1. Higher education reform: lessons from the Bologna Process
Howard Davies
SPHERE / EUA
SPHERE conference
Barcelona, December

2. The Bologna reforms… vary in focus from country to country
are subject to different distributions of legal competences and policy-making responsibilities
have no fixed place in the priority list of national policy imperatives
can prove problematic when it comes to implementation

3. Readability
… ‘a system of easily readable and comparable degrees’ (Bologna Declaration, 1999)
a process of approximation
an over-arching policy umbrella; mobility instruments; a timetable
readability is now in place – but what is readable is not always correctly read

4. Portugal after the financial crisis
In 2012, the Portuguese ministry declared that:
‘a quantitative increase in higher education must be complemented by a rise in quality that makes it possible to match the offer to the existing needs via the rationalisation of the network of institutions and courses’

5. EUA in Portugal EUA was invited to:
take stock of the implementation of the Bologna legislation
map current issues: access to HE; student finance; demography; employability; research, innovation, regional development; governance and funding; the re-structuring of the HE system
locate Portuguese HE in its European and international contexts
meet relevant actors and stakeholders
make recommendations

6. Peer readability
EUA team scrutinised Portugal - and its home territories at the same time:
CH: insight into the differences between the Portuguese and Swiss binary systems
ES: understanding of Portugal in its Iberian context
ESU: opportunity to compare a country in which student associations are much stronger at institutional level with countries where they are strong at national level
UK: witnessing Bologna implementation at close quarters

7. Categories of readers Peer readers Readers who use Readers who monitor
Readers who advise or adjudicate
Peer readers who contribute to the construction of the EHEA:
e.g. national qualifications frameworks
Macedonia

8. Readability and trust: the case of professional qualifications
Council of European Dentists and the Association for Dental Education in Europe
European Federation of Nurses Associations
The Pharmine project
The European Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture and the Architects Council of Europe
[both nursing and architecture participated in the Tuning Project]

9. The reform of a reform
2013: the French Community of Belgium’s Landscape Decree – Le Décret Paysage
Revision of mission to boost readability and internationalisation
Structural reform at system level
From three ‘ideological’ academies to one coordinating academy
Legal texts do not provide full readability

10. SPHERE conference Barcelona
First learning outcome:
‘To be able to analyse higher education policy reforms, considering examples from other systems’
Two days to practise readability…
1998 The Sorbonne Declaration: ‘The international recognition and attractive potential of our systems are directly related to their external and internal readabilities.’
1998

11. Thank you for your attention