Select Committee on Education and Skills Fourth Report


1  Introduction

1. In May 2007 the United Kingdom is due to host the fifth conference of Ministers of Education of countries that have signed the Bologna Declaration of co-operation in higher education. The purposes of the Declaration are to increase staff and student mobility, simplify and improve the mutual recognition of qualifications and enhance the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area as an international study destination.[1] The Education and Skills Committee thought it timely to undertake a short inquiry into progress being made with implementation of the Bologna Process, with a view to facilitating discussion of issues affecting UK[2] universities[3] and other providers of higher education that may arise at the May conference. We hope that this Report will prove to be a constructive contribution to the Ministerial Summit in May and beyond.

2. Written submissions were invited from institutions and organisations with interests in this field, and around forty responses received and studied. The Committee took oral evidence in January 2007 from the Minister for Higher Education, Bill Rammell MP; Lord May of Oxford; the President of Universities UK, Professor Drummond Bone; the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education; the UK Higher Education Europe Unit; and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle, Professor Ella Ritchie. The Committee also heard evidence regarding the Bologna Process in its wider higher education inquiry from the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Professor David Eastwood; and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, Professor Robert Burgess.

3. The Committee has reached the following conclusions.

  • First and foremost, there is overwhelming support in and beyond the academic community for the UK to continue to play a leading role in the Bologna Process.
  • Second, there is a desire to maintain and protect the current distinction between, on the one hand the voluntary, bottom-up, 45 country Bologna Process, focused on academic cooperation, and on the other, the European Community,[4] with its much broader economic, social and political agenda, legislative and legal powers and massive resource base (from which the Bologna Process itself derives significant benefits).
  • Third, anxieties exist about the implications for UK institutions and programmes of certain aspects of the Bologna commitment to a three-cycle (bachelors, masters, doctoral) course structure and the way in which students will acquire academic credits. The status of self-standing and integrated Masters' level courses is a particular focus of these anxieties.
  • Fourth, there are doubts about whether the full significance of the coming into existence of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)[5] has yet been adequately recognised by all those engaged in higher education as teachers, researchers, and employers of graduates.
  • Fifth, the Government is not so far seen to be sufficiently pro-active in disseminating information, identifying and where possible resolving potential difficulties, and consulting on the future of the EHEA, especially where this entails an increase in the number of participating countries.

4. The remainder of this Report sets out the evidence on which these conclusions are based and makes recommendations for action by government, institutions and organisations, with a particular focus on the forthcoming Ministerial Conference in London.

5. In the final section of the report we look beyond 2010 to the significant potential long-term advantages of operating within a robust, competitive, and flexible European Higher Education Area: advantages for the UK economy, students, graduates, and higher education sector.


1   Adapted from the Quality Assurance Agency's written submission to the Committee, Ev 16. Back

2   The Bologna Process applies to all universities and higher education systems in the UK. This report has focussed on the impact on the English higher education system and has not looked separately at the impact in Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales. Back

3   The term "universities" is used throughout the report to refer to all higher education institutions.  Back

4   The European Community is legally separate from the European Union. Each has its own powers-those for education being located exclusively in the EC Treaty (articles 149 and 150). There can be no EU legislation or action on education. Back

5   One of the key aims of the Bologna Process is to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010. Back


 
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Prepared 30 April 2007