Bologna declaration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bologna declaration is the main guiding document of the Bologna process. It was adopted by ministers of education of 29 European countries at their meeting in Bologna in 1999.

It proposed a European Higher Education Area in which students and graduates could move freely between countries, using prior qualifications in one country as acceptable entry requirements for further study in another.

The principal aims agreed were:

1. "Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees". That is to say, countries should adopt common terminology and standards

2. "Adoption of a system essentially based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate. Access to the second cycle shall require successful completion of first cycle studies, lasting a minimum of three years. The degree awarded after the first cycle shall also be relevant to the European labour market as an appropriate level of qualification. The second cycle should lead to the master and/or doctorate degree as in many European countries."

As a result many European countries have adopted the UK terminology of Bachelor for a first degree of three years, in place of their former names and durations, and Master for subsequent study.

It has later been followed up by the Prague communiqué (2001), the Berlin communiqué (2003) and the Bergen communiqué (2005). The most recent meeting took place in London in 2007[3] and produced the London Communiqué.

The Bologna 6th Ministerial Conference will take place in Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium on 28-29 April 2009.

There is much criticism of the Bologna Declaration, which is seen by some experts as a neo-liberal attempt to impose the logic of the market on European Higher Education.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ Lorenz on the Bologna Process.[1] Questions have also been posed, e.g. by Prof. Hauke Bronckhorst, as to the democratic legitimacy of the Bologna Process.[2]

[edit] External links

• London 2007 website
• Students' view