Anything goes: Or,how the accommodation of Europe's universities to European integration integrates an inspiring number of contradictions

Abstract

This article analyses the implications for the integration of higher education in Europe as presented by the Bologna process. It examines the evidence presented in official documents which claim a wide‐spread consensus for this initiative. The article analyses the particular ideological commitment built into the Bologna process in the light of its four objectives Mobility, Employ ability, Competitiveness and Attractiveness. It questions whether that consensus, largely taken for granted at the higher levels of political discussion, is fully reflected in ‘le pays reel’ ‐ at the chalk face. It argues that the main test of the Bologna ‘principles’ will come when talk gives way to implementation, both at the level of first degrees and in the area of research training.     

Managing the Bologna Process at the European Level: institution and actor dynamics

This article analyses the work of the Bologna Follow Up Group as the main institution of the Bologna Process and the perceptions of the policy actors involved concerning the character of the process in terms of its functioning in contrast to similar multi-level multi-actor European processes, its modes of communication and consensus seeking, as well as its effectiveness in terms of policy formation and implementation. It argues that the Bologna Process is a unique multi-level multi-actor process shaped by its informality, the actors' political commitment and the participation of stakeholders. Its format seems to be more effective and suitable for purposes of policy formation than for those of policy monitoring or coordination of implementation.     

Academic Understandings of and Responses to Bologna: a three-country perspective

This article aims to describe how academics in England, Denmark and Portugal understand the Bologna Process, their attitudes towards the initiative, and how understandings and attitudes determine action. It shows how contextually and culturally determined academic understandings, expectations, preferences, priorities and constraints are key influences in the process of educational change envisaged by the Bologna Process. Second, inspired by the implementation staircase metaphor which illustrates different actors' perceptions conditioned by their location on the path of the policy, the article presents three different examples of interplay between national authorities responsible for policy-making in the wake of the Bologna Process and the institutional field responsible for policy implementation. It reveals variations from country to country with regard to bottom-up and top-down initiatives, both at the level of actors' expectations and of actual measures to implement Bologna policy. This article comes in response to the frailty of an empirical base for the understanding of Bologna from an institutional and academic perspective. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/9YVouJ35XuE     

'Quality' in the Bologna Process: from 'competitive edge' to quality assurance techniques

The theoretical premise of this article is that policy is constructed and presented discursively. The Bologna process presents us with an example of such a policy construction process where the quality policy goals are set jointly in transnational settings, requiring different kinds of negotiations and discursive strategies. Discourse analysis of policy texts can be useful in tracing policy changes and describing them, but also in explaining and understanding some of the developments that lead up to the implementation of the policies and the (political) views which are embedded in the debates. In this article, some discourse analytical methods are used to analyse the potential meanings of ‘quality’ at the European and national level of the Bologna process. The linguistic analysis focuses on the different meanings of ‘quality’ and the value assumptions attached to it from the point of view of word choice, metaphors and argumentation strategies. The data used are the official declarations and communiqués of the Bologna process; the central background reports of the process; and brief national follow‐up reports prepared for the Berlin meeting of 2003 from Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.     

Epidemiology and the Bologna Saga

This paper discusses the driving forces behind the Bologna process, its advantages and possible negative effects. It also analyses the dangers that may result in commoditisation of the European higher education systems, in emergence of rigid accreditation systems and of a centralised bureaucracy that will impair innovation and creativity.The paper develops the idea that the Bologna process may be interpreted as a step in the neo-liberal movement to decrease the social responsibility of the state by shortening the length of pre-graduate studies and transferring responsibility for supporting employability to individuals through graduate studies.Consideration is also given to the mechanisms and forces behind the Bologna process that try to present an apparent climate of consensus despite some obvious difficulties and disagreements at the level of implementation.     

Three bolognas and a pizza pie: Notes on institutionalization of the European higher education system

Quietly, without attracting too much attention from educational sociologists in Europe, a massive process has been underway for five years that is expected to revolutionize European higher education to an unprecedented extent. Launched by a number of European governments and subsequently taken over by the European Commission, the so-called Bologna Process is expected to boost European higher education to the top of the world higher education markets by 2010. This article looks at the history of the Process and its connections to the process of constructing the federal Europe, and analyses its three agendas: cultural, political and economic. In the final section the issue of institutionalizing the European higher education system is discussed and problematized. It concludes that the contribution European intellectuals have made to the project is both sociologically naive and intellectually irresponsible.     

Aspired Convergence,Cherished Diversity: Dealing with the contradictions of Bologna

This article addresses the inherent tension in the Bologna process between the aim of convergence and the will to maintain the diversity of national higher education (HE) systems, as well as the decentralised and autonomous nature of national policy formulation on Bologna reforms. Starting from an analytical discussion of the concepts of convergence versus diversity in the Bologna documents, it assesses empirically the degree of convergence achieved so far between the HE systems of Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England. The result is that convergence in several dimensions was only modest between 1998 and 2004. The article concludes by reflecting upon this finding and discusses the implications. The policy proposals put forward are (1) to acknowledge and stress the merits of the Bologna process other than convergence, (2) to engage in a second round of reforms more clearly targeted at convergence, and (3) to address mobility and recognition issues independent from convergence of degree structures.

     

Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Europe

This article provides comprehensive information about new developments in the field of quality evaluation in Europe. It focuses on the most important international documents adopted and signed by the European authorities responsible for higher education--the Sorbonne and the Bologna Declarations and the Prague Communique´. It briefly analyzes the follow-up activities of the Bologna process initiated by the academic community of European higher education institutions, their students and their various organizations, and describes certain important consequences linked to them. Some background information about several European countries is given so as to highlight real situations.     

Selective acquiescence,creative commitment and strategic conformity: situated national policy responses to Bologna

The non-binding nature of the Bologna Declaration and loose policy-making and implementation through the open method of coordination (OMC) have led to varied national responses to the Bologna Process. The OMC has allowed countries room for manoeuvre to interpret Bologna policy and attach different degrees of importance to it. Looking at the interplay between agency and structure in policy implementation, this article aims to illustrate the localised character of Bologna policy implementation driven by national priorities and political agendas, a reflection of the ‘policy as text’ metaphor (Ball, 1994). The analysis is driven by an agentic understanding of the policy process, highlighting ‘actors’ perceptions, perspectives, preferences, actions and interactions' (Trowler, 2002). Three different country reactions are examined — England, Portugal and Denmark, described as selective acquiescence, creative commitment and strategic conformity to capture the essence of the cases in question. In analysing the countries' responses, the article considers national readings of Bologna, motivations behind responses to the Process, as well as its reception and implementation at national level.     

Aspired Convergence,Cherished Diversity: Dealing with the contradictions of Bologna

This article addresses the inherent tension in the Bologna process between the aim of convergence and the will to maintain the diversity of national higher education (HE) systems, as well as the decentralised and autonomous nature of national policy formulation on Bologna reforms. Starting from an analytical discussion of the concepts of convergence versus diversity in the Bologna documents, it assesses empirically the degree of convergence achieved so far between the HE systems of Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England. The result is that convergence in several dimensions was only modest between 1998 and 2004. The article concludes by reflecting upon this finding and discusses the implications. The policy proposals put forward are (1) to acknowledge and stress the merits of the Bologna process other than convergence, (2) to engage in a second round of reforms more clearly targeted at convergence, and (3) to address mobility and recognition issues independent from convergence of degree structures.     

The Bologna Process and the Lisbon Research Agenda: the European Commission's expanding role in higher education discourse

This article examines the role of the European Union's Commission in weaving together the Bologna Process and the Lisbon research strategy with its existing educational initiatives to define and disseminate an influential vision of European higher education. The article begins by outlining the Commission's activities in relation to EU education programmes, the Lisbon research agenda and the Bologna Process. It goes on to examine, in a variety of policy texts, the discourse of European higher education that is supported by, and supporting, these large-scale policy developments. Whilst the overall coherence and cohesiveness of this emerging discourse can be queried, the article argues that the Commission is drawing effectively on both Bologna and Lisbon to firmly constitute — and reconstitute — higher education as a European policy domain. The article concludes with an analysis of how different educational stakeholders are supported and restricted by the Commission's views of higher education, as articulated through its 'hybrid' Bologna/Lisbon agenda.     

Improving the Recognition of Qualifications in the Framework of the Bologna Process

Whereas supra‐national higher education policies in the past decade have been criticised for their possible harm to the national governments’ autonomy, the Bologna process — as an international agreement — has received much more positive reactions from national governments, at least in the rhetoric sense. Nevertheless, a variety of approaches of governments can be noted to do justice to the agreements made in the Bologna Declaration (1999) . In this article, we shall try to explain the (gradual) change from Euroscepticism to acceptance of harmonisation attempts in higher education. We shall furthermore exemplify this change process by looking at developments in a number of European countries: UK, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Austria and Germany.     

Survey on the implementation of the Bologna process in Portugal

For several years Portuguese higher education institutions have been waiting for the legislation framework necessary for the implementation of the Bologna process. Such legislation was passed quite recently (2006) and has resulted in an unexpected flood of proposals presented at very short notice by higher education institutions to the Ministry. It is possible that such fast implementation rate corresponds to implementation “in form” rather than “in substance”, thus softening tensions between the European and the national and local levels. This hypothesis will be tested by analysing the outcomes of a survey conducted in all higher education institutions that have presented proposals of Bologna-type degree programmes or adaptations of old degree programmes to the new Bologna-type structure.     

National Evaluation of Bologna Implementation in Finland: Procedures and outcomes

Finland has performed, as one of the first Bologna countries, a national evaluation of the outcomes of the implementation of the Bologna process. The evaluation was organized by the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council and performed by an independent expert group during 2010. In general, the reform was conceived as a significant development project which was carried out in a well-organized manner in a relatively short period of time. A closer look at the details show, however, that many of the objectives of the reform were not achieved. This article describes the background and procedures of the evaluation and discusses the main results and conclusions for Finnish higher education policy. The reception, success and implications of the evaluation will also be discussed.

     

Bachelor Graduates on the Labour Market. A Cross‐national Comparison of the Employers' Viewpoint

One of the most vehemently discussed questions in the process of restructuring traditional long study programmes according to the Bachelor/Master model is how to develop first cycle curricula and degrees which are a meaningful preparation for a following Master programme as well as for the labour market—as stressed in the Bologna Declaration. It remains to be seen for which occupational levels undergraduate programmes will prepare and how these new degrees will be assessed on the labour markets in different countries in Europe. The article focuses on the employers' viewpoint, giving an overview of the assessment of Bachelor degrees in four countries: Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands and Norway. As it is a very early stage to provide in‐depth analyses because so far there are hardly any Bachelor graduates on the labour markets, the article illustrates from a more analytical perspective what factors might influence their transition to the world of work and the development of their further careers.     

Finnish Higher Education Policy and the Ongoing Bologna Process

|spagf|it|epagf|The Bologna train is running at full speed. The next stop at ministerial level is the Berlin follow-up meeting to be held on 18-19 September 2003. This article is an attempt to investigate the background to the Bologna Process, which, with all the haste, has remained rather obscure. It examines how the educational policy of the EEC/EU has reached a stage at which one can speak of a European Higher Education Area with reference to the concepts of harmonization and the Bologna Process. It will also examine possible future scenarios, focusing particularly on the Finnish situation. Why has Finland been so keen to embark on reforms? What does Finnish higher education policy aim to achieve through the Bologna Process, and what does it stand to gain from it?|spagf|ro|epagf|     

俄罗斯的博洛尼亚进程:困境及走势

俄罗斯加入博洛尼亚进程既是提升其国家竞争力的需要,也是其参与世界教育服务市场竞争的需要。但是,目前它面临着对"博洛尼亚化"的倡导与反对并存、被认为是一场"没有激情的运动"等困境。尽管如此,俄罗斯的博洛尼亚进程仍有"软着陆"的趋势。     

The open method of coordination and the implementation of the Bologna process

In this paper the authors argue that the use of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the implementation of the Bologna process presents coordination problems that do not allow for the full coherence of the results. As the process is quite complex, involving three different levels (European, national and local) and as the final actors in the implementation process higher education institutions (HEIs) have considerable degree of autonomy, assuming that the implementation of Bologna is a top–down linear policy implementation process does not account for the developments taking place, which produce implementation difficulties at several different levels. Constraints resulting from economic concerns at European and national levels may be an obstacle for the Bologna’s contribution to a social Europe.     

Training of specialists and the labour market in Russia

Abstract

In this paper the authors argue that the use of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in the implementation of the Bologna process presents coordination problems that do not allow for the full coherence of the results. As the process is quite complex, involving three different levels (European, national and local) and as the final actors in the implementation process higher education institutions (HEIs) have considerable degree of autonomy, assuming that the implementation of Bologna is a top‐down linear policy implementation process does not account for the developments taking place, which produce implementation difficulties at several different levels. Constraints resulting from economic concerns at European and national levels may be an obstacle for the Bologna's contribution to a social Europe.