The Bologna Process and its Impacton Engineering Education

Prepared By

Isam H. zabalawi Higher Education Reform Expert-Tempus

For presentation at A workshop on

Internationalization of Engineering ProgramsTowards Quality and Innovation

2/4/2013

Presentation Outline

• Challenges Facing Engineering HE in Europe Prior To The Bologna Process

• Why Bologna?• The Bologna Process Time Line• Magna Charta Universitatum• The Bologna Declaration• The Bologna Process Action lines• Implication on Jordan Engineering Education :

1. The Diploma Supplement2. The Degree Profile.3. Steps for Developing Engineering

Programs4. Generic Engineering Competencies5. Engineering Learning Outcomes

Challenges Facing Engineering HE in Europe Prior To The Bologna Process

• Titles of the degrees• Periods of Study• Recognitions• Accreditation• Quality and Relevance• Funding of Research• The Attractiveness of the

European Engineering HE• Recruitment of foreign students• European Content• Mobility of Graduates

Europe has around 4 000 higher education institutions, with over 19 million students( 3 M Engineering) and 1.5 million staff. Some European universities are among the best in the world, but, overall, potential is not being fully realised.

Why Bologna?

Oldest Universities In the World

1. University of Al-Karaouine: Located in Fes, Morocco, this university originally was a mosque founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri,.

2. Al-Azhar UniversityAl-Azhar University: This university, located in Egypt, is the world’s second oldest surviving degree-granting institute. Founded in 970-972,.

3. Nizam al-Mulk Nizamiyya: This series of universities was established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the eleventh ( 1068) century in what is now present-day Iran.

4. University of Bologna : This university was the first higher-learning institute established in the Western world in 1088.

Timeline: The Bologna Process

Bologna Process :The Magna Carta

• Magna Carta, 1297: Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy.

• King John of England agreed, in 1215, to the demands of his barons and authorized that handwritten copies of Magna Carta be prepared on parchment, affixed with his seal, and publicly read throughout the realm. Thus he bound not only himself but his "heirs, for ever" to grant "to all freemen of our kingdom" the rights and liberties the great charter described. With Magna Carta, King John placed himself and England's future sovereigns and magistrates within the rule of law.

The document, drafted in Barcelona in January 1988, was signed by all the Rectors who were in Bologna to celebrate the 900th Anniversary of the Alma Mater

On 18 September 1988 some 386 rectors from universities worldwide signed the Magna Charta Universitatum. This document has since become the reference for the fundamental values and principles of the university, in particular institutional autonomy and academic freedom. By now, some 600 universities have signed the Magna Charta Universitatum.

Magna Charta Universitatum 1988

The Magna Charta of Universities

The Magna Charta of the European Universities is the final result of the proposal addressed from the University of Bologna, in 1986, to the oldest European Universities. The idea of the Magna Charta was enthusiastically accepted.

The Magna Charta of University

Preambleuniversities will be called upon to play in a changing and increasingly international society, Consider -1. that at the approaching end of this millennium the future of mankind depends

largely on cultural, scientific and technical development; and that this is built up in centers of culture, knowledge and research as represented by true universities;

2. that the universities' task of spreading knowledge among the younger generations implies that ,in today's world, they must also serve society as a whole; and that the cultural, social and economic future of society requires, in particular, a considerable investment in continuing education;

3. that universities must give future generations education and training that will teach them, and through them others, to respect the great harmonies of their natural environment and of life itself.

The undersigned Rectors of European universities proclaim to all States and to the conscience of all nations the fundamental principles which must, now and always, support the vocation of universities

The Magna Charta of University: Fundamental principles

1. The university is an autonomous institution at the heart of societies differently organized because of geography and historical heritage; it produces, examines, appraises and hands down culture by research and teaching. To meet the needs of the world around it, its research and teaching must be morally and intellectually independent of all political authority and economic power.

2. Teaching and research in universities must be inseparable if their tuition is not to lag behind changing needs, the demands of society, and advances in scientific knowledge.

3. Freedom in research and training is the fundamental principle of university life, and governments and universities, each as far as in them lies, must ensure respect for this fundamental requirement. Rejecting intolerance and always open to dialogue, a university is an ideal meeting-ground for teachers capable of imparting their knowledge and well equipped to develop it by research and innovation and students entitled, able and willing to enrich their minds with that knowledge.

4. A university is the trustee of the European humanist tradition; its constant care is to attain universal knowledge to fulfil its vocatian it transcends geographical and political! frontiers, and affirms the vital need for different cultures to know and influence each other.

The means

To attain these goals by following such principles calls for effective means, suitable to present conditions.

1. To preserve freedom in research and teaching, the instruments appropriate to realize that freedom must be made available to all members of the university community.

2. Recruitment of teachers, and regulation of their status, must obey the principle that research is inseparable from teaching.

3. Each university must - with due allowance for particular circumstances - ensure that its students' freedoms are safeguarded, and that they enjoy conditions in which they can acquire the culture and training which it is their purpose to possess.

4. Universities - particularly in Europe - regard the mutual exchange of information and documentation, and frequent joint projects for the advancement of learning, as essential to the steady progress of knowledge.

Therefore, as in the earliest years of their history, they encourage mobility among teachers and students; furthermore, they consider a general policy of equivalent status, titles, examinations (without prejudice to national diplomas) and award of scholarships essential to the fulfillment of their mission in the conditions prevailing today.

The undersigned Rectors, on behalf of their Universities, undertake to do everything in their power to encourage each State, as well as the supranational organizations concerned, to mould their policy sedulously on this Magna Carta, which expresses the universities' unanimous desire freely determined and declaredBologna, 18 September 1988.