On 13 July 2004 staff from the Pedagogical Section, the Institut fuer Praxisforschung (IPF) and the University of Plymouth met in Dornach to approve a Swiss Pilot Project of the European Masters Programme – EMP.
It was agreed that the pilot programme would begin in September 2004, with a cohort of 12 students from Switzerland.
This initiative marks a major development arising out of the work of the EU-funded Comenius Project to design and approve a flexible, practice-based, European Masters Programme in Waldorf pedagogy.
The Comenius Project began its work in the autumn of 2002 and over the last 20 months the project partners - from Germany, Sweden, Hungary, the Netherlands and the UK and the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE) - have been researching the design of the programme and meeting regularly to research the different national situations regarding higher education, including the varying legislative requirements and questions of programme accreditation and recognition. This work has been carried out in awareness of the emerging Bologna Process - a European political process concerned with the future of European higher education.
In September 2003 a pilot Masters module of the developing EMP programme was launched at Cotswold Chine Home School near Stroud in England. A second pilot module at M-level will begin in the autumn of 2004. During the winter of 2003-04 a period of intense collaboration, research and planning began between staff at IPF and the University of Plymouth (the lead partner in the Comenius Project). Under the auspices of the project a series of meetings was held in Switzerland and the UK. The collaborative activity culminated in the approval event, held at the Goetheanum in July.
In the Swiss pilot, IPF will work as an accredited partner of the University of Plymouth. Thomas Stoeckli (www.ipf-ipr.net) is the Swiss Coordinator and John Burnett
jburnett@plymouth.ac.uk is Director of Studies for the EMP. The principal language of teaching, study and assessment will be German. A representative 25% sample of submitted assignments will be translated into English for purpose of quality assurance. Staff from the University in England will support IPF staff in areas of training and moderation. Professor Hans-Fred Rathenow (Technische Universitaet, Berlin) will be external examiner and moderator to the Swiss pilot of EMP.
In addition, a small number of individuals are enrolled on EMP as `mini, or solo pilots` and are carrying out the work as independent study students. The first assignments at M-level have been successfully submitted to the University!
It is hoped that the implementation phase of the Comenius Project can gradually be extended to other parts of Europe in the short to medium term. Discussions and initial planning for further pilots are currently taking place in Germany, Holland and Sweden.
Trevor Mepham
trevor.mepham@lineone.net
