The Bologna Process and higher education in Mercosur: regionalization or Europeanization?

Over the past two decades regional agreements have become more significant in educational and training. This paper situates and analyses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy and explores their influence on the integration of higher education systems in Mercosur (the Southern Common Market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Mercosur is still a customs union, and the project of integrating higher education is at an early stage. Lacking organically established regional bodies, coordination of integration in Mercosur has focused on summits and meetings of officials. However, in a context of unequal maturity in regional integration, there is emerging evidence that the EHEA project is influencing the reforms of national systems of higher education and even Mercosur’s model for a regional area of higher education. A nascent Europeanization of higher education systems in the Mercosur region is emerging, by-passing Mercosur’s regional structures. The formulation of policies has been permeated by policy transfer from Europe to national territories within Mercosur.     

Incompatible enactments of learning outcomes? Leader,teacher and student experiences of an ambiguous policy object

Proliferating claims have been made for Learning Outcomes (LOs) potential to re-shape higher education: as forces for transparency and harmonisation, new forms for measurement or a format that fundamentally challenges traditional teaching and learning. Evidence of their actual influence remains sparse, however. This analysis of 45 interviews with university teachers, students and leaders from England and Norway investigates their experiences of LOs. The results suggest LOs are received as an ambiguous policy object, resulting in varied interpretations and uses. However, two persistent tendencies emerge. While LOs have been introduced in relatively flexible ‘process’ forms, which can support reflection and communication around teaching practices, respondents describe pressures to develop more high-level, standardised and measureable ‘product’ LOs. Tensions between the forms seem likely to reduce the scope for LOs to support teaching and learning practices.     

Policy development and educational research: The Hungarian experience

Heather Eggins (ed) Women as Leaders and Managers in Higher Education Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press, July 1997. ISBN 0335 19879 1 Price: hb £45.00 pb £16.99 160 pp     

欧洲高等教育区高等教育质量保证体系及启示

经济全球化给各国高等教育带来了机遇与挑战。为了抓住机遇,提高欧洲高等教育的国际竞争力和吸引力,欧洲从1999年开启了博洛尼亚进程,致力于在2010年前建立欧洲高等教育区,而其中高等教育质量保证是一个重要问题。研究欧洲高等教育质量保证体系的构想、提出、发展和完善过程,以及《欧洲高等教育质量保证标准与准则》的内容、原则和实施过程,对我国高等教育质量保证体系的发展具有重要的启示意义。     

Status of human resource management in public university libraries in Bangladesh

The study conducted a survey in five prominent public university libraries in Bangladesh to explore the extent of Human Resource Management (HRM) usually practiced by them. The survey used a combination of structured questionnaire, unstructured interview, and observation methods to examine the nature and type of library human resources, their professional categories, management issues including staff selection and recruitment, salaries and wages, job analysis methods, performance evaluation, audit, and promotion, supporting Human Resource Development (HRD) programmes, etc. The study used a five point Likert scale to rank major problems of HRM in libraries, and also to record staff's opinion on twelve (12) indicators measuring their levels of job satisfaction. Finally, the paper provided future directions for better HRM practices in the common interest of public university libraries in Bangladesh.     

The Bologna Process in Italy

Italy was among the promoters of the Bologna Process and the early adopters of the reform. If one looks at its impact on the formal structure of curricula and study programmes, the reform undertaken under the Bologna banner seems to have been one of the major educational reforms ever achieved in Italy. This article describes how the Bologna Process has unfolded in Italy, looking at the reasons why a reform that for long eluded Italian policymakers and higher education managers finally succeeded. The theme is approached from the point of view of the contemporary theories of institutional change, looking at the actors and interactions that made this reform possible despite strong opposition. In fact, it was a series of contingent events that weakened the balance of powers governing Italian HE, thus making institutional change possible.     

博洛尼亚进程:历程、进展与未来

到2007年,推动欧洲高等教育一体化建设的博洛尼亚进程已实施八年。针对2010年建成"欧洲高等教育区"的目标,对过去两年博洛尼亚进展中的成绩和问题进行了分项目的分析,指出了欧洲高等教育未来发展需要努力的十二个方面。     

Internationalisation of higher education: European experiences

‘Internationalisation’ is generally defined as increasing cross-border activities amidst persistence of borders, while ‘globalisation’ refers to similar activities concurrent to an erosion of borders. Study mobility is viewed as the most visible component in this framework in Europe with ERASMUS as the largest scheme of temporary mobility. ERASMUS was a trigger for a qualitative leap of internationalisation strategies and policies since the 1990s: towards cooperation and mobility on equal terms, and towards systematic and strategic internationalisation. The ‘Bologna Process’ aimed to make higher education more attractive to students from other parts of the world and to facilitate intra-European mobility; however, many other activities are needed to stimulate mobility, and the Bologna Process pursues many other objectives. It remains to be seen whether supra-national and national policies and institutional strategies will continue to opt for wide-ranging cooperation based on mutual trust or whether the ‘competition paradigm’ will determine the scene.     

高等教育全球化的挑战——学术研究者视野中的德国博洛尼亚进程

"博洛尼亚进程"是29个欧洲国家的教育部长于1999年在意大利博洛尼亚提出的欧洲高等教育改革计划,旨在保证欧洲高等教育的质量,建立统一的欧洲高等教育体系。为了应对高等教育全球化的挑战以及适应工业社会向知识社会转变的形势,德国大学围绕提高高等教育的质量推行了一系列改革措施,建立了新的质量保证和质量管理体系,调整了新的公共管理策略;重组了整个课程体系,革新教学观念和教学方式,实现了从以教师为中心到以学生为中心的教学方式和学习方式的转变;开展大学教师教学发展项目,提升大学教师的教学能力。     

How learning conditions and Program structure predict burnout and satisfaction in teacher education

To support prospective teachers’ professional development, teacher education should be characterised by conditions that help to prevent burnout and facilitate satisfaction. This study investigates predictors of burnout and satisfaction in teacher education by drawing on universities with different teacher education programme structures and assumed different learning conditions. Programme structure and student characteristics were conceived as antecedents of perceived learning conditions; burnout dimensions and student satisfaction were hypothesised to be consequences of both the distal and more proximal variables. Data were collected at four time points from N = 3,892 students enrolled in teacher education at 13 universities. Structural equation modelling revealed favourable effects of autonomy support, competence support, and social relatedness on the core burnout dimensions and satisfaction. Effects of programme structure on these outcomes were small and mediated by autonomy support and difficulty of demands. Study self-efficacy emerged as a broad personal resource. Implications for teacher education are discussed.