Bologna Process Experiences in Education at the Faculty of ... - iNEER

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Academic Experience of the Bologna Process at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Széchenyi István University L. T. Kóczy*, J. Égert* *

Széchenyi István University/Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Győr, Hungary

Index Terms: experiences, education, BSc and MSc level

ABSTRACT The Faculty was motivated in the early introduction of the “new way of teaching” in engineering education. The Bologna process started at the faculty - among the first four institutions in Hungary – with the BSc course in Information Technology in Engineering in 2004. The process went on in 2005 with further five BSc courses in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Transport Engineering, Mechatronical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The process of introducing new BSc programs concluded in 2006 with another five BSc courses in Architecture, Information Technology in Economics, Environmental Engineering, Management in Engineering and Engineer-Teacher Training. In 2007 we have started with two MSc courses in Mechatronical Engineering and Engineer-Teacher Training and in February 2008 with another one in Information Technology in Engineering. This paper is the first to deal with the general impressions and experience of the above new courses. 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE FACULTY The Faculty of Engineering Sciences was established in 2002, when the Széchenyi István College was transformed into University. In the beginning the Faculty had sixteen Departments in three Institutes. The educational policy of the Faculty was to offer utmost college level (six semesters) and university level (ten semesters) engineering and information technology courses not only for students from the North-West Region of Hungary and South-West Region of Slovakia, but for young people from all of Hungary. After some organizational changes the Faculty currently provides academic and research activities in its nineteen departments within two institutes: Baross Gábor Institute of Civil Engineering and Transport: Department of Architecture and Structural Engineering Department of Architecture History and Urban Planning Department of Architectural Design Department of Environmental Engineering Department of Civil and Municipal Engineering Department of Transport Department of Logistics and Forwarding Department of Structural Design Jedlik Ányos Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Department of Applied Mechanics Department of Materials- and Vehicle Manufacturing Engineering AUDI Hungaria Department of Combustion Engines Department of Automation Department of Physics and Chemistry Department of Mechatronics and Machine Design Department of Information Technology Department of Automotive and Railway Engineering Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences Department of Technical Teacher Training Department of Telecommunication

The newest department of the Faculty the AUDI Hungaria Department of Combustion Engines was established in 1. January 2008. This Department is jointly operated and financed with AUDI Hungária Ltd. and Széchenyi István University. The aim of this department is to strengthen the co-operation in education and research between the University and the well-known AUDI AG. The current overall number of employees at the Faculty is 296 persons, which includes the educational staff with 212 persons.

Full time

E-learning

Correspondence

7000

884

1042

5000

649

1030

6000

1061

1027 0

4000

0 747 0

802 920

806

1228

875

1429

1325 1190

742

646

765

0

3000

4345 2000

4557

4502 3856

3755

4498 3839

3998

4567

3997

4543

1000

0 2002/03/1

2002/03/2

2003/04/1

2003/04/2

2004/05/1

2004/05/2

2005/06/1

2005/06/2

2006/07/1

2006/07/2

2007/08/1

Fig. 1. Number of students in full time/ e-learning /correspondence course share In Figure 1 it can be seen that the number of full time students of the faculty increased a little in the last six academic years and depending on autumn/spring semester this number has stabilized around 4000-4500 persons (blue columns). The aggregate number of correspondence (yellow columns) and e-learning students (green columns) doubled during this period. Regarding the aggregate number of full time, e-learning and correspondence students the Faculty of Engineering Sciences of Széchenyi István University is the largest engineering and information technology faculty in Hungary and regarding the number of full time students it is the second largest behind the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of Budapest University of Technology and Economics [1]. The study [2] reports on the most “popular” faculties and BSc courses in Hungary. The basis of “popularity” is the number of first place applicants to the given faculty and course respectively. Among the first fifteen faculties there are only two engineering and information technology faculties. The Faculty of Engineering Sciences of Széchenyi István University is ranked now seventh and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of Budapest University of Technology and Economics is ranked fourth. In the most popular twenty BSc courses in Hungary there are five engineering and information technology course. From these five courses the Faculty runs four, so we have a sufficient number of applicants for our courses. 2. THE TRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE FACULTY When established, in 2002 the Faculty had eleven college-level, five university-level courses and one post secondary course in engineering and information technology in the traditional educational system: Post secondary course:

Mechanical engineering.

College level courses:

Architecture, Civil Engineering, Information Technology in Economics, Environmental Engineering, Transport Engineering, Technical Teacher Training, Information Technology in Engineering, Technical Manager Training, Municipal Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering.

University level courses:

Architecture, Civil Engineering, Information Technology in Economics, Transport Engineering, Municipal Engineering.

In the traditional academic system the different level courses were running parallel to each other and it was not possible to change between the different level courses during the whole study period. The different level courses also had different length study periods: the post secondary four, the college-level courses usually six and the university-level courses had ten semesters. 3. THE INTRODUCTION OF BSC AND MSC COURSES AND THE DOCTORAL SCHOOL In 1999 Hungary also signed the Bologna Declaration whose aim was to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010. This decision provides the basis for the introduction of the three cycle system (bachelor/master/doctorate) in Hungarian Higher Education and at the Faculty as well. The Faculty of Engineering Sciences was interested in the early introduction of the “new way of teaching” in engineering education. The Bologna process started at the faculty - among the first four institutions in Hungary – with the BSc course in Information Technology in Engineering in 2004. The process continued in 2005 with further five BSc courses in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Transport Engineering, Mechatronical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The process of introducing new BSc programs concluded in 2006 with another five BSc courses in Architecture, Information Technology in Economics, Environmental Engineering, Management in Engineering and Engineer-Teacher Training. In 2007 we started with two MSc courses in Mechatronical Engineering and Engineer-Teacher Training and in February 2008 with another one in Information Technology in Engineering. The Multidisciplinary Engineering Sciences Doctoral School has been operating since 2005 in three main engineering areas: civil and transport engineering and information technology respectively. The Faculty currently has the following educational structure: Post secondary course:

Bachelor courses:

Mechanical Engineering, In pre-introduction phase: Mechatronical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology. Information Technology in Engineering, (2004) Civil Engineering, (2005) Mechanical Engineering, Transport Engineering, Mechatronical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Architecture, (2006) Information Technology in Economics, Environmental Engineering, Technical Manager Training,

Technical Teacher Training. Architecture, (2005) Mechatronical Engineering, (2007) Technical Teacher Training, Information Technology in Engineering, (2008) Courses with start permission: Civil Engineering, (2009) Vehicle Engineering, Transport Engineering, Logistics Engineering. In pre-introduction phase: Information Technology in Economics, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering (in English).

Master courses:

Figure 2. shows how the number of students of the college and university courses phase out and how the BSc and MSc courses increase. Currently the Faculty has 78 MSc students and the number of students in doctoral school increased from 24 up to 54 during the period of 2005-2008.

Post-secondary

College

University

7000

Postgraduate

482 90 542

84 376

103 213 5000

PhD

54 78

1579

33 25

336 91 506

105 264

90 206

MSc 38

24

6000

BSc

85 678

4000

3273 1428 2846 653 67 632

3000

4340

4129

2000

5171

5035

4961

4257

68 593

4297

47 623

3415 2764

2316

1000

0

4131

1527 95 2002/03/1

77 2002/03/2

68 2003/04/1

67 2003/04/2

104

101

105

2004/05/1

2004/05/2

2005/06/1

94 2005/06/2

70 2006/07/1

63 2006/07/2

39 2007/08/1

Fig. 2. Number of students in post-secondary/ college /university/BSc/MSc/doctoral school course share At the bachelor level the Faculty has a very similar course structure as earlier. The difference is that there is no BSc course in Municipal Engineering in Hungary, but instead we have a new course in Mechatronical Engineering. In comparison with the college level courses the study period increased in most cases by one semester to seven. Exceptions are the Civil Engineering and Architecture courses, which have eight semester study periods. This expansion allowed us to improve and strengthen the theoretical basis of education while keeeping its practice-oriented nature. In every new curriculum there are more base engineering subjects and special new subjects for project and thesis work with high number of credit points. In 2005-2007 the Faculty carried out the “Change of Educational Structure of Széchenyi István University in Bologna Process” project in the HEFOP program (Development of Human Resources Operative Program). In co-operation with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology of Miskolc University and the Faculty of Economics of Széchenyi István University the

academic staff of the Faculty worked out electronic study materials for 116 subjects of eight new BSc courses in this project. The general study period of our master courses is four semesters except for the Civil Engineering course, where it is three semesters. In the Architecture course the traditional ten semester university period remained. The current master course structure of the Faculty is much wider and different than the earlier university course structure. Recently the Faculty runs four master courses and in 2009 we will start with another four. So for 2009 we will achieve, that the students in every bachelor course can find a master course where they can continue their studies at MSc level. Thehe doctoral school is expected to issue the first doctoral degrees in 2008/2009. 4. INITIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE BOLOGNA PROCESS The main and most important experience is that the Faculty could efficiently solve the change from the traditional educational system into the new BSc, MSc system. For the transition period we drew up equivalence lists between college and BSc, university and MSc subjects, therefore we could optimize the educational efforts of the academic staff. In the preparation and introduction period of BSc/MSc courses the Faculty established special committees for every course supervised by the course leader. These committees worked out the curriculum of the given course. They developed well-based and well-thought-out curricula. Every curriculum is generally characterized by four-hour / four-credit subjects so we could significantly decrease the number of subjects per semester in comparison to the former college/university-level curricula. These committees carried out their curriculum development in close collaboration with industrial firms and employers of the region so we could consider and accept their demands and expectations. This close collaboration led to e.g. the establishment of AUDI Hungaria Department of Combustion Engines. General experience is that we have enough applicants for the new BSc courses. The new structure of BSc courses harmonizes with the demand of young people and employers of the region. Except for the Information Technology in Engineering MSc course we had till now only applicants with college-level degree for our MSc courses. The number of applicants for the first MSc courses seems to be lower than anticipated. Mainly because of the higher-level basic subjects in average only 20-30% of students can follow the proposed schedule of the courses. The number of subjects repeated by students has significantly increased so probably only a low number of students will successfully finish the course in on time (in 7 or 8 semesters). In January 2008 we had the first graduates in the new Information Technology in Engineering BSc course as both full time and correspondence students. The aggregate number of graduates was less than 10% of the enrolled number of students. On basis of the performance level of our BSc students we can expect a few dozen applicants in our MSc courses. REFERENCES [1] Statistics, Higher Education, 2005/2006, http://gov.okm.hu/main.php?folderID=1488. (in Hungarian) [2] Fábry I.. Rank of courses – the most popular courses of domestic higher education, Higher Education Workshop, 2007. Autumn, pp. 73-79. (in Hungarian)