Unrest as Bologna Process reaches its 10th anniversary

“Students across Europe have protested against the implementation of the Bologna Process. The education ministers of Europe should acknowledge the protests and follow up by giving students better possibilities for deciding on the present and future of their own education”, says Ligia Deca, ESU Chairperson.

Just before the Bologna Anniversary Ministerial Conference in Vienna/Budapest, ESU is organising a European Student Summit in Vienna.

2010 was set to be the year by which a European Higher Education Area must be created. Though the Bologna Process is not at all close to its end, the ministers responsible for higher education are meeting in Budapest and Vienna in March this year to celebrate this occasion and to reaffirm their commitment to the goals of the Bologna Process.

By organising its own student summit, ESU seeks to further promote students’ view on the Bologna and Lisbon reform agendas, but to also bring the students’ contribution to the ministers. ESU will present its limelight publication ”Bologna at the Finish Line” which takes a look back at what has been done in the past 10 years, but which also has a forward looking emphasis by making suggestions to the further action on the priorities that were set last year in Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve.

At the student summit, ESU’s documentary ”Faces of Bologna” will be screened. ESU also seeks to make a declaration to the ministers on the students’ concerns and proposals for Higher Education in Europe during the next decade.

The summit as well as the publication and the documentary are part of the project “Enhancing the Student Contribution to the Bologna Implementation” (ESCBI). The project is funded with support from the European Commission.