Bologna Ministerial Conference in Bucharest on the way

During today and tomorrow the newest ministerial conference of the Bologna Process is taking place in Bucharest, Romania. During the two days of meetings of both the Bologna Follow Up Group, the Ministerial Conference and the Bologna Policy forum, by Saturday we will have the newest Communique for the Bologna process – the Bucharest Communique.
The event was opened yesterday with a reception where the Romanian prime miniester gave a speech where he emphasized both the value of human capital as a resource in global markets and expressed his wishes of the newest Bucharest Communique delivering an important message for the further development of the Euroepan Higher Education Area.
To what extent this will be the case remains to be seen. The event has attracted more than 500 participants from 80 countries, far exceeding the 47 who are official members. A few days ago it was announced that Belarus will still not be able to join the process due to their lack of reforms and intentions of respecting academic freedom. However – a large number of the ministers of education from the larger countries have opted to not join the Ministerial Conference and these countries will be represented by state secretaries instead. While in essence a technical matter, one can wonder whether this also gives an indication of the relative importance of the Bologna Process in these countries.
The draft communique in itself is not very revolutionary and provocative and the general mood appears to be that there will not be major changes or points that would create a potential controversy. And, there are increasing voices being raised over the future of Bologna as a whole. What should be the main focus? Should there be a Bologna process? What about future expansion? These remain to be seen during the debates during today and tomorrow.
Since Hedda researchers are participating as observes, we will be giving you all the news after the conference! Meanwhile, you can enjoy listening to our previous podcasts with two key people in the Bologna process:

• Sjur Bergan who is the head of the higher education group at the Council of Europe discussing the future of the  Bologna Process.
• Ligia Deca who has been the head of the BFUG Secreatariat who also gives her insights about the Bologna Process and its potential future scenarios.