The social dimension has been a part of the Bologna process since the ministerial summit in Prague in 2001, when a student representative proposed the idea. Ever Since, this has been one of the students' main priorities, and has taken up a lot of ESUs work and efforts. We have seen the social dimension strengthened in Bologna strategies in the summits following Prague. In Bergen 2005 the commitment to the social dimension was reinforced:

“We therefore renew our commitment to making quality higher education equally accessible to all, and stress the need for appropriate conditions for students so that they can complete their studies without obstacles related to their social and economic background.”

This resulted in the social dimension working group, who presented a report with several suggestions for national policies and a definition for the social dimension which ended up in the following goal proposed to the ministers and adopted in London 2007:

“We strive for the societal goal that the student body entering, participating in and completing higher education should reflect the diversity of our populations. We therefore pledge to take action to widen participation at all levels on the basis of equal opportunity.”

At the same ministerial summit, the social dimension alongside mobility were chosen as the main priorities for the next working period leading up to the 2009 summit, with special focus on data-collection and national action plans. The work to put into action the goals decided by the ministers, have been delegated to three subgroups within the Bologna process; The Data collection Working Group, The Network of national experts on student support both with participation of ESU and Stocktaking Working Group with ESU as observer.

The Data collection working Group is responsible for overseeing the political aspect of the data collection on social dimension, meaning key areas for monitoring (widening access, study framework, effective outcome and mobility) and approving indicators on this. The actual data collection work is given to the organizations Eurostudent and Eurostat.

The network of national experts on student support is responsible for facilitating the bologna processes goal of achieving portability of loan and grants. The network has been asked to identify obstacles to this goal, and how to overcome them.

The working group on stocktaking is responsible for developing the questions for the national Bologna reports, and the indicators for the traffic-light system used to monitor the progress of bologna implementation. They are also doing some of the most important work on the Social dimension right now - the development of the template for the Bologna countries reporting on their work on national action plans on the social dimension.  This template will logically be perceived as the minimum requirements for national policies, and a to narrow the focus in the question can lead to the assumption that not much is needed to be done within this field. In short this template can set the standard for policy making at a national level.

For ESU it was vitally important that the template focus on equity both in access, participation and completion. That the suggestions from the social dimension report is reflected in the questions so that the countries have to report on actual actions taken not only fluent plans, and that policies are based on reliable data that proves its' effects. Finally it was important for ESU that the social situation for students is being monitored through sustainable processes such as student surveys etc.

All in all the most important step is to ensure that the Bologna countries actually draft action plans. This is the final step to ensuring the social dimension becomes a reality. This is also where we really need the strength of our members. We need them to ldevelop concrete action plans as soon as possible, to make the social dimension a reality by 2010. A student started this, and it is my strong belief that the students are needed to see this to the end!