Bologna Declaration
The Bologna Declaration signed in 1999 by Ministers of Education from 29 countries in Europe has long reaching implications for Higher Education in the UK. Read here for a summary and links for further information.
Background
The Bologna Declaration was signed by the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries on the occasion of the CRE/Confederation of EU Rectors' Conference, held in Bologna on 18-19 June, 1999. More countries then joined and two years after signing the Bologna Declaration, the Ministers in charge of higher education of 33 European signatory countries met on 19 May 2001 in Prague to follow up the Bologna Process. There they reaffirmed their commitment to the objectives of the Bologna Declaration and to set directions and priorities for the coming years.
The Ministers decided that the next follow-up meeting for the Bologna process should take place in 2003 in Berlin to review progress and to set directions and priorities for the next stages of the process to the European Higher Education Area. The process should be completed in 2010.
The Declaration is a binding commitment between the countries to reform their own higher education systems in an agreed direction - the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). It is a commitment in principle and practice to create a comparable and increasingly converged system of graduate and post-graduate education across Europe, in order to maximize transferability and mobility within Europe.
The six objectives are:
- Promotion of European dimension in HE
- Promotion of mobility for students and staff
- Promotion of European cooperation in QA
- Adoption of system of easily read and comparable degrees
- System based on two main cycles - first cycle of three years (undergraduate) and the second cycle of two years (graduate).
- Establishment of system of credits through the European Credit Transfer Scheme (ECTS).
A website containing full details of the entire Bologna progress (past, present and future), has been established at http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/ where many links are also located.
Implications to Engineering Courses
The Engineering Professors Council held a seminar on the Bologna Declaration at UMIST in November 2002 to discuss the declaration as it applies to engineering. Concerns were expressed on the implications of the Declaration with respect to the length of many MEng programmes in the UK resulting in a short fall of the proposed number of credits required to fulfil the second cycle. There are also concerns about accession routes to the second cycle through non undergraduate routes (e.g. HND), and the status of foundation degrees and matching sections. Several countries, including Belgium, Austria, Norway,The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland have made substantial changes to their education systems to move towards Bologna. Despite expressing interest (and signing the declaration!) little action has been taken by the UK Government to date, and there are concerns that Engineering students and graduates may be isolated if these concerns are not addressed. Find presentations from that meeting at http://www.epc.ac.uk/publications/meetings/presentations.php?id=5. A factsheet prepared by the Engineering Council is available at http://www.engc.org.uk/education--skills/bologna-declaration.
The Engineering Professors Council held a further consultation/progress meeting for the UK at the IET in October '08 (http://www.theiet.org/events/2008/bologna.cfm) with an excellent resume by Prof Clive Neal-Sturgis (http://www.ndlr.ie/mecheng/drupal/sites/all/download/isee08/papers/001_Bologna%20a%20UK%20Perspective.pdf). This event was the forum for the launch by QAA of its Framework for Higher Education Qualifications - 2nd edition (http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/fheq/default.asp) and its relationship with the European Qualifications Framework (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/eqf/broch_en.pdf)
The Europe Unit (http://www.europeunit.ac.uk/bologna_process/index.cfm) has a resume of Bologna and links to the designation of the European Higher Education Area (http://ehea.europeunit.ac.uk/home/), which is looking beyond the original remit of Bologna and beyond pan-European HE from 2010.
Related content
