Tag Archives: Bologna Process

The Bologna Process is the name given to the process of higher education reform in the greater European region (the reform movement is much broader than the 27 countries of the EU; there are currently 47 signatory countries). The Process is voluntary; there are no legal mandates that require countries to participate. It aims to facilitate the recognition of foreign academic degrees and qualifications; enable students and higher education graduates to move more easily from one country to another, increase the attractiveness of Europe as a place to study and/or work, and promote peace and stability in the region. By signing the Bologna Declaration, each country’s minister affirmed the nation’s intention to: adopt a system of easily readable and comparable degrees; adopt a system essentially based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate; establish a system of credits (e.g. ECTS); promote the mobility of students, teachers, researchers and administrative staff; promote European cooperation in quality assurance; promote the European dimensions in higher education, particularly regarding curricular development and inter-institutional cooperation.

Bologna Process: higher education reforms still too uneven

On 13 May 2015, 47 Education Ministers from the European Higher Education Area met in Yerevan for a two-day conference to discuss progress in improving higher education systems and enabling students to move more freely across national borders under the so-called Bologna process. It concluded in a Ministerial Communiquéand Fourth Bologna Policy Forum Statement. The latest Bologna implementation report published shows that there is still much to be done, as one average, only 7 of 10 students go through a higher education programme, while half of the countries’ completion rates are as low as 30-50%. The report also finds that funding and knowledge of languages are considered the biggest barriers to student mobility. Read EUCIS-LLL member ESU’s position.