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Qualification Profile of ES


The profile of European Studies master’s qualification consists of subject specific and generic competencies of European Affairs  professionals at decision making level. These competences meet demands of the public sector and governmental agencies; national and transnational non-governmental organizations; international organizations and European institutions; the private sector; the media and the information centers. They reflect knowledge, awareness and abilities, which can be acquired for a period of two years of teaching, learning and assessment (equivalent to 120 credits) within the multi-, and interdisciplinary area of European Studies.

 

The subject specific competences encompass:

Knowledge of:

(click to see the full description of the modules)

Awareness of:

(click to see the description further down on the page)

Abilities to:

(click to see the description further down on the page)


The generic competences refer to:

(click to see the description further down on the page)


These competences are being developed through diverse methods of teaching and learning, i.e. participating in lectures; seminars; practical exercises; simulation games; tutorials; surveying literature and collecting relevant data; working on assignments such as producing, co-producing and presenting essays, reports and papers; internship; participating in and moderating discussions; meeting experts from the professional practice; designing projects; writing and defending a graduation thesis. The level of the development of each competence is being assessed via a range of appropriate methods, such as oral and written in-semester or post-semester examinations, estimation of the contribution to discussions and debates, evaluation of essays, reports, papers, projects, of the written graduation thesis and its oral defence.  

 


Description of  Subject-Specific Competencies

Awareness of the Complexity of the Process of European Integration

This competence means that needs and problems raised by the integration process at different levels, institutions and social environments should be studied in many aspects and angles before action will be taken because they can have hidden and unforeseen links to other problems even at other levels and in other countries. Only those will be efficient in problem-solving who are aware of this complexity and able to explore it before taking action. This competence has to enable the students become familiar with the theoretical concepts of the integration (as a process, a structure or nation state-oriented conceptions), of the origins (internal and external catalysts) and the development of the unification in Europe since the 50-ies. Another aspect of the competence refers to the policy of enlargement of the EU related to two group of countries: (a) Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein (countries of the EFTA), and (b) the present candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania), Turkey, Croatia and the countries of western Balkans. While the first group is not so challenging, the complexity of the process could be shown on the example of the 10 new members of the EU considering the list of criteria set by the EU itself which must be met, namely:  stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities; functioning market economy that can cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the Union; ability to take on the obligations of membership, including support to the aims of the Union, adoption of the Acquis Communautaire of the EU, obligation to implement the EU law, which requires a public administration capable of applying and managing EU laws in practice. On the other hand, the EU itself must adjust its legal and institutional framework in order to ensure the smooth and coordinated functioning in the interest of the realization of the goals of the integration. Having acquired the competence, the student should first of all have become able to bring to discussion arguments on the complexity of the process from political, economic, legal and cultural point of view, and to characterize EU as a sui generis organization. 

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Awareness of the Debates about European Citizenship and European Identity

This competence is related to the past, present and future of European integration. It has to show to the students what identity means, the difference between national and European identity and how this latter makes influence to the formation of the European integration process in the sense of “finalité politique”. They should be aware, that European citizenship as a legal concept, at present, reflects the overwhelmingly economic nature and goals of the EU/EC and that the development and affirmation of the idea (and ideal) of European identity makes possible/influence a choice between different models and paths in the future, i.e. choice between confederal, federal, community, etc. models of EU. Students should become aware, that European citizenship as designed to complement member state nationality is related to specific rights in distinct areas of public life. This extension of rights  creates a divergence between nationality and citizenship  – categories that  traditionally coincide in the context of the nation state. This corresponds to a co-existence of political identities – national and European. By extending democratic participation, EU citizenship represents a potential source of legitimacy for the integration process as a whole. Ultimately, European citizenship is a new form of political membership with important implications for the future evolution of the European polity. Thus, students should be able to depict the uniqueness of EU citizenship through a review of its historical development and analysis of its dimensions; to discuss links between  citizenship, identity and legitimacy through an  examination of the Maastricht ratification controversies, and to be aware of the debates about citizenship at the 1996-97 IGC and its broader implications for the problem of legitimacy within the EU.

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Awareness of Points of View Deriving from European or non-European National and Cultural Backgrounds

This competence (together with its parallel concerning European non-EU countries) has a special importance in new member states of the former Soviet bloc. These countries have had particular relationship with non-European communist countries, they have recently built strong relationship with the US and many of them entered the NATO, and they have to face a new kind of migration from non-European countries. Students who are preparing to take part personally in the process of European integration need not only an awareness of the complexity of the process of integration, but also need to be aware of its larger political and cultural environment in non-European countries. This need may be more important at the international and national levels but it cannot be looked over at the local level, either. From a cultural perspective one can explore the concepts of diversity versus unity (or “united in diversity”)  and refer to the cultural and educational policies of the EU.  The member states vary considerably in political,  economic and legal terms in their positions on many policies, as well as their governments translate European Union laws at national and subnational levels and  “common policies” often refer to very general issues. Students should become aware of the cooperation, compromise and coordination practices in the EU. The focus could be on how each individual member state implements EU policies; how EU policies affect the member states; what benefits are gained as the policies are absorbed into existing national political environment. A typology of each country could be developed, for example: France – europeanism, nationalism and planned economy; Germany – a major player; Britain – aloof and sceptical; Ireland – Brussels and the Celtic tiger, etc.

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Awareness of the Relevance of European Studies in the Contemporary Development of Europe

At the first place it should be pointed out that in the countries of the former communist block  European Studies means European Union Studies. This is the more so in the circumstances when the EU ceased to be a regional economic structure and aims to be the organization representing the whole Europe. Therefore, one can state that there is more than relevance of   European Studies programme in the contemporary development of Europe – to a large extent it coincides with the last. Secondly, students are well aware that not all European countries are members of the EU. The Eurasian regional power Russia, the peculiar countries Switzerland and Norway, the Balkans draw their strong attention whenever a debate about political, economic and cultural developments is held. EU dominates European Studies and debates due also to the fact that it has relatively string and powerful structure capable to enforce most agreements. For the new-comers to the EU this is also a factor focusing their attention in itself. To conclude, this competence for the students from SEE is to some extent disproportionate in the sense that EU studies dominate over European Studies. Not absolutely and rather for some limited time-period, but nevertheless.

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Ability to Work on an Interdisciplinary area

Through this competence students get an extensive understanding for the connection of the different interdisciplinary fields of study (European Law, Economics, European Politics, Soft Skills, Languages). This is the  ability to analyze, interpret and combine methods, information and knowledge from different disciplines within a context of an interdisciplinary area, thus reshaping these inputs into a new and enhanced output. Such a mental procedure sharpens further more the generic capacity of analyzing and synthesizing data that in this case concern this field of studies.  Some of the module units are interdisciplinary in terms of conceptual basis. For example European Civilization deals with concepts drawn from sociology; philosophy; anthropology, history; literature; cultural studies, etc. European Integration builds upon economic and legal concepts, apart from the political ones. The International Relations terminology could be identified in the module unit Political Problems in South Eastern Europe.


This competence is being practiced by the students within the internship. An institution or a company may assign a task, such as feasibility study, and the student should refer to different disciplines when collecting and analyzing data. Within the project development as part of the module unit on Management of Regional and CBC Projects, students are supposed to prepare the raison d’etre of the project. There is only one way to deal with such a task – to organize different methodologies in a concise way. The interdisciplinary  approach is particularly valid for the topics of the master theses, exploring parts of Europe and other ‘regions’; borders of Europe; migration issues; minorities issues, etc.

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Ability to Communicate in a Multicultural Team

A “multicultural team” is a group that includes representatives of more than two cultural or ethnic communities. The ability to work in a multicultural team encompasses a set of skills, necessary for a successful team-work as well as the development of intercultural competence. One may describe the competence via sets of concrete skills, such as knowing the members /familiarizing with the members/ of the team through acquiring  information about their culture; finding  similarities between team-members; recognizing the cross-cultural differences between team-members; developing respect to the differences; building trust towards team-members; developing convergence among team-members; developing  cohesion of the team; recognizing one’s own stereotypes and finding  possibilities to overcome them; decreasing the level of ethnocentrism /a bias to evaluate people or events only from the point of view of one’s own culture/; ignoring prejudices towards representatives of other cultures; development of empathy /i.e. reading the thoughts and feelings of the other/ and ability to change the perspective /looking at the world through the cultural glasses of the other/; development of intercultural sensitivity; etc.. In sum to work in a multicultural team implies to develop a good sense of the others, their values and conceptual thinking, to be able to deal with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and to accept diverging point of views, to question one's own values, ideas and theories. In a multicultural team, in case of conflicting positions, it is necessary as well to acquire an intercultural communicative competence for mediation purpose. In addition, this competence requires controlling for one's own social and cultural representations, to be aware of cultural stereotypes and to develop personal flexibility. And last but not least, a solid sense of humour.

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Ability to Identify and Use Appropriate Sources of Information

Debates on European integration are going on at different levels from international to national, regional and local one and topics are different by level. Not simply the same topic may show different aspects at different levels but different topics can be raised as well. Institutions as well as people at every level are concerned by these debates and interested in having trained experts who are able to undertake research and contribute to the debates suitably. Students will be aware of the advantage of achieving the necessary competence for such research activity. Students also need to use and analyze appropriate information sources, and they must know how and where to get them from. To develop this competence European Studies students have access to more than 2 000 web-site addresses relevant to European Studies. The library of BRIE Rousse consists of more than 2000 volumes of up-to-date literature in German and in English. The library of University of Rousse provides access to information resources on-line, such as EBSCO Publishing, SpringerLink, IEE Inspec, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals - 2062 journals), Free E-journals -700 journals, ProQuest Digital Dissertations Abstracts – 2mln dissertations; HighWire Pres s- 850 journals.

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Ability to Use Research Methods for Regional and EU Analysis

Awareness of the existence of different disciplinary methodologies for regional analysis is rooted very well inside the whole academic body. The ability to use different methods in an integrated way signifies for the students an upgrade to their analytical and synthetic skills that can be determined furthermore in a generic competence. While it also leads to the development of other generic competence such as the capacity for applying knowledge in practice. This ability provides students with methodological instruments, when they prepare their research papers and especially when they start working on their master thesis.  The research methodology is approached as a process, involving a sequence of learnable activities. Each activity prepares the researcher for the next step. The first step involves: selecting a problem and restating the problem as a hypothesis or a research objective; defining variables and determining ways of measuring them; choosing a research design; and organizing a sample. The second step is the data collection stage. The final phase refers to the analysis and interpretation of the data collected in order to make conclusions about the hypothesis or the research question with which the process has begun.

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Ability to reflect on one’s own values and question concepts, ideas and theories

This competence is considered very important, because European Studies students should be prepared for the challenge they will confronted with – to work in European (i.e. multicultural or multinational teams), and, therefore, to be able to listen to and identify and interpret the different  values behind the different words and the behaviours. At the same time, students should be able to problematize their own  values and perceptions, especially in the above mentioned situations. To question concepts, ideas and theories is a must for master level students. The components of  this competence cannot be derived from a single module or a single form of teaching and learning.  They are integral to academic work and should be fostered through the whole learning experience.  Nevertheless, they have a particular role in European Studies for two reasons:

a) Since Europe comprises of so many different nationalities, ethnic groups and cultural, social and political traditions, it is very important for students to reflect upon their own values.  If they are to understand Europe, they need to ask whether and to what extent their values are the product of a specific socialisation process.  Since European Studies degrees consider Europe in an international context, they also need to reflect upon the extent to which such values are ‘eurocentric’.

b) Since this is an inter-disciplinary field of study, students also need to question concepts, theories and ideas derived from the different subjects that they are studying.  This means that their theoretical reflections necessarily extend beyond those in single disciplinary degrees, in addition to questioning the concepts and ideas within a single subject, they need to consider them across subjects.

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Ability to interpret European events in national, regional and local frameworks

This competence requires from the students to become aware of the multiple layers embedded in any European event. Students must be prepared to assume, that one event happening at one level will impact  the others. As a terrible example, the disaster happening in the London subway will have deep consequences on national, European and international levels. In this respect, students need to identify and utilise relevant sources of information and to comment on or annotate documents appropriately to critical issues in Europe . Among these critical issues are the European citizenship and identity, the intercultural relations and values. Social issues are also of paramount importance, not only at the European level but at the national and local ones: for example the result of the French referendum regarding the Treaty for a European constitution: People react often on very local grounds. This competence means also that students can bring information from different disciplines and integrate it in a broader knowledge.  Therefore this ability is important, most of all in relation to the more “practical”, work-oriented part of the programme, where concrete knowledge of European problems on the local, regional and national/international level is essential.

This ability is crucial for a the career of the European Studies graduate. If he or she goes for a career in the public sector, this competence will come immediately at stake for all kinds of public policy work. If  the graduate is more likely to choose the private sector, then his or her ability to interpret the European legal  environment for the sake of the survival or the growth of the company is extremely important. If the graduate is to follow the career of a researcher, it is again this competence to rely on, when aiming at the formulation of the research problem.  This is a very important competence for the students, because they are highly motivated to learn more about European Union. They assume, that being aware of the European events and their impact on all levels of governance, they prepare themselves to find easier jobs in the EU, or in a EU agency.

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Ability to communicate in two foreign languages (English and German) using appropriate terminology

The students are recruited on the grounds of evidence of their language skills in German and English.  At the start of the first semester students pass language entry tests.  Thus, the needs for further language studies either in English or in German of each student are being identified.  Then two groups are being formed – one for the course in English (at advanced level of 60 hours within the first semester), and one – for the course in German (at advanced level of 60 hours within the first semester). The students are examined at the end of their studies. For students, who fail, additional second semester language course is being organized.  The master program of European Studies at BRIE is bi-lingual. The studies are offered in German and in English: the four units of the first semester are in English, three units of the second semester are in German and two- in English, the Summer school in Bonn is in German, five courses of the third semester in Germany are in German, and the last three units of the last semester are in English, that is – 9 module units are being studied in German, and 9 – in English. This balance has been planned and achieved, so that the students can develop skills, which will allow them to use the appropriate terminology in both languages. Students give evidence of the level of development of this competence, when they pass their exams, write their papers, and produce their dissertations.

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Generic Competencies

Capacity for Analysis and Synthesis – this competence is trained within the four modules and their concrete units. Since the program is at master’s level, this generic competence is prioritized, and is being developed via the principles of interiorization, and exteriorization. Students firstly read recommended subject specific literature (i.e. texts based on analysis and synthesis), and then they have to produce their own texts - different kinds of research papers and reports, i.e.  four individual papers within each of the  three semesters, a contribution to the group project in the last semester, and a dissertation – in the last semester. When they prepare for their presentations in the seminars, they develop this competence, as well.

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Capacity for Applying Knowledge in Practice – this competence is being developed within the internship period between the second and the third semester. The period may vary between two months and two weeks, depending on the agreement between the student and his or her employer. The internship is being organized by the Career Center of University of Rousse.  Students practice their competences either at a public sector institution, or at a private sector company.  They perform concrete tasks, which are being assigned, such as producing data base, writing reports, participation in decision making meetings, contributing to a project work or to a feasibility sudy, etc. At the end of their internship they have to produce a report about their practical experience and to evaluate their own performance at the institution or the company.

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Appreciation of Diversity and Multiculturality – this competence is being developed through the curricular and extracurricular activities. In the first place students learn about the diversity and multiculturality as a peculiar feature of the European environment  within the units of  the module Culture and Civilization. Students continue to work on this competence in the unit of Intercultural Communication.  Since they belong to a multicultural group, they profit from the everyday encounters with different behaviours, and points of view from different angles. The assumption is, that the end result of this competence should be the adopted culture of cooperation with someone who is different, who belongs over the border.  The culture of cooperation is a typical deficit for the region of South Eastern Europe, and BRIE’s mission is to help students develop it.

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Ability to Design Projects – this competence is being developed through the module unit in Management of Regional and Cross-Border Cooperation Projects. Students firstly learn all about the different aspects and phases of the project work (problem identification, a creative and feasible idea for its resolution, project formulation and planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation). The second step is the application of this knowledge in practice, i.e. the students should give evidence of the level of the ability they have acquired.  They have to design a project themselves, working in  project groups of four or five. Each group presents its result in front of the others, thus the learning is  being multiplied. This competence is considered very important especially for European Studies students, because the European Union is offering a lot of programs, and therefore financial opportunities for relevant projects. The graduates may pursue the career of consultants in project design. This is an option for a career start particularly in the region of South Eastern Europe, which lacks expertise for the absorption of EU funds.

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Ability to Work in an International Context - this competence is being developed within the extracurricular activities at BRIE.  Firstly, students are doing their studies in international context, for them BRIE Rousse, Bulgaria is the first site to acquire  international experience. Then they participate in extracurricular activities at BRIE Giurgiu, Romania such as meetings with their colleagues within the annual student conference in May, within the annual meeting with the German ambassador in Bucharest.  Therefore, this is their second contact with what one may call abroad. Thirdly, they spend their third semester in Germany. What is more, within this semester they establish a lot of interpersonal contacts with the international community of students either in Chemnitz or in Viadrina.  A period of two years living and studying in an international environment will without any doubt develop the ability to work in an international context on the grounds of the principle “learning by doing”.  Secondly, the European Studies curriculum itself and all its module units are presented via the prism of the international context and its dynamic development.

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Ability to Use a Third Foreign Language - this competence is being developed through studies of  Bulgarian and Romanian languages within the first and the second semesters. Bulgarian students learn Romanian, Romanian students – Bulgarian, and the other students of the region choose one of the two. This competence is particularly relevant in terms of the demands for skills in regional languages. The trends for euroregions and cross-border cooperation in South Eastern Europe and especially at the Romanian-Bulgarian border within the prospective membership of the two countries in the European Union, will open opportunities for communication and contacts, which require at least the minimum level of knowledge of the language of the neighbour.  So, within the 120 hours of study students cover the requirements for the level of beginners.

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Team-Working and Leadership Skills - this competence is being developed within curricular activities, for example within the module unit in the last semester under the same title, and when practicing team-work on assignments within other units (for example European Civilization, Intercultural Communication). Students have to design a project, working in teams of four or five in their last semester. This competence is very important for the graduates of the European Studies program. Any of their professional affiliations will be linked to the performance of team roles and leaders’ roles. Professionals, who are involved in the European affairs, are supposed to contribute to the identification or the resolution of a problem as team members or as leaders.

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