Madam, - In his article on recent developments in the European higher education domain, Dr Garret FitzGerald (Opinion, September 20th), dismisses as "crude" and "clearly inadequate" the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), which has been a key component of the highly successful Erasmus student mobility programme. Over the 18 years since its inception, the Erasmus programme has transformed all participating European universities from regional to international campuses, and has been the greatest academic initiative to come out of the European Union.
Dr FitzGerald is not correct in stating that the ECTS is based solely on contact hours. Properly implemented, the ECTS allocates credits on the basis of contact hours, modified by an evaluation of the number of study hours associated with each contact hour. It is a much more sensitive and honest assessment of student academic endeavour than other academic credit systems, such as the many variations in US universities.
Dr FitzGerald praises the external examiner system of Irish and British universities. As a participant in this system for some 40 years, I believe that with the enormous growth in university student numbers over recent years, this system is now grossly inefficient, dated and, in most university disciplines, ineffective in ensuring the academic quality of our degree programmes. It is, moreover, a waste of substantial money in the overall management of our Irish universities.
With regard to the Bologna Declaration, Dr FitzGerald regrets the absence of any European organisation of academics that could represent them in the many discussions on it. I am surprised that he is not aware of the European University Association, the EUA, based in Brussels and representing over 600 universities in 41 countries throughout Europe, including the NUI and most other Irish universities.
The EUA, through its many committees, biannual conferences, and seminars on all matters relating to academic quality and university management, has been a very effective voice in the European academic community for many years and was a participant at the recent meeting of Ministers of Education in Berlin, when the impact of the Bologna Declaration on European higher education was the main topic. - Yours, etc.,
Professor Emeritus JOHN KELLY, UCD, Dublin 4.