The Bologna Process and Professional Qualifications

By 2010 the Bologna Process aims to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which will embrace the higher education systems of its 46 signatory countries. One of the EHEA’s main elements is the overarching framework of qualifications based on three cycles. Update no.8, September 2011.
However, many qualifications are professional as well as academic. More than 800 regulated professions are covered by EU legislation, which enables mobile professionals to practice and to establish in EU Member States other than the one in which they obtained their qualification. With the significant exception of the field of law, these professions fall within the scope of Directive EC/2005/36 on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications.
The Directive distinguishes between seven sectoral professions (medical doctor, dentist, nurse, midwife, veterinary surgeon, pharmacist, architect), transitional professions (where length of experience, rather than formal qualification, is the factor of paramount importance), and the general system into which all other regulated professions fall. Its substance derives mainly from earlier Directives, dating back to the 1970s. It takes no cognisance of the content of Bologna Process or the fact that Bologna has been enshrined in the national law of most EU Member States.
In October 2007, EUA convened a workshop of bodies concerned with the sectoral professions, including the European Commission and the European Parliament. The workshop explored the implications of the non-alignment of the Directive and the Bologna Process, with particular regard to length of qualification, curriculum design and the definition of learning outcomes, mobility and quality assurance. The documentation produced for and since October 2007 is available below.
•    Background paper to EUA workshop on sectoral professions, October 2007
•    Report of the workshop
•    Update no.1, April 2008
•    Update no.2, October 2008
•    Update no.3, June 2009
•    Update no.4, February 2010
•    Update no. 5, August 2010
•    Meeting on Directive 2005/36/EC in European Parliament, October 2010
• The Bologna Process and DIR 2005/36/EC: the points of divergence, Howard Davies, EUA Senior Adviser
• Evaluation of the Professional Qualifications Directive, Jürgen Tiedje, European Commission DG Internal Market and Services
• Report of the meeting held in the European Parliament on 14 October 2010, Howard Davies, EUA Senior Advise
• Update no. 6, February 2011
• Update no. 7, 23 May 2011
• Update no.8, September 2011
Future updates will appear regularly on this website. Inquiries should be directed to Howard Davies at howard.davies@eua.be.