PhilosophyÉticaPhilosophie: "Towards a golden age in China-Portugal higher education cooperation: a perspective inside the Portuguese university"

Internati onal Conference on

"Quality of Sino-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools"

December 8 -10, 2013, Xiamen, China

Supporting organization: International Cooperation and Exchange Department of the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People's Republic of China

Co-sponsored by:

Xiamen University's Research Center of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools

& Department of Education of Fujian Province

& Research Society of Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools (in preparation) of China Association of Higher Education

Co-organized by:

Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Jimei University & Xiamen University of Technology

António dos Santos Queirós ^[1]as a special representative

Philosophy Center. Lisbon University

Centro de Filosofia. Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa.

Alameda da Universidade
1600-214 Lisboa
Portugal

antonio.queiros@iol.pt

^{^[1]} Portugal-China Cooperation and Development Chamber founder

Abstract

In our paper rethinking quality concept and quality standard (of Sino-foreign cooperation in education) in three integrate dimensions: the capability to create control policies and management in transnational (regional) education, analyzing the European reform programs know as The Bologna Process; to produce innovation on internal management in the institutions and programs in education, supported by the case-study of Portuguese university; trying to established some principles and guidelines adapted and useful to the development of evaluation and authentication systems in Sino-foreign cooperation in education.

Thinking how Sino-foreign cooperation in education promotes the discipline development and management system and how to promote Innovation on internal management in the institutions and programs in education. We advise three fundamental procedures: Cooperation on education programs, cooperation on research activities and cooperation in regional development, technology transfer and entrepreneurship.

Based on these principles and practices, we built a general Theory and practice of exit systems in international cooperation in education, proposing to establish a cooperation paradigm that will consider provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China at different development levels.

Keywords: Bologna Process. Environmental reason. Higher education. Cooperation

The Bologna Process. A panoramic review

The Bologna Process is a series of ministerial meetings and agreements between European countries designed to ensure comparability in the standards and quality of higher education qualifications. Through the Bologna Accords, signing by Education Ministers from 29 European countries in 1999, the process has created the European Higher Education Area, in particular under the Lisbon Recognition Convention (the Euro was created at about the same time)

Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area

The basic framework adopted is of three cycles of higher education credencials. The framework of qualifications adopted by the ministers at their meeting in Bergen in 2005 defines the qualifications in terms of learning outcomes. These are statements of what students know and can do on completion of their degrees. In describing the cycles the framework makes use of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS):

1st cycle: typically 180–240 ECTS credits, usually awarding a bachelor's degree.

2nd cycle: typically 90–120 ECTS credits (a minimum of 60 on 2nd-cycle level). Usually awarding a master's degree.

3rd cycle: doctoral degree. No ECTS range given.

The actual naming of the degrees may vary from country to country.

One academic year corresponds to 60 ECTS-credits that are equivalent to 1,500–1,800 hours of study. But one ECTS can be defined having 20-28 hours. The "ECTS point" is not standard at all. So the Diploma Supplement (DS) was created as a European Union document attached to a higher education diploma aiming at improving international transparency and facilitating the academic and professional recognition of qualifications.

The Diploma Supplement is designed to provide a description of the nature, level, context, content and status of the studies that were successfully completed by the individual named on the original qualification to which the supplement is appended. It is a flexible non-prescriptive tool which is designed capable of adaptation to local needs.

The ECTS will be complemented by the European credit transfer system for vocational education and training (ECVET).

The Leonardo da Vinci Programme funds practical projects in the field of vocational education and training. Initiatives range from those giving individuals work-related training abroad to large-scale co-operation efforts. Part of the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, this programme funds many different types of activities of varying scales. These include ‘mobility’ initiatives enabling people to train in another country, co-operation projects to transfer or develop innovative practices, and networks focusing on topical themes in the sector.

The Grundtvig programme focuses on the teaching and study needs of learners taking adult education and ‘alternative’ education courses, as well as the organisations delivering these services. It aims to help develop the adult education sector, as well as enable more people to undertake learning experiences, notably in other European countries. Launched in 2000, Grundtvig also helps to tackle problems associated with Europe’s ageing population. It covers not only teachers, trainers, staff and organisations working in the sector, but also learners in adult education. These include relevant associations, counseling organisations, information services, policy-making bodies and others such as NGOs, enterprises, voluntary groups and research centres.

Goals

The Bologna Process was a major reform created with the claimed goal of providing responses to issues such as the public responsibility for higher education and research, higher education governance, the social dimension of higher education and research, and the values and roles of higher education and research in modern, globalized, and increasingly complex societies with the most demanding qualification needs.

With the Bologna Process implementation, higher education systems in European countries are to be organized in such a way that:

_it is easy to move from one country to the other (within the European Higher Education Area) – for the purpose of further study or employment; (See The Erasmus Programme _European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students). _the attractiveness of European higher education has increased, so that many people from non-European countries also come to study and/or work in Europe; (See Erasmus Mundus)

_the European Higher Education Area provides Europe with a broad, high-quality advanced knowledge base, and ensures the further development of Europe as a stable, peaceful and tolerant community benefiting from a cutting-edge European Research Area; (See Directorate-General for Education and Culture)

_there will also be a greater convergence between the U.S. and Europe as European higher education adopts aspects of the American system. (See the controversy and criticism about Bologna process)

The Erasmus Programme (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) is a European Union (EU) student exchange programme established in 1987. It forms a major part of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013.

Students who join the Erasmus Programme study or do an internship for a period of at least 3 months to an academic year in another European country. The Erasmus Programme guarantees that the period spent abroad is recognised by their university when they come back, as long as they abide by terms previously agreed.

A main part of the Programme is that students do not pay extra tuition fees to the university that they visit. Students can also apply for an Erasmus grant to help cover the additional expense of living abroad. Students with disabilities can apply for an additional grant to cover extraordinary expenses.

In order to reduce expenses and increase mobility, many students also use the European Commission-supported accommodation network, CasaSwap, Erasmate or Student Mundial, which are free websites where students and young people can rent, sublet, offer and swap accommodation – on a national and international basis. A derived benefit is that students can share knowledge and exchange tips and hints with each other before and after going abroad.

The Erasmus Mundus Programme is another, parallel Programme that is oriented towards globalising European education. Whereas the Erasmus Programme is open to Europeans, Erasmus Mundus is open to non-Europeans with Europeans being exceptional cases.

Erasmus Mundus supports Joint Programmes (Masters Courses and Joint Doctorates) that are operated by consortia of higher education institutions from the EU and (since 2009) elsewhere in the world. They provide an integrated course and joint or multiple diplomas following study or research at two or more higher education institutions.

Erasmus Mundus funds a number of scholarships for students and academics studying or teaching on Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses. Since 2010, fellowships have also been available for doctoral candidates following one of the Joint doctorates.

Scholarships cover participation costs, subsistence costs, and insurance for the duration of the study period. Many students also have the right to a contribution to travel costs.

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was launched along with the Bologna Process' decade anniversary, in March 2010, during the Budapest-Vienna Ministerial Conference.

As the main objective of the Bologna Process since its inception in 1999, the EHEA was meant to ensure more comparable, compatible and coherent systems of higher education in Europe.

The Directorate-General for Education and Culture ("DG EAC")is a Directorate-General of the European Commission.

The Education and Culture Directorate-General’s mission has two main goals:

Building a Europe of knowledge.

Developing the European cultural area.

DG EAC is currently divided into 5 "directorates":

Lifelong Learning, Education and Training Policies.

Lifelong Learning, Education and Training Programmes and actions.

Culture and Communication.

Youth, Sport.

Resources

The EUR-ACE (EURopean ACcredited Engineer) Label is a certificate, which is awarded to engineering degree programmes, which are accredited by authorised quality assurance and accreditation agencies located in the European Higher Education Area.

The European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE) grants this authorisation to agencies, which accredit engineering degree, programmes in accordance with the European Framework Standards and the Standards for Accreditation Agencies as set down by ENAEE. The EUR-ACE label may be awarded to First Cycle (Bachelor) and Second Cycle (Master) accredited degrees in engineering.

Bologna Criticism

The new changes were closer to the UK and Ireland's models than those used in most of Continental Europe.

Skepticism and criticism of the Bologna Process is direct against the cutting down costs justified to enhance competitiveness but that really represents more difficulties to support the universal access of the candidates. They political inspiration from the World Trade Organization and GATS propose educational reforms that would effectively erode democratic political control over higher education.

When the Bologna Process was implemented, tuition fees and overhauling departments were introduced. These have been criticised as unnecessary, detrimental to the quality of education, and even undemocratic.

Academic three-year degrees prepare only for continuing towards master's, so students who enter the workforce at that point will not be properly prepared; the previous higher education system was modeled on the German system, in which there is a clear difference of vocational and academic higher education. The conflation of the two types of degrees can be counterproductive.

The documents relating the Bologna process, do not consider the ethical dimension of education, the need to educate for the values of sustainability, environmental ethics and global bioethics applied to science, politics and all domains of social life.

Portugal and Bologna process

Due to the pan-European Bologna Process, after 2005 new licenciatura (licentiate) degrees were organized at both university and polytechnic institutions of Portugal. They were previously a 4- to 6-year programme, equivalent to 300 ects. They now consist of a first study cycle (3 years) offered by Portuguese institutions of higher education, and they are the only requirement for any applicant who wishes to undertake the second study cycle (2 years) which awards a master's degree. Some new Bologna courses are integrated 5-year programmes or more, awarding a single master's degree (joint degree), a common practice in medicine, a 6-year programme, and some other fields taught at the universities. In engineering, despite the use of two separated cycles, one can only be a full chartered engineer after gaining a master's degree (2nd cycle of study). The new master's degrees attained after 5 or 6 years of successful study corresponds to the same period of time of many old undergraduate degrees known as licenciatura. The new licenciatura attained after 3 years of successful study corresponds to the time duration of the old bacharelato which is a discontinued degree formerly awarded by polytechnics, in use between the 1970s and early 2000s, roughly equivalent to an extended associate's degree. Both the old and new master's degrees are the first graduate degree before a doctorate, and both the old and new licenciatura degrees are undergraduate degrees.

Before the changes, the licenciatura diploma (4 to 6-year course) was required for those applicants who wished to undertake (the old) master's and/or doctorate programs but admission was reserved for those with a licenciatura degree with a grade over 14 (out of 20). After the changes introduced by the Bologna Process, the master's degree is conferred at the end of a programme roughly equivalent in time duration to many old licenciatura programmes. Critics allege that this was not achieved as many institutions relabeled their old licenciatura as the new master's without making any substantial alteration to the curriculum. It is also alleged that many of those master's degrees offered by certain institutions were not designed to prepare the students for further study (3rd cycle).^{^[1]}

Modernising universities

The European Council in the spring of 2006 called for stronger action to drive forward successive reforms aimed at modernising universities and research.

With 4 000 establishments, over 17 million students and some 1.5 million staff – of whom 435 000 are researchers – European universities have enormous potential. The Commission has identified certain challenges:

_the standardisation of national university systems and their fragmentation into small structures, which make national, European and international cooperation more difficult and form an obstacle to their diversification and impede their quality;

_identical courses offered to similar types of student. Other types of training and other target groups tend to be neglected (conversion courses for adults or transition courses for those who have not followed traditional educational pathways);

_inflexible administrative regulations and long-winded academic recognition procedures. The problem of the transferability of scholarships or loans and pension rights is another obstacle to mobility, training, research or employment in another country;

_the development of the research environment into one which is open, interactive and competitive, transcending traditional structures;

_universities and business still underestimate the benefits of exchanging knowledge with each other or are not adapted to do so; lack of resources to ensure that the quality of higher education and research in Europe is comparable to that at American universities.

In this context, their guidelines encourage and speed up mobility, both geographically and between sectors.

Incentives to encourage structured partnerships with enterprises will be needed to bring universities closer to the world of business. ^{^[2]}

Universities must also provide knowledge and skills geared to the needs of the labour market.

University funding must be reformed so that a level of teaching and research excellence can be achieved in accordance with the Lisbon Strategy, the aim of which is to commit 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) to a modernised higher education system. In parallel, the funding of students should be amended to ensure greater fairness between students, in particular those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, as regards university admittance and chances of success.

The Commission can also provide funding to step up the quality and performance of universities. This funding includes the programmes for the period 2007-2013 (the 7th framework programme for research and development, the lifelong learning programme, the Competitiveness and innovation programme), the Structural Funds, focusing on the least developed regions, and loans from the European Investment Bank

Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are vital for universities, which have to adapt to new opportunities and new issues arising from trends in each field.

Universities must promote knowledge by achieving greater involvement of all parts of society. Universities must also concentrate on the development of excellence.. The creation of the European institute of technology and the European Research Council is in line with this strategy.

The visibility and international attractiveness of the European higher education area and the European research area are essential to strengthen the role of universities and European research in the world.

The role of universities in the Europe of knowledge

Commission intends to review the contributions it has received by the end of May 2003, aiming to start a debate on the role of European universities in the knowledge society and economy. The European university landscape evolution.

There are some 3 300 higher education establishments in the European Union and approximately 4 000 in Europe as a whole, including the other countries of western Europe and the candidate countries. They take in an increasing number of students, over 12.5 million in 2000, compared with fewer than 9 million ten years previously. The European Union produces slightly more science and technology graduates than the USA, while having fewer researchers than the other major technological powers. This apparent paradox is explained by the fact that fewer research posts are open to science graduates in Europe, particularly in the private sector: only 50 % of European researchers work in the business sector, compared with 83 % of American researchers and 66 % of Japanese researchers. Despite this, the universities are responsible for 80 % of the fundamental research carried out in Europe.

In 2000, a mere 2.3 % of European students were pursuing their studies in another European country. However, the EU funds a variety of initiatives to promote research, education and training at both European and international levels.

In the area of research, European universities receive around one third of the funding available under the fifth (1998-2002) and sixth (2002-2006) framework programmes for technological research and development, and particularly the support actions for research training and mobility (Marie Curie actions).

Through the TEMPUS programme the EU supports university cooperation with the countries of the former Soviet Union, south-east Europe and, since its extension in 2002, the Mediterranean region. There are also initiatives covering relations with other geographical areas, e.g. ALFA and Asia-Link. Universities are facing a profound changes:

_ Increased demand for higher education.

_ The internationalisation of education and research. The former in 2000 attracted some 450 000 students from other countries, while the latter attracted over 540 000, mostly from Asia. However, the USA in proportion attracts many more students from other countries at advanced levels in engineering, mathematics and informatics, and are successful in keeping more people with doctorate qualifications: some 50 % of Europeans who obtained their qualifications in the USA stay there for several years, and many of them remain permanently. This crucial problem is partly due to the fact that they often do not have the necessary critical mass, which prompts them to opt for collaborative approaches, e.g. creation of networks, joint courses or diplomas. But also the rigidities of the labour market or a lower level of entrepreneurship entailing fewer employment opportunities in innovative sectors.

_ To develop effective and close cooperation between universities and industry. Cooperation between universities and industry needs to be intensified by gearing it more effectively towards innovation, new business start-ups and, more generally, the transfer and dissemination of knowledge, subcontract research activities -

_ The reorganisation of knowledge towards the interdisciplinary character of the fields opened up by society's major problems, such as sustainable development, the new medical scourges and risk management. Yet the activities of the universities, particularly when it comes to teaching, tend to remain organised within the traditional disciplinary framework.

_ The emergence of new expectations. These include an increasing need for scientific and technical education, horizontal skills, and opportunities for lifelong learning, which require greater permeability between the components and the levels of the education and training systems. Excellence in human resources depends largely on available financial resources, but is also affected by working conditions and career prospects focuses on three factors:

1_ Ensuring that European universities have sufficient and sustainable resources. Traditionally, public funding is the main source of funding for research and education in European universities. Possible alternative sources are: private donations, as in the case of the United States; the sale of services (including research services and flexible lifelong learning possibilities), particularly to the business sector; application of the results of research and the creation of spin-off companies; contributions from students, in the form of tuition and enrolment fees.

The list below, as an example, indicates the Aalborg programme tuition fee per year (two semesters) for full-time degree students and guest students respectively.

Tuition fee list for postgraduate students

Faculty of Engineering and Science	2013
Engineering and Science programmes
Engineering and Science programmes	EUR 12,940
Faculty of Medicine	2013
Sports Technology; Biomedical Engineering and Informatics; Also includes following Engineering and Science programmes: Mathematics; Techno Anthropology
	EUR 8,850
Faculty of Social Sciences	2013
Social Sciences programmes
Social Sciences programmes	EUR 6,140
Faculty of Humanities	2013
Culture, Communication and Globalisation; International Cultural Studies; Tourism
	EUR 6,113
Human Centered Informatics; Art & Technology
Human Centered Informatics; Art & Technology	EUR 8,850
Information Architecture
Information Architecture	EUR 12,940

In Europe, before the financial crises, these contributions are generally limited or even prohibited, in order to allow democratic access to higher education. Today, the managerial aspects and issues regarding intellectual property are crucial.

2_ Increasing universities' excellence in research and teaching. The concentration of research funding on a smaller number of areas and institutions will lead to increased specialisation of the universities. And proposes to strengthen not only intra-European academic mobility, but also mobility between universities and industry, thus opening up new career opportunities for young researchers.

_ Opening up universities to the outside world and increasing their international attractiveness. Financial, material and working conditions are not as good, and arrangements with regard to visas and residence permits for students, teachers and researchers are inappropriate and poorly harmonised.

The regions of the EU are therefore called upon to play an important part in strengthening European cohesion through the development of technology centres and science parks, the proliferation of regional cooperation structures between the business sector and the universities, the expansion of university regional development strategies and the regional networking of universities.

Reform of the universities in the framework of the Lisbon strategy

The Commission in 20 April 2005 addresses three aspects of university reform: improve the universities' quality and make them more attractive, improve their governance, and increase and diversify their funding.

Within the Lisbon strategy, the Commission focuses on three pillars: university initiative; national enabling action, by urging the Member States to deregulate so as to allow universities to reform; European support.

The rate of access to higher education and its attainment is higher in the United States, Canada and South Korea. Following consultation with the European universities, the Commission stresses the need to:

_ ensure much more diversity than hitherto with respect to target groups, teaching modes, entry and exit points, the mix of disciplines and competencies in curricula, etc.;

_ establish an across-the-board "culture of excellence" by concentrating on funding, not just of centres and networks that are already but also those which have the potential to become excellent; it is a matter of overcoming insularity and supporting less-advanced regions to build up high quality in specific areas.;

_ ensure more flexibility and openness to the labour market in teaching/learning by fully exploiting the potential of information and communications technology (ICT);

_ broaden access, support student commitment and raise the success rate thanks to greater programme diversity and more mobility, improved guidance and counselling, flexible admission policies and cheaper fees (scholarships, loans, affordable accommodation, etc.); facilitate the recognition of degrees; strengthen human resources at the universities by promoting a favorable professional environment based in particular on open, transparent and competitive procedures;

_ create a European framework for higher education qualifications and a network of quality assurance agencies.

European universities are calling for more autonomy in preparing their courses and in the management of their human resources and facilities.

The Commission estimates that a total investment of some 2 % of GDP is the minimum required to achieve the desired objective. While in the European Union (EU) the higher education system is mainly based on public funding, in competing occidental countries funding is diversified, with a larger contribution on the part of industry and households. To develop Marie-Curie programme for the career development and mobility of researchers and supporting the post-doctoral programme at the European University Institute in Florence. It also intends to create a European Institute of Technology.

Universities should first try to ensure that existing resources are efficiently used in order to obtain fresh funding. Additional funds should encourage innovation and reform so as to deliver high quality in teaching, research and services. The Commission also addresses the question of tuition fees accompanied by a sound student aid system for those from lower income groups and the development of lasting partnerships between university and industry.

Reform of higher education systems in Europe

The Bologna Declaration is a voluntary undertaking by each signatory country to reform its own education system; this reform is not imposed on the national governments or universities.

Union action is aimed at:

_ developing the European dimension in education, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of Member States;

_ encouraging mobility of students and teachers, by encouraging inter alia, the academic recognition of diplomas and periods of study;

_ promoting cooperation between educational establishments;

_ exchanges of information and experience on issues common to the education systems of Member States..

In Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué of 28-29 April 2009 – The Bologna Process 2020 – The European Higher Education Area in the new decade, noted that progress has been achieved on the Bologna process and that the EHEA has been well developed since the Bologna Declaration of 1999. However, certain targets needed to still be realised in full and properly applied at European, national and institutional levels. Consequently, the communiqué noted that the Bologna process will continue beyond 2010 with the following priorities having been set for the new decade:

_ providing equal opportunities to quality education – participation in higher education should be widened; in particular, students from underrepresented groups should be given the necessary conditions to participate;

_ increasing participation in lifelong learning – the accessibility and quality of, as well as transparency of information on, lifelong learning must be ensured. The related policies should be implemented together with national qualifications frameworks and through strong partnerships between all stakeholders;

_ promoting employability – stakeholders should cooperate to raise initial qualifications and renew a skilled workforce, as well as to improve the provision, accessibility and quality of guidance on careers and employment. In addition, work placements included in study programmes and on-the-job learning should be further encouraged;

_ developing student-centred learning outcomes and teaching missions – this should include the development of international reference points for different subject areas and enhancing of the teaching quality of study programmes;

_ intertwining education, research and innovation – the acquisition of research competences should be increased, research should be better integrated within doctoral programmes and the career development of early stage researchers should be made more attractive;

_ opening higher education institutions to the international fora – European institutions should further internationalise their activities and collaborate at the global stage;

_ increasing opportunities for and quality of mobility – by 2020, 20% of graduates should have spent a study or training period abroad;

_ improving data collection – data should be collected in order to monitor and evaluate progress made on the objectives of the Bologna process;

_ developing multidimensional transparency tools – to acquire detailed information about higher education institutions and their programmes, transparency tools should be developed together with key stakeholders. These tools should be based on comparable data and proper indicators, as well as take on board the quality assurance and recognition principles of the Bologna process;

_ guaranteeing funding – new and diverse funding solutions should be found to complement public funding.

The Budapest-Vienna Declaration of 12 March 2010 on the European Higher Education Area marked the end of the first decade of the Bologna Process and officially launched the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), as envisaged in the Bologna Declaration of 1999.

The ministers highlighted the following issues:

_ academic freedom as well as autonomy and accountability of higher education institutions as principles of the European Higher Education Area;

_ the key role of the academic community - institutional leaders, teachers, researchers, administrative staff and students - in making the European Higher Education Area a reality;

_ higher education as a public responsibility, i.e. higher education institutions should be given the necessary resources within a framework established and overseen by public authorities;

_ the need for increased efforts on the social dimension in order to provide equal opportunities to quality education, paying particular attention to underrepresented groups.

Quality of higher education

Fallowing European Council Recommendation (EC) the systems of quality assessment and quality assurance must be based on the five following principles:

_ autonomy and independence of the bodies responsible for quality assessment and quality assurance;

_ relating evaluation procedures to the way institutions see themselves;

_ internal (self-reflective) and external (experts' appraisals) assessment;

_ involvement of all the players (teaching staff, administrators, students, alumni, social partners, professional associations, inclusion of foreign experts);

_ publication of evaluation reports.^{^[3]}

The Council also recommends Member States to promote cooperation between the authorities responsible for evaluating quality in higher education and encourage their networking. This cooperation should concern:

_ exchange of information and experience;

_ fulfilling requests for expertise and advice from the authorities in the Member States and promotion of contacts with international experts;

_ support for higher education institutes in the different countries which wish to cooperate.

The representatives of national authorities, the higher education sector and quality assurance agencies are encouraged to cooperate with the social partners to set up a European register of quality assurance agencies (EQAR).

The Council and the European Parliament recommended Member States to ensure public access to assessments produced by quality assurance agencies listed in the European register.

Finally, the Council and the European Parliament invited the Commission to present triennial reports on progress in the development of quality assurance systems.

The nest table established the framework for monitoring euopean education and training systems.

Eurydice is the official information network on education in Europe providing information on and analyses of European education systems and policies.

Cedefop is the centre of reference for vocational education and training for the European Union.

The EU’s Joint Research Centre for research on lifelong learning based on indicators and benchmarks (CRELL).

Innovation on internal management

The capability to produce innovation on internal management in the institutions and programs in education can be developed by changing innovative experience in teaching Problem-based learning (PBL) or the “Aalborg model”. PBL is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of problem solving.

Aalborg University recommends once has formed a project group, student need to define a problem together that want to examine. The problem forms the basis of the project and every member are to a great extent responsible for defining this yourselves within a set though often very broad theme frame. The project work is completed with an exam. The project members work together with lectures, literature and cooperation. For each project will be assigned a supervisor, i.e. a professor or another academic member of staff who will guide the student in their project work. The project work often, students do their project work in cooperation with different enterprises, reaping business experience and make good contacts that can use when applying for a job. A large central library and multimedia center are fundamental as well as a number of small subject-specific libraries located across the university. Group examination is used when students are tested in their project work. During the examination, the student and their group mates will each make a small presentation, and everybody will each be tested individually.

Implementing PBL in schools and Universities is not just a technical process. It’s a moral problem associated to educational and democratic reform in four dimensions: the value of collective and social participation, the continuing evaluation from head to foot and from foot to head, a new curricula design, and a real connection with society with local and regional communities.

How and when quantity be transformed in quality?

The evaluation report traditionally adopted by European universities and research centers details manly the strict academic research activities, and emphasis is placed on the number:

a) Publications and conferences carried out nationally and internationally and prestige/demands of the inputs, such as scientific journals and contexts/entities where are

made the conferences;

b) Final work (theses) of bachelor, master or doctoral studies carried out in the context of cooperation project;

Of course, if it's acceptable built an academic curriculum only with projects of research and pedagogical evaluation performed restrict to so generic and succinct parameters, like assessment for the reception of scientific journals, scientific conferences articles and media guidelines for masters and doctorates, the same shall not be admitted in the case of active learning and research-action projects, with pragmatic purposes of implementing in particular with development purposes, including extension to the diversity of actors in the context discussed.

The report published in 2010 by the Expert Group on the Assessment of University-Based Research (AUBR), organized by the European Commission, constitutes our first critical source about that makes the transition to a new quality paradigm:

The multi-dimensional research assessment matrix. This table presents a core part of the matrix, not the entire matrix. It aims to illustrate what the matrix looks like. It should be read column-wise: each column represents a different dimension. See AUBR (2010) for more information.

Integrative/Multidisciplinary and Outreach activities

The development of evaluation and authentication systems in international cooperation in education needs to incorporate two new items that let you extend the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the process

a. Integrative/Multidisciplinary activities during the year. Special activities that aim to carry out research across disciplines.

b. Outreach activities during the year. Science and society, general public, schools, etc.

The foundation of basic scientific research is the formation of research groups, with professors, PhDs or those who choose the path of a doctorate in line with the scientific objectives they wish to pursue and not mere academic requirements and administrative career progression. These researchers may originate from all universities and congregate around a mission and purpose of scientific research.

The results of this research must be returned to the University and society through the pursuit, in parallel, of the teaching function.

Creating a scientific elite, framed by the public University, they can correspond to the national interests and put at the service of the country, its economy and its population, the results of advanced research, that tends today to be appropriated by the large business conglomerates, through the registration of patents, products and brands.

In reality, what allowed the development of the so-called Western civilization was the integration of science into culture, leading to a way of thinking and acting rationally, which constitutes its main feature.

A new scientific paradigm for science and civilization

The paradigm of scientific and technological expertise, based on the myth of unrestricted growth, has suffered frequent challenges through which new approaches to relations between the environment and progress have erupted, and from where the concept of sustainability has emerged, with an interdisciplinary scientific value but also a dimension of social ethics.

But we do not say that the modern environmentalist philosophy represents the triumph of community consciousness and ethics of life over the indifference and the horror of our time, meaning only that it is against the moral emptiness, barbarism and social indolence that it raises its voice, refusing to die, reviling the nonsensical and the night of our civilization, and penetrating all walks of human thought and culture, obliging the reinterpretation of the more conservative texts, the sacred books of all religions and the way of understanding their doctrines, bringing into question the main political nineteenth century ideological paradigms, offered to our century: Marxism and Liberalism.

Let's see what the Unesco World Report recommends on education since 1991: "Two aspects of scientific and technological revolution in progress influenced strongly the teaching of science and technology during the past two decades: First the fact that a large amount of scientific and technical progress has been made now in multiple traditional interfacing disciplines and secondly the existence of a reciprocal relationship or symbiotic relationship between science and technology, scientific progress giving rise to new technologies …thanks to them science can again thrive.

These particularities of recent developments of science and technology have facilitated the trend, observed a little everywhere in the world, during the two past decades, to teach science and technology in an integrated manner…. "

What are the scientific production models that we must solidify and create to support the economic and sustainable development based on an informed society?

Universities have evolved throughout the twentieth century to a functional model of formation of specialists, progressively integrated in their polytechnic structures. This process was developed to the detriment of another primary function of University: scientific research.

With the emerging knowledge and an informed society, scientific and technical revolution and global finances and business concentration, it has become even more imperative to restore the social function of public University in its role as center of excellence of fundamental scientific research.

The results of this research must be returned to the University and society through the pursuit, in parallel, the three missions of modern higher education institutions: education, research and social development, in the framework of sustainable development and environmental ethics.

It is in this perspective that we considering Integrative/Multidisciplinary activities during the year. Special activities that aim to carry out research across disciplines. And Outreach activities during the year. Science and society, general public, schools, etc.

Frederick Schiller, in his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, argued that "the student must learn to follow an objective, and, for the sake of this goal, to tolerate a little painful. He should aspire to the noblest pleasure soon which is the price of the effort ". Victor Weisssskopf, a pupil of Niels Bohr, likened the art of scientific disclosure as a"... sweeping interpretation of a Beethoven sonata ..." and amounted to the highest social recognition.

This means understanding the scope of the educational research in multiple dimensions: community outreach - outreach campaign: outreach work: .

A new evaluation model of higher education can pass dialectically the quantity to quality, through the addition of the following parameters:

1th. On the link between their project of research and education and scientific dissemination:

How does the educational process offer a social science perspective / approach?

2th. In clarification of the purpose of their research project in its action and relationship to science, society and schools:

What is the contribution to knowledge, theory, policy or practice?

3th. In the "translation" of the results of research activities in real applications, e.g. experiences of teaching in University and other schools;

4th. On the proposition of new topics to be included, in the next year, with a view to a permanent strategy of quality in research (circular or qualification in feed-back process and objectives project;

5th. In the analysis of the results obtained with the means placed at the disposal and recovery;

6th. On the elucidation and appreciation of the different tasks, which have been over or under planned complemented with the analyses of the difficulties in their pursuit in real context.

7th. In the development of methods (creation of new or improvement and adaptation of existing ones) that promote a better educational research.

This sequence and planning are not arbitrary, considering the substance of educational research and their process, represented in the attached Matrix.

The first two issues are essential. With the emerging knowledge and an informed society, scientific and technical revolution and global finances and business concentration, it has become even more imperative to restore the social function of public University in its role as center of excellence of fundamental scientific research. .

The third question drives to a key problem, which is also an ethical imperative: the results of this investigation should be returned to the University and society, in particular through the exercise of the function of teaching, applied research and scientific work.

The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh questions are the determinants of quality and progress of the investigative route.

The process of educational investigation

The educational research process unfolds through dialectical advances in its internal dynamics and on achieving results: prior reflection contained in 1st issue is condition to develop the 2nd; then, only the integration of scientific perspective with the contributions to science and praxis, which constitute the first three steps in the development of research, allows us to get to the fourth step, the proposition of new topics to be included in a permanent strategy of quality in educational research; the 5th, 6th and 7th issue, allow you to rethink the of organization of research work and develop its methodology. Schematically we can situate the dialectic leaps in the development of the research process as shown in the following diagram and illustrate its interaction in the Matrix:^{^[1]}

Active learning and research-action projects

In the case of a research-action project and in any case, before a concrete research project, the answer to these questions must be prepared (i.e. decrypted in its multiple aspects of activities, or the actors, tasks, and calendar) before we started the work for that exists in their course more effectiveness and efficiency and a better chance of true and fair evaluation.

About the actors of work: in the case of a research-action project with these purposes it is advisable that there are authors of working with different professional/scientific fields: researchers, some more of the scope of the scientific basis and others more of its implementation, as professionals and economic or socio-cultural agents from the scope of their application/use.

Work planning: These Actors should be involved (probably with different degrees of responsibility and decision) in the definition of goals of different levels or areas (the more general-purpose, for the more specific and concrete results, requiring the definition of the conditions in which they understand the degree to which objectives have been achieved-success criteria, as well as, in the most basic-level objectives, the reference to the means necessary for the job and to external conditions to the project necessary to your success) all these aspects must be represented in a matrix structure.

Of course the fact that you call to participate actively in the research-action project (including from the definition of its objectives) users of the results and the professionals that will help achieve the investments/activities, already establishes the means of extension to the exterior of the results of the project, establishing what the French call filiére and which we can call research process – extension – action.^{^[1]}

Ethics values in Higher Education

We return to the main questions that Bento de Spinoza's^{^[2]} work placed on the advent of our modernity: how to think about the rational explanation of the existence of man and the universe, how to adapt the philosophical thinking to the raison d' être of everything that exists and how to transform the spiritual life in full understanding and peaceful enjoyment of life itself to the limit?

The struggle to distinguish ethics from morality such as, normative ethics (what we ought to do) from philosophical or meta-ethics (what is the nature of good), cannot be exceptionally simple. If normative ethics are something the general public may call "ethics" and meta-ethics may be what the common sense notion of morality is.....this happens in the framework of the anthropocentrism!

Morality is a cultural expression determined by social domination and historical context, which gives it a sectary character. We need a moral theory that can be universal, timeless and that is able to guide the individual conduct, science and political ideologies, without considering the man in the zenith of Life.

However, in the last century, moral reflection has turned itself to a new object: the environment

The focal point in the development of the environmental consciousness in the modern world, there was the UN environmental conferences.

Some principles emerged from the first conference, held in Stockholm in 1972: the principle of a “common house” "… man has two homelands, his own and planet Earth"; the principle of a planetary Community and solidarity, founders of a new international order (ethics) and the principle of defending life on the planet and its biodiversity. (UNCHE 1972).

Those principles build a first line with the cultural and political perspective of ethnocentrism.

The critical perspective of environment philosophy toward the ethnocentrism claims the following: "Ethnocentrism is an emotionally conditioned approach that considers and judges other societies by their own culture’s criteria. It’s easy to see that this attitude leads to contempt and hate of all ways of life that are different from that of the observer. " (Dias, 1961)

The critique of ethnocentrism not only justifies the respect for all national cultures and all forms of classical and popular cultural expression, but also rejects any notion of superiority from a certain model of society, race or ethnicity. In this sense, it expands the concept of products of cultural goods far beyond the great museums, master oeuvres, classic heritage… including cultural landscape.

Biocentrism (Earth first!, Greenpeace, Wilderness Society, ...) assigns an intrinsic value to any living entity and Aldo Leopold’s Ecocentrism focuses on our duty towards the biotic community, which we are part of. This isn’t about applying pre-existing moral theories to new objects, such as nature. Nature shall be included in our field of moral reflection, our duties, which were previously limited to human beings, and will now be extended to other natural beings - the concept of an enlarged community of natural beings. This is the perspective of the critique to the anthropocentrism.

The "environmentalist reason" formulates a new categorical imperative for human action, beyond the Kant maximum of forming individual ethics of acts with the principle of a universal law, a new ethical framework, which stems from the need to configure the human conduct within the limits that safeguard the continuity of life and its diversity (Hans Jonas).

However scientific discoveries only allow us to be sure that the balance of ecosystems favorable to life depends on a multitude of physical, biological and geological factors and recognize that the higher the position occupied by organisms in the food chain, the more vulnerable they will be, as well as some species, whose destruction would dramatically affect the entire system.

What today is dramatic, is the rhythm at which biodiversity is being lost, the destruction of natural resources, energy and the multiplication of polluting effects that reach not only the whole lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the atmosphere and the biosphere, but also, with unpredictable consequences, the fundamental genetic material, the DNA, which conserves and reproduces the codes of life.

If we consider the emergence of our ancestors of the human species from 4 to 5 million years ago, inside the framework of the biological time, which is immense, nothing can assure that, as happened to the dinosaurs in the past (sixty-five million years ago), the kingdom of mammals won't come to an end one day and other forms of more adapted life will continue to perpetuate the music of life in the sidereal spaces.

However, imagine the extinction of Homo sapiens sapiens and species associated with our evolution, a world of plants, microbes and insects, would unlikely give rise again to the human species or even to mammals.

In this perspective, nobody can imagine today what will be the link in the chain of life where the evolutionary leap will occur, as nobody dreamt before that the grandfather of our human condition was an insignificant rodent that survived the widespread extinction of dominant species at the end of the Mesozoic Era (67 million years ago). But, at the same time, the preservation of the human being returns to the centre of environmental ethics, in a new ethical perspective, without unlimited domain and privileges against “the other” nature (critique of anthropocentrism)..

To be coherent with this environmental ethical perspective, we must consider that the multiple links between all forms of life (and even those within the non-biotic environment), require, in addition to the duty of preserving our species, a duty of conserving the diversity of beings and their environmental niches, since everything depends on their dynamic equilibrium, as in the Aldo Leopold (1947) biotic pyramid.

The “ethical imperative of dignity” and the “imperative of perpetual peace", from Jorge de Sena

In this historical and environmental context, humanity is confronted for the first time with the danger of its own extinction, either as a result of environmental disaster, or as the tragic outcome of a nuclear or biological war and pandemics financial crises on multiple continents.

And it is here that new categorical imperatives of Environmental Ethics arise again: First, “the ethical imperative of dignity”, from Jorge de Sena, poet and philosopher^{^[3]}:

“Believe me that no world, that nothing or no one

is more worth than a life, or the joy of having it.

This is what is the most important - this joy.

Believe that the dignity they will tell you so much about

is nothing but that joy that comes

from being alive and knowing that anytime someone

is less alive or suffers or dies

so that one of you can resist a little more

to the death that belongs to all and will come.”

(Sena, J. Letter to my kids about the shootings of Goya)

Second, the ethical “imperative of perpetual peace":

“In the strange fortune of doom,

[...] this strange fortune, from which light comes

oh just harmless powder, I pray

to myself not to lose the memory,

for you, always know how to remember

that everything is lost where peace is lost,

and first of all freedom is lost. “

(Sena, J. "Peace", Fidelity)

Perpetual peace and political ethics

Why must environmental ethics prevail, over democratic and socialist politics, modern science and international right? The ethical dimension of societies and modern State and its Governments may be evaluated by the respect for the principles of political ethics, universal and permanent, which recognise all individuals as citizens with two homelands, their own and the Earth (United Nations Conference on the Environment, Stockholm, 1972), to all human cultures a status of equality (critique of ethnocentrism) and re-introducing the human community on the pyramid of life and biodiversity without any status of domain or privilege (critique of anthropocentrism).

The principle of citizenship or dignity of its citizens(Jorge de Sena), applied together with the subordination of the economy to the environmental ethics policy, determines the State's duty to guarantee its citizens the right to peace, the right to work, the right to education, the right to health and assistance in old age, the right to access the justice, the right to the conservation of biodiversity and the right to freedom, and yes, freedom is placed in this order, since it disappears with the war and remains a smaller value without the job and other social rights. And with the destruction of life diversity, human communities have no future.

The political philosophy that seems to emerge from the perspective of the new environmental ethics, is the program to a world where the primacy of ethics prevails over politics, that currently adopts as single valid principle where means justify the ends; a world where the primacy of ethics confront justice of class, that announces as the end of history and the natural society order, the triumph of social exclusion; and a world where the ethics triumph over History, bloody, of all civilizations.

The 20th century was the century of the triumph of national and international rights of the human people and nations. Our common civilization will not know their 22nd century unless the 21st century becomes the century of environmental ethics.

The environmental philosophy build a new ontology in criticism of anthropocentrism, but only their articulation with a new epistemology, founded in criticism of ethnocentrism, could lead to a new ethics universal theory.

This ethical perspective must support the national and social mission of higher education values, the research programs and the discipline development.

Conclusions and suggestions

Quality concepts and quality standard of Sino-foreign cooperation in education

The systems of quality assessment and quality assurance must be based on the eight following principles:

_ Autonomy and independence of the bodies responsible for quality assessment and quality assurance;

_ Relating evaluation procedures to the way institutions see themselves;

_ Internal (self-reflective) and external (experts' appraisals) assessment;

_ involvement of all the players (teaching staff, administrators, students, alumni, social partners, professional associations, inclusion of foreign experts);

_ Publication of evaluation reports.

_ Integrative/Multidisciplinary

_ Outreach activities

_ Environmental ethics dimension

On how Sino-foreign cooperation in education promotes the discipline development and management system

_ Active learning and research-action projects

_ Mobility of University Professors and Researchers

_ Mobility of University Students

Construction of classified management and supervision system in Sino-foreign cooperation in education

_ Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (CTS):

_ Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students

_ Action Scheme for Mobility of University Professors and Researchers

Development of evaluation and authentication systems in Sino-foreign cooperation in education.

_ Diploma Supplement (DS)

_ Lifelong Learning Programmes

_ Evaluation of the performance of universities and research units regularly promoted by a National Agency or Foundation, involving international boards.

Theories and practices of exit systems in international cooperation in education

_ Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Professors and Researchers

_ Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students

_ Special courses on national language and culture

_ China Higher Education Area

Innovation on internal management in the institutions and programs in education

Organizational plan

_ Teaching Problem-based learning (PBL) or the “Aalborg model”.

_ Learn management structure based on multidisplinary research units, involving staff from different departments. No faculties or a transition mixed system

_ University Technology Transfer Office (UTTO)

_ University-Business Liasion Office (UGUE)

_ UA Doctoral School (EDU) and the Research Support Office (GAI)

_ Observatory of the life-long socio-professional

_ Critical mass, which prompts them to opt for collaborative approaches, e.g. creation of networks, joint courses or diplomas

Curricular development

_ Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity towards the fields opened up by society's major problems, such as sustainable development, the new medical scourges and risk management, global bioethics

Sustainable regional development, technology transfer and entrepreneurship

_ Increasing research posts to science graduates in higher education, particularly in the private sector

_ Regional development programmes with local authorities (strategic plan ...)

_ Polytechnic schools linked with the universities offering technological specialisation degrees in the framework of a delocalized campus involving neighbor cities

_ Science Park, regional incubators network, houses major R&D companies on Campus with specific tools for promoting cooperation, tech transfer and entrepreneurship.

_ Research directed to economy needs and sustainable development ( the green economy transition), building scientific and technical progress in the interfacing of traditional disciplines, teaching science and technology in an integrated manner, using cybernetic culture and promoting environmental ethical values.

Matrix of Educational Research

The evaluation report traditionally adopted by European universities and research centers details manly the strict academic research activities, and emphasis is placed on the number:

a) Publications and conferences carried out nationally and internationally and prestige/demands of the inputs, such as scientific journals and contexts/entities where are made the conferences;