10 years of the Bologna Process: A more or less great failure

Next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the ministers of Education from 46 European countries, the European Commissioner Jan Figel, as well as representatives from other (international) organisations like the Council of Europe or the UNESCO will meet in Leuven (Belgium) to celebrate 10 years of the Bologna Process.

This process was once started to make academic learning all over Europe more comparable, more reliable, more transparent. For some it was meant as a way to reduce the time young people spend in universities before they enter the labour market. The main goal was to ease mobility across borders, during the studies and between the newly introduced cycles (Bachelor, Master, PhD).

Altogether these goals that are worth supporting, and the process could have led to a better situation for student and academics in Europe.

But the process, despite the superficial changes to a new structure, has been a failure.

Member states didn't take it serious enough. University managements used it to introduce structures that suited their organisational interests more than the interests of mobile students. Co-ordination was poor so that studies across Europe are not more comparable now than they were 10 years ago.

The European Student Union (ESU; formerly ESIB), probably one of the most competent actors to analyse this, made it very clear last week in the press release accompanying the 2009 edition of its biannual publication "Bologna with Student Eyes (BWSE)":

"[W]hile progress has been made on implementing ‘structural’ reforms such as the 3-cycle system (bachelor, masters, doctorat), content reforms such as those relating to mobility, the social dimension and student participation have been largely neglected, leaving a huge hole at the centre of the Process. The report reveals that ten years on, European students are still facing huge barriers to their learning in terms, for example, of socio-economic background, gender and family situation, tend not to be regarded as equal partners in educational and decision-making structures, and are largely unable to take advantage of mobility opportunities to study abroad."

And it continues:

"Consequently, the Bologna Process is in grave danger of being revealed as a superficial redesign of higher education structures in Europe rather than a transformation of the whole academic and learning paradigm."

In the report, ESU shows that in some areas there is at least a little progress, and not everything needs to be painted in black, but the core elements of this reform have never been taken seriously across Europe.

The 10th anniversary of the Bologna Process is thus not a time for celebration, but should be a moment for reflection on what went wrong and how it would be possible to save the ideas - and ideals - of Bologna.

Lower reading skills in EU

The "Annual report on education systems in the EU" for 2008 shows diminishing reading skills among under 15-years olds in EU countries.

The report is part of the monitoring of the Lisbon strategy. It compares 16 monitoring indicators (e.g. literacy, investment in education and training, civic skills, higher education graduates, learning to learn skills) and measures 5 benchmarks with clear goals for 2010:

• No more than 10% early school leavers;
  
• Decrease of at least 20% in the percentage of low-achieving pupils in reading literacy;
  
• At least 85% of young people should have completed upper secondary education;
  
• Increase of at least 15% in the number of tertiary graduates in Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST), with a simultaneous decrease in the gender imbalance;
  
• 12.5% of the adult population should participate in lifelong learning).
  

While EU Commissioner Ján Figel can report slight progress in most areas - for example rising numbers of higher education graduates - the only benchmark with negative development is the one connected to literacy. EUobservers titles "EU struggles with growing teen illiteracy". In fact, if almost 25% of under 15 year olds have poor reading skills and the figure has risen by 3 percentage points from 2000 to 2006, then this is a problem. The countries with the highest illiteracy are Romania (53.5%), Bulgaria (51.1%), followed by Greece, Italy, and Spain (all above 25%).

Among the main messages of the report is also, that

[g]ender inequalities remain. Boys do less well at reading and have more special education needs. Girls do less well at mathematics and are underrepresented among mathematics, science and technology students and graduates.

The report shows that while the EU has a comparatively well developed education system, large regional disparities cast a shadow over the high goal of a European Union knowledge society ready for the 21st century. Some countries and regions are well ahead of the goals set for 2010, other will need much longer to get to this point.

This is not only bad for a "competitive economy" but also disastrous for a European society where some parts of the population can take part in the intellectual and technical developments while (according to the report) about 1/3 of all the population might be left behind.

And I doubt that as long as we spend billions on a last century's agricultural policy while ignoring the need to invest all along the "educational chain", from the youngest kindergarten child to the oldest active parts of the population, the EU as whole will make good progress.

EUobserver on European Education

Have you ever thought about studying in Europe? I mean: abroad? Outside your home country? Some people dream of a European Higher Education Area but in fact there isn't much more than an European Higher Education Chaos.

The so-called Bologna-Process that aims to unify European higher education (and European does not only include the EU but 46 countries from all over the continent) has so far produced an impressive unity in similar problems through a variety of very dissimilar concepts. Labelling them Bachelor or Master is more a marketing strategy than a real innovation.

In this context, the very much appreciated EUobserver today has published several articles under the headline "European Education". I recommend reading!