Higher education today and tomorrow:

The impact of the Bologna Process

David Crosier,

Eurydice

Presentation Overview

• EHEA at end of 1st Bologna decade• Impact of Bologna, taking account of other

factors• Issues for Slovenia?• Key topics: 3 cycle system, Bologna tools,

mobility, Quality Assurance, Social Dimension, LLL, impact of economic crisis

• Globalisation & knowledge society• Societal and labour market change

– demand for Lifelong learning• Demographic change: from élite to

mass systems (25% increase in student participation across Europe during last decade)

Pressures driving change in teaching and learning

Three-cycle structure in 1999 and 2009

Main Models of Ba/Ma

Doctoral Education

• Many changes, but difficult to compare in Europe (university autonomy + lack of information gathering in some places)

• Development of structured programmes, doctoral schools & graduate schools

• More consideration of careers outside academic world

• Focus on innovation and wider competences (not just specific subject research)

• Questions of critical mass vs « local » research• Status of doctoral candidates?

Main approach to Quality Assurance

Lifelong Learning

• Has become a recognised mission of higher education during the Bologna decade – but still often peripheral

• Conceptual differences in national policy & implementation (eg part-time student)

• Lack of data about funding LLL

Social Dimension policies & monitoring

• Wide variation in understanding of « social dimension »

• 15 countries do not monitor the participation of under-represented groups

• Among countries with monitoring systems, very few have explicit targets and linked measures

-> A big agenda for the years to come

Student Mobility: part of the reality

•

Policy and information on mobility

Student Mobility

• More policy than information

• National policy often driven by European level policy and action (influence of Erasmus/Erasmus Mundus etc)

• Socio-economic disparities create major challenges for the future EHEA

• Few countries have adopted the 20 % benchmark

Bologna process as a response to pressure

• Major changes throughout Europe• 3 cycle degree structure, Quality

Assurance systems, ECTS/Diploma Supplement/NQFs etc

• But outcomes are not all coherent• Process has often happened backwards:

structures first and goals second• Many other agendas have been mixed

with Bologna –> reform cocktail

What has been the impact of Bologna?

• Reform & innovation now norms of higher education: permanent change

• Interdependence in EHEA: Higher education no longer just a national affair, & Europe has a clear identity on international stage

• Bologna is a vanguard for global developments: eg Bologna degree structures, NQFs, Learning Outcomes all part of international discussion.

• towards student-centred higher education?

But how much are we investing in higher education?

1616

Source: Eurydice

Budgetary changes from

2008/09 to 2009/10

Changes in National Higher Education budget, 2010/11 compared to 2009/10

• Increase by 5 – 10%: Au, Fi, Fr, Is

• Increase by 0 – 5%: EE, Hu, Po, Slovenia, UK, No, Tk

• No change: Be Bu, Cy, Cz, Ro

• Decrease by 0 – 5%: Es, It, Spain, Sk

• Decrease by 5 – 10%: El

What are the main goals now for Slovenia

• Increasing participation (goal 55%)?

• Quality ??

• Widening participation (more equity) & developing LLL ???

• Financing ????

• Internationalisation ?????

What are now the main Bologna goals?

• Difficult to say…

• Structural issues & quality assurance have been the main concerns of the last decade, but now student-centred learning & LLL appear to be moving centre stage….

What does student-centred learning mean?

Simple concept: rather than organising education primarily around knowledge transmission from professor to student, programmes designed to meet the needs of students

Simple concept, but not so simple to put into practice

Implies radical re-thinking of some approaches to higher education

What is a student-centred curriculum?

• Learning Outcomes defined (not content input)

• Student choice: able to combine modules into an integrated whole

• Conscious development of a range of skills and competences: not only knowledge/content driven

• Student participation in all aspects of higher education

Key Questions for a student-centred learning approach

• Who decides what students need, and how?

• If there is a diversity of needs, how can a diversity of offers be provided?

• How can students who need (different forms of) guidance and support receive it?

Possible problems of student-centred learning in Slovenia

• Culture of strong faculty autonomy: difficult to develop sufficient flexibility (modules in different faculties etc) & to avoid overlap/duplication…

• Strange concept of part-time education (more to do with money/fees than time/opportunity for students)

• Maybe too little societal debate about how higher education should be changing?

Bologna tools

• Main Bologna tools can be used to serve the goals of student-centred education:

• ECTS - credits based on student workload to achieve defined learning outcomes

• Diploma Supplement

• National Qualifications Frameworks

- But only if these tools are properly understood and used

Implications of Student Centred Learning for Teaching Methods

• Teaching methods need to be adapted to different aims and purposes….

• Important to understand students needs before deciding on specific teaching methods

• New and old methods can be combined without any problem: not a question of either this or that..

Examples of teaching methods to meet different aims

• Aim = Disseminate knowledge

Possible Methods = lectures, books, internet etc• Aim = Develop capacity to use knowledge/ideas

Possible Methods = project-work, seminar groups, work placements etc

• Aim = Develop capacity to generate knowledge/ideas

Possible Methods = research projects, group working, problem solving tasks etc

Potential dangers at a time of economic downturn

• How to ensure that students are respected as individual learners? (easy for govt to push a more narrow agenda of skills training for changing workplace)

• A good system has to be well resourced. By whom?

Tentative conclusions

• Bologna reforms have provided opportunities to be more responsive to (rapidly) changing societal conditions and individual student needs

• But we’re only at the early stages of the process..

• In the wake of economic downturn, student-centred learning & adapted teaching methods makes sense as a positive response..

• But other agendas may distort…

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

-> Diversity of understanding and implementation of Bologna agenda raises questions about EHEA

-> Securing long term investment an ongoing challenge

-> Far from reaching the end of Bologna history, the need for intensified European cooperation is becoming ever more clear