The Bologna process and the search for excellence: between rhetoric and reality,the emotional reactions of teachers

ABSTRACT

There has been an overall change in higher education towards the achievement of outstanding patterns of quality and excellence that assure competitiveness at a global scale. Teachers feel the pressure of official regulations for achieving quality and excellence, based on questionable concepts of quality that do not take into account the experience and beliefs of teachers and lead to emotional states that may promote or hinder adjustment to changes.

The present study used a categorical content analysis to capture the emotions that twelve university teachers associate with the changes experienced and with the pursuit of quality emphasized in Portugal by the Bologna Process. The results show that participants revealed mixed emotions regarding change. Students elicit mostly positive emotions, whereas bureaucracy, marketization and career changes generate negative emotions that impede the quest for quality, although in a minority of participants they prompt resilience that stimulates engagement in quality.     

高等教育国际化背景下的研究生双语教学——以厦门大学为例

波洛尼亚进程对欧盟国家的大学在国际化方面提出了一系列要求,这些要求为我国高校国际化进程提供契机和借鉴,我国高校在国际化进程中不仅要激励国内学生"走出去",更力求把国外学生"引进来",为此应该加强双语教学的开展,特别是在研究生层面。     

试论欧洲中世纪大学的特征与历史地位

西欧的中世纪被历史学家称为“黑暗时代”,然而,正是在这一封闭、落后的时期萌发了人类文明史上的娇艳之花——大学。欧洲中世纪大学在教育理念和课程内容等许多方面,继承了古代东西方,特别是古代希腊、罗马及阿拉伯世界的教育遗产,形成了早期大学的特征。这对世界近现代大学和高等教育机构基本原型的构成产生了深远的影响。文章试图通过对欧洲中世纪大学特征及其作用的阐述和分析,客观评价早期大学的历史地位。     

The rule of mimetic desire in higher education: governing through naming,shaming and faming

The initiation of the Bologna Process was accompanied by a radical transition of governance in higher education throughout Europe from government to governance. This article argues that this shift in the design of governing was connected to the need to subtly bypass the European Union (EU) subsidiarity principle that kept education out of the EU’s legislative reach. The new mode of governing is orchestrated through the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), which constitutes the policy ontology of the Bologna Process. The OMC presents the ambition to harmonise education systems through standardisation as a main technology to govern performance. This article argues that the Bologna mode of governance is powered through the follow-up mechanisms that work as a material-affective infrastructure of the policy ontology. These monitoring techniques are affectively wired. They produce an affective politics of naming, shaming and faming that ignites a competitive, mimetic desire making the Bologna mode of governance feasible.     

The Impact of the Bologna Process in Ibero-America: prospects and challenges

The Bologna Process is one of the major developments to have taken place in higher education in recent centuries. It has had an impact beyond European borders and repercussions in other parts of the world. Ibero-America has also sat up and taken note, even though scholars agree that there would be difficulties with its direct implementation in the region. Specialised opinions like these might suggest the initiative could not be implemented elsewhere. There can be no doubt, however, about the influence of the Bologna Process. On the one hand, the European Union has promoted and sponsored projects which involve transferring specific instruments (like Tuning) to the Ibero-American region. On the other, Latin America faces integration and globalisation challenges that are similar to Europe's and these, in turn, call for the development of approaches and instruments that will facilitate academic mobility and increase the transparency of degrees and qualifications. The recent impetus injected by the Ibero-American Summits into the Ibero-American Knowledge Space also seeks to help build common ground in higher education, scientific research and technological development.     

Experience gained from the application of basic quality assurance procedures in a Greek university engineering department

During the last decade, significant funding has become available to Greek public universities to support the convergence to the common European space of higher education. In a number of departments, this funding was wisely invested in the development of a quality culture, covering not only the educational process, but also the services offered by the department's administration and technical support staff. This paper presents the design and implementation of a quality-oriented studies’ reform plan in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Thessaly in the period 2002–2008. Based on the successful experience from its application, a significant part of the personnel and students have become acquainted with basic quality assurance procedures and performance evaluation. Experience and lessons learnt from this effort are reported and discussed in this paper.     

A Study of the Views of Full-time Further Education Lecturers Regarding their College Corporations and Agencies of the Further Education Sector

Full-time lecturers in further education colleges in England form an occupational group which has been subject to many varied and demanding changes, particularly since the incorporation of colleges in 1993. Prior to 1993 lecturers were employees of local education authorities and, as such, were part of an often remote local authority personnel administration framework. Since 1993 full-time lecturers have become employees of college corporations. Most corporations have introduced human resource management practices which have changed the distant employment relationship lecturers had with LEAs. At the same time, the consequence of financial constraints and increasing competition in the further education sector has emphasised the already existing core-periphery organisational model in colleges which has now led to fewer full-time lecturers (core) and more part-time lecturers (periphery). The question of the professional status of lecturers has also been raised by, for example, College Employers Forum rhetoric in the early post-incorporation phase to encourage contractual change; the development of Qualified Teacher Status for primary and secondary teachers only; the debate about further education membership of a General Teaching Council for England, and the expansion of a new vocational curricula which seemed to dilute the educational experience of students. This article considers the views that a sample of full-time lecturers have about their employment experience and is an initial report of a research study which looks at the employment relationship between full-time lecturers and their college corporations. Views and perceptions of 687 full-time lecturers' responses to a postal questionnaire are presented and reviewed. This initial report suggests that, unlike the picture nationally for the UK workforce (as presented in a recent Institute of Personnel and Development report - Guest & Conway, 1998), full-time lecturers in further education colleges may be experiencing a violated psychological contract with the consequences for their employment relationship of loss of trust and a significant, depressing effect on commitment, job satisfaction and work performance.     

博洛尼亚进程中俄罗斯学位制度改革的两难境地

博洛尼亚进程中,建立清晰、易读、可比的学位制度是欧洲国家的重要目标。俄罗斯曾因其独特的学位制度在世界高等教育领域独树一帜。随着2003年加入博洛尼亚进程,俄罗斯学位制度改革面临着巨大的压力,一方面要按照博洛尼亚的要求建立三级学位制度,另一方面又有来自国内决策、社会、高校等多方面的压力,使得俄罗斯的整个学位制度改革步履维艰。