Study on the Diploma Supplement as seen by its users - naric

less apparent. However, from the Finnish and Turkish experience it can be seen that good
national support is an important factor; furthermore the French institution mentioned the lack
of national support for their work.
The interest and motivation of the institution to continuously work in developing their Diploma
Supplements is also of great importance. All institutions had invested time and effort into
their Diploma Supplements, and had also given consideration to future challenges and
development needs. The usability of the Diploma Supplement on the labour market was a
concern to all the institutions.
The findings from the site visits have been fed into the conclusions.
II.III Workshop presentation at the EQAR
The Diploma Supplement project and the provisional findings were presented at the
European Quality Assurance Forum ‘’EQAR’’ (Budapest, 20 th -22 th November 2008) in a
selected workshop named “Using Diploma Supplement’’. The workshop included a
presentation (see annex 8: Joint NARIC and ENQA Diploma Supplement Project) and a
discussion session.
The discussion group composed of Higher Education teachers, students and academic
officers coming from universities in the United Kingdom, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Sweden, the
Netherlands and Greece.
The discussion group came to findings and remarks in line with the observations and
recommendations made by the project group. An important part of the discussion concerned
the place of extracurricular competences acquired by students and of experience gained in
an international context. Most of the participants agreed that the Diploma Supplement
focuses on purely curricular issues and that in addition Europass gives the possibility for
mentioning supplementary information concerning the student in question. The participants
stressed the need for (re)enforcement of (inter)national guidance and support of the higher
education institutions in the understanding and explanation of each of the Diploma
Supplement chapters and subchapters by means of giving examples of good practices,
giving room for flexibility and contextual approach yet focus on the main objectives of the
Diploma Supplement namely providing clear and widely understandable information
concerning the degree or diploma in question. The participants appreciated the project
objectives and outcomes and would welcome a follow up and even continuation of the
project in a broader context.
II.IV Brief presentation at the NARIC meeting
The main conclusions of the Diploma Supplement project was presented at the annual
NARIC meeting in Brussels (9 th December 2008) in a plenary session. The NARIC centres
expressed their interest and requested that the project report be published on the restricted
area of the ENIC-NARIC website.
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