A new report shows that the implementation of the Bologna process commitments is slowing down. The Commission tries to create new momentum.
The Bologna Declaration was signed 25 years ago by the higher education ministers of 29 European countries. Now including 49 countries (Russia and Belarus currently suspended), the ministers met in Tirana on 29-30 May 2024 to take stock of the progress achieved and to adopt the Tirana Communiqué. In this context, the European Commission (EC) published on 31 May 2024 the Bologna Process Implementation Report ‘The European Higher Education Area in 2024’. In six chapters, the report assesses the progress made by the participating countries towards the commitments of the Bologna process, as per the Rome Ministerial Communiqué of 2020.
The report paints a mixed picture when it comes to the implementation of the Bologna commitments. The common three-cycle degree structure is implemented by almost all members of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This means that most systems require at least 180 ECTS for first-cycle (Bachelor), between 60-120 ECTS for second-cycle degrees, less than 20% of students in long/integrated programmes, and no programmes outside of the three-cycle structure (see Figure 2.7 on page 61 of the report). Switzerland fulfils all four criteria. Furthermore, new developments such as Microcredentials are also assessed by the report: while most countries offer some forms of Microcredentials, only a minority includes them in the national qualifications frameworks (namely Croatia, Denmark, England, Flanders, Ireland, Italy, Sweden). With regards to quality control, a large majority of countries are using most of the ECTS Users’ Guide principles in their external quality assurance processes, including Switzerland. A major cornerstone of the Bologna process is the Lisbon Recognition Convention. Since the last implementation report from 2020, there has been a slight progress: Now 31 countries have fully included all of the principles of the Recognition Convention into national law, while 12 more countries have included four of the principles (cf. pages 71-72 of the report). Automatic recognition of degrees for academic purposes remains, however, a difficult process with slow progress over many years. The report shows that only a minority of 19 countries have full automatic recognition within the EHEA in place, among them Switzerland. In 16 countries automatic recognition only takes place with a subset of European countries, and in 13 countries there is no automatic recognition. Unfortunately, the automatic recognition efforts are also hampered by additional national criteria that some countries put in place. Similarly, the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes is taken up slowly, many national regulations hinder its full implementation (currently only 20 countries implement it).
In this context of a slowed-down Bologna process, the European Commission tries to create new momentum for European cooperation in higher education. For this purpose, the EC funds the European Universities Initiative, provides advise and support to education ministries, and tries to push the debate by proposing a European Degree (see SwissCore article). The European Universities Initiative is open to higher education institutions (HEI) from the entire EHEA and sees an active participation of Swiss HEIs (about 50% of all universities and universities of applied sciences).
The report also includes recent statistics on the development of the education systems overall. The number of students in the EHEA continues to rise (+11% between 2016-2021), out of which 60% are Bachelor-level students. However, the report shows also that the national budgets for higher education remain relatively stable, which in reality means a reduction in public funding per student.
Lastly, the report tracks international mobility in higher education. The goal of at least 20% of graduates having a mobility experience by 2020 was not reached and remains between 9% and 15% in the EHEA. Nevertheless, the EU education ministers decided to raise the ambition by setting a new EU-wide target of 23% by 2030 in the recently adopted “Europe on the Move” Council Recommendation (see SwissCore article).