Rebooting the Bologna process

HOLY SEE – Following a meeting of the Bologna Follow-Up Group in Athens, Greece, in April, further discussions were organised on the future of the Bologna process in July. This meeting was hosted by the Holy See in the Vatican.

The main purpose of this meeting was to frame discussions on the future of the Bologna process. Discussions on the content of this process will start at a meeting of the Bologna Follow-Up Group in September.

The European Students’ Union (ESU) has been among the main advocates calling for a reboot of the Bologna process and takes therefore an active part in these important policy discussions.

“We have always had a lot of faith in the Bologna process especially because of its involvement with stakeholders and broad inclusion of various countries. However, it has been clear that both the interest and implementation of the Bologna process have stagnated for the past few years,” says Elisabeth Gehrke, Chairperson of ESU.

Survey provides insight

In order to prepare this meeting, the Bologna secretariat, hosted by Armenia, has examined countries’ opinions to get an idea of what topics might be missing in the Bologna process. This survey has so far been very insightful.

Future discussions on the Bologna process will be both about the topics covered as well as internal structures of the process. ESU encourages countries who have yet to give input to this survey to do so.

“It is extremely important to get input from the countries for us and everyone else who are involved. The Bologna process belongs to the countries and this dialogue should be based on clear input from them at every step,” Gehrke emphazises.

The future of Bologna will be put up for a decision at the Ministerial Conference in Yerevan, Armenia, in May 2015.

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For more information, please contact:

Elisabeth Gehrke, ESU Chairperson: +32/479.591.499 // elisabeth@esu-online.org or Robert Hlynur Baldursson, ESU Communications Manager: +32/473.669.894 // robert@esu-online.org