AGENDA

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AGENDA
1. Content of the study 2. Methodological
aspects 3. Analysis of the collected
information 4. Conclusions
European Schools (19/3/2009)
van Dijk Management Consultants
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CONTENTS OF THE STUDY
Objective collect, analyse and evaluate
qualitative and quantitative data concerning
1. The academic career of the graduates (with
emphasis on the analysis of the geographical
mobility / linguistic flexibility) 2. The
professional career of the graduates (idem) 3.
The strengths and weaknesses of the European
Schools (ES) curriculum (i.a. the
syllabuses used) 4. The social background of
the pupils 5. Problematic issues such as
 doubling  (i.e. repeating classes) and
 drop out  (i.e. leaving the system without a
Baccalaureate)
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HIGHLIGHTS OF METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS
1. Data on the academic and professional career
and on the social background of the
graduates were collected by means of an
electronic survey on an Internet platform 2.
Contact data of the graduates came from different
sources addresses of the parents
(provided by the schools), e-mail addresses
collected ad hoc, newsletter to EU staff, use of
Facebook and similar sites, appeal by
Interparents. In total 12.000 contact
points, i.e. about 1 out of every 3,
to which is to be added result of
 snowball  effect 3. Information on  drop
out  issue could only be collected in an
indirect way, i.e. graduates commenting on
co-pupils who dropped out 4. Results are
based on about 3,000 answers representativeness
of the answers is sufficient (in terms of age
distribution, gender, ES attended, mother
tongue, years spent at a ES, etc.)
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ACADEMIC CAREER ANALYSIS
1. 93 of the respondents have started an
academic career (no difference according to
gender or size of ES attended). 2. About 8 out
of 9 respondents starting tertiary education
obtain at least a bachelorship or its equivalent,
but about half of them will need more than 3
years to do so 3. As far as geographical
mobility is concerned (regarding the 1st
university or college attended) 44 start in a
country that is not their country of origin
(of these 44, 14 concern the country of
their European School) 4. As far as linguistic
flexibility is concerned (idem) 29 start
studying in a language that is not their L0/L1
(min. 14 (EN) max. 49 (SP)) 5.
These mobility and flexibility rates raise to
about 50 when tertiary education continues
at 2nd/3rd college or university
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ACADEMIC CAREER ANALYSIS (cont.)
of graduates starting tertiary education in
another language than their L0/L1
L0/L1 of graduate
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ACADEMIC CAREER ANALYSIS (cont.)
6. Concerning the academic fields chosen
? about 20 of respondents opt for sciences,
compared to 11 in the EU. There is a
statistically significant relation between
this choice at the tertiary education level and
the choice of optional courses in
science at secondary ? about 6 of
respondents opt for health or social protection,
compared to 13 on average in the EU
? letters and arts, with 14, nearly coincide
with the EU average of 13, so accent
put by ES on foreign language and European
culture does not lead to an above average
fraction of graduates specialising in
these fields at tertiary educational level
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PROFESSIONAL CAREER ANALYSIS
1. 59 of the respondents qualify their working
environment as being international, with a
slight gender difference (65 for men, 55 for
women) 2.  Only  7 of respondents work for
EU institutions 3. 65 work in services or non
profit sector (excl. public services), and
only 9 in industry 4. On average, for 64 of
the respondents their L0/L1 is not their major
language used at the workfloor, but there are
significant and some- times surprising
differences (EN 49, FR 59, DE 68, GR 76,
PT 53)
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PROFESSIONAL CAREER ANALYSIS (cont.)
of graduates whose L0/L1 is not their major
working language
L0/L1 of graduate
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 PROBLEMATIC ISSUES  ANALYSIS
1. Reasons for  doubling  of classes (concerns
1 out of every 4 boys and 1 out of every 7
girls) ? 29 due to lack of maturity or
motivation ? 14 due to difficulties with
mathematics ? 13 due to difficulties with
sciences ? ? 3 due to unadapted
educational methods ? 1.5 due to SEN not
met 2. Reasons for  drop out  (p.m. based
on indirect information) ? pupil sent to
boarding school in home country (mainly UK)
? disciplinary reasons (but result probably
biased by some  high profile  cases) ?
difficulties with foreign languages ?
difficulties with sciences ? difficulties
with mathematics

linked to pupil

linked to system

weaker pupils have to leave the ES
system altogether, since it does not offer an
artistic or vocational alternative
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SOCIAL BACKGROUND ANALYSIS
1. Social background was evaluated on the basis
of the professional and educational level of
the parents, with the highest level of either
one of the parents being considered as
representative 2. For the professional level, 5
categories were defined cat. 1 4
correspond to cat. A/A to D/D of the EU
institutions, cat. 5 to low level clerks and
technical workers ? level 1 ( A/A) is
best represented with 30, and 55 of respondents
came from families equivalent to level 1
( A/A) or 2 ( B/B) ? level 5 is
least represented on average 11, with
 small  schools being more
 democratic  (15) than  big  ones (9) 3.
In 82 of the families, at least one of the
parents has followed tertiary education
this is about 4 to 5 times the EU average
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DEGREE OF SATISFACTION
1. Only 3 of respondents have negative opinion
about the European Schools system 2.
Depending on mother tongue, only between 15 and
20 of the respondents considered themselves
less well prepared to tertiary education
than their fellow students 3. 49 consider that
studying at a ES has had a determining
impact on their professional career
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CONCLUSIONS
1. The European Schools system, and more
precisely the European Baccalaureate, opens
the door to colleges and universities for
about 94 of the responding graduates, of which 8
out of 9 will eventually also obtain at
least a bachelorship (p.m. 82 of the
respondents come from a family where at least one
of the parents holds a tertiary diploma) 2.
The European Schools system leads to
geographical mobility and linguistic
flexibility for the academic and professional
career 44 of the graduates follow
tertiary education in a country that is not
their country of origin, and for 64, their L0/L1
is not their main working language
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CONCLUSIONS (cont.)
But The European Baccalaureate, the high
numbers of foreign language teaching
periods (including CLIL) and the use
of native speaking teachers are perhaps
only the necessary but not the sufficient
conditions to obtain these results
The impact of the multilingual and multicultural
environment which might be hard to reproduce in
national educational systems should not be
forgotten when appreciating the  success  of
the European Schools system, as are the on
average high social and educational levels of
pupils families
CLIL content and language intergrated learning
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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Policy Dept B Structural
and Cohesion Policies Culture and
Education Analysis of the academic and
professional careers of the European Schools
graduates Presentation of the results by VAN
DIJK MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS (19/3/2009)