participation of education centers in the decision-making process, involves the responsibility of different social and educational stakeholders and foments both the students’ and the teachers’ security, transparency and reporting.

The official language of instruction is Spanish. However, increasing attention is being paid to Indigenous education. Mexico recognizes 62 indigenous ethnic groups that speak more than 80 languages. These groups are found in 24 of the 31 Mexican states. More than 1 million indigenous children receive bilingual instruction at the preschool and elementary school levels; this education is offered in 72 dialects from 49 parent languages.

== Country education system==
[[Image:Mexico-sistema-educativo.gif]]

Education in Mexico is provided by institutions under the jurisdiction of the federal, state and municipal government, as well as private institutions. Private institutions with academic programmes must be accredited by the SEP.

Article Three of the Mexican Constitution and the General Law of Education comprise the main legal framework regulating the Mexican education system. Article Three stipulates that all individuals have a right to receive education and that the State has an obligation to provide compulsory and free basic education services and to promote all levels. The General Law of Education (GLE), passed in 1993 and further amended in 2002, widens and reinforces the above principles. Among other things, it clarifies rights and obligations for federal and state authorities. It states that it is SEP’s responsibility to guarantee the national unity of basic education, improve its quality, and seek equity in the access to these services. It also establishes that it is the states’ obligation to provide initial and basic education, including indigenous and special education services, as well as teacher training programs.

For the year 2007-08, the total number of students was 33.3 millions. Among them, 76.5 % are enrolled in basic education levels, 11.5 % in upper-secondary education (or Educación media superior that is the fastest-growing level) and 7.9 %, in Higher Education, which represents 2.6 million students. Besides 71.6 % enrolments are attributed to State institutions (due the massive decentralisation of basic education) and 13.5 % enrolments to private institutions.
Within Higher Education, the level of Técnico superior accounts for 3.2%, Licenciatura, for 90.1 % and Posgrado, for 6.7% of total students. As for the institutional management, the student population is shifted as follows: 39.1 % are enroled in autonomously HEIs, 13.2 %, in State HEIs; 14.3 % in federal HEIs and 33.3% in private HEIs.

== Higher education==
Higher education is mostly delivered at large public universities. In addition to the large national higher education institutions (like UNAM and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), both located in Mexico City), each state has its own state university or state teachers’ college. Public universities are autonomous and are operated by their own organic laws, which means that even though they are publicly funded, their administrative and educational management is left to university boards and officials.

There are six subsystems of higher education institutions in Mexico:
- public universities,
- technological institutes,
- technological universities,
- private institutions,
- teacher training colleges,
- and other public institutions.
When all of them are counted, Mexico has 1,250 institutions of higher education.

A pattern of an increasing number of universities and enrolment began in 1940. The country had only 8 universities in that year, increasing its number to 124 in 1980. During the 1998-1999 academic year, ANUIES (National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education) listed 213 universities. Of these, 45 are public universities, where 50 percent of the academic research in Mexico takes place. These universities enroll 52 percent of students pursuing undergraduate education and 48 percent of those pursuing a graduate degree.

There are 147 technological institutes offering higher education. The Ministry of Education (SEP) coordinates 102, while state governments coordinate the other 45. In the latter, students can choose between regular and three-year programs: two years of general education requirements and one year of specialization. There is also another group of institutions of higher education that is not part of the previous two subsystems; some of these are under the SEP and other government ministries. One percent of those pursuing bachelor's degrees and 7.5 percent of those pursuing graduate degrees attend them.

Technological universities are institutions coordinated by state governments but created by federal, state and, in some instances, municipal governments. This educational modality was created in 1991 for students who want to obtain associate degrees. The length of studies is two years. As of 1999 there were 36 technological universities in 19 states.

In the subsystem of private institutions, there were 598 schools, not including teacher colleges. Private institutions are grouped into universities (168), institutes (171), and centres, schools, and other institutions (259). Accreditation for these academic institutions is issued by SEP, state governments, or other public academic institutions authorized to accredit them. Private institutions of higher education have 27.6 percent of the undergraduate enrolment and 36.5 of the graduate enrolment in Mexico.

Teacher training colleges offer bachelor degrees in preschool education, elementary school education, secundaria school education, special education, and physical education. Until 1984, elementary education teacher training was offered at upper-secondary institutions, “escuelas normales”. Currently, teachers for both elementary and secondary education are trained at tertiary level institutions, teacher-training institutes that are separate from general universities and generally offer a four-year curriculum.

So most of the students (two third) attend a public university. However, studying at a private university has become popular in the last decades: there are some high quality private universities that tend to offer what the market demands and therefore often focus on popular fields like business and engineering. Public universities generally offer a wider range of programs. Also research is mainly conducted at public universities, especially when it involves high investments like laboratories.

Public universities and technological institutes of higher education offer affordable education to all Mexicans. In some of the state public universities, semester fees are even lower. Tuition is free although there are fees for some administrative tasks. By contrast, in some of the technological institutes, for example, where the demand for education is high, a semester of fees amounts to nearly $150 dollars. Private universities, however, vary in the admission process and tuition prices.

== Higher education reform==

== Administration and finance==
The government is only officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved at the other three levels through public provision of preschool and upper secondary as well as public funding of higher education in most states. Public schools serve 87 percent of all students in the country. Governance is centralized as the national level with the Secretaria de Educación (SEP)—setting the curriculum, selecting textbooks, hiring and firing school personnel, and setting salary schedules. Although Mexico decentralized the basic education system to its 32 states in 1992, this reform was mostly administrative, and did not diminish the centralization of decisionmaking. Overall, teachers and school administrators have little autonomy in the system.
[[Image:Sistema_Educativo_Estados_Unidos_Mexicanos_Principales cifras-ciclo_escolar2007-2008|alt Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]]

Mexico’s public spending on education is by far the largest component of public spending (24 percent of programmable spending in 2003, i.e about $28 billion). It amounted to 5.9 percent of GDP per capita, above the OECD average of 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, the figure is misleading: since taxation is low, the government’s fiscal resources are scarce and per-capita public spending in education remains low compared to international standards.

All in all, Mexico spends annually about $42 billion on education. This includes all monetary resources that federal and state governments and families spend on education. On average, states fund 85 percent of education spending through federal transfers. However, the Mexican government spends five times as much on a higher education student as it spends on a primary education student.

== Quality assurance==
Mexico has more than two million students and more than 1000 higher education institutes but among them are many very small institutes or universities of poor quality. Besides, there is no national accreditation system that sets the standard.

In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria.

• Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have for each program an official recognition by the Mexican Ministry of Education (RVOE : Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios).

• Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education.

• FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.

== Country's HEIs in the information society==

Due to the economic and social conditions of the country, ICTs continue to be tools used by the privileged sectors in Mexico. The country’s uneven state of digital access is due to differences in income, age, gender, urbanisation, and socioeconomic disparities between regions. However, since mobile telephony is experiencing the greatest growth in the telecommunications sector in Mexico, it could be deduced that it is the service offering the greatest access in the country.

Besides the low penetration of ICTs in business is notable. This varies according to company size, geographic region and economic sector. Reasons cited by various sources include telecommunications regulation, broadband rates, the unequal sizes of companies, and the lack of financing to acquire computer equipment. For this reason, there is a deep digital divide amongst Mexican companies compared to other countries (Tello, 2008).

Without doubt, Mexico needs a digital agenda in order to ensure equitable access. At present a comprehensive digital agenda in the country does not exist. Instead, at federal government level, there are a series of uncoordinated programmes and initiatives in different ministries.

The official initiative involving universal access and governmental information over the last seven years has been e-Mexico, which attempted to create a system of satellite connectivity However, since it was implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it did not receive support from either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health (Hofmann & García-Cantú, 2008). E-Mexico has not been successful, in spite of several governmental efforts. At present, government agencies are discussing a new strategy for universal access that takes advantage of WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, health centres and government offices across the country. The State Networks for Education, Health and Government, a new version of e-Mexico (without the satellite), and the University Corporation for the Development of the Internet (CUDI) will be the principal implementers of the project.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

The three largest initiatives on Distance Education and the use of ICT involved secondary basic educcation:
- Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV program production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
- the School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research
- Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitalization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.

HIGHER EDUCATION

'''ECOESAD''' (Common Area for Distance Higher Education) aims at creating a consortium of public universities in order to develop distance higher education by integrating each institution’s training offer and sharing it nationally. This consortium could be a preliminary step towards a national distance university.

'''NetACTIVE''' - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME
A Virtual Mobility Scheme has been developed as a part of the Net ACTIVE project, which aims to increase the number of virtual mobility students from Latin America participating in European distance and blended masters, using ECTS. The scheme has been based upon a comparative evaluation of Reports on the European and Latin-American offerings in virtual and blended courses.

'''Coordinación de Universidad Abierta y Educación a Distancia''' [http://www.cuaed.unam.mx UNAM]

'''Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual''' [http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx Universidad Guadalajara]

'''Polivirtual''' [http://www.ipn.mx Instituto Politécnico Nacional]

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== References==
Mexico on the Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

El Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012 : http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/prog_sec.pdf

Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [http://dgpp.sep.gob.mx/Estadi/Principales%20cifras/Principales%20Cifras%202007-2008.pdf Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]

Mexican education system: http://neso.nuffic.nl/mexico/dutch-organizations/mexican-education-system

Education in Mexico, Challenges and Opportunities: http://www.worldfund.org/assets/files/RAND_Education%20in%20Mexico.pdf

Mexico – Higher education: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/984/Mexico-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html

Educación y nuevas tecnologías : http://www.oei.es/quipu/mexico/index.html#eval

GISWatch 2008 – Global Information Society Watch: http://www.giswatch.org/gisw2008/country/Mexico.html

ECOESAD : http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/index.html

NetACTIVE - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME: http://www.net-active.info/

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[[Internal evaluation México]]

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Switzerland

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For entities in Switzerland see [[:Category:Switzerland]].

==Switzerland in a nutshell==

[[Image:800px-KARTE schweiz verwaltungsgliederung.png |thumb|left|300px|Switzerland and its "Cantone"]]Switzerland (German: Schweiz, French: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera), officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked alpine country of roughly 7.6 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called cantons. Berne is the seat of the federal authorities, while the country's economic centres are its two global cities, Geneva and especially Zürich. Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world.

It is bordered by Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. Switzerland has a long history of neutrality — it has not been at war since 1815 — and hosts many international organizations, including the Red Cross, the World Trade Organization and one of the U.N.'s two European offices. Switzerland is multilingual and has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The country's formal name is Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft in German, Confédération suisse in French, Confederazione Svizzera in Italian and Confederaziun svizra in Romansh. The establishment of Switzerland is traditionally dated to August 1, 1291; the first of August is the national holiday.

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts. Most of the cantons' legislatures are unicameral parliaments, their size varying between fifty-eight and two hundred seats. A few legislatures are general assemblies known as Landsgemeinden. The cantonal governments consist of either five or seven members, depending on the canton. For the names of the institutions, see List of legislative and executive councils of the Cantons of Switzerland.

The Swiss Federal Constitution declares the cantons to be sovereign to the extent their sovereignty is not limited by federal law. The cantons also retain all powers and competencies not delegated to the Confederation by the Constitution. Most significantly, the cantons are responsible for healthcare, welfare, law enforcement and public education; they also retain the power of taxation. The cantonal constitutions determine the degree of autonomy accorded to the municipalities, which varies but almost always includes the power to levy taxes and pass municipal laws. The sizes of the cantons vary from 37 km² to 7,105 km²; the populations vary from 14,900 to 1,244,400.

As on the federal level, all cantons provide for direct democracy. Citizens may demand a popular vote to amend the cantonal constitution or laws, or to veto laws or spending bills passed by the parliament. General popular assemblies (Landsgemeinde) are now limited to the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus. In all other cantons democratic rights are exercised by secret ballot.

==Swiss education policy==

The competences in the educational system are distributed between the Confederation, cantons and the municipalities; the characteristic of this is not a strict separation of the responsibilities but the cooperation of the Confederation, cantons and municipalities with one another. The responsibility for the legal implementation, financing and execution vary depending on the type of educational level and the respective educational facility. The primary responsibility for education lies within the cantons.
A goal of the Federal constitution is that "children and adolescents as well as those who have reached an employable age can receive education, vocational education and further education according to their capabilities", and that "children and adolescents shall be encouraged in their development into independent and socially responsible individuals and shall be supported in their social, cultural and political integration" (Federal Constitution Article 41, Paragraph 1 Letters f and g).

===Responsibilities of the cantons and the municipalities===

* According to the Confederation constitution, the cantons are According to the Federal constitution, the cantons are responsible for school education. "They must ensure that there is adequate primary school tuition available for all children. The primary school tuition is obligatory and is subject to state management or supervision. This is free of charge in public schools" (Federal Constitution Article 62). The cantons and their municipalities are wholly responsible for the decision making process, financing and execution of the primary Level and the compulsory schools.
* The cantons and the Confederation carry their respective responsibilities for the public education system at the Secondary Level. The Confederation regulates vocational education, the cantons organise its implementation and bear the majority of the financial expenses. The cantons and the Confederation regulate the Matura Schools jointly, the cantons manage the Matura Schools. The cantons are responsible for further general education schools on this level.
* In the area of the universities as well as in the rest of the tertiary area, the responsibility of the cantons and the Confederation is partly legislatory, partly as responsible body for the universities, with their efforts coordinated. The cantons are solely responsible for the universities of teacher education (Pädagogische Hochschulen - PH), which are also subject to inter-cantonal legislation. Furthermore, the individual cantons themselves are responsible for their cantonal universities.

The cantonal school law is implemented largely via the educational department in the cantons. The educational departments determine the curricula, official teaching material and the sizes of the classes.
Amongst other institutions, the municipalities manage the kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools, and are supported in this by the school commission and the Schulpflege (school council). These represent the local school authorities and have the responsibility for the premises and the acquisition of teaching aids. In some cases they also select the teachers or possess control functions. Parents may also be represented in the school commission and school council.

===Cooperation between the cantons and the school concordat===

The inter-cantonal cooperation and school coordination is one of the tasks of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK). All cantonal government members responsible for education, literacy, culture and sport are represented in the EDK. The EDK encourages and obligates the cantons to cooperation and harmonisation (e.g. with regard to reforms, cooperation in the area of planning, research, school statistics). Basic instruments of the EDK are the intern-cantonal agreements and the concordat supported recommendation.
Inter-cantonal agreements are government contracts between the cantons (qualification agreements and the terms of their implementation, e.g. the recognition regulation for the professional training of teachers, financing and freedom of movement agreements such as the inter-cantonal university agreement). Furthermore, the EDK releases curricula for certain vocational studies.
The school concordat of 1970 is the legal basis of the EDK. This generally obliges the cantons to cooperative measures in the field of education. The school concordat regulates the beginning and duration of the school year, the age of enrolment at school and the length of the compulsory schooling. An enhancement of the school concordat from 1970 is being planned. The new intern-cantonal agreement for the harmonisation of the compulsory school of the EDK will regulate important new benchmarking figures of the compulsory school (enrolment age, earlier and more flexible school enrolment, length of compulsory schooling period) and provides the educational standards that must be accomplished.

===Responsibility of the Confederation===

The Confederation issues regulations for the professional education system at the upper secondary level as well as the tertiary level and is responsible for the Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) (including research promotion). The Confederation is also responsible for the universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen - FH). The Confederation and the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) regulate the Matura recognition jointly.
On a federal level, the Federal Department for Home Affairs (EDI) - and in particular the State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER) - are responsible for the following areas: Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH), university aid, scholarships, science and research as well as the reorganisation of the Swiss university system, in collaboration with the cantons and the universities. The Federal Department for Economics (EDV) or the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology (BBT) regulates vocational education and the Federal Department for Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (VBS) or the Federal Office of Sports (BASPO) is responsible for sport.

== Description of the Educational System in Switzerland==

The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system to the cantons (Article 62). The Swiss constitution sets the foundations, namely that primary school is obligatory for every child and is free in public schools and that the confederation can run or support universities. Swiss people have voted on May 21, 2006 to reform the education system in one common program for all the cantons. Because of its diversity, there are many private international schools in Switzerland that encourage respect for all cultures.

The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons but Obwalden, where it is five years and three months. Any boy or girl can take part in school if they choose to, but kids are separated depending on whether they speak French, German or Italian. Primary school continues until grade four or five, depending on the school.

At the end of primary school (or at the beginning of secondary school), pupils are separated according to their capacities in several (often three) sections. The best students are taught advanced classes to be prepared for further studies and the matura, while students who assimilate a little bit more slowly receive an education more adapted to their needs. In PISA science literacy assessment, 15-year-old students in Switzerland had the 16th highest average score of 57 countries.

The first university in Switzerland was founded in 1460 in Basel, with a faculty of medicine. This place has a long tradition of chemical and medical research in Switzerland. Other large universities are the ETHZ in Zürich and the EPFL in Lausanne. There are 14 Universities in Switzerland, 10 of which are maintained at cantonal level and usually offer a range of non-technical subjects. Switzerland has the second highest rate of foreign students in tertiary education, after Australia.

Many Nobel prizes were awarded to Swiss scientists, for example to the world-famous physicist Albert Einstein or more recently to Heinrich Rohrer also in the field of physics. Geneva host the world's largest particle physics laboratory, the CERN. An other important research center is the Paul Scherrer Institute which belongs to the ETHZ.

===Primary===

The obligatory school system usually includes primary education (Primarschule in German, école primaire in French and scuola primaria in Italian) and secondary education I (Sekundarstufe I in German, secondaire I in French and scuola secondaria in Italian). Before that, children usually go to kindergarten. The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons but Obwalden, where it is five years and three months. The cantons Thurgau and Nidwalden allow five year olds to start primary school in exceptional cases. Primary school continues until grade four or five, depending on the school. Any boy or girl can take part in school if they choose to, but kids are separated depending on whether they speak French, German or Italian.

===Secondary===

At the end of primary school (or at the beginning of secondary school), pupils are separated according to their capacities in several (often three) sections. The best students are taught advanced classes to be prepared for further studies and the matura, while students who assimilate a little bit more slowly receive an education more adapted to their needs. This separation can be summarized as follows:

* Pre-gymnasium: this division aims to prepare the students for Gymnasium (German)/gymnase/collège/lycée (French)/liceo (Italian) or other schools which deliver a Federal maturity diploma. Students often have the choice between a science stream (with many hours of mathematics, and an introduction to physics and chemistry) and a more literary stream with Latin (and sometimes Greek).
* Intermediate: this division targets intermediate students whose goal it is to go to technical or secretarial schools, for example.
* Pre-professional: This division regroups students who are more interested in manual jobs, and prepares them for an apprenticeship by giving them strong bases in spelling, reading and mathematics.

The purpose of this system is to give every student an education that fits his or her needs and interests, but it is also criticized because it segregates children based on intellectual capacity. Secondary I school continues until grade nine, which marks the end of compulsory school.

===Tertiary===

Tertiary education depends on the education chosen in secondary education. For students with a matura, university is the most common one. Apprentices who did a vocational high school will often add a Fachhochschule (university of applied sciences) or a Höhere Fachschule (higher university of applied sciences) to their curriculum. Switzerland has the second highest rate of foreign students in tertiary education, after Australia.

The Swiss higher education system is currently facing a tremdeous change. With the foundation of Fachhochschulen (Universities of Applied Scienes) and Pädagogische Hochschulen (teacher training colleagues) higher education has been diversified, thus expanding the existing offer. The declaration of Bologna includes a drastic change in the landscape of higher education in Switzerland in order to meet the common goals by the year 2010.

At the moment 10 cantonal universities take part of the higher education system of Switzerland (Neuenburg, Freiburg, Lausanne, Genf, Bern, Zürich, St. Gallen, Basel, Luzern, Svizzera italiana), two technichal universities (Lausanne und Zürich), the Pädagogische Hochschule St. Gallen and eight federally accredited Fachhochschulen (Bern, Suisse occidentale, Nordwestschweiz, Zentralschweiz, Ostschweiz, Zürich, Université professionnelle de la Suisse italienne und Kalaïdos). Moreover, some integrated Fachhochschule and a few non-integrated Pädagogische Fachhochschule also belong to the higher education system. Private Institutions are:

* SBS Swiss Business School
* European University (EU)
* Educatis University Switzerland
The Educatis University is accredited by the Swiss Canton of Uri.
* European Graduate School - EGS University The EGS University is accredited by the Swiss Canton of Valais.
* Zentrum fuer Agogik ZAK (Centre for Agogics)
The ZAK is accredited by the Dutch Validation Council (DVC) and by the Netherlands Quality Agency B.V.

Here you can find the [http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/infothek/publ.html?publicationID=2538/ Educational Statistics of 2006] of the swiss Federal Statistical Office (in English language).

==Instituts of Higher Education==

===Universities of applied sciences===

Since 1997 the Swiss higher education landscape has received a second university type in addition to the traditional universities. These are the universities of applied sciences (FH), originating from a concentration of around 70 specialist schools (technical schools, higher commercial schools, etc). The brief of the universities of applied sciences (FH) is to offer practical and application-orientated university-level studies for graduates of vocational education.

Universities of teacher education (PH) also belong to the universities of applied sciences (FH). They are responsible for the training of the teachers.

Main task and general conditions:

* The main assignment of the universities of applied sciences (FH) consists of diploma studies, further education (post diploma studies (ND) or the Master of Advanced Studies [MAS], post diploma courses (NDK), application orientated research and development, services for the benefit of third parties, co-operation with colleges and research institutes in Switzerland and abroad.
* The Swiss Conference of universities of applied sciences, affiliated to the Swiss Conference of the Cantonal Educational Minister (FHR EDK), is the strategic and political body for all matters concerning international co-operation with universities. It coordinates the development planning throughout Switzerland and works together with the Confederation.
* The Conference of the universities of applied sciences (KFH) represents the interests of the universities of applied sciences before the Confederation and the cantons as well as other educational and research political institutions. As a rectors' conference, it is a specialist body within the Swiss Conference of the Cantonal School Ministers (EDK) and maintains close links to the Federal Office for Vocational Training and Technologies (BBT), which regulates and jointly finances the universities of applied sciences (FH) at a Swiss level.

Also available: [[Media:Fachhochschulen.pdf|Size and geographical position of Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences in 2007 (PDF)]], 1 page

===Universities===

The cantonal universities offer courses in theology, humanities and social science, mathematics and natural science, law, economics, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) offer courses in natural and engineering science, architecture, mathematics, pharmaceutical science as well as sport and military science. 9251 university diplomas / degrees are expected were achieved in 2005.

7889 university diplomas were issued in 2005.
In 2006 a total of 166,449 students attended a Swiss university facility, approx. two thirds of these attended a university and almost one third a university of applied sciences (FH).

The oldest university in Switzerland was founded in 1460 in Basel. Five of the ten cantonal universities are situated in the German-speaking part of Switzerland: the Universities of Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zurich. The University of Freiburg is located in the bilingual canton Freiburg (French and German). The Universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel are located in French-speaking Switzerland and the Università della Svizzera Italiana is situated in Ticino in the Italian-speaking part of the country. In addition there are the two Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) in Lausanne and Zurich as well as the four research institutes belonging to the ETH domain: Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Federal Institute for Material Testing and Research (EMPA) and the Federal Research Institute for Water Supply, Wastewater Treatment and Water Pollution Control (EAWAG).

Also available: [[Media:Swissuniversities.pdf| Situation and size of the "Universitäre Hochschulen" in Switzerland in 2007 (PDF)]], 1 page

===The "Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz" and other Confederation-recognised universities===

In addition to the higher education institutions mentioned above, there is also a private foundation for distance learning, "The Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz" which was recognised by the Confederation in 2004.

The following universities have also been recognised by the Confederation.
* Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales (HEI), Geneva
* Institut de hautes études en administration publique (IDHEAP), Lausanne
* Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (The Postgraduate University of the Canton of Valais), Sion

===Core mandates and general requirements===

* Among the core mandates of the universities (cantonale universities and the Federal Institutes of Technology) are teaching, research, and the provision of services.
* The universities have considerable academic, financial, and organisational autonomy. The Swiss University Conference (CUS) is entrusted with their national coordination.

== Virtual learning Initiatives in Switzerland==

Since 1992 the Canton Valais – situated in the Southwest of Switzerland – pursues as a non-university Canton an active university policy. One of the priorities is the promotion of distance teaching. For this purpose three institutions have been established in the last years:

* Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz (university distance programs)

* Fernfachhochschule Schweiz (distance programs for an university of applied science)

* [http://www.brain-tec.ch/ Brain-tec Ltd. ] (Obtaining competencies within the IT area, technically services)

Since Switzerland as a small country will not build up a distance university of its own, a co-operation model was chosen.

The Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz has close co-operations with the FernUniversität in Hagen, the French universities of Besançon, Grenoble, Dijon and the Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance, the Canadian Télé-Université, and the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities.

In the area of the university of applied science exist co-operations with different distance teaching networks. As most important partners the following are to be called: The Institut für Verbundstudien der Fachhochschulen (institute for network studies of the universities of applied science) Northrhine-Westphalia Iserlohn, the Zentralstelle für Fernstudien an Fachhochschulen ZFH Koblenz (central office for distance teaching at the university of applied science) and the Fernstudienagentur FHTW, Berlin (distance teaching agency).

The Brain-tec Ltd. has in particular the function to lead both the Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz and the Swiss distance learning college from correspondence study to "Online study". To put this idea into action are being offered both services for the qualification of employees and technically services. Supplementary, professional training study programmes and services for third in the IT-sector are available.

By these activities all three institutions form a national competence centre within the area of distance study and distance teaching, which includes all educational sectors.

Besides this Swiss students of course can attend all programs of [http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Germany German], [http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Italy Italian], [http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/France French] or institutions of higher distance-education of other countries – depending on their language skills.

===Important virtual learning opportunities in Switzerland===

'''Table 1'''
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:11px;"
|-valign="top" style="background: #ECE5B6;"
!width=""|'''Nr'''
!width=""|'''Name'''
!width=""|'''Institution'''
!width=""|'''City'''
!width=""|'''Type'''
|-valign="top"

|1. || [http://www.fernfachhochschule.ch/ffhs Fernfachhochschule Schweiz / Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS), ] || FFHS|| Brig|| Distance Learning.
|-valign="top"
|2. || [http://www.fernuni.ch/ The Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz] || The Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz|| Brig|| University distance programmes.
|-valign="top"
|3. || [http://www.oncampus.de/index.php?id=61 Hochschulverbund Virtuelle Fachhochschule]||Hochschulverbund Virtuelle Fachhochschule|| Brig|| University distance programmes in cooperation.
|-valign="top"

|}

1) Since autumn 1998 the FFHS offers technical college courses for people in employment in the areas of economy, informatics and engineering according to the method of blended-learning. About 80 per cent of the education occurs in the accompanied correspondence courses; about 20 per cent of the time the students spent in one of the regional centres in Zurich, Bern, Basel or Brig. This study form – a combination of different forms of electronic learning with traditional education- and continuing-education methods and direct practise relation – closes a gap in the Swiss training system: The FFHS trains higher certified occupational people without taking them away from the job market.

Since 2004 the Fernfachhochschule Schweiz is a part of the Scuola Universitaria profession ale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI) approved by the Bundesrat. So it is integrated into the whole strategy of the SUPSI. The offer of the SUPSI is aimed traditionally on the Italian language area of Switzerland. Now with her partial school the SUPSI has got a foot in the door of German-speaking Switzerland. Besides it profits from the correspondence course competence of the FFHS.

Approximately 600 students are enrolled at the FFHS. The number of students is rising. In May 2008 201 people had registred newly for bachelor- or master-degrees.

On average two saturdays a months students (depending on there home-region) meet in regional centres Zürich, Bern, Basel or
Brig for attendance-courses. For this two-week-model it comes to a dilatation of the academic year: A "Semester" (term) starts around one month before a Semester in a typical full-time-Fachhochschule
and takes 18 weeks instead of 15. Students of the FFHS start their studies with 29 years of age in average, 40 per cent of them are married, and only 27 per cent are female. Most are living close to Zürich.

2) 1318 students (1571 including continuing education) were studying with the Foundation Fernstudien Schweiz in 2007; 955 in German language, 363 in French. The Foundation has got close cooperations with other Swiss and European universities (see above). It runs own bachelor-programs in Swiss Law, psychology and economics and many more in cooperation with German an French universities, especially with the FernUniversität in Hagen. There are study-centres in Brig, Pfäffikon and Sierre.

3) The “virtual” network of universities of applied sciences "Hochschulverbund Virtuelle Fachhochschule" (VFH) offers two online-study-programs since winter-term 2001/2002: „Medieninformatik“ (media informatics) and "Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen" (industrial engineering and management).

At the moment seven German universities of applied sciences (from different “Länder”) make part of the alliance as well as two associated institutions – one of them is the Fernfachhochschule Brig (see above).

==References==

[http://edkwww.unibe.ch/e/eurydice/framesets/mainBildungCH_e.html http://edkwww.unibe.ch/e/eurydice/framesets/mainBildungCH_e.html]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Switzerland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Switzerland]

[http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/15.html http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/15.html]

[http://www.educa.ch/dyn/152941.asp http://www.educa.ch/dyn/152941.asp]

[http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/ICDE/D-2001/gdl_day/gruenwald/index.html http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/ICDE/D-2001/gdl_day/gruenwald/index.html]

See also links in the text.

----

[[Internal evaluation Switzerland]]

----
> [[Countries]]

[[Category:Switzerland| ]]
[[Category:Europe]]

Latvia

2009-01-14T15:40:06Z

Widad: created a page for internal evaluation Latvia

== Partners situated in Latvia==
No partners situated in Latvia

== Country in a nutshell ==
[[Image:Latvia-map.gif|right|400px]]
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia is a country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. It is bordered to the north by Estonia, to the south by Lithuania, and to the east both by Belarus and the Russian Federation. Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden. The territory of Latvia covers 64,589 km² and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate.

The Latvians are a Baltic people closely related to the Lithuanians, with the Latvian language sharing many similarities to Lithuanian. Today the Latvians and Lithuanians are the only surviving members of the Baltic peoples and Baltic languages of the Indo-European family. The modern name of Latvia is thought to originate from the ancient Latvian name Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia.

Latvia is a democratic parliamentary republic and is divided into 26 districts. The capital and largest city is Riga. Latvia has been a member of the United Nations since 17 September 1991, of the European Union since 1 May 2004 and of NATO since 29 March 2004.

==Latvian education policy==
Every citizen of the Republic of Latvia and every person who has the right to a non-citizen passport issued by the Republic of Latvia, every person who has received a permanent residence permit, as well as citizens of European Union memberstates who have been issued a temporary residence permit, and their children, have equal right to acquire education, regardless of their property or social status, race, nationality, gender, religious or political convictions, state of health, occupation or place of residence.

'''Governance of the Education System'''

Education system is administered at three levels - national, municipal and institutional. The Parliament (Saeima), the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Education and Science are the main decision-making bodies at a national level. The Ministry of Education and Science is the education policy-making institution that also issues the licenses for opening comprehensive education institutions and sets educational standards along with the teacher training content and procedures.

==Latvian education system==
[[Image:Izglshema-eng.jpg|right|400px]]

The components of the educational system are pre-school education(pirmsskolas izglitiba), 9-year basic education (pamatizglitiba), upper secondary education (videja izglitiba) and higher education (augstaka izglitiba).

* '''Pre-school education''' (ISCED 0) is for children aged 5-7 years and is provided by general education establishments or kindergartens as part of compulsory 11 basic education. The objective is to foster general development of children and their readiness to enter the primary stage of basic education.

* '''Basic education''' (ISCED 1 and 2) comprises primary and lower secondary education and lasts for 9 years. It is compulsory for all children aged 7 and above. The National Basic Education Standard (Valsts pamatizglitibas standarts) determines the curriculum and the content of national examinations. Those who do not complete basic education by 16 should, according to Law, continue studying to complete the programme by the time they are 18. They can also choose VET programmes that allow them to obtain a first or second level professional qualification and to complete the obligatory basic educational programme.

* '''3-year vocational basic education programmes''' are provided in vocational schools for students without a certificate of basic education (after completion of at least 7 grades of basic education, but they must be at least 15 years old). Upper secondary education (ISCED 3) comprises two types of programme: general secondary (vispareja videja izglitiba) and vocational secondary (profesionala videja izglitiba). In general secondary, there are 4 study fields: general; humanities and social sciences; mathematics, natural science and technical, and vocational (arts, music, business, and sports). The following subjects are obligatory for all programmes: Latvian; first foreign language; second foreign language (in minority population schools - the minority language); mathematics, history; sports; business foundations and computer science. Every programme includes obligatory and optional subjects relevant to the particular field of studies. To receive the Certificate of the secondary education (Atestats par visparejo videjo izglitibu), students should take not less than 5 examinations in compulsory or optional study subjects and no more than 4 tests in compulsory study subjects.

:: Provision is regulated by the state which determines its level, form and target groups. It also defines the strategic goals and main tasks of each programme; its obligatory content, basic principles and assessment.

:: Different vocational education programmes are developed and offered for all economic branches. The National Standard of vocational education (Valsts profesionalas izglitibas standarts) and the Occupational Standards (Profesiju standarti) determine the curriculum and content of vocational education programmes.

* '''4-year vocational secondary education programmes''' are offered to students who have successfully completed compulsory basic education. Graduates receive a diploma of vocational secondary education and a Level 3 vocational qualification.

* '''2-3 year vocational education programmes''' lead to a Certificate of secondary education and qualification level 3.

* '''Post secondary non-tertiary vocational education''' (ISCED 4) can be followed after graduating from general secondary schools. They are focused towards mastering purely professional skills and knowledge.

* '''Tertiary education (ISCED 5).''' While there is a difference between academic and vocational higher education, it is not institutionalised. Universities and other higher education institutions run both academic and vocational programmes.
http://www.aic.lv/refernet/doc/Thematic%20Overview_2007.pdf
Thematic Overview_2007.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Academic higher education programmes (ISCED 5A) lead to a Bachelor’s degree (Bakalaurs) and Master’s degree (Magistrs). The duration of Bachelor’s programmes may be 3 or 4 years. A Master’s degree is awarded after the second stage of academic education and requires at least 5 years of university studies.

:: The '''Law of Higher Education Institutions''' (Augstakas izglitibas likums) and the '''Law of Vocational Education''' (Profesionalas izglitibas likums) stipulate a 2-level vocational higher education – the first level (2-3 years) leading to professional qualification Level 4 (ISCED 5B) and second level (ISCED 5B) leading to qualification level 5 (4-6 years). Having completed a programme, students are awarded with a professional qualification or a vocational Bachelor’s degree that can be followed by a further 1-2 years of vocational Master’s studies. The Master’s degree of higher vocational education is awarded if the total duration of studies is at least 5 years.

* There can also be '''short second level vocational higher education study programmes (1-2 years),''' where the qualification is obtained on the basis of the previously acquired first level vocational higher education or academic Bachelor’s degree. In total the duration of professional qualification Level 5 study programmes is not less than 4 years after secondary education and not less than 2 years after college education.

* '''Bachelor and Master degrees''' exist both in academic and vocational higher education. Bachelors of both categories have the right to enrol in master’s studies, masters of both categories (including also degrees in medicine and dentistry - 6 and 5 years of study respectively) - in doctoral studies.

* '''Postgraduate education (ISCED level 6).''' A Master’s degree or the equivalent is required for admission to doctoral studies (Ph.D.) which last 3-4 full-time years. They include advanced studies of the subject in a relevant study programme (or an equivalent amount of independent research while working at a university, research institution, etc.) and a scientific research towards doctoral thesis.

==Higher education==
Access to higher (tertiary) education (HE). All holders of general secondary education certificates and diplomas on vocational secondary education meet the general admission requirements. However, the universities are free to set specific requirements, e.g. to choose which subjects have to been taken at school level to qualify for admission to a particular programme.

Bakalaurs (bachelor) and maģistrs (master) degrees are awarded both in academic and professional HE. Both types of bachelors are eligible for studies in master programmes and both types of masters (including holders of degrees in medicine and dentistry – 6 and 5 years respectively) – in doctoral programmes.

Academic higher education follows academic education standard and is aimed at preparing graduates for research and providing theoretical background for professional activities.

* '''Bakalaurs degree''' in a branch of science is awarded after the first cycle of academic studies. Bachelor programmes comprise 120 – 160 credit points (180-240 ECTS) or 4-6 semesters of full-time studies. They include: compulsory part ≥50 CP (75 ECTS), optional part ≥20 CP (30 ECTS), thesis ≥10 CP (15 ECTS) and some subjects of free choice to earn the rest of necessary CP.
* '''Maģistrs degree''' in a branch of science is awarded after the second cycle of academic studies comprising 80 (120 ECTS) credits, out of those thesis results in ≥20 CP, compulsory part includes theoretical aspects of the field (≥ 30 CP) and their practical application in solving actual problems (≥15 CP).

According to Standards of first and second level professional higher education, its aim is to provide in-depth knowledge in a field, enabling graduates to design and improve systems, products and technologies as well as to prepare graduates for creative, research and teaching activities in this field.

* '''Professional bakalaurs programmes''' are designed to ensure professional competence, they comprise at least 160 CP (240 ECTS), out of those: general courses (≥15 CP), theoretical courses of the field (≥36 CP), specialization courses (≥60 CP), optional courses (≥6 CP), practical placement (≥26 CP), and state examinations including thesis (≥12 CP).
* '''Professional HE programmes''' leading to maģistrs degree comprise no less than 40 CP (60 ECTS), out of those: up-to-date achievements in the field – in theory and in practice (≥7 CP), practical placements (≥6 CP), state examinations including thesis (≥20 CP) as well as research training, courses of design, management, psychology etc.

Apart from the programmes leading to bakalaurs and maģistrs degrees, there are other types of professional higher education programmes.

* '''First-level professional HE (college) programmes''' comprise 80-120 CP (120-180 ECTS) and lead to a CEDUC 4th level professional qualification. These programmes are targeted mainly at labour market. Yet, the graduates of the first-level programmes can continue their studies in second-level professional programmes.
* '''Second-level professional HE programmes''' lead to a CEDUC 5th level professional qualification. Such programmes can comprise either at least 40 CP (60 ECTS) for holders of bakalaurs degrees or at least 160 CP (240 ECTS) for secondary school leavers. In both cases programmes should include a practical placement of at least 26 CP (39 ECTS) and graduation examinations including thesis (≥10 CP). Graduates of programmes including the 70 CP (105 ECTS) compulsory part of the bakalaurs programme, have access to master studies.
* '''Doctoral studies.''' From January 1, 2000 onwards a single type of doctoral degree Doktors is being awarded in Latvia.
Maģistrs degree (or the equivalent) is required for admission to doctoral studies. Doktors degree can be achieved at public defence of a doctoral thesis which may be a result of three to four years of full-time doctoral studies at a university or an equivalent amount of independent research while working at a university, research institution etc.

Latvian Council of Science appoints promotion councils and sets the procedures for awarding doctoral degrees.

'''Credit point system'''. Latvian credit point is defined as a one-week full-time study workload. An average workload of a full-time study year in most HE programmes is 40 CP. Latvian credit point system is compatible with ECTS. The number of ECTS credits is found by multiplying the number of Latvian credit points by a factor of 1.5.

'''Grading system'''. The state standards for higher education set the following ten-point marking system:

{| class="wikitable" border="1" width="600"
|-
! Achievement level
! Grade
! Meaning
! Approx. ECTS grade
|-
|very high || 10 || izcili (with distinction) || A
|-
|very high || 9 || teicami (excellent) || A
|-
|high || 8 || ļoti labi (very good) || B
|-
|high || 7 || labi (good) || C
|-
|medium || 6 || gandrīz labi (almost good) || D
|-
|medium || 5 || viduvēji (satisfactory) || E
|-
|low || 4 || gandrīz viduvēji (almost satisfactory) || E/FX
|-
|low || 3-1 || negatīvs vērtējums (unsatisfactory) || Fail
|}

===State – recognized higher education institutions in Latvia===
'''Universities'''

# University of Latvia
# Rīga Technical University
# Latvia University of Agriculture
# Daugavpils University
# Rīga Stradiņa University

'''State higher education institutions'''

# Latvian Academy of Arts
# Latvia Academy of Culture
# Latvian Academy of Music
# Liepāja Pedagogical Academy
# Latvian Academy of Sports Education
# Police Academy of Latvia
# Banking Institution of Higher Education
# Latvian Maritime Academy
# Latvian National Academy of Defence
# Rēzekne Higher Education Institution
# Rīga Graduate School of Law
# Rīga Higher School of Pedagogics and School Management
# Stockholm School of Economics in Rīga
# The Ventspils College
# Vidzeme College of Higher Education

'''Private higher education institutions'''

# Baltic Russian Institute
# Business Institute RIMPAK Livonia
# School of Business Administration Turība;
# Higher School of Economics and Culture
# Higher School of Psychology
# Higher School of Social Work and Social Pedagogy “Attīstība”
# Information Systems Institute
# Institute of Social Technologies
# International Institute of Practical Psychology
# Latvian Christian Academy
# Rīga Aeronautical Institute
# Rīga International School of Economics and Business Administration
# Transport and Telecommunication Institute

'''State colleges'''

# RRC College
# Rīga civil Engineering college
# Jēkabpils Agribusiness college
# Latvian Culture College
# Liepāja Maritime College
# Olaine College of Mechanics and technology
# Rīga Civil Engineering College
# Rīga Technical College
# Rīga Entrepreneurship College
# Fire Protection and Civic Defence College
# State Boarder Guards’ College

'''Private colleges'''
# Alberta college
# College of Accounting and Finance
# Laws College
# Business and Administration College

More information on education system:
* http://www.izm.lv
* http://www.aic.lv
* http://www.eurydice.org

== Higher education reform ==

'''Strategic guidelines for the development of education for years 2007 - 2013'''

Totally 57 millions Lats have been provided for the implementation of the strategic guidelines for the development of education of the Ministry of Education and Science. The following tasks are defined in the above strategic guidelines (listed in the sequence of priority):

* To introduce and pay for the pedagogic work of a teacher’s assistant for the purpose of providing support to children (Grades 1 – 6) with learning difficulties – 7.6922 Million Lats;

* To improve the social conditions of students at vocational educational establishments by means of increasing scholarships during years 2007 – 2010 up to 20 Lats per month on average, during years 2011 – 2013 up to 40 Lats per month, the total amount for year 2007 – 4.3611 Million;

* To develop the structure model for the distribution of study programs in compliance to the needs of agriculture and to ensure its implementation in the system of higher education (encouragement of the development of Doctor’s studies – at least 200 new places for Master studies per year, at least 100 new places for Doctor’s studies per year; the number of places for studies in the fields of natural sciences, engineering sciences, medicine and environment sciences increased by at least 300 per year. Provided increase of the scholarships fund by at least 5% per year) – 20 Million Lats.

* To ensure continuous attraction of the state investment for the purpose of arrangement and modernisation of educational establishments – 16.952 Million Lats.

* etc.

=== The Bologna Process ===

== Administration and finance ==
'''Tuition fee in education system'''

The tuition at pre-school, basic and secondary education in a state or municipality founded educational establishments is funded from the national or municipal budget. Private educational institutions may set a tuition fee for providing education. In higher education programmes the state covers tuition fees for a certain number of students’ places, according to the State Procurement in the respective academic year. Each higher education institution may set a tuition fee for the rest of students’ places. All students are entitled to a state credit for their studies in any higher education programme.

Foreigners or non-citizens pay for their education in accordance with the agreement concluded with the respective educational establishment. In cases when foreign citizens study in Latvia under an exchange programme and an equivalent number of Latvian students study abroad, the foreigners' studies in Latvia are financed from the budget resources of the Republic of Latvia allocated to the respective institution of higher education. The tuition fee for the citizens of European Union countries shall be determined and covered according to the same procedure as for the citizens and permanent residents of the Republic of Latvia.

== Quality assurance ==
According to Latvian legislation, state-recognized degrees/diplomas may be awarded upon completion of an accredited programme in an accredited HE institution holding a state-approved Satversme (by-law).

Quality assessment includes self-evaluation report by the higher education institution and peer evaluation. Evaluation teams consist of at least three experts, with only one from Latvia. In most cases the other two experts are selected from Western Europe or from the Baltic States.

Decisions on programme accreditation are taken by the Accreditation Board, while those on institutional accreditation – by the Higher Education Council. The first accreditation cycle was completed in 2001. Recurrent assessments have to take place once every six years.

== Country's HEIs in the information society ==

=== Towards the information society ===

=== Information society strategy ===

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

==References==
# [http://izm.izm.gov.lv/58.html Ministry of Education and Science]
# http://izm.izm.gov.lv/nozares-politika/izglitiba.html#izglitibas_sistema
# http://www.aic.lv/portal/en/education_in_latvia.html
# http://www.aic.lv/bolona/Latvija/LV_%20Bol_en.pdf (PDF)
# [http://www.boldic.net/docs/BOLDIC_Latvia_report.pdf BOLDIC – Latvia Report. Open and Distance Learning in Latvia], PDF - 20 pages

----

[[Internal evaluation Latvia]]

----

> [[Countries]]

[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:European Union]]

Czech Republic/Re.ViCa

2009-01-14T14:29:19Z

Widad: created internal evalution page

You can go directly to the [[Virtual Initiatives in Czech Republic]].

== Partners situated in Country ==
None.

== Country in a nutshell ==
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe and a member state of the [[European Union]]. The country has borders with [[Poland]] to the northeast, [[Germany]] to the west, [[Austria]]to the south, and [[Slovakia]] to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague (Czech: Praha).

'''Adapted from:''' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic

The Czech Republic is a relatively small country (an area of 78,886 km2) in Central Europe with 10.3 million inhabitants, with a population density of 131 per square km. It was formerly part of Czechoslovakia, where communists seized power in 1948 and retained almost complete control over all areas of life. In 1989 this communist regime fell and Czechoslovakia transformed from a centrally controlled country to a parliamentary democracy with the President as the head of state. This change had an impact on economy, health, life expectancy and of course also education; more information on that aspect is [[#Country education policy| below]].

In 1993 the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) peacefully split into two states (one of which is now still the Czech Republic). Territorially, it is divided into 13 regions and the capital city, Prague (population over 1.3 million). The official language is Czech and the unit of currency is the Czech koruna (CZK); 1 euro is about 30 CZK.

'''Adapted from:''' “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_39263238_36443832_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Thematic Review of Tertiary Education - Country Background Report - Czech Republic]” by Centre for Higher Education Studies, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic, 2006, PDF – 144 pages

'''Documents of relevance''': [http://www.svses.cz/lang/angl/cr.php Czech Republic - useful information]

== Country education policy ==
The Czech tertiary education system has experienced a number of deep, dynamic changes and extensive development in the last fifteen years. From a strictly uniform highly centralised and ideologically-bound system under the communist regime, it has been changed into the much more diversified and decentralised system with full academic freedom and self-governing bodies,
open to Europe and the world.”

'''Source:''' “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_39263238_36443832_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Thematic Review of Tertiary Education - Country Background Report - Czech Republic]” by Centre for Higher Education Studies, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic, 2006, PDF – 144 pages, p. 87.

The objective of the Ministry is to create a competitive, highly diversified system fulfilling all three principal functions of higher education institutions.
* In the area of education, the system should ''develop and make full use of the potential of individuals'', prepare young people for entering the labour market and provide for their employability over the long term, educate active citizens who strive to build democratic society, encourage graduates to pursue continuing education and learn throughout their lives, and further develop knowledge in a wide variety of disciplines.
* In the area of ''research and development'' the role of higher education institutions is gaining in importance. Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to establish appropriate conditions for the development of R&D of top standards, and to communicate the results of research and development or to apply them in practice as an important source of innovation.
* The third area of the operations of higher education institutions, in no way less important, is their co-operation with the business sector (enterprises, employers and other clients), and their contribution to the establishment of ''innovative and technological partnerships'' and involvement in the development of the region where the higher education institution operates.
(Long-Term Plan 2006 – 2010, p. 2)

'''Source:''' “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_39263238_37730232_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Thematic Review of Tertiary Education - Country Note for the Czech Republic]” by Jon File, Thomas Weko, Arthur Hauptman, Bente Kristensen, Sabine Herlitschka, 2006, PDF – 89 pages

We can summarize the key values in Czech Higher Education as equity, lifelong learning, research & development, …

== Country education system ==

=== Degree programmes ===
Degree programmes are of three types: Bachelor’s degree programmes, Master’s degree programmes and Doctoral degree programmes.

The HE institutions are divided into three types according to the level of programmes offered:
* Universities offer Bachelors (primarily since the introduction of the two-cycle structure), Masters and Doctoral degrees
* Non-university HEIs offer Bachelors and some Masters degrees
* Tertiary professional schools offer three year specialist diplomas.

With the exception of the tertiary professional schools that are clearly vocationally oriented, there is no attempt to differentiate the university and non-university sectors on the basis of a distinction between “academic” and “professional” orientation. Both sectors offer both types of programme.

The Accreditation Commission established in 1990 plays a key role in the assessment of proposals for new programmes, including whether institutions have the capacity to offer a higher level of qualification. The latter determines whether tertiary professional schools can obtain HEI status and whether non-university HEIs can become universities.

'''Adapted from:''' “[http://www.msmt.cz/education/the-higher-edcation-act Act No. 111/1998 (Amended and Consolidated) on Higher Education Institutions and on Amendments and Supplements to some other Acts (The Higher Education Act)]” & “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_39263238_37730232_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Thematic Review of Tertiary Education - Country Note for the Czech Republic]” by Jon File, Thomas Weko, Arthur Hauptman, Bente Kristensen, Sabine Herlitschka, 2006, PDF – 89 pages

'''Documents of relevance''': [http://www.czech.cz/en/work-study/education-and-studying/educational-system/ Official site of the Czech Republic - Educational system]

=== Student numbers ===
The tertiary professional schools enrol only 30,000 students or 9 percent of the total number of students in the country.

'''The Higher Education Act of 1998''' made provision for the establishment of private higher
education institutions of both the university and non-university type. Since then 39 private higher
education institutions - all of the non-university type - have been founded and together they enrol more than 20,000 students or some 6 to 7 percent of the total student body.

'''Adapted from:''' “[http://www.msmt.cz/education/the-higher-edcation-act Act No. 111/1998 (Amended and Consolidated) on Higher Education Institutions and on Amendments and Supplements to some other Acts (The Higher Education Act)]” & “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_39263238_37730232_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Thematic Review of Tertiary Education - Country Note for the Czech Republic]” by Jon File, Thomas Weko, Arthur Hauptman, Bente Kristensen, Sabine Herlitschka, 2006, PDF – 89 pages

=== Higher Education ===
Higher education institutions provide accredited degree programmes as well as lifelong learning programmes, such as written above.

=== Lifelong learning ===
“The most serious issue concerning population development in the CR in the last fifteen years has been a major and rapid drop in the birth-rate, which corresponds closely to changing trends in the marriage rate and family stability (UNDP, 2003).” “Czech demographic forecasts show a sharply aging population—which implies a '''potential''' demand for much more extensive and varied lifelong learning that is presently being provided by Czech tertiary institutions.”

'''Adapted from:''' “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_39263238_36443832_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Thematic Review of Tertiary Education - Country Background Report - Czech Republic]” by Centre for Higher Education Studies, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic, 2006, PDF – 144 pages

'''Relevant Source:''': [http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/Search?mode=2 Czech Republic: The Database on Education Systems in Europe] - Eurybase ([http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/EuryContents?country=CZ&lang=EN&expandMenu=false PDF - 2008 - EN - 356 pages])

== Higher education ==
Representative bodies of higher education institutions:
* [http://crc.muni.cz/index.en.shtml Czech Rectors' Conference]
* [http://www.radavs.cz/clanek.php?oblast=9&c=724 Council of Higher Education Institutions]

Other relevant HE institutions:
* [http://www.csvs.cz/_en/ Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES)] in Prague

There are three types of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Czech Republic: public, state (military and police) and private. In 2006 there were 24 public universities there are two state HEIs (Military and Police) and two public non-university HEIs, according to the OECD Country Background Report.

A list of private, state and public universities or colleges can be found at the [http://www.czech.cz/en/work-study/education-and-studying/educational-system/private-colleges/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site] and the [http://www.msmt.cz/international-cooperation-1/study-at-institutions-of-higher-education?lred=1 web site of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports].
A special case, which doesn’t suit the divisions is [http://www.neisse-uni.org/ Neisse University], which represents a network of co-operation between the Technical University of Liberec, the Wroclaw University of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz (FH). They offer 2 joint study courses: B.Sc. Information and Communication Management and M.Sc. Environmental Health & Safety Risk Management. Students stay at a different university each year. “At present, there are 37 Students - Poland 16, Czech Republic 12, Germany 8 and Non-EU 1 - enrolled in the study course on "Information and Communication Management.”

===State Institutions of Higher Education ===
# [http://www.polac.cz/ Police Academy of the Czech Republic]
# [http://www.vabo.cz/ University of Defence]

=== Private Universities / Colleges in Country ===
# [http://www.vspsv.cz/ Academia Rerum Civilium – College of Political and Social Sciences]
# [http://www.aauni.edu/ Anglo-American College]
# [http://www.bivs.cz/ Banking Institute/College of Banking (BICB)]
# [http://www.bibs.cz/ Brno International Business School]
# [http://www.vsp.cz/ Business School Ostrava]
# [http://www.vsci.cz/ CEVRO Institut]
# [http://www.vsap.cz/ College of Advanced Legal Studies]
# [http://www.hotskolabrno.cz/ College of Business and Hotel]
# [http://www.vsmie.cz/ College of Information Management and Business Administration]
# [http://www.vslg.cz/ College of Logistics]
# [http://www.vsrr.cz/ College of Regional Development]
# [http://www.vscrhl.cz/ College of Tourism, Hotel And Spa Management]
# [http://filmovka.cz/famo Film Academy of Miroslav Ondricek (FAMO)]
# [http://www.filmovka.cz/svosf Independent Film College in Písek ]
# [http://www.fdyson.cz/ Institut Franka Dysona]
# [http://www.vszdrav.cz/ Institut of nursing and midwifery]
# [http://www.vsfs.cz/ Institute of Finance and Administration (VSFS)]
# [http://www.vsh.cz/ Institute of Hospitality Management ]
# [http://www.ibts.cz/ International Baptist Theological Seminary of the European Baptist Federation ]
# [http://www.vsjak.cz/ Jan Amos Komensky University Prague]
# [http://www.vske.cz/ Karel Englis College]
# [http://www.lit-akad.cz/ Literary Academy]
# [http://www.mup.cz/ Metropolitan University Prague]
# [http://www.mvso.cz/ Moravian College Olomouc]
# [http://www.newtoncollege.cz/index.html?pageid=1&profil=1 NEWTON College]
# [http://www.palestra.cz/ PALESTRA]
# [http://www.pti.cz/ Prague Institute Of Technology]
# [http://www.viap.cz/ Prague University of Psychosocial Studies - PVŠPS Ltd.]
# [http://www.svse.cz/ Private College of Economic Studies Znojmo, Ltd.]
# [http://www.svses.cz/ Private College of Economic Studies, Ltd. (PCES)]
# [http://edukomplex.cz/ Private European Polytechnic Institute & Private College of Law]
# [http://www.ravys.cz/ RAŠÍN College Ltd.]
# [http://www.savs.cz/ Škoda Auto University]
# [http://www.sting.cz/ STING Academy]
# [http://www.vso-praha.cz/ The College of Business in Prague, o.p.s.]
# [http://www.vsers.cz/ The College of European and Regional Studies (VŠERS)]
# [http://www.unicorncollege.cz/en/ Unicorn College]
# [http://www.vip-vs.cz/ University College of International and Public Relations Prague]
# [http://www.vskv.cz/ University of Carlsbad]
# [http://www.vsem.cz/ University of Economics and Management ]
# [http://www.unyp.cz/ University of New York in Prague (UNYP)]
# [http://www.vsss.cz/ Vysoká škola sociálně-správní]

=== Universities / Colleges in Country ===
# [http://www.vsup.cz/ Academy of Arts, Architecture and Industrial Design in Prague]
# [http://www.avu.cz/ Academy of Fine Arts in Prague]
# [http://www.amu.cz/ Academy of Performing Arts in Prague]
# [http://www.vutbr.cz/ Brno University of Technology] - more than 15,000 students – technical university
# [http://www.cuni.cz/ Charles University in Prague]
# [http://www.cvut.cz/ Czech Technical University in Prague]
# [http://www.czu.cz/en/ Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague] - almost 15.000 students
# [http://www.vscht.cz/ Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague]
# [http://www.vstecb.cz/ Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice]
# [http://www.ujep.cz/ J.E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem]
# [http://www.jamu.cz/ Janáček Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Brno]
# [http://www.muni.cz/ Masaryk University in Brno]
# [http://www.mendelu.cz/ Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno]
# [http://www.osu.cz/ Ostrava University in Ostrava]
# [http://www.upol.cz/ Palacký University in Olomouc]
# [http://www.vspji.cz/ Polytechnic College in Jihlava]
# [http://www.slu.cz/ Silesian University in Opava]
# [http://www.vslib.cz/ Technical University in Liberec]
# [http://www.vsb.cz/ Technical University of Ostrava (VŠB)]
# [http://www.utb.cz/ Tomas Bata University in Zlín]
# [http://www.vse.cz/ University of Economics, Prague]
# [http://www.uhk.cz/ University of Hradec Králové]
# [http://www.upce.cz/ University of Pardubice]
# [http://www.jcu.cz/ University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice]
# [http://www.vfu.cz/ University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno]
# [http://www.zcu.cz/ University of West Bohemia in Plzeň]

===Polytechnics in Country ===

== Higher education reform ==

=== The Bologna Process ===
The Czech Republic will be the Presidency in the 1st half of 2009.
'''Source''': [http://www.bologna.msmt.cz/?lng=EN The Bologna Process]

== Administration and finance ==

=== Funding for the institutions by the government ===
The Czech Republic provides funding for the Higher Education and this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education. There are three types of HEIs in the Czech Republic:

* '''State HEI''' (military and police): 1% of students. Supervised and funded directly by the respective ministries
* '''Private HEI''': less than 10% of all students. Received 0,08% of public higher education expenditures in 2005 so self-financing through student fees (usually 90% of all income)
* '''Public HEI''': more than 90% of all students. Over 90% of all income at 17 of the 24 Czech public HEIs was public sources.

Other income sources of the public HEIs include property revenues, services to
students, extra teaching activities, R & D activities and study related fees.

'''Adapted from:''' “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_35961291_38307973_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Funding Systems and Their Effects on Higher Education Systems COUNTRY STUDY – Czech Republic]” by Petr Pabian, Marek Melichar, Helena Šebková for the Centre for Higher Education Studies, Prague, 2006, PDF – 20 pages

=== Bursaries for the students ===
“The student representative body, Student Chamber of the Council of Higher Education
Institutions, insists on state's dominant role in higher education funding and resolutely opposes introduction of student fees. It also calls for the development of a national student
welfare system.”

'''Source:''' “[http://www.oecd.org/LongAbstract/0,3425,en_2649_35961291_38307973_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Funding Systems and Their Effects on Higher Education Systems COUNTRY STUDY – Czech Republic]” by Petr Pabian, Marek Melichar, Helena Šebková for the Centre for Higher Education Studies, Prague, 2006, (PDF – 20 pages)

== Quality assurance ==

== Country's HEIs in the information society ==

=== Towards the information society ===
The Czech Republic first tackled the question of the Information Society in 1998 and produced the ‘State Information Policy’ in May 1999 which was based on an earlier document entitled ‘The Main Principles of Telecommunications Policy’ originally produced in 1994. Overall responsibility for ICT policy now comes under the Ministry of Information Technologies established in January 2003. However, each local government area is responsible for implementation locally. There are also central government bodies responsible for gathering statistics relevant to ICT. The government is trying to provide incentives for e-commerce and has taken a number of initiatives to build e-market places including giving Cesky Telecom, the national operator, a subsidiary to do so. In 2000, the government also created an integral site giving information on all public tenders and auctions and customs declarations are mostly submitted online. The government is also committed to heightening public awareness of ecommerce and strengthening the infrastructure to support this.

'''Source:''' [http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/elearning/doc/studies/market_annex1a_en.pdf The eLearning industry and market in Europe, Lot 1, Appendix to Synthesis Report (PDF - EN - 214 pages] by Danish Technological Institute, Competence and IT/Analyses

"'''[http://www.celn.cz/ Czech Efficient Learning Node (CELN)]''', the former Czech E-learning Network, was founded in September 17th 2002 as a public association in order to promote and develop e-learning and use of information and communication technologies. Mission of CELN is promotion of effective use of information technologies, multimedia tools and online content in frontal teaching both on elementary, secondary and tertiary school level. Besides, CELN also promotes e-learning in the field of adult education and in commercial sphere.

Promotion of ICT on the national and European level also includes participating in national and European Union projects. CELN is a partner in two EU projects co-funded by EU (EU finances 50% of the overall project costs) 6th Framework Programme for years 2002–2006. Both our projects eMapps.com and AtGentive are realised under the scheme of 6th Framework Programme, which is focused on building European Research Area. In both projects is CELN engaged as a testing site and national project coordinator. On the national level is association taking active part in trainings for public related to EU project issues, such as presenting the new project calls, explanatory sessions for the EU project funding system, issues related to the projects management in EU etc."

'''Source:''' [http://www.celn.cz/ Czech Efficient Learning Node (CELN)]

=== Information society strategy ===
"The Czech Republic is part of the eEurope Action Plan that has the objectives of:
* Accelerating the putting in place of the basic building blocks for the Information Society
* Providing a cheaper, faster securer Internet
* Investing in people and skills
* Stimulating the use of the Internet

For the Czech Republic, this has meant implementing the policy ‘Internet for Schools’, securing infrastructure, accessibility and training in ICT for primary and secondary schools – a project with a budget of € 250 million and 2005 as a timeframe. The universities are also included in the government strategy by upgrading the Internet connections of the already existing educational network, CESNET (Czech National Research and Education Network)."

'''Source:''' [http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/elearning/doc/studies/market_annex1a_en.pdf The eLearning industry and market in Europe, Lot 1, Appendix to Synthesis Report (PDF - EN - 214 pages] by Danish Technological Institute, Competence and IT/Analyses

== Virtual Initiatives ==
Go to [[Virtual Initiatives in Czech Republic]]

== References ==
* [http://www.czech.cz Official web site of the Czech Republic] (operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic)
* [http://www.vlada.cz Government of the Czech Republic]
* [http://www.msmt.cz/education/higher-education Ministry of Higher Education & Sports – Education – Higher Education]
* [http://www.oecd.org/infobycountry/0,3380,en_2649_39263238_1_70363_119663_1_1,00.html Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: (OECD) Czech Republic > Country Surveys/Reviews/Guides]
* “[http://nettskolen.nki.no/in_english/megatrends/Estonia.pdf MegaTrends in e-Learning Provision Report on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Czech Republic]” (PDF – 9 pages)
----
[[Internal evaluation report]]
----

> [[Countries]]
[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:European Union]]

France from Re.ViCa

2009-01-06T10:03:37Z

Widad: country report : edited France

==Country in a nutshell ==

[[Image:France map ULP.JPG|thumb|left|250px|(map cf: Eugris)]]

France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents. After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). With a population of over 63 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany). Its territory is split into (administrative) regions. 22 of them are in Metropolitan France (the part of the country that is in Europe):

French is the official language of France, but each region has its own unique accent; in addition to French, there are several other languages of France traditionally
spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. French is also an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of Frenchspeaking nations.

==Country education policy ==

==Country education system ==

The French school system is the responsibility of the Ministry for National Education. Teaching is given through the medium of the French language. 86.5% of primary school pupils and 80% of secondary pupils receive their schooling through the education provided free of charge by the state. Private education consists essentially of establishments which have signed a contract with the State.

The State plays a key role with regard to education policy. It establishes the education curricula and teaching guidelines, is responsible for the recruitment, training and management of teachers, organises examinations and issues national qualifications. Decentralisation has devolved the responsibility for the construction and maintenance of public school buildings to regional and local agencies.

France is divided into 30 education authorities (académies) each under the responsibility of a rector who represents the Minister. These authorities cover several departments which are directed by the authority's inspectors.(cf: Europa.eu)

French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three different stages:
* primary education (enseignement primaire);
* secondary education (enseignement secondaire);
* higher education (enseignement supérieur).

Primary and secondary education are predominantly public (private schools also exist, in particular a strong nationwide network of primary and secondary Catholic education), while higher education has both public and private elements. Education is almost free at all levels, although with less services and facilities, except for private schools and business schools. 26% of university students receive scholarships.
(cf: understandfrance.org)

==Higher education ==

The baccalaureate opens up access to higher education. Then, depending on the duration involved, there are two types of higher education:
* Shorter technical and vocational studies undertaken in university technology establishments (Instituts Universitaires de Technologies) leading to the DUT: Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie), the universities (leading to the DEUST: Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Scientifiques et Techniques) or higher secondary establishments (leading to the BTS: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur). Entry into these channels is based on a selection process and account is taken of pupils' record of achievement during their secondary schooling.
* Lengthier studies undertaken at a university or one of the "Grandes Ecoles" (to which entry is after two years of preparation in the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (CPGE). After admission into these schools, the studies themselves generally last three years and lead to the "diplômes d'écoles". There is no selection for entry into university. Universities issue generic qualifications and also vocational qualifications. Teacher training is also undertaken at university.

Higher education in France also has specialised schools, recruitment being based on the baccalaureate, competitions or dossiers. They concern the paramedical sector (nursing schools, physiotherapists, etc.), the social sector (schools for specialised educators, social assistants, etc.), the arts sector or architecture. Studies vary in duration and lead to state-recognised diplomas or specific school diplomas. (cf: Europa.eu)

'''QUALIFICATION'''

The implementation of the LMD reform, which gears the structure of French higher education to the European system by offering three levels of studies (licence/master/doctorat), brings with it a new degree structure for higher education, i.e.:
* Degrees obtained after 2 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 120 European credits (ECTS): diplôme universitaire de technologie (DUT, or technological university degree), diplôme d'études universitaires scientifiques et techniques (DEUST, or scientific and technical university degree), brevet de technicien supérieur (BTS, higher technician's diploma), diplôme d’études universitaires générales (DEUG, or general university degree);
* Degrees obtained after 3 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 180 ECTS credits: diplôme national de technologie spécialisée (DNTS, or national specialised technology diploma), licence professionnelle, licence;
* Intermediate degree, obtained after 4 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 240 ECTS credits: master's degree;
* Degrees obtained after 5 years of post-baccalauréat studies, corresponding to 300 ECTS credits: master's degree, diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA, or advanced studies degree), diplôme d’études supérieures spécialisées (DESS, or specialised higher studies degree);
* Degrees obtained after post-master's studies, corresponding to 480 ECTS credits: doctorate. (cf: Eurydice)

===Universities in Country ===
===Polytechnics in Country ===

==Higher education reform ==
===The Bologna Process ===

==Administration and finance==

==Quality assurance ==

==Country's HEIs in the information society ==
===Towards the information society ===
===Information society strategy ===

==Virtual initiatives in HE==

'''Les Campus Numériques Français - Part 1''' [http://www.educnet.education.fr French digital campuses]

The Ministry for National Education and Research launched three calls in 2000, 2001 and 2002 in order to spread the use of ICT. The first and second calls concerned distance training offers, the third call included a specific measure for new working environments (7 % of total projects). The objective was to build a quality open distance training offer that would be structured in a national network able to compete internationally. In April 2003, almost 400 partners had joined forces in consortia to create 64 labeled digital campuses, in addition to four more campuses dedicated to ENT (environnements numériques de travail = digital working environnements). Therefore this program financed : the creation of training materials, the quality and relevance of dissemination channels, the setting of remote tutoring and support services, the organization of face-to-face meetings.
A digital campus was defined as a training system composed of innovative services, via digital technologies, and that is focused on the learner. It gives access to a training from any place (close or remote), at any time of his/her life (lifelong) and at a rhythm chosen by the learner. The interconnections between participating institutions and the possibility of opening up to public/private or international institutions helped improve the quality of materials and services offered.

EVALUATION
The training system met the learners' expectations and their overall satisfaction level was very promising. From the learners' point of view, the main asset was to have at their disposal efficient collaborative working tools.
Part of the evaluation aimed to assess the system's efficiency, the overall impact and effects and the program's added value.

It resulted that both the impact on their own institutions and their integration were limited because :
the online training offers were in great part existing courses and only half of them (81) were proposing a degree;
most of the existing services strongly contributed to the projects, especially the ICT or multimedia departments, whereas the implication of technical and and administrative sevices was variable and sometimes insufficient;
the planning in producing digital materials (highest category in expenditures) seems to require some improvements;
the overall organization of the system should be improved, especially the lack of staff, due to high operating costs (in average, each project mobilizes 45 staff members).

NB : Half part of the budget was roughly shifted as follows :
-39% for digital resources production;
-15% for coordination, support, pedagogics, technical logistics, training course design;
-2% for resource purchase (this low rate implies a strong involvement and mobilization of internal production teams).

By contrast, some very positive aspects came out of these initiatives :
strong participation of teachers in design and production of materials;
recognition of ICTE and development of related skills and competences;
project-based operative functioning and creation of an ad hoc steering and coordination structure (critical success factor);
contribution to setting up the “LMD scheme” by reinforcing modularity, flexibility and individualization of programs in accordance with the ECTS;
opening-up towards international projects in the field of e-learning, especially at the European level that may benefit from European funds

'''Les Campus Numériques Français - Part 2 : "les environnements numériques de travail" ENT'''

The second phase of Campus Numériques Français was launched in March 2002 and consisted of a call for proposal on ENTs (digital working environments). The aim was to offer HEIs a range of varied technological solutions related to ENTs. The “environnement numérique de travail” is a platform to provide HEIs users with online access to all resources, services and digital tools connected with their activities. It has the appearance of a personalized desktop portal.

The overall budget amounted to 3 million € and was split between four selected consortia : ENCORA, EPPUN, ESUP and MONTE-CRISTO.

In April 2005, the submitted projects were evaluated in line with the recommendations of the Ministery's outline plan for ENTs (SDET: Schéma Directeur des Espaces Numériques de Travail) and the conventions betweetn the government and the consortia, on the following aspects : functional coverage, project's organization, deployment, technical architecture of the solution.

CONCLUSIONS:

- Organisation and management : the project teams were efficient and well-integrated in their institution, moreover they managed strictly resources and time schedules, however the resources specifically committed to the projects were poor and the strategical cross-institutional coordinating structures rare;

- Solution development : the SDET's operational and technical recommendations were respected and a good functional documentation was provided;

- Project's finances : all the projects respected the budgets they were initially allocated although very few foresee future financing opportunities;

- Functional coverage : despite the lack of a maintenance strategy, the coverage of services was effective and respected the SDET;

- Technical architecture : although the SDET's recommendations were respected, the quality of service was not enough shaped and formalized;

- Deployment : a stabilization period is necessary in order to integrate the new solutions to the existing context, and despite the lack of precise indicators, some preliminary actions were taken (information, training) as well as some user profiles were previously set up (students, teachers...).

Here is an example of Campus Numériques Français in Strasbourg.

{| border="1" width="100%"
| colspan=2 | [http://uns.u-strasbg.fr UNIVERSITE NUMERIQUE DE STRASBOURG]
|-
| width="25%"| [[Image:France ULPconsortium UNS.JPG]] ||

In 2000, all 3 universities of Strasbourg – Université Louis Pasteur (ULP),Université Marc Bloch (UMB) and Université Robert Schuman (URS) – gathered in a consortium to launch a common enhancement policy of ICT in education.
On 15 April 2002, all 3 Presidents signed an agreement (l’accord-cadre UNS) to build their cooperation on 3 strategical focuses : creation, dissemination and storage/management of both contents and new pedagogics.
In this framework the Université Numérique de Strasbourg offers :
– trainings in Computer sciences : networks and systems, digital development, multimedia design
– distance trainings with 6 available modules, 6 recognised degrees and 7 under construction
|}

'''Universités numériques en région''' ''(Regional digital universities)''

Towards a system of digital regional policy and spatial planning
In order to spread the use of digital services and to industrialize the ENT process (digital working environments), and also to maintain and make durable the whole system, it was necessary to involve a critical mass of stakeholders on a mutualization basis.

Via the call for proposals “UNR”, the experience gained through the selected projects allowed a transfer of method and competences among the HEI. It also affected the institutions' “four-year-plans”.

The UNR projects were built on tripartite contracts of agreed objectives whose signatories were the French government, regional authorities and other partners) for a two-year-period with the pledge to:
- develop digital services -especially ENTs- and offer them to all students
- respect regional planning principles
- provide support to faciliter the use of digital services

These are the services that are offered via the ENT :
* Digital office
* Tuition services
* Services communs
* Services documentaires
* Services de communication
* Services pédagogiques

Regions where a project was financed :
Alsace-UNERA, Aquitaine-ACOR, Bretagne-UNB, Grand Est-UNIRE, Languedoc-Roussillon-UOMLR, Nord Pas de Calais-UNRNPDC, Poitou-Charentes-UNR-PC, Provence Alpes Côtes d'Azur-UNRPACA, Réunion-UNR Réunion, Rhône Alpes-UNRA.

Update in 2006 :
Out of 11 active projects involving around 580 000 students, nine UNR (regional digital universities) made of 35 institutions chose the ESUP ; one UNR (Alsace-UNERA), made of 3 institutions, chose EPPUN ; and one last UNR (Rhône-Alpes UNRA) gathering 5 institutions chose ENCORA.

Some services have reached a high level of deployment : common services, communication, digital office and pedagogics, whereas the integration of certain services is more complex, such as documentation and pedagogical services.

'''Les Universités Numériques Thématiques''' ''(Thematic digital universities)''

Created in 2004, presently running UNTs are seven in total, which represents 110 higher education or research institutions, among them 69 being universities. Their corresponding “themes” are :
* medicine: UMVF - Université Médicale Virtuelle Francophone
* business and management: AUNEGE - Association des universités pour l’enseignement numérique en économie-gestion
* technologies: UNIT - Université numérique ingénierie et technologie
* law: UNJF - Université numérique juridique francophone
* environment & sustainability: UVED - Université virtuelle environnement et développement durable
* humanities: UOH - Université ouverte des humanités (sciences humaines et sociales, langues et cultures)
* sciences: UNISCIEL - Université des sciences fondamentales

In the framework of a national mutualization, UNTs aim at fostering enhancement, production and dissemination of digital educational materials in order to:
- encourage students' achievement by offering them comprehensive set of digital tools and contents that are supplied by HEI's staff and their partners;
- give a large national and international exposure to digital contents to contribute to French higher education's appeal in the fields broached by the UNTs.

The UNTs activities encompasses :
* editing of pedagogical resources;
* certification at both educational and technological levels;
* indexing resources, thus making them more valuable towards UNT's criteria;
* promoting resources among teaching staff;
* dissemination via an institutional webportal;

Inter UNT task forces : the UNTs should lean on processes offered by their institutions and therefore involve teachers, ICT in Education services, resource centers, technology and multimedia departments. Each HEI might be part of several UNT thus UNT should adopt a functioning that enables them to make joint decisions on technological and organizational issues.

Three inter UNT task forces have been set up to deal with common issues to all partners :
- using editorial channels, evaluating digital pedagogical tools;
- building standards for resource indexing;
- giving access to contents via OAI portal networks
- legal issues

'''Canal U'''
It is a web-TV for HE and Research. It offers a set of free channels that boradcasts university and research produced contents, especially by the Universités Numériques Thématiques. Canal-U is actually a consortium of university-web-TVs coordinated by CERIMES (Centre of Resources and Information on multimedia for Higher Education) which encompasses several organisations dealing with the broadcasting of digital materials towards HE.
Launched in 2001, the CanalU website is experiencing a growing success (almost 298 000 visits by March 2006) and comes among significant references in the university audiovisual landscape by giving students free access to an impressive audiovisual collection (more than 2 000 films et 4 000 conferences on varied topics).

[[Image:Cned.JPG]] ([http://www.cned.fr/institution/english/ Cned.fr])

* Common Name: Cned
* Full Name: Centre national d’enseignement à distance (National Centre for Distance Learning)
* Status: A public administrative institution dependent on the National Education Ministry
* Established: 1939 in Paris
* Size: The number 1 distance learning operator in Europe and the French-speaking world
* Digital Cned : on the Internet for the last ten years, Cned has integrated digital technology to aid the spread of learning and favour exchanges: virtual classrooms, online tutoring, electronic correction, student forum, online resources (Campus électronique®).
* Key dates :
September 1939 : The government provisionally established a national correspondence learning structure – the CNEPC.
1945 : Correspondence learning contributed to the larger national social advancement push.
1999 : Cned celebrates its 60th anniversary with 320,000 individual enrolments.
2005 : Launch of a business training range.

'''Cned in figures'''
* Annual Market Share
** 2.5 million people following a distance learning course in Europe
** More than 1 million in France,
** 300,000 of them at Cned
* Sales turnover : 72 million Euros
* Institution Budget : 100 million Euros
* Cned Staff : 7,500 people, 6,000 teaching and 1,500 non-teaching staff
* Educational Activity
** 500 courses – 3,000 modules
** More than 2 million copies exchanged
** 580 million printed pages
** 1.5 million contacts made at the client service centre
** 3.5 million visitors over cned.fr
** 30,000 videos, CD-ROMs, DVD products from Cned-audiovisual are sold each year
* Cned Enrolment Data
** 2/3 adults
** 50% in higher learning
** 13% outside France
* Enrolment Distribution (by number of students enrolled per year)
** Primary Education: 15,000
** School: 30,000
** High School: 60,000
** BTS (Higher National Diploma): 20,000
** LMD (university degrees): 15,000
** Teaching Examinations: 65,000
** Civil Service Examinations: 25,000
** Accounting and Financial Studies: 35,000
** Other Vocational Training: 20,000
** Open Training across all sectors: 15,000

'''L'Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie''' ''(Francophone Universities Agency)''

Since 1989, this university association is a vector for French-speaking institutions. As a partner to establishments for higher education and research who have chosen French as their teaching language, the AUF proposes several cooperation programmes, designed in particular to support research and education in French. The AUF is now the link between a network of 693 establishments covering every continent, in 81 countries, 47 of which are members of the International Francophonie Organisation. France, Vietnam, Algeria and Canada are, respectively, the countries where the Agency has the largest number of members.

The “Innovation through Information and Communications Technologies In Education” Programme
The AUF wanted to buid its capacity for competitiveness in this field, to keep its lead in technological innovation and to consolidate its leadership as an academic agency. The purpose of this programme is thus to find new ways of appropriating knowledge, using ICTs. The concrete initiatives are found in the field of new uses, new methods for creating and disseminating scientific and educational content, new professions (Transfer), large-scale standardisation and governance projects, and partnership creation.

In accordance with its ideals of solidarity, partnership and co-development, the AUF has established four operational objectives in order to foster the use of information and communication technologies in higher education and research :
building human capacity in training (http://foad.refer.org/)
bridging the digital divide by helping establish networks with southern universities
developing a policy for scientific content in French
promoting French-language presence and research on international committees (standardisation, normalisation and regulation)

Through its 45 open and distance learning programmes, the AUF participates directly in the attainment of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and the UNESCO programme, Education for All. The AUF deploys a network of 29 French-speaking digital campuses and 11 information access centres bringing together over 15 000 subscribers, at the heart of member universities.
Open and distance training
For the 5th consecutive year, the AUF offers a range of Open and distance trainings that can be financed by a student allowance granted to a limited number of shortlisted applicants among the partner universities. This grant covers for great part of academic and tuition fees. For the year 2008-09 the AUF shall provide 535 student allowances to take one of the 54 degrees available at the distance.

Budget
In 2007, the AUF’s initial budget amounted to EUR 40.5 million, 82% of which came from France (EUR 33.2 million), followed by Canada (EUR 2.6 million), Quebec (EUR 1.2 million), the French Community of Belgium (EUR 0.6 million) and Switzerland (EUR 0.09 million).

Programme expenditures account for 78.6 % (EUR 31.9 million), while 3.5% were dedicated to institutional expenses and 17.3% to administrative expenses.

'''La Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignement à Distance, FIED''' ''(Federation of distance education universities)''

This association was created in 1987 by the Ministry for National Education and gathers now 36 universities. It aims at uniting in a network all univeristies that develop all sorts of distance and online trainings. It also provides for an international representation for French distance education in connection with the institutional organisations (Ministry of foreign affairs, Ministry for cooperation, etc...). It is also implicated, as a partner or a project leader, in various projects on education and ICT with a view to improve quality in training and support to students. Finally, it aims to open up to all universities or institutions involved in open distance education.

'''EduContact''' : European Distance Education Contact Centre ([www.educontact.eu])
It is a three-year-duration project for global promotion and partnership among European distance higher education. Its twofold objectives are to enhance the global promotion of European distance higher education by organising access to a selection of courses offerred by participating universities, through a European contact centre, and to survey the motivation and demand for European distance higher education. EduContact aims to show the diversity of contexts, cultures and languages of distance higher education in Europe within one contact centre acting for all present and future partners of the project.
The members to the project are :
France – Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance (CNED) => project leader
Estonia – Eesti Infotechnoloogia Sihtasutus
The Netherlands – Open Universiteit Nederland
Spain – Universidad Nacional de Educación à Distancia
United Kingdom – The Open University
France – Fédération Interuniversitaire de l'Enseignementà Distance (FIED)
The Netherlands – European Association of Distance Teaching Universities

Participating universities to the activities are :
Italy – UNINETTUNO
Portugal – Universidade Alberta

[[Image:Campus numerique PEGASUS.JPG]] [http://www.campus-pegasus.org Campus numérique PEGASUS]

'''The partnership :'''

Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, Université de Haute-Alsace
Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Université du Havre
Université Paris 13, Université du Sud Toulon Var
Université de la Réunion,Université Paul Cézanne-Aix Marseille III
The Pegasus platform enables adult students to graduate for DAEU (Diplôme d'Accès aux Etudes
Universitaires), a recognised national degree equivalent to Baccalauréat. Therefore DAEU is the second
chance for adult learners that wish to access higher education institutions or take a higher examination in
public service.
There are two types of DAEU degrees with a special focus on A-Letters / B-Science. Each student registers
in the nearest partner university from his hometown but then study for DAEU at distance.

----
> [[Countries]]

[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:European Union]]

México

2009-01-05T12:53:40Z

Widad: country report => edited MEXICO

== Partners situated in Country==

== Country in a nutshell==
[[Image:mapa-mexico.gif|alt www.paises.com.mx/mapas/mapa-mexico.gif]]

Area 1,972,550 km2 (15th)

Population
- mid-2008 estimate 106,682,500
- 2005 census 103,263,388

Currency
Peso (MXN)

The United Mexican States commonly known as Mexico, is a federal constitutional republic in North America comprising thirty-one states and a federal district, the capital Mexico City, whose metropolitan area is one of the world's most populous.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres, Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 109 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country.
Mexico is a newly industrialized country and the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. Despite being considered an emerging power, the uneven distribution of income and the increase in insecurity are issues of concern.
Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which had held it since 1929, culminating the political alternation at the federal level, which had begun at the local level during the 1980s.

== Country education policy==
In the field of education, many improvements have been achieved through the years especially to broaden access to basic education, to lower gender and regional inequities and to decentralize the traditional highly bureaucratic and centralized education system. Moreover one third of Mexican population have not accessed or completed their basic education cycle.
During the previous program period (PNE: ''Programa Nacional de Educación 2001–2006''), the government tackled several key issues, one ofhttp://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/skins/common/images/button_italic.png them being to take responsibility in supervising and reforming preschool education and to make it mandatory by 2008 for children aged 3 to 5; the first step was to carry out an in-depth status study and then to reach 100% coverage for children aged 5 and to extend it gradually to those aged 3 to 4;

Nevertheless several deficiencies have to be dealt with to allow the full human development of Mexican society: to fight high rates of dropout and low levels of achievement and qualification towards the labour market.

Therefore the SEP designed the “''Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012''” with six objectives, each accompanied of quantitive goals and indicators applied to each level of education (primary, secondary and HE).

Objective 1: to increase quality in education to improve students’ educative achievement and opportunities to gain welfare in order to contribute to the national development.
Objective 2: to extend educative opportunities in order to reduce social disparities, gaps and to enhance equity.
Objective 3: to encourage the use of ICT in the education system in order to support learning processes, to expand students’ skills for their future life and to facilitate their integration to the knowledge society.
Objective 4: to provide a comprehensive educative offer that is a balance between providing citizenship values and developing skills and knowledge via regular classroom activities, practical teaching and an institutional context, in order to enhance democratic and intercultural coexistence.
Objective 5: to offer quality education services to provide people with a high sense of social responsibility that participate to the labor market in a productive and competitive way.
Objective 6: to promote a management system that encourages the participation of education centers in the decision-making process, involves the responsibility of different social and educational stakeholders and foments both the students’ and the teachers’ security, transparency and reporting.

The official language of instruction is Spanish. However, increasing attention is being paid to Indigenous education. Mexico recognizes 62 indigenous ethnic groups that speak more than 80 languages. These groups are found in 24 of the 31 Mexican states. More than 1 million indigenous children receive bilingual instruction at the preschool and elementary school levels; this education is offered in 72 dialects from 49 parent languages.

== Country education system==
[[Image:http://www.oei.es/oeivirt/fp/cuaderno4/mexico.gif]]
Education in Mexico is provided by institutions under the jurisdiction of the federal, state and municipal government, as well as private institutions. Private institutions with academic programmes must be accredited by the SEP.

Article Three of the Mexican Constitution and the General Law of Education comprise the main legal framework regulating the Mexican education system. Article Three stipulates that all individuals have a right to receive education and that the State has an obligation to provide compulsory and free basic education services and to promote all levels. The General Law of Education (GLE), passed in 1993 and further amended in 2002, widens and reinforces the above principles. Among other things, it clarifies rights and obligations for federal and state authorities. It states that it is SEP’s responsibility to guarantee the national unity of basic education, improve its quality, and seek equity in the access to these services. It also establishes that it is the states’ obligation to provide initial and basic education, including indigenous and special education services, as well as teacher training programs.

For the year 2007-08, the total number of students was 33.3 millions. Among them, 76.5 % are enrolled in basic education levels, 11.5 % in upper-secondary education (or Educación media superior that is the fastest-growing level) and 7.9 %, in Higher Education, which represents 2.6 million students. Besides 71.6 % enrolments are attributed to State institutions (due the massive decentralisation of basic education) and 13.5 % enrolments to private institutions.
Within Higher Education, the level of Técnico superior accounts for 3.2%, Licenciatura, for 90.1 % and Posgrado, for 6.7% of total students. As for the institutional management, the student population is shifted as follows: 39.1 % are enroled in autonomously HEIs, 13.2 %, in State HEIs; 14.3 % in federal HEIs and 33.3% in private HEIs.

== Higher education==
Higher education is mostly delivered at large public universities. In addition to the large national higher education institutions (like UNAM and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), both located in Mexico City), each state has its own state university or state teachers’ college. Public universities are autonomous and are operated by their own organic laws, which means that even though they are publicly funded, their administrative and educational management is left to university boards and officials.

There are six subsystems of higher education institutions in Mexico:
- public universities,
- technological institutes,
- technological universities,
- private institutions,
- teacher training colleges,
- and other public institutions.
When all of them are counted, Mexico has 1,250 institutions of higher education.

A pattern of an increasing number of universities and enrolment began in 1940. The country had only 8 universities in that year, increasing its number to 124 in 1980. During the 1998-1999 academic year, ANUIES (National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education) listed 213 universities. Of these, 45 are public universities, where 50 percent of the academic research in Mexico takes place. These universities enroll 52 percent of students pursuing undergraduate education and 48 percent of those pursuing a graduate degree.

There are 147 technological institutes offering higher education. The Ministry of Education (SEP) coordinates 102, while state governments coordinate the other 45. In the latter, students can choose between regular and three-year programs: two years of general education requirements and one year of specialization. There is also another group of institutions of higher education that is not part of the previous two subsystems; some of these are under the SEP and other government ministries. One percent of those pursuing bachelor's degrees and 7.5 percent of those pursuing graduate degrees attend them.

Technological universities are institutions coordinated by state governments but created by federal, state and, in some instances, municipal governments. This educational modality was created in 1991 for students who want to obtain associate degrees. The length of studies is two years. As of 1999 there were 36 technological universities in 19 states.

In the subsystem of private institutions, there were 598 schools, not including teacher colleges. Private institutions are grouped into universities (168), institutes (171), and centres, schools, and other institutions (259). Accreditation for these academic institutions is issued by SEP, state governments, or other public academic institutions authorized to accredit them. Private institutions of higher education have 27.6 percent of the undergraduate enrolment and 36.5 of the graduate enrolment in Mexico.

Teacher training colleges offer bachelor degrees in preschool education, elementary school education, secundaria school education, special education, and physical education. Until 1984, elementary education teacher training was offered at upper-secondary institutions, “escuelas normales”. Currently, teachers for both elementary and secondary education are trained at tertiary level institutions, teacher-training institutes that are separate from general universities and generally offer a four-year curriculum.

So most of the students (two third) attend a public university. However, studying at a private university has become popular in the last decades: there are some high quality private universities that tend to offer what the market demands and therefore often focus on popular fields like business and engineering. Public universities generally offer a wider range of programs. Also research is mainly conducted at public universities, especially when it involves high investments like laboratories.

Public universities and technological institutes of higher education offer affordable education to all Mexicans. In some of the state public universities, semester fees are even lower. Tuition is free although there are fees for some administrative tasks. By contrast, in some of the technological institutes, for example, where the demand for education is high, a semester of fees amounts to nearly $150 dollars. Private universities, however, vary in the admission process and tuition prices.

== Higher education reform==

== Administration and finance==
The government is only officially responsible for providing compulsory basic education, although it is also involved at the other three levels through public provision of preschool and upper secondary as well as public funding of higher education in most states. Public schools serve 87 percent of all students in the country. Governance is centralized as the national level with the Secretaria de Educación (SEP)—setting the curriculum, selecting textbooks, hiring and firing school personnel, and setting salary schedules. Although Mexico decentralized the basic education system to its 32 states in 1992, this reform was mostly administrative, and did not diminish the centralization of decisionmaking. Overall, teachers and school administrators have little autonomy in the system.
[[Image:Sistema_Educativo_Estados_Unidos_Mexicanos_Principales cifras-ciclo_escolar2007-2008|alt Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]]

Mexico’s public spending on education is by far the largest component of public spending (24 percent of programmable spending in 2003, i.e about $28 billion). It amounted to 5.9 percent of GDP per capita, above the OECD average of 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, the figure is misleading: since taxation is low, the government’s fiscal resources are scarce and per-capita public spending in education remains low compared to international standards.

All in all, Mexico spends annually about $42 billion on education. This includes all monetary resources that federal and state governments and families spend on education. On average, states fund 85 percent of education spending through federal transfers. However, the Mexican government spends five times as much on a higher education student as it spends on a primary education student.

== Quality assurance==
Mexico has more than two million students and more than 1000 higher education institutes but among them are many very small institutes or universities of poor quality. Besides, there is no national accreditation system that sets the standard.

In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria.

• Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have for each program an official recognition by the Mexican Ministry of Education (RVOE : Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios).

• Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education.

• FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.

== Country's HEIs in the information society==

Due to the economic and social conditions of the country, ICTs continue to be tools used by the privileged sectors in Mexico. The country’s uneven state of digital access is due to differences in income, age, gender, urbanisation, and socioeconomic disparities between regions. However, since mobile telephony is experiencing the greatest growth in the telecommunications sector in Mexico, it could be deduced that it is the service offering the greatest access in the country.

Besides the low penetration of ICTs in business is notable. This varies according to company size, geographic region and economic sector. Reasons cited by various sources include telecommunications regulation, broadband rates, the unequal sizes of companies, and the lack of financing to acquire computer equipment. For this reason, there is a deep digital divide amongst Mexican companies compared to other countries (Tello, 2008).

Without doubt, Mexico needs a digital agenda in order to ensure equitable access. At present a comprehensive digital agenda in the country does not exist. Instead, at federal government level, there are a series of uncoordinated programmes and initiatives in different ministries.

The official initiative involving universal access and governmental information over the last seven years has been e-Mexico, which attempted to create a system of satellite connectivity However, since it was implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it did not receive support from either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health (Hofmann & García-Cantú, 2008). E-Mexico has not been successful, in spite of several governmental efforts. At present, government agencies are discussing a new strategy for universal access that takes advantage of WiMAX and Wi-Fi connectivity for schools, health centres and government offices across the country. The State Networks for Education, Health and Government, a new version of e-Mexico (without the satellite), and the University Corporation for the Development of the Internet (CUDI) will be the principal implementers of the project.

== Virtual initiatives in HE==

The three largest initiatives on Distance Education and the use of ICT involved secondary basic educcation:
- Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV program production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
- the School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research
- Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitalization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.

HIGHER EDUCATION

'''ECOESAD''' (Common Area for Distance Higher Education) aims at creating a consortium of public universities in order to develop distance higher education by integrating each institution’s training offer and sharing it nationally. This consortium could be a preliminary step towards a national distance university.

'''NetACTIVE''' - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME
A Virtual Mobility Scheme has been developed as a part of the Net ACTIVE project, which aims to increase the number of virtual mobility students from Latin America participating in European distance and blended masters, using ECTS. The scheme has been based upon a comparative evaluation of Reports on the European and Latin-American offerings in virtual and blended courses.

'''Coordinación de Universidad Abierta y Educación a Distancia''' [http://www.cuaed.unam.mx UNAM]

'''Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual''' [http://www.udgvirtual.udg.mx Universidad Guadalajara]

'''Polivirtual''' [http://www.ipn.mx Instituto Politécnico Nacional]

----

== References==
Mexico on the Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

El Programa Sectorial de Educación 2007-2012 : http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/prog_sec.pdf

Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos [http://dgpp.sep.gob.mx/Estadi/Principales%20cifras/Principales%20Cifras%202007-2008.pdf Principales cifras, ciclo escolar 2007-2008]

Mexican education system: http://neso.nuffic.nl/mexico/dutch-organizations/mexican-education-system

Education in Mexico, Challenges and Opportunities: http://www.worldfund.org/assets/files/RAND_Education%20in%20Mexico.pdf

Mexico – Higher education: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/984/Mexico-HIGHER-EDUCATION.html

Educación y nuevas tecnologías : http://www.oei.es/quipu/mexico/index.html#eval

GISWatch 2008 – Global Information Society Watch: http://www.giswatch.org/gisw2008/country/Mexico.html

ECOESAD : http://www.ecoesad.org.mx/index.html

NetACTIVE - TOWARDS A VIRTUAL MOBILITY SCHEME: http://www.net-active.info/

File:Sistema Educativo Estados Unidos Mexicanos Principales cifras-ciclo escolar2007-2008.JPG

2009-01-05T12:49:53Z

Widad:

Country reports

2009-01-05T11:43:30Z

Widad: country report => added México

''This is an index page for the reports on the countries of interest to Re.ViCa team and its International Advisory Committee.''

''A country does not get into this list until its Country report is "reasonably complete".''

=== Disclaimer ===

''The concept of a "country" is a complex and sometimes contested issue. Inclusion of a country in any of our lists does not imply recognition of the country by any particular nation (or the EU) or approval of its regime by the Re.ViCa project or its advisors or funders.''

Use the [[Country template]] for authors

== Countries list ==

See also the "Category" entry on each country for institutions of relevance, e.g. [[:Category:Canada]].

# '''[[Australia]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[GEO]] - minimal information at present but in the right structure and of relevance to e-learning
# '''''[[Austria]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Bahrain]] - has an important regional centre for the [[Arab Open University]]
# '''''[[Belgium]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editors [[ATiT]] and [[AVNet]] - which regions? - good information
# '''[[Brazil]]''' - country editor [[EuroPACE]] - some information (lots more on file)
# '''''[[Canada]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[Cape Verde]]''' - some information on the universities
# '''[[China]]''' - a major player in e-learning - some information and see [[:Category:China|entities in China]]
# [[Colombia]]
# [[Costa Rica]]
# '''''[[Czech Republic]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[ATiT]] - has information now
# '''''[[Denmark]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[ATiT]] - has information now
# [[Egypt]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# '''''[[Estonia]]''''' ([[EU]]) - country editor [[TKK]]
# '''''[[Finland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[TKK]] - good information
# '''''[[France]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[ULP]]
# '''''[[Germany]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Ghana]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# ''[[Greece]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[UNINETTUNO]] - has information now
# '''[[Guernsey]]''' ([[Europe]]) - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# [[Hong Kong]] - minimal information, needs to be better since it is relevant - see [[Open University of Hong Kong]] and [[Hong Kong Polytechnic University]]
# '''''[[Hungary]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[GEO]] - good information
# '''[[India]]''' - minimal information, needs to be better - see [[NetVarsity]] and [[Indira Gandhi National Open University]]
# [[Indonesia]] - some information - see in particular [[Universitas Terbuka]]
# '''''[[Ireland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[Isle of Man]]''' - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# '''[[Italy]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[UNINETTUNO]] - good information
# '''[[Jersey]]''' - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# [[Kenya]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# [[Kuwait]]
# '''[[Latvia]]''' - adequate information building up
# '''''[[Luxembourg]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Malawi]] - a little information including delivery from the [[University of Derby]]
# '''[[México]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[ULP]]
# [[Mozambique]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# The '''''[[Netherlands]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]]
# '''[[New Zealand]]''' ([[OECD]]) - some information
# [[Nicaragua]]
# '''[[Nigeria]]'''
# [[Northern Cyprus]]
# '''''[[Norway]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# [[Oman]]
# [[Palestine]]
# ''[[Poland]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[EuroPACE]]
# ''[[Portugal]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[AVNet]]
# [[Qatar]]
# '''''[[Russia]]''''' - country editor [[TKK]]
# [[Saudi Arabia]]
# '''''[[South Africa]]''''' - country editor [[ATiT]] - good information
# '''''[[Spain]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[EuroPACE]] - good information
# '''''[[Sweden]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[TKK]]
# '''''[[Switzerland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Syria]]
# [[Tanzania]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# [[United Arab Emirates]]
# '''''[[United Kingdom]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[United States]]''' ([[OECD]]) - some information

----

> [[Countries]]
 
>> [[Index]]

[[Category:Country reports| ]]

Country reports

2009-01-05T11:42:27Z

Widad: Country reports => added México

''This is an index page for the reports on the countries of interest to Re.ViCa team and its International Advisory Committee.''

''A country does not get into this list until its Country report is "reasonably complete".''

=== Disclaimer ===

''The concept of a "country" is a complex and sometimes contested issue. Inclusion of a country in any of our lists does not imply recognition of the country by any particular nation (or the EU) or approval of its regime by the Re.ViCa project or its advisors or funders.''

Use the [[Country template]] for authors

== Countries list ==

See also the "Category" entry on each country for institutions of relevance, e.g. [[:Category:Canada]].

# '''[[México]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[ULP]]
# '''[[Australia]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[GEO]] - minimal information at present but in the right structure and of relevance to e-learning
# '''''[[Austria]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Bahrain]] - has an important regional centre for the [[Arab Open University]]
# '''''[[Belgium]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editors [[ATiT]] and [[AVNet]] - which regions? - good information
# '''[[Brazil]]''' - country editor [[EuroPACE]] - some information (lots more on file)
# '''''[[Canada]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[Cape Verde]]''' - some information on the universities
# '''[[China]]''' - a major player in e-learning - some information and see [[:Category:China|entities in China]]
# [[Colombia]]
# [[Costa Rica]]
# '''''[[Czech Republic]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[ATiT]] - has information now
# '''''[[Denmark]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[ATiT]] - has information now
# [[Egypt]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# '''''[[Estonia]]''''' ([[EU]]) - country editor [[TKK]]
# '''''[[Finland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[TKK]] - good information
# '''''[[France]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[ULP]]
# '''''[[Germany]]''''' ([[OECD]]) and [[EU]] - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Ghana]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# ''[[Greece]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[UNINETTUNO]] - has information now
# '''[[Guernsey]]''' ([[Europe]]) - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# [[Hong Kong]] - minimal information, needs to be better since it is relevant - see [[Open University of Hong Kong]] and [[Hong Kong Polytechnic University]]
# '''''[[Hungary]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[GEO]] - good information
# '''[[India]]''' - minimal information, needs to be better - see [[NetVarsity]] and [[Indira Gandhi National Open University]]
# [[Indonesia]] - some information - see in particular [[Universitas Terbuka]]
# '''''[[Ireland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[Isle of Man]]''' - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# '''[[Italy]]''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[UNINETTUNO]] - good information
# '''[[Jersey]]''' - adequate information (it is a tiny state)
# [[Kenya]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# [[Kuwait]]
# '''[[Latvia]]''' - adequate information building up
# '''''[[Luxembourg]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Malawi]] - a little information including delivery from the [[University of Derby]]
# [[Mozambique]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# The '''''[[Netherlands]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]]
# '''[[New Zealand]]''' ([[OECD]]) - some information
# [[Nicaragua]]
# '''[[Nigeria]]'''
# [[Northern Cyprus]]
# '''''[[Norway]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# [[Oman]]
# [[Palestine]]
# ''[[Poland]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[EuroPACE]]
# ''[[Portugal]]'' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[AVNet]]
# [[Qatar]]
# '''''[[Russia]]''''' - country editor [[TKK]]
# [[Saudi Arabia]]
# '''''[[South Africa]]''''' - country editor [[ATiT]] - good information
# '''''[[Spain]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[EuroPACE]] - good information
# '''''[[Sweden]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[TKK]]
# '''''[[Switzerland]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[FernUni Hagen]] - good information
# [[Syria]]
# [[Tanzania]] - some information on HEI but not the virtual aspect
# [[United Arab Emirates]]
# '''''[[United Kingdom]]''''' ([[OECD]]) - country editor [[Matic Media]] - good information
# '''[[United States]]''' ([[OECD]]) - some information

----

> [[Countries]]
 
>> [[Index]]

[[Category:Country reports| ]]

E-LERU - A Virtual Campus for European Universities

2008-06-03T13:51:03Z

Widad: added the link to the most recent e-LERU webportal

== Project ==
E-LERU, project coordinated by [[Université Louis Pasteur]]

January 2005 - January 2007

== E-LERU case studies ==
Case study descriptions of
* European Confederation of Upper Rhine Universities (EUCOR)

* Open University (OU)

* United Kingdom e-University (UKeU)

* Numeric University of Strasbourg (UNS)
* International Virtual Medical School (IVIMEDS)
* Swiss Virtual Campus (SVC)
* Baltic Sea Virtual Campus (BSVC/OnCampus)
* Network per l’Università Ovunque (NETTUNO)

http://revica.europace.org/images/3/34/Case-studies_eleru.pdf

== Source ==
http://www.eleru.leru.org/
http://www.e-leru.leru.org/
----
> [[Publications]]