THE BOLOGNA DECLARATION AND EDUCATION REFORM

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 920.

1 Introduction

1.1 Read the text title and hypothesize what the text is about. Write down your hypothesis.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1.2 What do you know concerning this issue? List your ideas in the table left column “I know”.

1.3 If you know answers to these questions write them down in the space given after each question.

1.4 Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the

table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.

The Bologna Declaration is a pledge by 29 countries to reform the structures of their higher education systems. It is a commitment freely taken by each signatory country to reform its own higher education system or systems in order to create overall convergence at European level.

The Bologna process aims at creating convergence and, thus, is not a path towards the "standardization" or "uniformisation" of European higher education. The Declaration reflects a search for a common European answer to common European problems. The process originates from the recognition that in spite of their valuable differences, European higher education systems are facing common internal and external challenges related to the growth and diversification of higher education, the employability of graduates, the shortage of skills in key areas, the expansion of private and transnational education, etc. The Declaration recognizes the value of coordinated reforms, compatible systems and common action. The Bologna Declaration is not just a political statement, but a binding commitment to an action programme.

The action programme set out in the Declaration is based on a clearly defined common goal to create a European space for higher education in order to enhance the employability and mobility of citizens and to increase the international competitiveness of European higher education.

The European higher education system acquires a worldwide degree of attractiveness equal to Europe's extraordinary cultural and scientific traditions.

The Bologna Declaration is genuinely opening up new avenues. In stressing so explicitly the need for European higher education as a cohesive system to become more attractive to students from other world regions, it provides one more reason for moving in the direction of a coherent European system and implicitly invites European institutions to compete more resolutely than in the past for students, influence, prestige and money in the worldwide competition of universities.

The 29 signatory countries committed to attain the Declaration's objectives pursue the ways of intergovernmental cooperation, in collaboration with higher education institutions and associations. The Declaration states that the process of establishing a European space for higher education requires constant support, supervision and adaptation to continuously changing needs.

The European process, thanks to the extraordinary achievements of the last few years, has become an increasingly concrete and relevant reality for the European Union and its citizens. Enlargement prospects together with deepening relations with other European countries, provide even wider dimensions to that reality.

This is of the highest importance, given that Universities' independence and autonomy ensure that higher education and research systems continuously adapt to changing needs, society's demands and advances in scientific knowledge.

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) was introduced in 1989. It is a systematic way of describing an educational programme by attaching credits to its components. The definition of credits in higher education systems may be based on different parameters, such as student workload, learning outcomes and contact hours.

The system facilitated the recognition of periods of study abroad and thus enhanced the quality and volume of student mobility in Europe. Recently ECTS is developing into an accumulation system to be implemented at institutional, regional, national and European level.

ECTS makes study programmes easy to read and compare for all students, local and foreign. ECTS facilitates mobility and academic recognition. ECTS helps universities to organize and revise their study programmes. ECTS can be used across a variety of programmes and modes of delivery. ECTS makes European higher education more attractive for students from abroad.

Learning outcomes are sets of competences, expressing what the student will know, understand or be able to do after completion of a process of learning, long or short.

Student workload in ECTS consists of the time required to complete all planned learning activities such as attending lectures, seminars, independent and private study, preparation of projects and examinations.

Credits are allocated to all educational components of a study programme (such as modules, courses, placements, dissertation work, etc.) and reflect the quantity of work each component requires to achieve its specific objectives or learning outcomes, in relation to the total quantity of work necessary to complete a full year of study successfully.

The key documents of ECTS:

· The regular Information Package/Course Catalogue of the institution.

· The Learning Agreement containing the list of courses to be taken with the ECTS credits which will be awarded for each course.

· The Transcript of Records which documents the performance of a student by showing the list of courses taken, the ECTS credits gained, local or national credits, if any, local grades and possibly ECTS grades awarded.

The Diploma Supplement is a document attached to a higher education diploma providing a standardized description of the nature, level, context, content and status of the studies that were successfully completed by the graduate.

Glossary