the bologna process: european universities on their toes conference on graduate education and...
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The Bologna Process:European Universities on their Toes
Conference on Graduate Education and American Competitiveness
Washington DC, 9 March 2005
Sybille Reichert, Zürich, Switzerland
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1. The Bologna Process: from intergovernmental commitments to institutional realities
2. The European Research Area
3. Research Training as the new focus of European Higher Education debates
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16 Million Higher Education students in 40 countries800 universities of which16% declare that they are serving a world-wide community, 7% a European community 52% serve a national community,20% a regional community
Some important data…
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0full• Evolution away from ‘elite’ higher education, with steadily increasing participation rates since 1970
• Autonomy of institutions growing (speed depends on the individual countries)
• Remarkable increase of European mobility cooperation and networking, supported by EU
• Increase of output-based and competitive part of HE and research funding
• Increasing European competition for EU funds• Increasing orientation toward international markets • Cautious opening to private partnerships
European Higher Education in Transition
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1. Bologna Process: from intergovernmental commitments to institutional realities
• Originally an intergovernmental initiative: Bologna Declaration in 1999 comprises 29 (now 40) national commitments to create a common „readable“ European Higher Education Area which allows maximum mobility between different HE systems and is attractive to students and researchers from the rest of the world with the help of – compatible degree structures (Bachelor/ Master) based on a common
credit system– comparable quality assurance systems, – helping mutual recognition of foreign degrees and study abroad, mobility– advancing lifelong learning– including doctoral level and research training (since 2003)
• European HE Area will only become a reality if Higher Education Institutions subscribe to the aims and implement the operational objectives –
• This seems to be actually happening: a majority of institutions is transforming the Bologna reforms into their own institutional development agenda.
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Which aims are the driving forces of Bologna from the point of view of the institutions?
1. enhancement of academic quality – reforms go beyond just a formally changed degree system
2. preparing graduates for the European labour market – 91% of heads of HEIs regard employability as important of very important when redesigning curricula (70% of HEIs track employment of some or all graduates)– how to make sustainable
employability and academic quality compatible values is the core challenge of curricular reform
3. competitiveness/ attractiveness of national (not European) system of HE
employability
academic quality
attractiveness
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Promote attractiveness where?
Figure 6: Priority Areas of European HEI (2003)
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10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
EU EasternEur.
US/Can Australia ArabWorld
Asia Latin Am. Africa
Pe
rce
nt
RC (35)
Min (35)
HEI (760)
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Bachelor/Master at European HEIsInstitutions with a degree structure based on two main cycles (Bachelor, Master) as
envisaged by the Bologna Declaration, in most academic fields?
Map revised on 17th June 2003
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2. The Creation of a European Research Area• agenda proposed by Eur. Com. (1999), adopted by goverments at
Lisbon European Council (March 2000): „to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world“, i.e. for Europe to become a global leader in scientific research and industrial innovation again
• =„reference framework for discussions of research policies in Europe“
• realisation that the quality and availability of new knowledge and expertise are fundamental pre-conditions for the future well-being of our societies
• addressing 3 challenges– insufficient research funding, addressed again at Barcelona
Council, March 2002 (COM 2002 „More research for Europe: Towards 3% GDP“ by 2010)
– stimulating environment for research and research exploitation (concentration of excellence)
– fighting the fragmented nature of activities and resources
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Europe‘s Research is lagging behind:
• citations per scientific publication significantly higher in US than any EU country (1.64% of US publications are highly cited papers, in EU this is only the case for 0.25%)
• in 1992-2001, 63 Nobel laureates came from the US and only 17 from EU countries.
• in 1992 – 1999, there was at first a general negative growth, then a very small growth (mostly under 1%) of EU patents at the European and US patent offices.
• US (2.76%) and Japan (3.12%) still have higher R&D intensities than the EU-25 (1.93%) and China (1.23%).
• In the five years to 2002, the majority of EU-25 Member States' R&D expenditure underwent sustained growth in the years to 2002, the fastest growth rates being registered by Estonia, Cyprus and Hungary, with more than 11% annual average growth in real terms. Overall, the EU's R&D expenditure grew 6.47% a year on average, ( as compared to the US's by 5.83%, Japan's 6.19%, China's by 18.51%!).
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But also catching up:
• Producing more S&E graduates per 1000 inhabitants than US• Producing more publications than US• Of the top 200 research universities (THES): there are 86 from
Europe, only 62 from US (24 from Asia, 20 Australia): • Top third: US 25, Europe 19• Second third: US 20, Europe 33• Third third: US 17, Europe 34
• In 2002, the European Union counted 1.67 million researchers, twice the number in Japan. Total R&D personnel, the EU had more than 2.75 million. Big contributors to this high number are the larger Member States such as Germany, France, Spain. R&D personnel in the EU (FTE) registered an increase of 3 % in the three years to 2002.
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3. Research Training as the new Focus of European HE Reform Movement
• Research Training mostly oriented toward academic careers
• Little mobility between public and private research sectors
• Fragmented research markets, still dominated by national conditions
• Negative perceptions of career prospects• Graduate training with little structure (lack of overarching
offer, lack of interdisciplinary or social integration, insufficient networking or mentoring)
• Insufficient attention to diversification research careers, incl. insufficient skills training
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ERA Activities• create attractive scientific career options/ conditions (more diverse,
less focused on academic market, more osmosis between univ. research and industry, tenure-track systems)
• strengthen mobility at doctoral and post-doctoral level, create a European market of young researchers
• de-fragment funding structures, e.g. making national funding structures more open to non-residents, easier cross-border funding, more multilateral schemes
• optimise sharing of infrastructures, develop common policies for big scientific infrastructures
• find more flexible funding mechanisms for emerging sectors of S&T, for interdisciplinary approaches
• establish an independent European Research Council as a funding agency for fundamental research committed purely to scientific excellence – a European voice for fundamental research
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University Activities
• Creation of doctoral and graduate schools• Introduction of research skills training which
takes account of diverse careers• Quality improvement of mentoring• Networking between institutions to create more
critical mass• Cooperation with industry in research training
(e.g. Finland, Ireland, UK, Germany)• Embedding research training in institutional
policies --More strategic awareness and targeted development of research strengths
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