Realization Of Student Academic Rights Towards The Bologna Process: Challenges And Solutions

Regulatory and Legal Challenges

– Lack of specific mechanisms and procedures for realization of student academic rights in the Russian Federation legislation, that would be similar to international regulations and legal instruments (the European Convention ‘On Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’, Universal Declaration on Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, etc.), some discrepancy between international legal commitments of Russia (the ‘European Higher Education Area (EHEA)’ Declaration, The Convention ‘Against Discrimination In Education’, ‘International Agreement On Cooperation In The Field Of Education’ of May 15, 1992 etc.), and legislation of countries participating in educational partnerships. These inconsistencies were mentioned quite a long time ago in the works of domestic scientists, in particular (Kuzminov, & Yudkevich, 2007; Lazutova, Mikhailuk, & Tarasova, 2003). Despite the fact that the updated legal framework in the Russian Federation has integrated certain concepts of the Bologna Declaration there are still some discrepancies, including the fact that specific procedures and mechanisms for these concepts’ implementation have not been outlined so far. Much criticism has been forwarded to the institutions of higher education for reflection, but either university are not ready to develop such mechanisms, or the conditions for their implementation are not ready yet.

– The pro forma adoption of the declared rights in the federal legislation, the lack of necessary bylaws. Federal legislation in the Russian Federation declares the student academic rights in a pro forma (blanket) manner with reference to the relevant bylaws and regulations, while the existing regulations in some cases do not contain the outline of all possible situations of their implementation, do not have projections into the future, do not take into account education development trends. The federal legal framework also does not describe mechanisms of realization of students’ right to transfer and accumulate academic merits, credits mastered at another education establishment as part of the ECTS system, nor the right to participate in the syllabus design and selection of learning materials, nor the right to transfer from an unaccredited university to an accredited university, etc.

– Gaps in internal/local bylaws of universities regarding regulations and procedures for realization of academic rights: in some cases, bylaws of universities prescribe eligibility of academic rights of students by means of references to federal legislation, while it does not disclose the procedures for their realization; the local acts very rarely prescribe procedures for dismissal and transfer of students from higher education establishments which licenses/accreditations for educational activities have been suspended/revoked; in the statutes of a number of universities there is no mentioning of the student right to academic sabbatical; the right to transfer to other education establishments academic credits and merits for the learned courses and disciplines is provided by only a few establishments; such transfers are not outlined in local acts; bylaws of most universities do not describe procedures for submitting appeals about violations of such rights and freedoms; penalties for non-compliance are not established. It should also be noted that universities very rarely have relevant provisions for student academic rights (such provisions have been found only at the private institution - the Baltic Institute of Ecology, Politics and Law).

– Legal inconsistencies in bylaws of the higher education establishments: thus, in some texts, the phrase ‘as a rule’ is used, provoking chances for different interpretations and corruption. For example, the statutes of some universities include provisions for ‘readmission of a student, who has been expelled without any plausible excuse, <such readmission> to be enacted by the University Rector, after the related petition is submitted by the Dean within five years after the student dismissal, as a rule for a readmission fee’.

– Inconsistency between federal legislation and the changed educational environment. In particular, the existing legislation does not regulate the manner in which the students’ mobility can be arranged in cases when the transfer is because of the suspension or revocation of a license or state accreditation of their education establishment, and the study program has been provided in an on-line networking or IT-based distance learning mode: the question is whether an education establishment deprived of the state accreditation is obliged to transfer the student only to an establishment, which can also provide the study program in a networking mode (using remote technologies).

Administrative and Technical Challenges, associated with the university administration's activities pertaining to realization of student academic rights

Contradictions between approaches to realization of various academic rights of students: for example, realization of the right of a student to participate in designing the syllabus hampers to a certain extent realization of the right to transfer to another institution or to other educational programs: a student in case of transfer has to be examined/tested in a large number of disciplines. The problem is that only a few Russian universities recognize academic credits and merits in optional disciplines studied at the previous institution. In most cases, electives are considered program deficiencies, and (re)examination (retake) of any outstanding assessments are required. In case of restrictions imposed by bylaws of the host university with regard to the maximum number of different disciplines/modules in the previously studied curriculum, when a student is transferring from another university, the examination board may decide to accept the student to a lower level of the course which extends the period of study and leads to additional financial costs (in the case of education on a fee-paying basis).

– Contradictions between realization of academic rights and compliance with the corresponding responsibilities: for example, the right to receive quality education would not be completely realized, when a student fails to fulfill the commitment to diligently study the educational program, attend classes and sessions; the same responsibility correlates with realization of the right to receive academic scholarships. As for court rulings about academic rights, there were cases when a university failed to perform adequately its responsibilities to provide quality educational services: for example, a student was expelled from a university for academic failure, while the student’s failure was a result of teachers’ failure to deliver their responsibilities (teachers arriving late to work, missing classes, inappropriate/poor quality teaching, etc.).

– Conflicts of interests of a university and a student in realization of academic rights: for example, in the event of termination of the university’s operation (e.g., a scheduled close-down of the university department or branch), revocation of a license, or revocation / expiration of the state accreditation in some particular educational program, etc. - the universities are often not economically interested to notify in writing their students, parents (legal representatives) of juvenile students, and customers of educational services, within the prescribed period of time, of the reasons for the forthcoming transfer to other educational institutions, because the students may decide, when notified in advance, to write applications for voluntary withdrawal, and this kind of expulsion would reduce revenues of the university if it provides educational services for tuition fees; on the other side, the students are interested in a timely transfer to other universities and in early exams or retake of any outstanding assessments, so that to start their study at the host university from the beginning of the new semester.

The university may not be interested even in realization of the right of a student to transfer to another establishment, as this would mean a vacant seat on the state-run program, or loss of revenues on a fee-based program. Another example is the student academic right to study, on top of the core curriculum, some optional subjects (modules) and elective courses in the major academic field (specialty), some additional disciplines, subjects (modules) and courses of the same university according to the provisions adopted by the university, as well as academic disciplines, subjects (modules) and courses taught at other education establishment, Administration faces the challenge of having to revise the workload of teachers in such disciplines; besides, there is no framework for students’ selection of subjects and enrollment/distribution in corresponding groups. This process is also prone to difficulties due to the students’ unawareness of such rights (Belova, 2015).

- Pro forma realization of student academic rights (as a formality). Examples include the right to participate in designing the syllabus, i.e. the content of education: formally, students have the right to choose modules/electives, but in practice, most universities teach disciplines that have been chosen in advance by the chair, so students are asked to write applications for 'choosing' these very disciplines. A similar situation exists for election of the fields of study: universities teach what the majority of students have chosen. The minority of students, having made their own choice, are forced to revise their decision and agree to study what most students have chosen. In other words, whatever the few have chosen is neglected in favor of the majority.

– Poorly arranged university’s communication with students about their academic rights, ways and procedures for their realization and protection: the lack of bylaws (rules and regulations) that would outline in a step-by-step manner the procedure of realization/enjoyment of academic rights, or, in case of availability of such documents, students’ access to them is restricted (they are not published on the web site, are not available in the Dean's Office, etc.).

– Challenges caused by incompetent administrative staff of the education establishment: legal incompetence (ignorance of employees about specific provisions of the federal legislation, bylaws and rules of the university, reference to invalid documents, etc.), business and ethical incompetence (rude manner of communication with students, employees refusing to provide detailed explanations, staff giving reference to a stand, site, other resources, staff providing inaccurate information, deliberate concealment of certain information, etc.), psychological and pedagogical incompetence of staff (failure to provide professional support to students, failure to encourage enjoyment and protection of academic rights), managerial incompetence (forwarding to the wrong employee, abuse of authority, failure to perform one’s duties, etc.).

– Lack of proper conditions for realization of student academic rights at the university. For example, realization of the student right to design individual syllabus is hampered at many universities by unavailability of student consultants/tutors with focused profiles, student counseling in educational matters and professional induction; other challenges are posed by staff workload norms and guidelines, staffing requirements, etc.

– Challenges associated with corruption: employees expecting bribes or tips for delivering specific services in realization of student academic rights. As it has been already mentioned above, oftentimes opportunities for corruption stem from the texts of universities’ bylaws and regulations: for example, when such phrases are used as ‘as a rule, for a fee’, ‘at the discretion of the university’, etc.

– Lack of any feedback from administration to the students’ petitions and complaints about violation and disrespect of their academic rights.

Psychological and Pedagogical Challenges

– Issues related to unawareness of students about their academic rights or procedures and conditions for their enjoyment. For example, a student studying for a fee, did not know, that under current law, a student cannot be dismissed from the university in case of academic failure/failed exam and is entitled to formal transfer to the next course, with a sufficient period allowed for re-taking the examination; a student failed to appear at the end-of-term exams and assumed that he was expelled from the university because of this failure, therefore he filed a complaint about the university invoicing him for the tuition fee. Such issues can be attributed to various factors: the student’s indifference and inertia, lack of information support from the university, or restricted access to such information, misinformation, access to invalid or unreliable information sources (for example, information from friends, fellow students). The study, conducted at St. Petersburg State University, has identified a great number of respondents who answered that they did not enjoy any rights. In their comments, they indicated that they were not offered any rights (Belova, 2015). A specific problem is in the inadequate information support to undergraduate applicants on issues of their eligibility for academic rights upon admission to the university. The following set of questions arises: who is responsible for informing this category of citizens? Is the university responsible? But the entrants are not its students yet. Is the school responsible? But they have already graduated from the school. Is the state responsible? But then who in particular is representing the state in this capacity? In this regard, applicants often do not have the necessary information on their eligibility to enjoy academic rights upon admission to the university. In particular, many questions arise from foreign citizens, as well as citizens studying abroad, about issues of nostrification and recognition of diplomas.

– Issues related to the incapacity of students to realize and protect their academic rights. For example, a student does not know how to write an application, letter, petition, how to compile and file the necessary documents, how to conduct business communication, how to ask for support from the university leadership, etc.

– Students inertia in matters of their academic rights: some students neither show interest in, nor undertake any steps in perusing their rights, and assume that the university is obliged to do everything for realization of their rights. For example, a student has successfully retaken the failed exam within the established timelines, and therefore is eligible for an academic scholarship, however he did not submit to the Dean the necessary confirmation of the exam retaken. Or, a student has applied for transfer to another educational program, and then does not track the application, while filing another application form with some attachments is required, etc.

– Students’ inertia in protection of their academic rights: it is not uncommon that students are passive in the face of gross violations of their rights at their education establishment (for example, when they are denied readmission, when academic transcript is not issued, when some employees demand bribes, etc.). The research conducted by St. Petersburg University has revealed, that ‘when student rights are not respected, the most common students’ reaction to such situations is inaction, i.e. no actions are undertaken by students at all (42%). The respondents provided the following typical comments, ‘my efforts would make no difference, nobody would listen to me’, it is better to do nothing, because otherwise one can only aggravate the situation. More than half of the respondents (53%) believe that one of the main reasons for violations of student rights is the students’ own attitudes, for they do not consider their rights as something really significant (Belova, 2015).

– The students’ failure to fulfill commitments associated with academic rights: for example, a student enrolled in the fee-based program, has demonstrated for two years good or excellent academic performance, and when a vacancy appears in the state-funded (no tuition fee) program, this student misses the deadline established for submitting an application for transfer to this free of charge track; or, let us take another case, when a student did not attend lectures, failed to retake the exams, yet is trying to apply for a sabbatical year.

– Very low activity of the Student Board and Council in realization and protection of academic rights of students. Participation of students in realization of their academic rights is gaining more importance in Russia and other advanced countries (the concept of ‘student engagement’ (Veiga et al., 2014). However, in practice in some cases, the Student Boards’ opinions on realization of academic rights are treated in a pro forma manner (merely by inviting the Board to sign the document), while the student councils do not really participate in realization of academic rights of students, do not put forward initiatives on introduction of changes and amendments into regulations and bylaws of the university, do not negotiate with the Administration in the event of a breach or incomplete realization of the student rights, do not participate in informing students about academic rights and in encouraging them to protect their rights by all means, including administrative and court procedures.

– Students’ unjustified expectations of their university’s provisions regarding realization of student academic rights. For example, a student requires transferring him from a fee-based track to the free tuition track of the program, where there are no vacant places. Or, a student demands to transfer him to a different educational program, expecting to be admitted to the same level instead of admission to a lower level, even though there is an essential incompliance by 10 different disciplines between the academic curricula, i.e. in spite of the provisions outlined in the university bylaws.