VII. Higher education in ukraine

1.A Read the following article about changes in Ukrainian higher education and do the tasks that follow. The Bologna Process

Europe is coming together in many ways, changing its inward perspective and also the viewpoint from which the rest of the world looks upon it. A process is in play to streamline European higher education.

European countries are steeped in rich and historic but also very different academic traditions. Considered a national icon by most countries, academic traditions are notoriously hard to reform. But globalisation and an ever-expanding market for international education have left their traces in European academia, which has come to recognise the need to bundle forces in the world education market. Harmonisation is still a banned word in this respect, but improving comparability and compatibility is really what current reforms in higher education in Europe are all about.

The birth of the Process

In spring 1998, education ministers from France, the UK, Italy and Germany met at the Sorbonne University in Paris to discuss ways to move towards alignment of the structure of their higher education systems. They realised that higher education in Europe was a rather incompatible mish-mash of different systems in which true free movement of students and staff could never become a reality. The French, the Germans and the Italians also acknowledged that this quilt of national icons could never form a unified force of any significant size in the world education market. It had to become much clearer how any particular degree from a German university compared to any particular degree from a university in the UK, not to mention the US or Australia.

They had a fruitful meeting and signed, at the end of it, the Sorbonne Declaration. Soon other countries joined them because, despite efforts to devise ingenious formulae for the comparison of different European degrees throughout the 1980s and 1990s, nothing really worked smoothly and cross-evaluation of national credits was becoming an industry in its own right.

Changing titles

Due to disagreements with the use of Sorbonne as a name for a European process, the next meeting of ministers was scheduled in Bologna. Hence the Bologna Declaration was born (the 'Declaration' is the text, while the 'Process' (as it is generally called) is what the text is doing to Europe).

This time 29 ministers participated and again they achieved amazing results for a pan-European conference on a subject that beforehand was generally viewed as an event that would relax the existence of educational national sovereignty. They agreed to establish, by 2010, a 'European Area for Higher Education' and to work on the international promotion of a European Higher Education system modelled on the one commonly used in the Anglophone world. The European system would consist of two main cycles: an undergraduate cycle, leading to a bachelor's degree, and a graduate one. leading to master's and doctoral degrees.

Credit transfer system

Those involved agreed to adopt a credit transfer system to facilitate international mobility even within cycles, to work on European quality assurance and to promote a European dimension in higher education. The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System is a student-centred system based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a programme, objectives preferably specified in terms of the learning outcomes and competences to be acquired.

They also promised to work hard at dealing with various situations, removing obstacles for mobility from visa procedures right down to the level of housing and student services. Finally, they agreed to meet again two years' later in Prague. At the time, many thought that the Bologna Process was too good to be true and that half of those ministers would cop out. After all there were countries, particularly in central Europe (including Germany), whose education systems didn't even remotely resemble the envisaged model.

But assisted by some healthy fear of being left out of the international rally for brains, many countries got things moving at an unprecedented speed. Even the most inward looking of European academic bastions revamped their systems to implement the agreed changes.

EU initiatives

The Bologna Process sparked a number of initiatives, particularly from the European Commission, which, contrary to popular belief, had nothing to do with the original initiative but wholeheartedly embraced it. This has probably proved to be one of its blessings as in its current composition, there are no geographical or political divides among members of the group of countries involved in the Process.

The European Commission showed particular gusto in its drive towards recognition of academic credits among European countries. However, the lead in this field had been taken by the Council of Europe and its Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region. Presented in Lisbon in 1997, most signatories of the Bologna Process have also ratified this convention in recent years.

Rapid progress

In the run-up to the Prague meeting, the European universities and the European students realised that the ministers involved with the Process were making an awful lot of progress on their own – in fact much more than most had considered to be possible. So the universities met in Salamanca where they established the European University Association and the students, who had actually needed to invite themselves to the Bologna meeting, met in Goteborg. They all demanded an official voice in the debate, which they received. By that time, however, the most important decisions had been made.

On 19 and 20 May 2005, the Ministers of Higher Education of the Bologna Signatory States gathered in Bergen, Norway, and adopted a Communique taking note of progress made so far and confirming the three priorities defined at the Berlin meeting in September 2003: the degree system, quality assurance and recognition of degrees and study periods. Today 45 countries from Iceland to the Caucasus, including Ukraine that ascended in 2005, subscribe to the principles of the Bologna Process.

The impact on students

For students, the Process has opened the whole of Europe as their playground. Degree programmes throughout Europe are now becoming part of a straightforward exercise, with a clearer and more coherent understanding from country to country.

In the near future, it could be the case that a degree without some international input may be considered worth significantly less. For graduates, convincing international employers of the value of their degree has become infinitely much easier.