Mastermind Europe will produce a Package of Guiding Tools and a Pool of Experts for Master's coordinators in Europe who want to adapt their admission practice towards a competency-based assessment in addition to current practice of recognition of diplomas. Master´s coordinators want this because of the increasing diversity of applicants and students in academic, national and cultural background, through intra-European mobility and inflow of students from outside the European Higher Education Area. The Package and Pool will developed in an integrated process with regional Focus groups of 64 - 108 Master's coordinators who are eager to pilot with changing Master's admission practice. The evidence base on increasing diversity in Master´s admission and the need for compentency-based admission. Key outcomes of the project: I. Package of Tools, integrated with III Pilot experience through Focus groups 1. Explanatory note on the paradigms of Recognition and competency-based selection in Master’s admission 2. Guiding tool on requirements in Subject specific knowledge and skills 3. Guiding tool on requirements in General academic competencies & potential 4. Guiding tool on requirements in Personal characteristics 5. Guiding tool on choice of Assessment mechanisms 6. Guiding tool on choice of Automated Graduate Admission-Enrolment Management systems II. Strengthened Evidence base 1. Report on the degree of restrictiveness of Master’s level admissions to ‘outsiders’ 2. Report & analysis on categories of admission criteria and tests 3. Report on legal and regulatory obstacles to selective admissions at Master’s level 4. Report on the perceptions of students on Master’s admission processes III. Pilot experience through Focus Groups, integrated with I Package of Tools: Between 80 and 100 Master’s programmes have made specific plans to adapt their admission process 1. Two times between 8 and 10 Master´s in Southwest Europe 2. Two times between 8 and 10 Master´s in Northern Europe 3. Two times between 8 and 10 Master´s in Western Europe 4. Two times between 8 and 10 Master´s in South-eastern Europe IV. Services 1. Website with tools and information on competency-based Master’s admission in Europe 2. Pool of experts for on-call support in adaptation of admission at individual Master’s programme level V. Multiplier events 1. International seminar to share & disseminate the results of the project 2. Embedded dissemination events (sessions at conferences like EAIE, EUA, Utrecht Network etc. ) Sustainability of the results is guaranteed through the selffunding services set in place during the project and through the broad coalition of universities, associations and companies.
Context/ background Master’s education in Europe faces huge and varied diversity: of functions of programmes, labour market expectations, multidisciplinarity, international student mobility, etc. This is the background for the Mastermind Europe project as is shown in the rest of this summary, the overall report and the main project Outputs (in annex). Objective Mastermind Europe aimed to support Master’s programmes to adapt their admission for a more diverse and international pool of applicants by developing and testing a toolkit and Pool of experts. The Guiding Tools on Coherent admission, Subject knowledge, Academic Competence, Personal competence, Language proficiency and the Admission process. are on the website www.mastermindeurope.eu, developed and improved through 8 Focus Group meetings and 12 pilots Three survey-base reports underpin the evidence-base for the Mastermind Europe approach. Mastermind Europe provides a tool for voluntary use, to be fit to individual sizes. The proof of its value is in the eating and will show over time. But all responses so far have been positive: on the merit, the usefulness and the intention to actually use it. Consortium The consortium of 6 universities, 3 associations in Higher Education and 2 private companies in Higher Education in 8 countries has worked well. Cooperation and communication has been excellent, with strong mutual respect – between partners with often very little previous work together. Each partner fulfilled important roles and made essential contributions to the outputs and the process. The special committees for Finance and Communication worked well; the Flexible Project Fund played a crucial role. Activities To produce the Guiding Tools and Expert pool and test them - and further develop them - we used the Transnational Project meetings as well as other meetings and digital communication. The website and final conference played key roles in dissemination - as did the 19 external events, the Newsletter with 176 subscribers and the Repository of documents. The Evidence reports helped strengthen the evidence base for a competency-assessment approach to Master's admission Results / Impact The intended impact has been at the level of the European Higher Education Area rather than a narrow focus on the Consortium partners; the Consortium composition reflects this 6 universities, with 2 associations of universities (German and Catalan), one overarching European association (ACA), and two private companies. The impact within the Consortium was significant overall: five of the six universities actually conducted a pilot to apply the Toolbox and Expert pool at the level of individual Master’s programmes and invited the Mastermind Expert team to guide that process. Outside the consortium, we reached well over a thousand academic Master's coordinators, policy makers, vice-deans education, ministry officials, etc. Of the 226 participants in either a Focus Group meeting and/or the Final Conference 65 participants gave unsolicited positive feedback and 68 responded favourably to the end-of-project survey. We had specific policy impact at HE system level in the Netherlands and Catalunya, where educational authorities and overarching universities’ associations underlined the value of our approach and results. Long term benefits The Mastermind Toolkit and Expert pool will continue to help key players in the HE systems (academic Master’s coordinators, policy makers and decision makers at Faculty, University, national, and European levels) to cope with the increasing diversity in Master’s programmes. It will remain available - with expert support where asked - to help diversify the pool of successful applicants as well as raise expertise and ability to articulate 'learning incomes' in terms of subject-related knowledge & skills, general academic competencies, personal competencies & traits, as well as linguistic skills. Arguably, the Mastermind Europe project has contributed significantly to the development of the conceptual framework – the language so to speak – with which to discuss and develop a vision on Master’s admission and Master’s education that, on the one hand, is better adapted to the diversity and, on the other, gives more prominence to the general academic and personal competencies – or transversal skills that the modern labour market requires. Monitoring and quality assurance The Quality Council served well as both sounding board and critical reflection platform for the project. We have invited the members of the QC to remain in this role in the post-project continuation and we expect that most members will follow the three who have immediately pledged their continued engagement.