U. of Vienna Finds Resistance to New Approach to Academic Degrees
By BURTON BOLLAG
http://chronicle.com
Section: International
Volume 50, Issue 5, Page A53
At the University of Vienna, the Chinese department thinks the idea is great, but biology
wants nothing to do with it. Austria's decision to switch to a new academic system, in which
students earn bachelor's degrees in three years and master's degrees in two, is not going
smoothly at the country's leading higher education institution.
Austria, like many European countries, has traditionally offered, in its largely public system, a
basic university degree that takes six or more years of study and results in a diploma
equivalent to a master's degree from an American university. So when the government
decided to phase out that program, which resulted in the magister degree, many scholars,
students, and employers were jolted. Would an academic program lasting only three years be
worth anything, they wondered.
Vienna's administration called on its departments to develop new bachelor's- and master'sdegree programs, but some professors, including many in the sciences, balked. "Two years
ago we made a decision in biology not to introduce the new degree programs," says Fritz
Schiemer, head of the department of ecology and conservation biology.
What's a Bachelor's Degree?
The main reason, he says, is that "no one could tell us what the bachelor's degree means."
Should it be more theoretical, to prepare students for graduate studies, or more practical, to
prepare them for a job, say, as a lab assistant?
Mr. Schiemer, a specialist in restoring dammed and channeled rivers to a more natural state,
agrees with one of the central aims of the reform: increased student mobility. "It would be a
big advantage," he says, "if someone does a bachelor's in biology at Vienna and then goes on
to do a master's at Innsbruck, Budapest, or elsewhere in Europe," with students able to choose
institutions that offer the specialties they are interested in.
But for this to be feasible, he says, more must be done to establish guidelines throughout
Europe on course content for undergraduate studies in biology. "I'm very much in favor" of
the new degrees, says Mr. Schiemer, "but only after the clarification of many questions."
Richard Trappl is not plagued by such doubts. The professor of Chinese language and
literature and deputy head of Vienna's section of East Asian studies was enthusiastic when
given the opportunity to help develop new degree programs for Chinese studies.
He says the traditional degree program was so demanding that only a small portion of the
students who began Chinese studies actually earned the magister degree. The rest dropped out
with nothing to show for their efforts, often after years of study. "There was a discussion in
the department," he says. "It would be better to offer an opportunity to earn a bachelor's to
students who just want to learn the language and have a basic knowledge of Chinese society
and politics, but don't want to do research."
Two years ago, the Chinese department became one of the first at Vienna to offer a bachelor's
degree. The department took seriously the administration's instructions not to simply cut the
old study program into two parts, but to develop an altogether more modern "learnercentered" approach.
The new standard European Credit-Transfer System being introduced at Vienna helped make
the academic program more flexible. Vienna's traditional system has rigid course
requirements for major and minor subjects. But the new degree programs, at least in Chinese,
give students much more choice. They can, for example, add courses in law, ecology, and
economics to their basic Chinese curriculum, in keeping with their individual interests.
"The experience of the last two years has shown us that this works in our field," says Mr.
Trappl. Thirty students who transferred from the old magister program into the new bachelor's
program have already graduated, and they were deluged with job offers from Austria's
Foreign Service and companies doing business with China.
Pushing Forward
The University of Vienna's administration has little sympathy for the arguments of professors
in biology and other departments who have so far refused to introduce the new degree
programs. "They don't want to understand," says Alfred-Georg Müller, who has been Vienna's
coordinator for the Bologna process since the beginning of 2002.
Mr. Müller expects a real struggle. But even though academic departments in Austria operate
with great autonomy, the administration is not powerless. It controls the budget, and can be
less generous in disbursing funds to those who don't cooperate.
"In some cases it's very difficult," says Mr. Müller, a sly smile lighting up his face, "but there
is always the language of money."