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From the 20th SVU World Congress:

Ivan Chorvát - Outcomes of the CEP Budapest Roundtable
on Reform of Social Science Education in Post-Communist Countries

Political changes in post-communist countries after 1989 opened the borders of these countries to the West and enabled not only extensive traveling of people but also the possibility to study and work abroad. Economic changes stimulated various kinds of business activities and helped to establish considerably big and dynamic private sector. Of course, under the conditions of transformation many sectors of the society face economic, personal, institutional, professional and other problems. One of them is the educational sector. Regarding the situation at higher education, especially at universities, the phenomenon of "brain drain" is considered as an extremely detrimental for the future of higher education and quality of human capital in following decades. "Brain drain" means that talented people leave the home country in order to study and work in the West (or possibly in more developed country of the region - e.g. Romanians moving to Hungary, Slovaks to the Czech Republic, etc.) and then remain there. In order to stop such trends, the Civic Education Project and the German Rectors Conference organized a roundtable "Brain Gain: Sustaining Young Social Scientists in Post-Communist Countries" in Budapest in December 1999. The challenges that face young academics and that force many of them to leave education and/or their home countries were discussed there and potential solutions to these problems proposed. II will present here some of them.

Current financial conditions of universities are forcing many of the best young scholars to leave academia. Brain drain, internal as well as external, is eroding the pool of human resources upon which universities depend. Instructors' salaries in post-communist states are very low, not competitive at all with other sectors of the economy. Therefore many academics opt for higher paying positions in business or seek positions at universities abroad. Those who choose to remain in academia must take additional jobs in order to make financial ends meet. As a consequence, university lecturers have little time to develop new courses, conduct research, publish, advise students, interact with colleagues and engage in other activities that enhance higher education and intellectual community. To put it simply, they have little time to do their job.

Additionally, many universities lack the resources and materials necessary for effective teaching and research. Libraries are chronically underfunded - which is in my opinion the greatest obstacle to effective and high quality education, and there are inadequate resources to replicate and distribute teaching materials. Without adequate materials and equipment, even the most determined scholars struggle to find satisfaction in their professional lives.

Other acute problems are institutional ones: University administration is highly centralized, favoring career academics and closed decision-making process. Financing is not based on quality or innovation; thus, there is little incentive for change. The state remains the main source of funding and universities are unable to identify and acquire additional financing that is necessary to increase salaries and provide necessary teaching and research resources. Such rigidity makes the university an unwelcoming environment for ambitious young scholars.

These problems are particularly acute in social sciences, where the need for reform in higher education is greatest and resources are particularly scarce. The situation makes it difficult to keep promising young scholars in academia.

The workgroup in Budapest dealing with these problems suggested some incentives to attract promising students to academic careers and identified areas of potential assistance to young scholars. In my opinion the most effective method of ensuring "brain gain" is to identify excellent students in their last year of study and assist them in obtaining admission to and providing funding for postgraduate programs in the West, with the provision that they return to their home countries and teach for three to five years in their undergraduate departments. Regarding areas of potential assistance to young scholars, participants at the workgroup agreed that one of the greatest problems is limited access to information and international discourse that can increase the attractiveness of academia for talented young scholars. Better access to the Internet addresses this problem. Academic resources available on Internet databases in full-text version, such as the Expanded Academic Index and EBSCO, can encourage awareness of international research and scholarship. Access to databases of western materials available in specific disciplines, web-based resources on curriculum development, course outlines and reading lists, and access to international listservers and professional organization web sites are very important areas where many improvements could be done.

The need for teaching materials was identified as an area that urgently needs support. Better access to available resources (course readings, photocopies of academic articles and book chapters) and their increased circulation of course helps, but original copies of such academic resources themselves are lacking. One proposal to meet this need involves the distribution of academiv work in the region, such as those sponsored by the Curriculum Resource Center of the Central European University (CEU) can assist the exchange of information and teaching materials, as well as promote contacts with colleagues from other countries.

A more long-term project - however, the most needed and crucial one - is support for and improvement of university libraries, especially in provincial cities. Although they are some programs already in progress (by CEP, the Higher Education Support Program, the Network Library Program of the Open Society Institute), there is plenty of space for activities and donations of library resources by other institutions.Other possibilities include resource sharing with and donations from western institutions that support culture and education, such as CEU. Cooperation with other networks, like the British Council, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Goethe Institute and the Sabre Foundation, can increase the effective expansion of collections. A combined effort by donors would broaden the impact of such programs.

It was already mentioned that young academics in their daily work lack time and support for both teaching and research. One direct method of allowing teachers to concentrate on their academic work rather than pursuing additional employment is to provide salary supplements for excellence in teaching (such fellowship has already been offered by the Hungarian government). Furthermore, efforts to decrease the workload of lecturers at the institutional level are necessary. This is not so much a financial question as one of changing the traditions of teaching in the region, where instructions is often based on information transfer through rote memorization and lecture-style delivery, rather than encouraging intellectual exchange and the application of knowledge through more interactive means. It would include restructuring the course scheduling of university departments in order to reduce the number of lecture hours, and simultaneously reforming the content and method of both instruction and learning. Of course, it cannot be done without the introduction of training in new teaching methods. In order to comply with internationally accepted standards, the transition from information transfer to interactive and critical discourse in the classroom demands retraining. Often, human resources necessary to perform such retraining do not exist in these countries. Therefore teaching methodology was identified as an area of great potential for cooperation and exchange of experience. Teaching methodology workshops can encourage young social scientists to introduce interactive learning, and the publication of methodology textbooks in native languages was identified as a great necessity.

The professional development of young scholars is critical to the future of higher education. It will determine not only what type of individuals will comprise university faculties, but also the effectiveness of their work. Many university environments are currently unable to nurture the growth of young scholars in a manner that allows them to realize their potential. These issues were discussed by the second workgroup. Insufficient access to academic networks was identified as a great detriment to the teaching profession. Professional development of young scholars is hindered by a lack of financing for and access to such opportunities and is particularly critical in provincial areas. Support for and the organization of regional academic conferences and workshops specifically geared toward young scholars would assist this cause. CEP´s annual Eastern Scholar Roundtable is one example of such activities. The proliferation of summer schools and academic seminars, such as CEU´s Summer University, can increase scholarly discourse and provide access to materials and networks needed for advance research. The "side-effects" of such activities include contacts for joint research projects and publications. Establishing regional professional organizations as well as accessibility to membership in western professional associations, also can assist this aim. contact with western area studies centers was identified as having particularly strong potential, as such relationships are mutually beneficial; the eastern scholar gains access to an international network of colleagues, while the western university gains from the expertise of talented young specialists from the region.Existing financial and institutional constraints on academic staff can be alleviated by supporting mobility among universities in the region. Hosting lecturers and the joint-appointment of professors among regional universities would increase scholarly contacts. Such cooperation could be particularly fruitful in case of Czech and Slovak universities, where, moreover, no language barrier exists. In order to bridge the different styles of "western" and "eastern" research, research methodology seminars can assist young scholars in producing work that meets internationally accepted standards of quality.

Due to the rigidity of institutions of higher education, the most important problems affecting young scholars are overcentralized structures of the institutions of higher education, discouragement of competition, serious inequalities (gender, geographical distribution, etc.) prevalent in the functioning of these institutions and pervasive corruption. Encouraging competition at the individual, departmental and institutional levels was proposed as a way to address the rigidity of universities, which is manifested in the attitude of other faculty members towards young academics who have studied abroad, in the centralized structure of institutions, in secretive and noncooperative decision-making procedures and in the lack of interest in change and innovation.

To increase competition - and thus the quality of performance - on the individual level, institutions should be encouraged to match funds raised by scholars from external sources. Recognition from institutions external to the departments of young scholars, such as prizes for excellence and awards for sylllabi and publications, can give them more prestige within the university, possibly increasing their influence for change. Additionally, a system of performance evaluation based on international standards not only encourages achievement, but also increases awareness of quality assurance. Usually the number of publications produced by a scholar is more important than their quality; thus, based on mutual agreement scholars from one university publish extensively in "zborníky " of another university and vice versa in order to have more publications. Utilizing external evaluation committees can begin to counter these practices. Publications in independently refereed journals and citations in other research should be much more important between criteria for evaluation. New methods of assessment are also necessary - student evaluations are still rare in the region, but internationally have proven to be an effective tool to appraise the quality of teaching.

One method to increase competition on the institutional level is to provide support for institutions or departments that are identified as making progress in introducing innovation and therefore are susceptible to financial constraints. Another solution is to introduce external (nonnational) evaluation of internal structures for accreditation, new curricula and courses, etc. Visiting instructor programs can provide mentoring opportunities for young faculty and advanced graduate students, as does the CEP Visiting Lecturer Program. Internationally recognized dissertation committees also can assist the lack of expertise in this area.

Among the most difficult problems faced by young social scientists are those originating from the particular set of attitudes prevalent in the institutional environment in which they work. Therefore, even though the lack of adequate resources is the main source of frustration confronting higher education, the very low level of commitment to basic values of scholarship can lead to mismanagement of the currently scarce resources upon which these institutions rely. This propagates a lack of professional values in the academic community, of innovative teaching, of student-oriented education and of quality control and evaluation in institutions of higher education.

To raise prestige for the academic sphere is an important task related to this issue. The development of new values for academic communities in post-communist countries can be encouraged in several ways. It was proposed that support for institutions that promote norms of academic excellence would assist this goal. Independent, professional, refereed academic and civil journals were identified as means by which the values of the academic community and specific disciplines can be promoted. The protection of academic values is an important issue on various levels; in the classroom, for instance, there is a deep-rooted and accepted culture of cheating. It is a challenge for the integrity of teachers to change such fixed patterns in the academic environment. These issues, as well as the lack of professional ethics and norms that leads to nepotism, protectionism and corruption, can be alleviated by introducing external control. One solution is to invite external assessment of student work by other departments or other universities. Double marking systems for exams and the introduction of credit systems also are recommended.

The attempt to raise academic norms to meet international standards can be achieved through involvement of outside observers in the process of quality control and evaluation of post-communist institutions of higher education - for example, through international accreditation committees. by introducing such norms one can expect that these institutions gradually will accept a different value system and will become more open to innovative thinking and student-oriented education. Since the adoption of these values is more a matter of attitude than of resources, it is important to institutionalize them by formally establishing new or reformed institutions of higher education upon these values. Additionally, individual university teachers must be encouraged to embrace new methods and values in the educational process, for example, by means of workshops or training sessions on quality control procedures and indicators.

Undoubtedly it is important that there is also informal cooperation among scholars. Most leading universities in the world do not depend on accreditation; they ensure their own quality and reputation. But for universities trying to gain international recognition, it is important that independent foreign scholars have an advisory role. Degree programs should have external advisory committees and examiners. Transparency in and clear criteria for the evaluation process must be assured.

Changes in all these areas will greatly increase the possibilities for and encouragement of professional development and advancement of young scholars as well as raise the status of the profession as a whole.

The third workgroup in the Budapest roundtable dealt with the need to build and rebuild linkages and networks. Its starting point was the aasumption that many of the natural linkages among academics in post-communist countries were severed after the fall of communism. While young scholars from the region share many interests as their societies undergo similar transitions, they have little opportunity to meet their colleagues in neighboring states. Often they are not aware of other work being done in their discipline in the region. The university systems no longer have the resources or the infrastructure to foster networks of scholars as they once did.

Even among institutions in the same country, academic linkages are often lacking and structures for sharing information and scholarship are inadequate. various sections of academic community frequently are segregated from one another, e.g. universities from research institutes and academies of science, which limits cooperation and frustrate attempts to integrate teaching and research.

In addition to rebuilding local networks, increased communication and information exchange with western countries is viewed as critical for higher education reform and development. Exchanges of scholars and collaborative projects can help fill the void created by years of division during the communist period. These linkages also can help compensate for current deficiencies in resources available for higher education in the region. In addition, work being pursued by excellent scholars in the East has not come to the attention of western academics. Similarly, university degrees from post-communist countries are not well understood or accepted in the West, and vice versa.

A number of partnerships and collaborative projects have been established between universities in the West and selected institutions, usually classical universities located in capitals or large urban centers in the region. Less attention has been paid to rebuilding local networks and to sustaining the intellectual community. Provincial universides also need these connections, both locally and internationally.

In order to overcome disconnection of social scientists from each other, the university and other disciplines, some common projects, such as interdepartmental and interuniversity academic workshops and seminars, should correct the situation. Overcoming the obstacles to linkages and exchanges depends not only on a freer flow of informadon across disciplines and among universities in the region, but also on the ability of young scholars to act.

There have been cases in which universities withheld the salaries of scholars who received stipends from other programs; they should not be penalized for their activities and access to programs that provide linkages. Summer schools can facilitate the initial steps in establishing links. It is the right and possible way, as the existence of the Central European University's Summer University shows.

With additional funding, young scholars can organize national and regional academic events and programs, such as conferences, guest lectures, exchange programs for scholars and students, joint research projects and professional associations. Connections are needed among local universities, among public and private institutions, among universities in the center and the periphery of each country and among regional universities.

The Higher Education Support Program (HESP) supports several projects for East-East linkages; CEP Eastern Scholars have initiated others.

When considering linkages between the West and the East, it is very important not simply to import solutions or receive help from the West, but to collaborate; not just to copy, but to adapt western models to eastern conditions. Cooperation with CEE universities also can benefit western institutions. Guest lectures by young scholars from CEE countries can promote study of the region and ensure that the flow of information goes in both directions. One proposal is to establish a network of regional and western universities departments in which collaboration occurs in a specific subject or field of interest.

Translations and the distribution of publications and research also would assist the transfer of knowledge between East and West. To this end it is necessary to provide better access to western publishing houses and to establish databases of East European publications to be distributed in the West.

The exchange of students and young scholars among European countries assists the breakdovn of hierarchies and encourages scholarly discourse. An innovative example is a project in which two lecturers from different universities teach the same course. CEP Fellows have organized guest, joint and visiting lectures that allow students to gain different perspectives and consider comparative and critical objectives rather than promoting the idea that any one instructor possesses an absolute point of view.

National and international professional associatíons can reestablish links with academics in other areas and countries. The benefits of professional associations include: personal and professional contacts, exposure to independent research, interdisciplinary exchange through conferences and the Internet and the promotion of common academic values. Some CEP Eastern Scholars have acquired membership in foreign associations, such as the American Political Science Association (APSA), ASA, etc. This is very valuable to the professional development of young scholars as it provides them with information about conferences, international publications and opportunities for joint research.

A network of universities necessarily raises the issue of common standards. Unfamiliarity with various educational systems and incompatible standards ofevaluation breed mistrust and misunderstanding. A proposal for a joint project to address this issue includes analyzing and unifying standards and requirements of study programs in each discipline and propagating the findings in an online publication.

Potential projects to address the unification of disciplinary standards include a systematic approach to curriculum reform that updates existing syllabi by incorporating literature and experiences abroad. To realize this project, it is important to maintain international contacts and to utilize every opportunity for involvement in linkage programs, such as TEMPUS program, which has been effective in course development with partners in Europe. TEMPUS is a European Union program desígned to stimulate cooperarion with the post-communist countries. It supports the restructuríng of higher education systems.

Common standards applicable to various types of universities are necessary. There are vast differences between large and small institutions and, within these institutions, between departments that have paying students and those that do not. There is also a great difference in standards between universities where research is done and those that only promote teaching. The proliferation of international standards is important (1) to promote international recognition of a university's programs and thus encourage mobility and (2) to attract outside funding. Local degrees are absolutely sential in most countries; those earned abroad often are not recognized. This problem is also prevalent in western recognition of degrees from the region.

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