The Bologna Curriculum Vitae 1999 ...

Signing of the _Bologna Declaration_ by Ministers of Education from 29 European (and beyond) countries creating a "European Higher Education Area" (EHEA) to enhance the competitiveness of a realm inclusive Island, Turkey and Russia and other states by cutting down costs. The EHEA envisages among other things "to facilitate mobility of students" and "prepare students for their future careers and for life as active citizens in democratic societies". The label "Bologna Process" for this undertaking is quite a symbolic one since Bologna is home to the oldest university in the Western world founded in 1088. Thus it adresses a historic layer as well as the discourse of a European centralisation on the superstructure that seeks to avoid Brain Drain. It appears as a reaction to the Human Capital Flight or emigration of an elite-to-be (including a sub-elite formed by the separating education system with bachelor and/or master degrees). The concept of deterritorialization does not seem to fit here. Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union guarantees the right to education. Of course the wage shares in the Euro Area and the USA as a percentage of GDP have decreased since the early 1990s, especially in Europe from nearly 62% (1991) to about 57% (2005) with a continual downward trend. This, along with the general profit squeeze and progressively falling GDPs, raises costs for the social systems across the European Union (EU) occuring in unemployment and cutting welfare and social-security payments and seems to affect the educational system in the EU as a whole and fundamental rights and duties of citizens.

Bologna and the Philippines

MINI CRITIQUE By Isagani Cruz (The Philippine Star) Updated May 27, 2010 12:00 AM The Bologna Process may not be proceeding as smoothly as its 47 European member countries wish it would (they missed their 2010 deadline for full implementation), but it certainly is, as Clifford Adelman of the US Institute for Higher Education Policy said recently, the most far reaching and ambitious reform of higher education ever undertaken. It is still a work in progress, but as it has attracted both considerable attention and imitation of some of its features by former colonial countries in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia, it has sufficient momentum to become the dominant global higher education model within the next two decades. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last May 12 that representatives from the three governments [of China, Japan, and South Korea] met in Tokyo last Friday [and] agreed to explore credit transfers, exchange programs, and quality control in universities across the region. Earlier, the Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN) launched a similar process for our region. There is no doubt that we have to take the Bologna Process very seriously. What does the Bologna Process mean for our schools? I shall list some actions that CHED and our Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have to take if we want to be in step with the rest of the world. We have to expand the system of specifying Minimum Learning Competencies or Standards used by DepEd to include HEIs & CHED. Elementary and high school teachers are used to outcomes-based instruction, because they talk about competencies all the time. These competencies are used not just for preparing textbooks and teacher-training sessions, but for preparing lesson plans for individual classes. In contrast, college teachers have general objectives, often not even couched in psychomotor, cognitive, or affective terms, for courses that are usually planned and taught independently of each other. The much-misunderstood constitutional right to academic freedom is often used to justify a lack of clear and articulated focus on what a student is really supposed to learn in a particular lesson or course .We have to include both content and skills in student learning standards. Falling into the either-or trap of saying that we need either information or process (transmissive versus transformative teaching) is no longer excusable today. There are bits of information that every student needs to memorize (sometimes called Cultural Literacy or Core Knowledge), as well as processes of learning that the student needs to internalize (sometimes misunderstood as the whole of Constructivism). We have to specify learning outcomes, levels of challenge, competencies, and student workload. DepEd specifies the first three, but not the fourth; CHED needs to start pushing for all four. The most difficult of these is student workload. The Bologna

Process is student-centered, and what we call units or credits are computed not according to how many hours the teacher is in the classroom, but how many hours the student takes to study a subject, whether inside or outside the classroom. (More on this in a later column.) We have to include graduates and employers in curriculum and syllabus development. Some HEIs already do this, particularly those run by administrators with business backgrounds, but all HEIs should do this. In the Bologna Process, education is demanddriven; schools have to comply with what the future employers of their graduates require. Administrators and teachers should not determine learning goals; employers should. This is the most controversial issue in Europe today. Many teachers and students do not want education to be commercialized or beholden to industry. Unfortunately for traditionalists and purists, most students today do not pay tuition to push the frontiers of knowledge or to challenge received wisdom; they invest the money of their parents to buy pieces of paper that will get them jobs. We have to include faculty of other universities when we revise the curriculum and syllabuses of our own university. Cooperation is a major goal of the Bologna Process. Fortunately, we are ahead of Europe in this regard. We have had consortiums of various kinds for some time now. Nevertheless, we still have a lot to do to ensure interHEI comparability (another key term in the Bologna Process). A student taking Freshman English 1 in one HEI, for example, should be able to do whatever another student can do at the end of the same subject in another HEI. To ensure that outcomes are comparable if not identical, teachers from other HEIs should be included in the curriculum committees of an HEI. We have to ensure that undergraduates can evaluate recent research and that masters theses represent original research. The Bologna Process raises the bar on research and education. What we usually require undergraduates to do is to know what is going on in a field, not to criticize the latest developments in a field. We usually require that of masters students, who have to do a Review of the Literature for their theses. The Bologna Process says that our masters students should be doing what our doctoral students are currently doing, namely, working at the cutting edge of their field. Masters theses should be what our doctoral dissertations are now.

The ripple effects of the Bologna Process in the AsiaPacific

September 29, 2007 by globalhighered

The Bologna Process, formally initiated in 1999, has inspired a series of substantial albeit uneven reforms in the European higher education landscape, leading to the emergence of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) that stretches from western Portugal to easternmost Russia. Reforms within the EHEA, and European Commission-

funded linkages schemes with various regions (including Asia and Africa) in the world, have been generating considerable interest in various quarters. The formalization of an external dimension to the Bologna Process was spurred on, in May 2005, when the Bergen Communiqu included the following statement: The European Higher Education Area must be open and should be attractive to other parts of the world. Our contribution to achieving education for all should be based on the principle of sustainable development and be in accordance with the ongoing international work on developing guidelines for quality provision of crossborder higher education. We reiterate that in international academic cooperation, academic values should prevail. We see the European Higher Education Area as a partner of higher education systems in other regions of the world, stimulating balanced student and staff exchange and cooperation between higher education institutions. We underline the importance of intercultural understanding and respect. We look forward to enhancing the understanding of the Bologna Process in other continents by sharing our experiences of reform processes with neighbouring regions. We stress the need for dialogue on issues of mutual interest. We see the need to identify partner regions and intensify the exchange of ideas and experiences with those regions. The Bergen Communiqu led to the development of a more formal 2007 strategy document titled Looking Out: The Bologna Process in Global Setting: On the External Dimension of the Bologna Process, from which the above quote is taken. It is in such a context that the World Education Services (WES), North Americas leading resource of information and insight on international education and credentials (their words), has developed brief albeit insightful summaries of the ripple effects (or echoes to use Pavel Zgagas words) in Africa and the Asia-Pacific that are being generated by Bologna-process inspired reforms. In their most recent September 2007 newsletter Nick Clark focuses in on the AsiaPacific region. Clark is interested in identifying if there is any evidence that Bologna might be providing impetus or inspiration for intra-regional and intra-national reforms in select countries. Underlying this analysis, of course, is a concern in the United States that the emerging EHEA, with a streamlined degree structure, and increasing use of English as a language of instruction, will inspire countries in the Asia-Pacific to refashion their higher education systems so they are in closer alignment with the EHEA model. These are early days, of course, to be reaching conclusions. But Clark notes: While none of the initiatives outlined above point directly to a Bologna-style regional higher-education architecture, there are signs that efforts are underway for a move in that direction, spearheaded largely at this point by an Australian education system

eager to maintain its dominant position in the Asia-Pacific higher education market. As stated by Australian education minister, Julie Bishop, at the Australian National Seminar on the Bologna Process in September 2006: So, while the greater Asia-Pacific region will set its own goals and frameworks, Bologna (and the Copenhagen Process in the area of vocational and technical education), provide pointers for greater collaboration in the region, for the benefit of the region. In recognition of this, the Senior Officials Working Group will remain alert to the future possibilities for compatibility with initiatives such as Bologna. The European vision also introduces some urgency for this region to develop its own approach to collaboration and facilitation of student and academic mobility. Without this development, we could face a situation where Europe eventually has a highly integrated education system, while Asia-Pacific has, by comparison, very limited recognition, credit transfer, and fewer opportunities for people of the region to enjoy the benefits of being part of a globally-connected workforce. Minister Bishop has a point. But it is also worth noting that Australia, one of the creators of the regional construct Asia-Pacific (and with 11% of the international student market and China the largest contributor by far), is once again trying to speak on behalf of an incredibly heterogeneous and expansive geographical formation. Why? Australia is now structurally dependent upon Asia to effectively fund (via overseas fees) a large proportion of their higher education system (as the OECDs recent indicators report noted). Thus if Asian students were to shift the majority focus of their mobility destinations to Europe, and away from Australia or indeed Singapore, Malaysia and China were to become a major regional players in their own right as they currently have 2%, 2% and 7% of the global market currently and are ambitious to expand that the Australian higher education system would be in danger of collapsing, so dependent is it now on Asian students. WES is, of course, monitoring Bologna from the North American perspective, with concern about the maneuvering underway in Europe and Australasia for Asian brains (aka skilled workers) that North American universities, industries, and select regions seek. The scramble is clearly underway. Kris Olds

An Asian "Bologna Process" moves forward

The ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have begun to discuss the creation of an Bologna -type process in their region. The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) organized a meeting in Thailand in early November, 2008, to begin to consider the challenges and opportunities that could be provided by a harmonization of higher education in Southeast Asia.

Prof. Dr. Supachai Yavaprabhas, the Director of SEAMEO RIHED, the organizations Center for Higher Education and Development, had spoken earlier at a UNESCO regional conference about harmonization in the ASEAN region. In his speech, he outlined the history of higher education cooperation in the region, and described some of the aspirations behind this cooperation. They are quite parallel to those that can be found in the Bologna accords: to promote higher education quality, and to build ASEAN identity through free movement of scholars around the region. In 2007, the leadership of the region agreed that the focus should be on five areas: a) ASEAN Quality Framework and Curriculum Development; b) Student Mobility; c) Leadership; d) E-learning and Mobile learning; and e) ASEAN Research Clusters Dr Yavaprabhas also discussed the very uneven levels of quality assurance mechanisms currently in place in the various ASEAN nations. The November meeting was based on preliminary reports on prospects for harmonization prepared by representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The meeting itself has been described in the Australian and University World News. Clearly, creating the desired higher education common space in the ASEAN region will be very difficult. The countries vary considerably in the level and organization of their systems of higher education, and most are developing nations with relatively limited resources. Nevertheless, the potential payoff could be enormous, and would greatly increase the ability of the region to compete effectively in the knowledge-based world of globalization . ASEAN has set 2015 as the target year for the creation of this higher education common space. Just as Bologna has found that its original targets were too optimistic, ASEAN will certainly find that this target cannot be realistically attained. However, there will be major benefits to the region from every successful step taken along the path to a functioning regional higher education common space.

Round Table 2: Regional Higher Education Cooperation in the Next Decade: The Bologna Process and Europe-Asia dialogue
The Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area meet increasing interest and attention by universities and governments around the world. In Asia, higher education reform is increasingly discussed in a regional setting and

proposals to create tools for recognition and mobility have been tabled. The Bologna process is certainly a reference point, and the interest to cooperate with Europe on such reform is high. The second EAHEP Round Table invited senior leadership and management from Asian and European higher education institutions, organisations and government agencies to discuss some of the Bologna issues in more detail, in order to get a better understanding of the overall reform process. Equal attention was paid to evolving regional reform processes in Asia, and the implications they may have on EuropeanAsia higher education and research cooperation. The event included a pre-programme 'information visit' to the European Commission of the European Union and a post-programme visit to the city of Ghent and Ghent University, where guests were welcomed by the rector of Ghent University and the Ghent University Assocation.

The Bologna Process - a concerted reform effort of 5000 higher education institutions in 46 European higher education systems
It has been said that the Bologna Process is the largest higher education reform project of modern times. Currently, 46 countries are participating in the construction of a European Higher Education Area. Indeed, the reforms have already re-shaped the European higher education landscape. While deliberately avoiding the introduction of European standards, the Bologna Process has succeeded in establishing some common features, such as the 3-cycle degrees of Bachelor, Masters and the doctorate, and a joint European credit system widely used by institutions and students. It has also succeeded in creating a joint European sphere for quality assurance, based on European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Qssurance, the annual Quality Forum, and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). The Bologna Process has also contributed to raising awareness for the urgent issues that go beyond structural reforms, such as the social dimension, which addresses, amongst others, widening access and lifelong learning, and underlying developments such as demographic change. As higher education turns out to be increasingly international and globally interlinked, the Global Dimension Strategy of the European Higher Education Area is reaching out to partners around the world.

With 2010 looming for the European Higher Education Area, Europeans are currently assessing the achievements of the Bologna Process, and discussing the likely future of the European Higher Education Area beyond 2010.

Why Bologna matters for Asia, and Asia for Bologna

While the Bologna Process is an intra-European project, it is of interest for Asia for several reasons. The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) stretches from Ireland to Russia. The latter makes it a neighbour of some Asian countries. In addition, practically all higher education and research partners that Asia has in Europe participate in the Bologna Process, and have been undergoing and continue to undergo system changes due to the joint European reform agenda. Therefore it is essential for Asia to know what important reform developments Europe is undergoing. It is also essential for Europe to better understand the evolving higher education landscape in Asia. Today, no higher education system can be seen in isolation. While this is a basic lesson of the Bologna Process, which enhances compatibility of national higher education systems in order to enhance exchange and cooperation, this is also true for the European Higher Education Area.

A learning opportunity for Europe and Asia

The Round Table was an excellent opportunity for information exchange, joint reflection and discussion on European and Asian higher education development trends. It presented the outcomes of the latest Bologna Ministerial Meeting (27-29 April Leuven/ Louvain la-Neuve, Belgium) with regards to its political and practical implications for European countries and universities, and invited European and Asian higher education stakeholders to discuss core issues such as recognition, quality and mobility. Further, it exchanged approaches and

experiences with regional convergence in Asia and Europe.

A joint opportunity for enhanced cooperation

Following on the EAHEP rationale, the Round Table aimed at enhancing higher education and research relations between Asia and Europe both at institutional cooperation and exchange levels, but also through developing the policy dialogue within and between the two regions. It was an occasion for analysing the outcomes of recent events such as the Bologna Global Policy Forum and the ASEM Education Ministers Meeting.

The Bologna Accord

MINI CRITIQUE By Isagani Cruz (The Philippine Star) Updated January 14, 2010 12:00

This year, 2010, the Bologna Accord goes into full swing. The bottom line for Filipinos is that, starting this year, undergraduate degrees in the Philippines will no longer be recognized in most European countries. Jobs in most European countries that require undergraduate degrees will no longer be open to Filipinos who went to school in the Philippines. What is the Bologna Accord? The Bologna (pronounced bo-LO-nya) Accord is named after the university in which the first agreement was signed in 1999 the University of Bologna in Italy. The Ministers of Education of 29 European countries agreed to make the school systems of their countries compatible with each other. Degrees from one country would then have to be accepted by any other country signing the Accord. Since then, several other countries have joined the Accord, boosting the total number to 46 (including all the 27 members of the European Union). Subsequent meetings were held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003), Bergen (2005), London (2007), and Leuven (2009). There are many provisions of the Bologna Accord, not all of which are of interest to us. For example, the Bologna Accord tries to make European education compatible with the American system (because a lot of students travel across the Atlantic), but since we use

the American system, we actually have in place some of the reforms only now being undertaken by European countries. Let me point out a couple of provisions that have major implications for our own educational system. The Bologna Accord establishes a European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), which is very much like our system of units. One ECTS-credit is equivalent to about 30 hours of study. The Bologna Accord stipulates that a student can earn an undergraduate (or Bachelors) degree after 180 to 240 ECTS-credits, broken down into three to four years of study at a standard 60 ECTS-credits or 1,800 hours per year. These hours are devoted only to subjects in the major field of study; in our terminology, these are called major subjects. Not included in the European system of study is General Education (in Europe, the term general education refers to what we call basic education); only the American system offers General Education subjects after high school. In the Philippines, a college subject usually has three units, equivalent to 18 weeks of one-hour classes three times a week, for a total of 54 hours of study (because of exams, school activities, and holidays, the total is really closer to 50). That means that our typical college subject is roughly equivalent to two ECTS-credits. In our system, a typical student takes at least 18 units per semester or 972 hours of study. In a year of two semesters, the student finishes 1,944 hours of study, more than the 1,800 hours required of a European student. The problem, however, is that those 18 units are not made up only of major subjects. They include not only the General Education subjects but extra subjects required by a school (religious schools, for example, understandably require religion subjects). Our students do not actually take up enough major subjects to fulfill the requirements of the Bologna Accord. Although our students spend more hours in school than the typical European student, our students devote fewer hours to their major. One implication for CHED is this: the CHED Technical Panels have to work overtime to revise their curricula to ensure that majors take more major subjects than they are taking now. Another implication for CHED is this: General Education subjects (which now typically take almost two years to finish, whether all at once or spread out throughout the curriculum) have to be pared down to the more manageable American number. In the USA, General Education typically takes up only the first year of undergraduate study.

The Bologna Accord expects European undergraduate students to study for three years. There are other accords that extend these years (the Washington Accord for Engineering, for example, which I will write about soon). If we added the one year of American General Education, we will have our typical four years of undergraduate study. There is no need to add another year to college. (In other words, the Gibo proposal of making all college students stay for five years is unnecessary.) Another provision of the Bologna Accord has to do with the content of the subjects. European undergraduate major subjects are now envisioned to focus on practical training (in the CHED Technical Panel on General Education, we call this experiential learning) and intensive research projects. Relying only on textbooks or lectures, on examinations full of questions based on recall or memory, and on attendance inside classrooms is now considered unacceptable for European students. Students there and therefore, our own students here now have to get out and do research on their own. Starting 2010, university education should be and will be what it was in the glorious days of the old universities extending the frontiers of knowledge, challenging received or conventional wisdom, standing on the shoulders and not merely being disciples of giants. The concept of a teaching university will be an oxymoron; all universities will be research universities, devoted to helping humanity solve the problems of the world.

The Bologna Accord, our state of education and the OFW connection
Its sad that this has been in the cauldron for 10 years and yet, our education officials just sat on it and nothing was done to make some changes and/or improvements to satisfy the Bologna Accord. This is not serving us any better. There are only two (2) choices follow the European standards or convince them to adopt our system, which will not happen. Obviously, the only choice is to make some radical changes to our educational system. About 46 countries including all the 27 members of the European Union, with the exception of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, San Morino, and the Ukraine have decided to adopt the Bologna Accord this year 2010. I cant help but notice: Bakit parang wala lang?, as far education officials are concerned?

What is the Bologna Accord?

In 1999, the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries agreed to make the school systems of their countries compatible with each other. Degrees from one country would then have to be accepted by any country signing the Accord. The agreement was signed at the University of Bologna in Italy.

Whats in the Accord?

Heres some that I gathered: Under the Bologna Accord, European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is very much like our system of units. One ECTS-credit is equivalent to about 30 hours of study. A bachelors degree can be earned in three years. Europeans three-year bachelors degrees are equivalent to Americas four-year undergraduate degrees. The European three-year degrees is considered distinct from the Indian BComm, which is not equivalent to a bachelors degree as it often requires further study before the degree recipient is qualified to enroll in a graduate management program.

More bachelors graduates, and consequently, more potential masters students.

The Bologna Accord creates a shorter undergraduate degree 3 years. It is expected that there will be more European students who will successfully complete bachelors degrees, which would, in turn, create a large pool of potential graduate students. The estimate is 2.4 million students per year by the year 2010. Before the Bologna Accord, first degrees in Europe which is equivalent to an American bachelors degree plus masters degree were supposed to take 5 years to complete. However, in practice, the length of study was often considerably longer than 5 years because of students tendency to re-sit years and take a long time to write a final thesiswithout which, many degrees could not be awarded. And so the length of these first degrees was a deterrent from attempting them and a barrier to education. Of those that did enter higher education, on average, students in 5-

to 6-year courses had a 17% higher dropout rate than students in 3- to 5-year courses of study. With shorter degrees, it will encourage more students to earn a bachelors degree. For example: In Italy, first degrees took an average of 5.6 years to complete. In France and Germany, degrees were typically completed in 5.3 and 6 years, respectively. In Austria and Greece, a first degree took an average of 7.3 years to complete! In Europe, very long first degrees were the dominant model. With the Bologna Accord, there will be a fundamental shift. More bachelor degree graduates would mean more potential masters students. While its difficult to predict what the student will do after graduating with a bachelors degree, it is their hope that they will continue to work on a masters degree.

Whats in it for us?

The Philippines uses the American educational system. Our Engineering courses use the Washington Accord. Bologna Accord tries to make the European education compatible with the American system. But the Bologna Accord is bad news to graduates in the Philippines intending to further their studies in Europe. It is also bad news to those who would be looking for a job in Europe. Then again, it could also be good news for us. Why? This will force our Department of Education to adopt major improvement changes to our educational system to meet the requirements of the Bologna Accord. The question is, will they? And when? According to Isagani Cruz: Starting this year, undergraduate degrees in the Philippines will no longer be recognized in most European countries. Jobs in most European countries that require undergraduate degrees will no longer be open to Filipinos, who went to school in the Philippines. (Source: Philstar) Take note, will no longer be open to Filipinos was how it was written on the article. (We dont know if it applies also to foreigners who went to school in the Philippines.)

What will DepEd do now?

The Philippines is the only country in the world with 10 years of basic education; every other country has 12 (except for Myanmar, which has 11). All international agreements assume that students entering college have had more than 10 years of basic education.

For example, both the Washington Accord and the Sydney Accord explicitly require 12 years of pre-university education and the Dublin Accord requires 11 years. Europeans always take 12 years to finish basic education. (Source: Philstar)

Quo vadis jobless Filipinos?

This brings us back to the bottom line of education. Finding opportunities. I dont want to sound sarcastic and cynical, but when President Noy vowed to curb forced migration, Bologna Accord seemed to be doing it for him for it sounded like a lost opportunity for Filipinos wanting to work and/or find opportunities in Europe. I hate to say this, but this Accord effectively renders undergraduate studies in the Philippines useless. Its bad enough that employment discrimination in the Philippines is not only rampant and almost in-your-face, but we also dont have enough local employment opportunities to absorb dislocated workforce. Result? Migration continues and so are family separations.

Sources : http://www.philstar.com/ http://mail.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/2010-October/002395.html http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=578792 http://globalhighered.wordpress.com/2007/09/29/the-ripple-effects-of-the-bolognaprocess-in-the-asia-pacific/ http://reynaelena.com/2010/06/18/the-bologna-accord-our-state-of-education-and-theofw-connection/