YEREVAN- On the 14th and 15th of May the ministers of education in the European Higher Education Area meet in Yerevan, Armenia to discuss the priorities for higher education for the next three years. The European Students’ Union were present representing the students in the Area at the table. In addition, students took part in many countries’ delegations.
The European Students’ Union had three key priorities from the start of the discussion of the Ministerial Conference Communiqué as well as throughout the work with the follow-up structures of the Bologna Process over the past years. These include (not in hierarchical order):
In addition, ESU was happy to support a stronger reference to work on gender equality in the next period. Generally, it can be said that ESU is rather pleased with the outcomes of the Ministerial Conference. Each of our priorities were addressed clearly in the Communiqué and throughout several of the adopted tools. However, several major concerns must be addressed head-on if we are to ensure the success of the Bologna Process as a whole. Mainly this has to do with the interest of countries as ESU addressed early on at the Conference. There needs to be an open and serious dialogue about how to improve the situation so that the goals set out can be reached in the coming period. However, as a whole, the Ministerial Conference was a welcomed light in the dark of the Process, and we look forward to seeing a full house of ministers in Paris in 2018.
Finally, ESU would like to thank all of the active student delegates who worked hard to ensure the student voice was heard, as well as our partners in the Bologna Process over the years that have passed, including both stakeholders and countries. In addition, we would like to thank the work of the Armenian Bologna Secretariat who organised a successful conference. We also wish the best of luck to the French Bologna Secretariat who has now taken over. We mark the end of this chapter in the Bologna Process and look forward to the next.
For more information, watch EHEA Conference video: