Bologna Process update: EUA contributes to preparations for 2015 Ministerial Meeting

In spring 2015 Ministers responsible for higher education from the member countries of the Bologna Process will gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the next Bologna Ministerial Meeting.
As a consultative member, EUA participates in the Ministerial conferences and their preparation. Like in previous rounds of the Bologna Process, therefore, EUA has actively contributed over the past two years to the work of the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) that manages the Process between the meetings. It has participated in all BFUG working groups and contributed to the ongoing development of policy papers and reports that will be tabled at next year’s Ministerial Meeting.
From the present 2012-2015 Bologna round, a number of important outcomes are expected: The BFUG Working Group on Implementation is currently drafting the 2015 Bologna Implementation Report, which will assess progress made since the last report in 2012, and can be expected to become once again an important reference document, both for policy makers and institutions.
Together with other European stakeholder groups, another key aspect of EUA’s work has been preparing a proposal for a revised version of the “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area”, commonly known as the ESG.
The revised version, proposed by the E4 Group (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), European Students’ Union (ESU), European University Association (EUA), European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE)), in cooperation with Education International (EI), BUSINESSEUROPE and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), has been endorsed by the BFUG in September 2014 and is now subject to approval by the Ministerial Conference in May 2015. More information is available on the ESG revision website.
Another important element of the Ministerial Conference next year will be discussions on the future of the Bologna Process post-2015. This is expected to result in a new type of outward-looking Bologna Ministerial Communiqué, which will set out the priorities for the years ahead. In preparation, EUA has started to discuss with its collective members, the national rectors’ conferences, the principal elements that will be crucial from the perspective of universities in the years ahead particularly in terms of the goals and content.
EUA will also be contributing to next month’s Future of Higher Education - Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference which also aims to contribute to discussions at next year’s meeting. More information on the event is available here. More...