Bridge the gap between high school systems with less than twelve years of schooling and European Universities

Francesco Floris,Lorenza Operti,Marina Marchisio,Carla Marello

doi:10.4995/head19.2019.9494

Abstract

The phenomenon of globalization that concerns the modern era, pushed by technological evolution, has led to several changes in the field of education. Not only are education policies of the single States adapting by directing towards European models: the possibility for a student to choose a university is increasing all over the world, too. In order to facilitate students who want to enroll at a European university and who come from countries with less than 12 years of compulsory schooling, our University designed the Foundation Programme. This is an additional year that allows to earn 60 ECTS to reach the 12 years of schooling, a basic requirement for university access in Europe. The main feature of this project is that it is delivered online; this allows to reduce the costs of enrollment and allows students to attend it directly from home in their country. The design, structure and methodologies of the project are described and discussed in this article.

Highlights

To talk about globalization means to talk about everything concerning the planet, a phenomenon that is not new in human history, but which, especially nowadays, where technological progress dominates, has taken on a much wider dimension than in the past
In Italy, data of the National Student Registry (ANS) show that the number of foreign students enrolling at an Italian university has been constantly increasing, and in the academic year 2017/18 it was over 23,000, which is about 6% of the total number of the students enrolled at an Italian university, with an increase of 8% when compared to a.y. 2016/17
The student will receive a certificate stating the passing of the final online exam of each module which will allow him/her to take the face to face exam in Turin. The latter will consist of two distinct parts: the first one, computer-based and related to scientific and economic-juridical lessons, will be carried out with the same automatic evaluation tool that the students got to know during the online course; the second one, oral and related to humanistic subjects, will verify the linguistic skills acquired by the student at the end of the course

Summary

Introduction

To talk about globalization means to talk about everything concerning the planet, a phenomenon that is not new in human history, but which, especially nowadays, where technological progress dominates, has taken on a much wider dimension than in the past. The number of foreign students enrolled at the University of Turin is 6%, in line with the national average Some of these students come from countries where the 12 years of schooling are not required as for the enrollment at an Italian university. To facilitate the integration of their pre-university education, the University of Turin has created the Foundation Program, an additional year that allows the achievement of 30 or 60 ECTS, according to their needs. It is delivered completely online: this way, international students can attend the program from their homes, without the need of a stay permit and without the costs of the travel and stay in our country. The final exam that allows to certify the ECTS is to be taken at the university, right before enrollment

State of the art

The project “Foundation Programme”

Results and discussion