Article written by Sue Lawrence and Nol Reverda, Directors of the Macess programme. The validation of awards and courses within higher education has traditionally and, to a great extent, continues to be a national issue, with each country using its own protocol for determining standards and academic levels, and validating courses according to its nationally recognised and agreed system. Institutions in some countries, however, are able to validate courses which are delivered in an institution in another country. This practice has led to some useful collaborative arrangements in developing European postgraduate programmes for the social professions, particularly in countries where education for social professionals takes place outside of the university system, for example, in The Netherlands. Largely as a result of such collaboration, facilitated by the Erasmus programme, there is now a proliferation of courses for social professionals, which have ‘European’ in their title or as a major component of the course content. What, then, makes a programme ‘European’?
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Typical of postgraduate courses for experienced teachers is the wealth of professional experience that the studetns bring with them. Such students can examine their own practice, for which they are fully responsible. Authors from diverse backgrounds address important aspects of the platform, such as the relation between tutors and students; teachers' professional identity; the voice of pupils; the characteristics of teachers' workplace of the participating professionals; the relationship between action research and teacher leadership.
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