The Bologna Declaration Process has initiated important changes in higher education in Europe. The declaration was signed in Bologna in 1999 to increase the mobility of students, teachers and professionals, resolve obstacles in relation to the recognition of qualifications and create a greater comparability and transparency in European higher education. In brief, the declaration proposes 6 action lines:
1. The adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees
2. The adoption of a system essentially based on 2 cycles
3. Establishment of a system of credits
4. Promotion of mobility
5. Promotion of European co-operation in quality assurance
6. Promotion of the European dimension in higher education
Every two years, the European ministers meet to discuss the progress of the process and to decide on further actions. During their meeting in Prague in 2001, 3 action points were added to the list mentioned above:
7. Life Long Learning
8. Higher Education institutions and students
9. Promoting the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area
During the ministerial meeting in Berlin in 2003, a tenth action was line was added:
10. Doctoral studies and the synergy between the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area
The ministers from the Bologna signatory countries met in Bergen, Norway in May 2005. In the Bergen Communiqué no new action lines were added but important pillars for the EHEA that emerged in the meantime were identified and adopted in the process:
· the overarching framework for the European Higher Education Area to which national frameworks can refer to and
· the standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area as proposed by ENQA.
The meeting held in London in May 2007 was for the ministers the opportunity to recognize the progress made in the implementation of the Bologna Process since Bergen. Nonetheless, some challenges still have to be tackled in order to achieve the goals of the Bologna Process by 2010.
Thus, in the London Communiqué, the ministers took several commitments:
· To implement “national qualifications frameworks” in each country by 2010.
· To implement a “Register of quality assurance”, which will make the comparability and recognition of diplomas easier from one country to another.
The ministers also agreed on the following priorities for 2009:
· The mobility of both students and teachers (i.e. through the promotion of joint program and more flexible curricula).
· The employability: It is important to ensure that employment and career structures within the public service are fully compatible with the new degree system and to implement curricula better suited to the needs of the labor market and to further study.
· The social dimension in order to reduce social inequality in terms of access to higher education.
· The improvement of data collection on various fields.
· The European Higher Education Area in a Global context with the need of improving the visibility and the recognition of the EHEA outside from Europe.
The London meeting also highlighted the need to go forward and to cooperate beyond 2010. In the future, in order to set the European higher education systems on a course that looks beyond the immediate issues, the ministers are willing to go beyond issues of structures and tools and to consider further how the EHEA might develop after 2010.
The last meeting was held in Leuven/Louvain La Neuve in May 2009.
A detailed description of this political process, as well as full texts of the Bologna Declaration and its follow-up communiqués can be downloaded here:
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
