Some time ago I asked for information about how institutions accredit the
year abroad and whether / how those institutions who asked students to bring
back Scheine incorporated those marks into the final-year mark total. Here,
finally, is the analysis of the responses.
18 institutions replied. Three institutions do not give students the option
of bringing back Scheine, but accredit the year abroad by means of
dissertations or year-abroad logs.
The following is a summary of the responses by those institutions who do
require students to bring back Scheine (even if only as an option):
1. How many Scheine per semester are students required to bring back?
Most places ask for 2. A few specified in their responses what sort of
Schein it had to be (Hauptseminar- or, more often, Proseminarschein).
2. Do you accept Teilnehmerscheine or only Leistungsscheine?
A narrow majority accepts Leistungsscheine only. Most of the rest accept
both as long as at least one Schein (or 50%) is a Leistungsschein.
3. Do you accept DaF Scheine?
The majority do so, although ocasionally with a proviso (e.g. they count
less than other Scheine, they may only take one per year)
4. Any differences between requirements for Single and Joint Honours?
Not all replied to this question, Most institutions who did respond seem to
treat both categories the same as long as they spend the whole year in
Germany or Austria. One or two places require them to bring back a Schein in
the second subject as well as German.
5. Do you require them to write a dissertation while abroad?
The majority do not require a dissertation as well as Scheine.
One institution requires a dissertation from non-Erasmus students instead of
Scheine; one requires a log-book and a short essay as well as Scheine; one
requires a 1,500-word report as well as Scheine.
More than one insititution offers students who fail to get a Leistungsschein
the chance to redeem themselves by writing a long paper which is then marked
by the home uni.
6. Do you use the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) to work out
equivalences for German marks?
Five institutions say yes, unreservedly; 2 say yes, with some adjustment by
home uni.; 5 say no.
Those who say they do not use ECTS either do not feed the marks from the
year abroad into the final degree classification (i.e. the marks are used to
accredit the year abroad but do not contribute to the degree
classification), or they re-mark year-abroad work themselves.
The impression I got from comments on the last question was that ECTS is
seen as problematic even by institutions who use it. Some institutions are
against it on principle, as they consider it too crude a tool. A couple of
institutions try to control their students' learning during the year abroad
by re-marking work or/and by testing students when they return to Britain
(oral tests and translation tests were mentioned by two institutions).
Because of the problems of finding equivalences for marks awarded by German
and Austrian universities (and because of the need to be fair to students
who spend the year out in other ways), 6 institutions said that they
accredit the year abroad, but do not feed the marks into the final degree
classification.
I hope this summary of the responses is of interest. Our Dept will certainly
find it useful when we get down to deciding the future shape of the year
abroad, and will hope to benefit from others' experience.
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Winifred V. Davies,
Adran Ieithoedd Ewropeaidd / Dept of European Langs,
P.C. Aberystwyth / U.W. Aberystwyth,
Penglais,
Aberystwyth,
Ceredigion SY23 3DY,
Cymru / Wales.
Ffôn / Phone: +44.1970.622557
Ffacs / Fax: +44.1970.622553
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