2012 Bologna/EHEA Ministerial Conference
The next summit of the Ministers of Higher Education of the ‘Bologna’ or European Higher Education Area [EHEA] countries will take place on 26-27 April this year, in the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania.
Last year, the European Commission announced a substantial increase – 68 per cent – of investment in education for the next Framework 2014/20 budget. It is of prime importance, therefore, to determine the role of European institutions in the consolidation and progress of the Bologna Process, especially given that the EHEA summits will only be held every three years this decade, and that any measures to be implemented should be appropriate to the objectives established in the Europe 2020 strategy.
A recent draft motion for a European Parliament Resolution has been introduced, by Luigi Berlinguer MEP, in order to strengthen the support to the Bologna Process at the European Union level. Berlinguer explains the motion because bottlenecks are to be found in:
- the lack of funding policy to enhance student mobility flows;
- the recognition of academic qualifications, as most of the Bologna countries have not implemented national qualification frameworks;
- the national quality assurance measures, which need to be adapted to the European Quality Assurance Register and European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Standards and Guidelines;
- the social dimension, or cohesion, of the process (equitable access & completion);
- increased employability by company traineeships as part of academic curricula;
- better co-operation between the EHEA and the European Research Area.
The European Commission recently adopted the draft report ‘Education and Training in a smart, sustainable and inclusive Europe’ – following its adoption under the Danish presidency – implementing ’ET2020’, and suggesting priority areas for European policy cooperation for the 2012-14 cycle. Such are mostly intended to overcome the mentioned bottlenecks.
A provisional programme can be found on the 2012 summit website.
