Bologna reforms slow to respond to Europe’s university challenge

By Ian Mundell

Date: 21/04/05

European higher education ministers will meet in Bergen, Norway, next month to take stock of the Bologna Process, a collection of reforms whose basic aim is to make it easier for students to pursue their studies across Europe. The summit marks the half-way point in the process, and while ministers will be able to congratulate themselves on considerable progress, they will also have to ask themselves what their 'European higher education area' will look like when it is achieved in 2010.

The Bologna Process treads a difficult path. It declares itself against harmonisation, insisting that national differences in higher education can be maintained, along with autonomy for the universities. And yet it wants degree systems to be comparable and the value of a student's education to be recognised across the 40 nations currently signed up to the process. At the simplest level, a student finishing a bachelor's degree in one country should be able to join a master's course in another without administrative obstructions.

The stock-taking exercise at the heart of the Bergen meeting focuses on three elements of the Bologna Process, considered by ministers to be immediate priorities: quality assurance, the two-cycle degree system and recognition of degrees and periods of studies. But other issues, such as the recent addition of research and doctoral studies to the process, are also to be considered. Every country must submit an assessment of its own progress, while an overview of the structure of higher education in Europe will be provided by an independent group. The European University Association (EUA) will report on implementation of the reforms within institutions, while ESIB (The National Union of Students in Europe), representing the student unions, will report on the student experience.

The involvement of the higher education community in the Bologna Process is complicated. As well as providing a great deal of the information for the stock-taking, the EUA and ESIB have also produced political declarations aimed at influencing the outcome of the meeting. On top of that, they are represented on the Bologna Follow-Up Group, along with a number of other interested organisations and national officials. This group co-ordinates the preparations for the conference and has drafted the communiqué that the ministers will be invited to sign.

The outcome of the Bergen meeting will depend on what the ministers are willing to put their names to. It is likely, for instance, that the introduction of reforming legislation and the two-cycle degrees across the board will be celebrated in the final communiqué. It is unlikely that much will be made of the complaint in the EUA report that this has been done largely without additional money. Only five of the 40 nations - Norway, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland - are recognised as attempting to meet the costs incurred by the reforms, and they are unlikely to be allowed to shine at the expense of their colleagues.

Equally, there are instances where the ministers have been presented with a choice of information. The EUA report notes that the Bologna Process has produced a shift in teaching so that student needs are brought centre-stage. More attention is now paid to teaching performance, to feedback from students on teaching and learning processes, and to student support services, it says, although the extent to which this is the case differs across Europe. But ESIB is sceptical about this trend. While it sees more discussion of the issues that affect students, the extent of meaningful change is more limited. Its survey results will back this up.

The likely common ground will be a re-affirmation of the Bologna goals. This is not as empty as it may sound, because the process has grown a great deal since it began in 1999, with only 29 signatories. It would also be an opportunity to address the wide variation in conditions across Europe and a perception that the reforms are being adopted piecemeal. "The measures adopted by the ministers make sense only if they are all taken together," observes ESIB. "Bologna reforms that would be à la carte, that would vary from country to country, would be meaningless."

A re-dedication would also allow the speed of reforms to be considered. "If we proceed too quickly, there is a danger that many nations will not be able to keep up," notes the Norwegian government in its introduction to the summit. "If we proceed too slowly, there is a danger that we will be left with empty words and nothing more."

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

Preview of a meeting of Ministers responsible for higher education in 40 European countries, Bergen 19-20 May 2005. Ministers were to take stock of the progress of the Bologna Process since the Berlin meeting in September 2003
and to set directions for the further development towards the European Higher Education Area to be realised by 2010.

Norway: Ministry for Education and Research: Bologna Process webiste http://www.bologna-bergen2005.no/

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