The Challenge of Bologna, What United States
Higher Education Has to Learn from Europe, and Why It Matters That
We Learn It. Zo heet het boek van
Paul L. Gaston. Hij sprak
met de redactie van InsideHigherEd:
Why should American academics care about Bologna?
We share most of Europe's priorities for higher education.
We believe that increased accountability should support responsible
comparisons of programs and institutions, that students should have
less difficulty in transferring academic credits, that the
credentials we offer should be more easily understood by the
public, that teaching should be more intentional in the light of a
consensus on outcomes, and that as a nation we should remain highly
competitive in attracting international students. We have important
initiatives under way in many of these areas.
But the Bologna Process represents a coordinated commitment to such
reforms that is monitored continually throughout the continent.
With one decade of progress to report, Europe can offer us a useful
example. The issue is not whether we should "import" the Bologna
Process, but whether we can learn from its coherence and sense of
urgency.
Has Bologna lived up to its promise, from a European
perspective?
Yes -- and no. Without question, Europe has accomplished
much since the 1999 Declaration. But fault lines have appeared. For
instance, implementation of the three-year baccalaureate degree has
discouraged greater mobility among undergraduates, as students
challenged by compact curriculums offered at a faster pace are
staying put.
The recession has not helped, in that changes in the funding of
higher education, while not part of the Bologna reforms, have
provoked resistance to the process. And completion of national
"qualifications frameworks," explaining educational attainment
according to degree levels, has proved to be more difficult than
anticipated.
Bologna will declare victory this spring with the end of its first
decade and the formal recognition of the European Higher Education
Area. But the fact that the process has now been extended to a
second decade suggests that its promise has been met only part
way.
Has the growth in countries participating in Bologna
changed the process?
Decidedly. Through its expansion from the initial group of
29 participating countries to the present 46, "from Shannon
(Ireland) to Vladivostok (Russia)," the potential of the Bologna
Process to achieve significant higher education reform across the
expanse of two continents has become even more apparent.
But with expansion has come a far greater range of national
differences in higher education governance, in assumptions about
the purposes of a college education, and in the depth to which
structures, schedules, and other conventions are rooted in national
cultures. Hence the biennial surveys of the reform initiatives,
country by country, now suggest increasing disparity from one to
another in progress sought and progress made. Students in Europe
speak of an "à la carte" approach to the Bologna initiatives in
some countries: focus on some priorities, ignore others.
How does Bologna -- to take the title of your book --
"challenge" American higher education?
The Bologna Process represents first a challenge by Europe
to the United States and the rest of the world.
It was conceived and implemented as part of a continental
commitment to European economic ascendancy, with higher education
as an important means to that end. But Bologna also poses a
specific challenge to American higher education. Europe seeks to
attract international students who are now more likely to study in
the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia.
And Europe seeks to make its own students more competitive on the
world stage. The three-year baccalaureate in Europe challenges us
to document more persuasively the value of a four-year degree
offering the advantages of a liberal education.
And there's the issue of the mobility of talent, an important
factor in economic growth. While we continue to increase
out-of-state tuitions at public universities, discouraging students
from crossing state lines to secure a college education, Europe is
prompting its students to "study abroad" within Europe. Above all,
Bologna has challenged U.S. higher education by pursuing priorities
that are ours as well and by making more progress towards achieving
them.
Given the diversity of American higher education, how could
Bologna principles be applied in the United States? Should they be
applied?
Well, Europe presents no less broad a range of
institutional types, degree designations, and assumptions about who
should be educated and for what reasons. The Bologna Process
represents precisely a commitment to surmount those disparities in
favor of higher education that is more easily understood, more
accountable to the public, more intentional with regard to its
outcomes, and more attractive to the world's scholars and
students.
But, no, while there is much we can learn from Bologna's example,
we cannot and should not simply adopt its initiatives as our own.
However, as your question suggests, there are important
principles behind a coordinated continent-wide effort that
expresses a compelling sense of urgency.
We would be wise to observe those principles: agree on a small
number of compelling priorities that serve both students and the
national interest, commit to the urgent pursuit of such priorities
according to a carefully monitored and documented process, and
sustain a commitment to priorities that may take longer than
anticipated to accomplish.
But we can improve on Bologna. Our commitment to diversity in its
other sense, the value we place on the pursuit of learning within a
multicultural environment, gives us an advantage on the world
stage. And our high regard for the outcomes of a liberal education
-- intellectual agility, the capacity for continued learning, an
ability to work with others, a sense of civic responsibility --
stands us in good stead. Attentive to the distinct values of
American higher education, we should learn from the Bologna Process
but endeavor to go it one better.
Het boek van Paul Gaston vindt u hier