1. Adoption of the Bologna model at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Pedro Guerreiro Nis, March 23, 2006

2. 2 Agenda for today o Universidade Nova de Lisboa. o Its Faculty of Science and Technology. o Adoption of ECTS. o Which two cycles? o Adoption of 3+2. o Current situation. o Future work.

3. 3 Universidade Nova de Lisboa o One of 13 public universities in Portugal. o Not the same as Universidade de Lisboa or Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. o Five faculties: o Science and Technology. o Economics. o Medicine. o Humanities. o Law.

4. 4 Details o http://unl.pt. http://unl.pt o Created in 1973. o Known as “Nova” ( “new” ). o Several campuses across Lisbon. o 13000 students (>1000 pg). o 20 research centers. o Current PR was a professor.

5. 5 Faculty of Science and Technology o www.fct.unl.pt. www.fct.unl.pt o 6000 students. o 500 faculty. o Located south of Lisbon, across the Tagus river. o Four kilometers from the Atlantic ocean.

6. 6 Departments o Chemistry. o Physics. o Biology. o Mathematics. o Informatics. o Earth Sciences. o Civil Engineering. o Electrical Engineering. o Mechanical Engineering. o Materials Engineering. o Environmental Engineering.

7. 7 ECTS o Adopted 2004-2005. o Adjusted arithmetically from previous credit system. o Difficult for courses common to several programs (e.g. Mathematics). o Created havoc in the information system. o Students initially alarmed.

8. 8 Main issue with ECTS o How do we estimate the “the quantity of work each component requires (…) in relation to the total quantity of work …”? o Do we ask the students? o Do we negotiate among ourselves? o Does it mean the same course offered to two different programmes earns different credits in each programme?

9. 9 Debate o Should it be 4+1 or 3+2? o And which names for cycles? o Frequent government changes in 2001-2004 didn’t help clarify. o Just as engineering schools were converging to 4+1, government endorsed 3+2. o Finally, government mandated 3+2, summer 2005.

10. 10 Mobility o New system encourages students to switch schools between cycles. o How do we keep our students in and recruit more for the second cycle? o By offering an integrated 5-year programme. o Great idea: our students can proceed to 4th year without having completed the 1st cycle.

11. 11 Science and Engineering o Some say: 3-years is OK for science programmes, not for engineering. o Science courses at Nova adhered to the 3+2 model, easily. o Most engineering courses took on the integrated double cycle trick.

12. 12 When do we become Bolognese? o Not later than 2007-2008, government says. o Some engineering schools announced they are ready for 2006-2007. o All the others had to follow suit. o Not much time left, though. o Do we just split our current programmes in 3+2 years or do we reform seriously?

13. 13 Current situation: Bologna panic o New Director at the Faculty: “we cannot stay behind our competition.” o February: prepare new programs for the March 31 deadline. o March 17: new 1st cycle programmes approved by Scientific Council. o Great opportunity for change without negotiating.

14. 14 Approval by Necessity o Departments had no time to learn each others proposals. o Old disputes ressurfaced (informatics vs electrical eng, physics vs materials sci, earth sci vs civil eng,...) o Mandatory hearing of the student body was skipped. o Courses were suppressed without notice. o But things can only get better.

15. 15 Future work o Only the first year of the new 1st cycle will debut in September. o All students will begin to adjust immediately. o 2nd cycle programs will be approved in November. o Boring bureaucratic definition of the transition system for students caught midway.

16. 16 The real test o The beginning of the new 2nd cycles. o Will our 1st cycle graduates get a job and quit? o Will they move to different universities, different countries? o Will we be able to attract students that meet our high expectations for the 2nd cycle. o Will the government pay for the second cycle?

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