Timed to coincide the Ministerial Conference of the Bologna Process this week, ESU has just launched its much-anticipated Bologna With Student Eyes 2009 report, the only independent stakeholder evaluation of Bologna Process implementation published this year. Using data from 33 national unions of students in Europe, the report shows that, two years after the last BWSE, member countries are still taking a ‘pick-and-choose’ approach to Bologna Process implementation, selecting certain action lines and overlooking others. There has also been a persistent failure to match words with action and to translate the commitments made on paper into tangible outcomes.
The report particularly draws attention to the tendency to neglect the social dimension of the Bologna Process and to focus instead on the structural elements of Bologna reform such as the three-cycle system. While progress can be seen on certain action lines, notably quality assurance and student participation, the harsh reality is that progress is lagging on almost all action lines of the Bologna Process, making the goal of a European Higher Education Area still appear as something of a distant aspiration for the time being.
The next decade to 2020 provides the opportunity to change all this, and BWSE 2009 provides a comprehensive and coherent set of recommendations to make this a reality. Chief among these are for commitments to be matched by actions and for Bologna implementation to be viewed as a set menu of different elements to be delivered concurrently, rather than an a la carte menu to be chosen from. A target for achieving greater balanced mobility (now achieved) and an action plan for its delivery are also highlighted, along with national action plans for the social dimension, stronger student participation, an expansion of the student contribution to quality assurance, student-centring the learning process, developing national qualifications frameworks and enhancing employability.
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