IHEP

Information Resource Library

Overview

The purpose of providing this information resources library is to enable U.S. academic officials, faculty, students, and researchers to access, all in one place, a broad selection of documents related to the Bologna Process.

A few characteristics of this library should be noted:

  • While these documents are all dated 2007 and earlier, the collection is not static. We will continue to add documents that are in the public domain. Should additional bins or sub-folders be necessary, we will add those, too.
  • Some of these documents may be updated by their sources. IHEP will do its best to keep the collection current.
  • The documents have been arranged in 22 topical “bins,” some containing multiple but related topics. Each bin is introduced by a brief summary statement explaining the contents of the bin.
  • All documents in this collection are either in the public domain or permission has been granted to include them on the IHEP Web site.
  • Not all documents are in English. In international work, that’s the way it should be.

Resources

Bologna Basics

This folder contains (a) a sub-folder with all the basic Bologna documents (including Joseph Attali’s 1998 essay, in French, proposing what became the European Higher Education Area, the 1998 Sorbonne Declaration, the 1999 Bologna Declaration, and the communiqués from the subsequent meetings of Bologna ministers in Prague, Berlin, Bergen, and London), (b) a sub-folder with all five of the European University Association’s Trends reports, and (c) both the 2007 Stockingtaking report and the March 2007 Eurobarometer surveys of faculty and academic administrators in 31 of the Bologna-participating countries.

Bologna Follow-Up Group(s)

Under the umbrella of what is called the “Bologna Follow-Up Group” one finds many groups, in fact, each devoted to a particular topic on the Bologna agenda. This folder includes documents from seminars conducted by a number of these groups, including those on mobility, employability, and the recognition of credentials. In addition to the formal BFUG documents, we include policy statements from EURASHE (the pan-European association of institutions offering “professional” and applied science degrees), and the summaries of contributions of the European Union to the Bologna Process from the Berlin meeting of ministers (2003) to the Bergen meeting (2005) and from the Bergen meeting to the London meeting (2007). It also includes a sub-folder containing a set of declarations and statements of the European University Association starting with Salamanca in 2001 and continuing through different topics at Glasgow, Graz, and Lisbon.

Country Studies and Reports

This rather substantial folder contains, first, sub-folders with reports from individual countries on their progress in implementing the Bologna provisions as required under the participation agreement: pre-2004, 2004-05, and 2005-07. A separate sub-folder for studies from the UK is included, and then a variety of documents from other Bologna-participating countries, including system descriptions and studies.

Credit Systems: ECTS and ECVET

The folder includes materials relating not only to the academic credit system under Bologna (ECTS), but also to the vocational credit system that emerged from the Lisbon Strategy. The two systems are destined to intersect at some future point. For both credit systems, one will find documents related to transfer of credit as well as credit-accumulation.

Curriculum

The core documents in this folder are the series of curriculum reform studies conducted by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands for the European Commission. The project focused on 5 fields (engineering, medicine, law, teacher training and history) in 32 countries, and offers one case study of particular interest for each field. The folder also includes the penultimate statement of the “Eurobachelor” degree in chemistry developed by the Tuning project’s chemistry group, and the criteria for bachelor’s and master’s curricula in technical fields developed by a consortium of Dutch universities.

Diploma Supplement

This folder contains a guide to the Diploma Supplement developed in the UK, along with the European Students’ Union suggestions for improving the document and a small sample of Diploma Supplements in a separate sub-folder. It also includes a sub-folder devoted to the connection between the Diploma Supplement and the EUROPASS (a more comprehensive electronic document that also serves individuals who have received vocational training).

EURODATA

This folder will expand as the Global Performance project moves into its 2nd phase, that dealing with comparative international data on participation and attainment in higher education. A significant proportion of these documents come from country ministries and their statistical arms, hence (as one would expect) are not in English.

Higher Arts and Music Education

Specialized universities and colleges of fine and performing arts are far more prominent on the European higher education landscape than they are in the United States. They have been particularly active in Bologna reforms, and these activities, especially those of the music conservatories, illustrate core Bologna objectives—qualification frameworks, credits, and curricular reform—very clearly.

Joint Degrees

The limited number of documents in this folder addresses both joint degrees and double-degrees. Since joint degrees are more visible at the Master’s level in Bologna countries, one will find some key illustrations here. More will be added.

Language Issues

The Bologna Process unfolded across 23 major languages, and the language landscape of Europe is key to an appreciation of both the challenge and potential of Bologna and Lisbon Strategy reforms. This folder contains a Eurobarometer survey of language proficiency across Europe and Lisbon Strategy-inspired plans to expand multi-lingualism.

Lisbon Convention

Topics here all relate to the transnational recognition of higher education credentials, the agreement of the 1997 Lisbon Recognition Convention. One finds codes of good practice in dealing with “foreign” credentials, principles of recognition, and follow-ups to the original agreement.

Lisbon Strategy

The Lisbon Strategy transcends higher education, and focuses more on continental improvements in secondary school graduation rates, lifelong learning, workforce development, and the creation of a knowledge-based economy. Higher education has an acknowledged role in all this, as some documents in this folder attest. The reader will also find core Lisbon documents, including the European Qualifications for Lifelong Learning, the responses of student groups, and a sub-folder devoted to the work plan for “Education and Training 2010.”

OECD

The Organization of Economic Cooperative Development folder contains documents on topics intersecting qualification frameworks (in a sub-folder) and broad picture studies of funding systems, competencies, and efficiency in higher Education.

Qualifications Frameworks

Contains core documents on the Framework for Qualifications in the European Higher Education Area, on the Dublin Descriptors, Bologna follow-up group papers and seminars, and national qualifications framework documents from Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Scotland. A sub-folder contains 2007 Benchmarking statements in 15 subjects from the UK Quality Assurance Agency.

Quality Assurance

This folder includes the core documents of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and its guidelines, papers on accreditation, and codes of quality practice.

Recognition of Prior Learning

Also known as “assessment of prior experiential learning,” the documents here include background analyses, case studies, reports and evaluation of the VAE system in France, and a comprehensive review of RPL in the context of lifelong learning.

Social Dimensions

The “social dimensions” of the Bologna Process refer principally to access and participation of under-represented population groups, but also include aspects of the student experience (including housing, employment, and family responsibilities) that are covered in the EUROSTUDENT Surveys. The documents here cover strategies and structure to advance access (short-cycle degrees, part-time status), discussions of Bologna follow-up groups, and a key statement by the European Students’ Union on the social dimension.

Student Surveys and Reports

A sub-folder for EUROSTUDENT covers the 2000 and 2005 surveys and national profiles accompanying those surveys (9 for 2000; 11 for 2005). The main folder includes not only the Bologna Through Student Eyes reports of the European Students Union, but also ESU surveys and reports on ECTS (the credit system) and the Diploma Supplement, and the official ESU “Black Book” on the Bologna Process.

Theory, Analysis, and Criticism

This folder will no doubt grow as the years pass. At present, it includes the first doctoral dissertation on Bologna (from Johanna Witte), and meditations/analyses on the contradictions of Bologna, Europeanization, and global competition. One also finds the 2004 and 2006 review of the status of higher education policy in 10 countries, produced by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Tuning Project

Everything you want to know about the university-based project that produces guidelines and reference points for faculty developing learning outcomes and qualifications frameworks in the disciplines: principles, templates, samples of competences (in business, chemistry, and education), evaluation of learning outcomes statements, how-to manual, etc.

U.S. Accounts of Bologna and Its Components

There are issues of World Education News and Reviews that deal with Bologna topics, broad Statements from the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors, and a sampling of other available documents.

Unclassified Documents

This folder is a holding area for documents that do not fit neatly into any of the 20 core topics of this information resource library. Topics include research, internationalization, creativity, employability, program demand, and disciplinary association statements on Bologna.

© Institute for Higher Education Policy 1993-2008