The EU Bologna Declaration is a document well known on the continent, but hardly ever discussed -- and often unheard of -- in the UK. Our continental colleagues are seriously concerned by it, so perhaps we should be too.
First, what is the Bologna Declaration? It is sometimes referred to as BAMA, that is the implementation of a BA/MA system akin to that in the UK or USA. About time, some might say, that foreigners appreciated "our" sensible system! The Declaration, signed by twenty-nine European countries, including the UK, is based on the Sorbonne Declaration of 1998 which basically called for the harmonisation of HE qualification systems in Europe, mutual recognition of qualifications and increased staff and student mobility within Europe. In May this year there was a follow-up with the Prague Process, signed by thirty-two countries. It must be stressed that this is not an agreement or agreed policy, but a declaration of intent.
The main points include:
-
The adoption of a system essentially based on 2 cycles -- undergraduate and postgraduate, and, while there is mention of a 3-5-8-year model for BA/MA/PhD (i.e., 3 or 4 years for the BA, 1 or 2 more for the MA and another 3 for the doctorate), there is a strong emphasis on levels not years.
-
As life-long learning is stressed throughout the document, measuring degrees by years is considered unhelpful.
-
The establishment of a system of credits. This is already available through the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), but there is a desire to strengthen the 'transferability and accumulation functions' of this system with a view to encouraging life-long learning. They would also encourage all credit systems at schools, colleges and universities to be harmonised to permit mobility at all stages and ages.
-
The adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degree certification; this work that is undertaken by another acronym -- NARIC, The National Academic Recognition Initiative Centres and will lead to the Diploma Supplement.
-
The acceptance of the Diploma Supplement which is not a diploma as we know it but a personalised document in which all courses are described in a uniform and regularised method along with ECTS grades in order to make it understandable to all employers in the EU. Eventually everyone in the EU would have one of these and they would explain the level, nature and contents of all the courses taken in all countries by the candidate.
-
The Promotion of Mobility by students, teachers and researchers. This has of course been the aim of the ERASMUS and SOCRATES programmes, although research would be added and the volume of exchanges increased.
-
The Promotion of European cooperation in Quality Assurance, evaluation and accreditation. Another acronym, the ENQA (European Network of QA) is working to further this aim. It will mean the creation of a common framework of reference for QA and the dissemination of best practice throughout the EU. There is the suggestion of creating independent agencies to evaluate degrees and give "quality labels". Any move to have another QA regulatory body at work, I imagine, would go down like a lead balloon in the UK, considering the present mood of the HE sector here!
-
The promotion the European dimension in HE, namely the increase of the European content in existing courses and the awarding of joint degrees between universities in different countries.
-
The promotion of life-long learning built on a knowledge-based society and economy -- something that we do indeed know about in the UK.
Many in the UK might think that the 3+1+3 BA/MA/PhD system is what we already have and so the Declaration is not aimed at us. However, the adoption on the continent of shorter "UK-style" degrees with an emphasis on greater mobility, flexibility and compatibility is not as simple as it looks and indeed the notion that there is a single UK system is of course wrong. Here in Scotland we have 3 and 4-year first degrees, called the MA in some universities. It would be as difficult in the UK to persuade universities to agree on the nomenclature of degrees as it is to convince the nation to adopt the Euro. Universities are proud of their degree titles, such as the Oxford MA, and elsewhere there is a wealth of titles such as BA, MA, BLitt, MLitt, MPhil, PhD and DPhil. The four-year Scottish honours MA would therefore not fit into this template.
Behind the move one suspects a drive by the education ministries of some countries to reduce their 5-6 year first-degree courses. As student numbers rise there is a vast increase in public spending in HE, which a three-year BA would help. Many continental students, unlike their UK cousins, have full funding for five-year programmes. Although funding is limited to five years in these countries, most students take even longer, as there is no great pressure to complete the degree. My old university of Copenhagen has such a degree, the cand. phil., but only 5% of the student body in the English Department between 1991-96 completed the degree in 5 years and only 31% who began in 1987 had completed by 1996 -- nine years later. Students go up to examinations when they feel they are ready -- and who ever feels ready?
On the continent there is a fear that initial degree programmes are being diluted in order to save money and that nothing 'meaningful' can be achieved in three years, as can be seen in the Danish experience. A few years ago the Danish Ministry of Education introduced the bachelor degree as an early exit point in the system. The bachelor degree in English in Denmark comprises two years of the study of subjects such as phonetics, grammar, oral and written proficiency, literary appreciation, and cultural studies of America and the UK. In the third year there is scope for specialisation in a topic, or one-year study in another humanities course. This also means that students from other disciplines can take English for one year. This bachelor degree course was based on the previous first part of the five-year cand.phil. degree and as such most teachers consider it an introduction to the second, more specialised part when topics are studied in depth and a dissertation is written. For this reason teachers do not encourage students to leave after the bachelor degree and do not consider it sufficient preparation for a career. The suspicion that surrounded this new degree is shared by employers and it is not accepted by the secondary school system as sufficient training for teachers. When I chaired the assessment of the teaching and learning quality in Danish English departments there was much resistance to this three-year bachelor degree, although it was made compulsory by the ministry. There is also the question of the time needed to study a foreign language. In the UK most students of foreign languages spend a compulsory year in the country in which the language is spoken, and so one might say that linguistic skills take longer to acquire.
The Bologna documentation makes specific mention of the need to avoid half-hearted changes to the degree structure. It strongly argues against "window-dressing reforms", that is revamping the existing two or three years of a 5-year degree programme, as the BA should be accepted as a rounded and complete degree in itself with precise outcomes and skills which can be used in the workplace.
A number of years before, the PhD was successfully introduced in Denmark as a research training degree, as previously there had only been the dr.phil. which is equivalent to the German 'habilitation' and a major piece of research generally completed well into one's academic career. Consequently, Denmark might be said to have fulfilled the Bologna requirements of a 3+2+3 (BA/MA/PhD) system. However in the Netherlands there is an attempt to create new three-year BA programmes with "more effective tranversal skills" which will lead to both a BA degree and lay the foundations for those continuing to a Master's degree. The Bologna document mentions 'meaningful degrees' with 'real possibilities on the labour market' and 'a European dimension'.
Similarly France is implementing the Declaration and the National Council for Higher Education and Research (CNESER) has agreed to adopt this system. The postgraduate degree will be called the 'mastaire', to avoid confusion with the 'maîtrise'.
Another fear that one frequently hears expressed is that there will uniformity in the degree programmes throughout Europe and that this might lead to the closure of universities if the same degree is available everywhere. There was an unsuccessful government move in the Netherlands a few years ago to close all language departments and send the students abroad to study in the country in which that language was spoken. But, as we are painfully aware of in the UK, English is not only a question of language. Within English studies there is a wide variety of topics taught; indeed this is one of the strengths of the subject, as students can choose a department which specialises in the topic of their choice. In non-native English speaking countries varying levels of English language proficiency and knowledge of the social, cultural and political life in English-speaking countries have to be considered. The curriculum in many countries where university students normally become secondary school teachers and where pedagogical training is part of the curriculum is also influenced by each country's secondary school system. ESSE at the moment is conducting along with the British Council a wide survey in all European countries of English departments and already we can a vast difference in what constitutes a degree in English.
In spite of this fear the Declaration does not mention uniformity of content, only of levels, nomenclature and credits. A BA programme from one department could be vastly different in content from that in another department or country, but both would carry 180 ECTS points and have a clear Diploma in which the courses are explained and skills mentioned for future employers.
Such changes cannot simply come from above, however, and it is vitally important to prepare both the university community and the labour market. There is a need for agreement, consensus and a belief that the new system is superior and a major, national PR campaign to explain to employers the content and the advantages of the new degree.
Less controversial these days in the UK is the call for 'degrees relevant to the labour market', but this is still a major issue in some continental countries where the first degree is seen as an academic training for future researchers or teachers in the gymnasium system. We in the UK are well trained by TQA and QAA in the language of transferable or transversal skills and these are mentioned in our Benchmark statements. These include critical and independent thinking, the ability to analyse a text, verbal creativity, knowledge of the cultural and socio-historical contexts of literature and language, the appreciation of different theories, and skills such as information retrieval, presentation of ideas orally and in writing, language skills, and the ability to work with IT. Such generic skills can be taught in any branch of English studies in any country, but there are added benefits from comparing different nations' definitions of necessary skills for the labour market. In this area I believe that the UK is ahead of most other European universities. Government Education Departments in other countries are also interested in the concept of 'benchmarks' -- indeed the UK is seen as a the laboratory for a number of innovative ideas, many of which are hotly contested in continental universities.
This leads to the emphasis in the Document on QA and accreditation frameworks. The aim is 'an enhanced European dimension in QA, evaluation and accreditation and compatible QA systems'. Again the UK is well ahead in the assessment process, and most use the UK template for their own countries. I've now assessed English departments in a number of countries and can see the same pattern repeated and UK QA-speak translated (with differing degrees of success!) into many languages. Yet at a time when the 'softer approach' is advocated in the UK, the Bologna Declaration seems to favour a more rigorous system. It advocates 'independent evaluation leading to European quality labels in broad subject areas' and suggests that this assessment should be undertaken by agencies independent from national and European authorities. The creation of an independent Bureau funded by the EU, such as the ERASMUS and SOCRATES Bureaus, is a common EU tactic. This, I believe, would lead to the creation of an extremely expensive and cumbersome administration which would probably expand to justify itself in the course of time. The use of external assessors has its benefits, but, apart from the expense, does mean that the assessors have much to learn about a country in a very brief time before entering a university. I have taken part in teaching and research assessments in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands and have found it difficult (apart from Denmark where I worked for eighteen years) to appreciate the system from a cold start. The work is very stressful for all concerned, as time is limited and there is much travel involved. In the case of Denmark the TQA team visited one university per day and all were in different cities. A van with all the paperwork followed our progress across the country and by the end of the first week with meetings from dawn to dusk and travel at night we were not sure exactly where we were!
I believe that we should keep ourselves informed about the developments in the area of harmonisation of degrees and assessment procedures as we may well find ourselves suddenly bound by a new EU directive which changes the names and nature of our degree programmes. There is much to be applauded by this initiative, especially if it makes employability easier throughout the continent. Many UK graduates have been denied jobs by not having their three-year degree acknowledged as completed degrees in countries where the first degree takes five or more years. Whatever happens I believe that such harmonisation will increase radically in the coming years and that we in the UK should keep ourselves informed.
Notes
For those who would like to learn more, I would suggest the following websites:
www.eaie.nl (European Association for International Education);
Project Report - Trends in Learning Structures in Higher Education
www.esib.org (National Union of Students); here you can find the European Union of Students views in an article entitled "Towards the European Higher Education Area.
