Download lessons from the Bologna Process - Higher Education Reform Experts

Higher education reform:
lessons from the Bologna
Process
Howard Davies
SPHERE / EUA
SPHERE conference
Barcelona, December 12 2016
The Bologna reforms…
vary in focus from country to country
are subject to different distributions of
legal competences and policy-making
responsibilities
have no fixed place in the priority list of
national policy imperatives
can prove problematic when it comes to
implementation
Readability
… ‘a system of easily readable and
comparable degrees’ (Bologna
Declaration, 1999)
a process of approximation
an over-arching policy umbrella; mobility
instruments; a timetable
readability is now in place – but what is
readable is not always correctly read
Portugal after the financial crisis
In 2012, the Portuguese ministry declared
that:
‘a quantitative increase in higher
education must be complemented by a rise
in quality that makes it possible to match
the offer to the existing needs via the
rationalisation of the network of institutions
and courses’
EUA in Portugal
EUA was invited to:
take stock of the implementation of the Bologna
legislation
map current issues: access to HE; student
finance; demography; employability; research,
innovation, regional development; governance
and funding; the re-structuring of the HE system
locate Portuguese HE in its European and
international contexts
meet relevant actors and stakeholders
make recommendations
Peer readability
EUA team scrutinised Portugal - and its home
territories at the same time:
CH: insight into the differences between the
Portuguese and Swiss binary systems
ES: understanding of Portugal in its Iberian
context
ESU: opportunity to compare a country in which
student associations are much stronger at
institutional level with countries where they are
strong at national level
UK: witnessing Bologna implementation at close
quarters
Categories of readers
Peer readers
Readers who use
Readers who monitor
Readers who advise or adjudicate
Peer readers who contribute to the
construction of the EHEA:
e.g. national qualifications frameworks
Macedonia
Readability and trust: the case of
professional qualifications
Council of European Dentists and the Association
for Dental Education in Europe
European Federation of Nurses Associations
The Pharmine project
The European Network of Heads of Schools of
Architecture and the Architects Council of Europe
[both nursing and architecture participated in
the Tuning Project]
The reform of a reform
2013: the French Community of Belgium’s
Landscape Decree – Le Décret Paysage
Revision of mission to boost readability
and internationalisation
Structural reform at system level
From three ‘ideological’ academies to one
coordinating academy
Legal texts do not provide full readability
SPHERE conference Barcelona
First learning outcome:
‘To be able to analyse higher education
policy reforms, considering examples from
other systems’
Two days to practise readability…
1998 The Sorbonne Declaration: ‘The
international recognition and attractive
potential of our systems are directly
related to their external and internal
readabilities.’
Thank you for your attention
[email protected]