U.S. Graduate Schools’ Stance on European Three-Year Degrees Changing

Survey says three-year European bachelor’s degree increasingly “not an issue” for schools

By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer

06 November 2006

Incoming South Korean students participate in an international student orientation at the University of Mississippi. (©AP Images)

Washington - Evaluating applications to U.S. graduate schools from international students with European bachelor’s degrees earned in three years has become a less controversial issue on U.S. campuses, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reports in a new study.

Attitudes on U.S. campuses toward three-year degrees are important because Europe has embarked on the process of harmonizing European degree structures -- the so-called Bologna Process, which takes its name from the 1999 Bologna Declaration when 29 countries resolved to create a European Higher Education Area by the year 2010. The Bologna Process since has grown to include 45 countries.

The European countries participating in the Bologna Process are adopting an educational structure in which students typically earn bachelor’s degree in three years, rather than the four years that is the norm at U.S. colleges and universities, according to Findings from the 2006 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey, Phase III: Admissions and Enrollment 2006. In recent years, there has been some question as to whether these three-year degrees would be accepted by U.S. graduate schools.

Graduate admissions policies and practices in the United States vary widely, and there is no central policymaking body.

Between 2005 and 2006, the percentage of schools saying the European three-year degree was “not an issue” rose from 41 percent to 56 percent, according to the CGS research report, which was released November 1 and represents the final phase of a three-part annual survey of international graduate student applications, admissions and enrollment among CGS U.S. member institutions. (See related article.)

Even more important, the percentage of U.S. graduate schools saying they would not admit international students who hold three-year European degrees fell from 29 percent in 2005 to 18 percent in 2006.

“That’s a big, big change,” CGS President Debra Stewart told the Washington File November 1.

According to the CGS report, most large U.S. graduate schools have held discussions with faculty and department personnel and adopted policies “that permit the acceptance of international students with Bologna degrees under specified circumstances.”

 

“In time more universal acceptance of students with these degrees into American graduate studies may occur,” given the rising proportion of schools that have discussed or adopted policies regarding students with three-year European bachelor’s degrees, the CGS report authors conclude.

Through harmonizing Europe’s higher education systems, the European Union hopes to increase the mobility of students and staff members.  In conjunction with UNESCO’s new accreditation guidelines, the Bologna Process seeks to enable comparisons of program quality between universities in different parts of the world.

Stewart said she welcomed these changes. “American education has always done well in a competitive environment. It’s a good thing that graduate education is growing worldwide.”

The CGS report also showed that international graduate enrollment at U.S. universities has increased for the first time in four years, driven by a 12 percent surge between fall 2006 and fall 2005 in first-time enrollment.

The full text of the report is available at the CGS Web site.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)