The European ministers of education asked the Bologna Follow-Up Group to come up with a concept for the development of the Bologna Process after 2010. Governments and consultative members, party to the Bologna Process (especially the students and the higher education institutions), are faced with the challenge of designing the relaunching of a process that has been shaping the higher education systems in Europe.

It was just a decade ago that Ministers of four big western European countries gathered for the celebration of the anniversary of the University of Paris in the Sorbonne and triggered what would soon become an overwhelming process of reform reaching to all corners of the continent. The launch of a true pan-European process would only happen at the Bologna ministerial conference. The declarations were mainly focusing on the challenges of (the economic) globalisation and the need for attractiveness and competitiveness. It was only in Prague that the process finally grew from cabinets and ministerial offices and started engaging higher education institutions and students, promising a partnership that we are still to achieve in many countries. Transparency of qualifications, student-centered learning, mobility and the social dimension of higher education are still goals which are too distant, even if they have been repeated and copy pasted from ministers’ communiqué to ministers’ communiqué. As results needed to be presented peer and partner pressure was being put forward, countries accelerated the pace of action and focused on legal and formal structural reform, whilst leaving other action lines underdeveloped. Bologna reforms as a package and the partnership with the stakeholders were concepts taking the backseat in the national implementation, as the deadline of 2010 approached. Academics and students complained about rushed, unprepared and bad implementation, diverting from the Bologna goals, whilst society and employers reacted with indifference regarding the process and suspicion about the new degree structures.

It took us 3 years, from the celebration in 1998 to the welcoming of students and higher education institutions into the process in 2001, to actually get it right in terms of the involvement of stakeholders. It has taken us almost ten for defining and implementing reforms and principles agreed at the European level. And yet, in every day life in higher education institutions and national systems, we see how distant the goals set for 2010 are and the reality we face as students. The “à la carte” approach to reforms and the mix of other actions unrelated or contrary to the principles of the Bologna Process have been damaging the higher education systems and the overall situation of students and academics, that are raising more and more dissenting voices. It’s not surprising that this happens in a context in which public funding is strangling institutions and tuition fees are increasing; efficiency in institutions quite often means a switch of concept within the academic community and students are removed from decision-making bodies; Governments and the European Union seem to propose a trade between institutional autonomy and a reduction of the weight of public funding in the sector’s budget.

The true challenge for the Bologna Process in the near future is to actually accomplish what it was established for: the creation of a true and balanced European Higher Education Area, with high levels of quality, promoting big flows of mobility of students and staff and cooperation between higher education institutions, in a process that both at the national and European level engages the academic community as a whole and provides them with the necessary social, economic and work conditions that allow for the maximum use of all citizens’ capacities. The divides existing between East and West, North and South; the challenges within each country in terms of access, participation and completion of higher education by the different underrepresented groups; the continuous overlooking of action lines going beyond the structural changes make Bologna as a package an even more pressing agenda for reform.

We are talking about the need for true and measurable action in the field of social dimension, an increase of the levels of mobility and cooperation between institutions in Europe, a meaningful reform of curricula (that also takes some responsibility and concern for the future employment of graduates), the use of the ECTS credit system and learning outcomes as a tool for transparency and quality of the study programmes, the development of student-centered learning in each institution, the inclusion of lifelong learning and continuous education as part of their mission and a fair assessment of prior learning achieved by non-traditional students as a fundamental right of the citizens (rather than as an expanding market or source of income), a call for the progress of the quality assurance systems further than a mere bureaucratic exercise and the imperative need for a deeper European dimension and integration inside and between national systems.

It is foreseen that a number of new priorities will be put forward and higher education funding and governance seem to be the most obvious. But proposals regarding a bigger focus on internationalisation and marketing of European higher education, typology and diversification of institutions and a closer link between Bologna and the objectives laid by the Lisbon Strategy are also expected. Again, now that the formal implementation of structures in the EHEA is expected to finish by the 2010 deadline, a one-dimensional perspective of the challenges of globalisation and the measures needed to tackle them will most likely arise in the European debate, without much link with the real situation that students and academics are facing in their institutions.

The relaunch of such a complex process encompasses a number of challenges and opportunities. It is true that the only way of developing it is by reaching an agreement at the European level. But it is also a fact that such a consensus should be built upon wide consultations of all the main actors at the national level, bringing their debate on the needs of and the ways in which the higher education systems should develop to the European arena. An agenda and a background paper for the debate are in preparation and it seems we risk having this debate locked in between Ministries at the European level once again, as we had ten years ago. Although ESU has asked for this debate to also take place on campuses and inside the countries, we do not see it happening.

Therefore, we urge the NUSes to start this debate on their own, defining their own positions and statements, asking the Ministries for involvement on this issue and setting up coalitions and initiatives in cooperation with other stakeholders. These actions should be more successful if they start right away, as there will already be a number of initiatives in May and June that will be key to predetermining how the process can develop further.

ESU has already been preparing this debate for many years: we had a project called “Beyond 2010” and discussed a policy paper on the Future of Higher Education, whilst paying attention to the developments of the Lisbon Strategy and reacting to the OECD’s initiatives, including the “Four Future Scenarios for Higher Education” or the Tertiary Education Review. The next Board Meeting will also discuss a statement on the Bologna Process after 2010, which is being prepared right now. Also, we will continuously feed the NUSes with the updated information regarding the evolution of this topic that will remain hot until the Leuven ministerial conference in April 2008.

Bruno Carapinha

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