1. The Bologna Process between vision and reality: Opportunities missed and realised in current European university teaching reforms
Dr. Sybille Reichert , Zürich
IV. International Congress on
University Teaching and Innovation
5th of July 2006

2. Table of Contents
What is the Bologna Process -- Its ingredients, hopes, vision and processes with respect to innovation ?
How do visions and realities meet in the implementation
Bachelor
Master
Quality Assurance
Relation to Research
What are the institutional and systemic effects of the Bologna educational reforms?
Data based on Trends studies of 2003 and 2005 as well as on recent data from EUA survey (still unanalysed, to be published early next year.)

3. Bologna and Prague objectives
common degree structures (Bachelor /Master)
establishment of transparency instruments: ECTS, Diploma Supplement
recognition of foreign degrees and study abroad periods
promotion of European and/or joint programmes
promotion of mobility
cooperation in quality assurance
promotion of LLL
social dimension, HE as a public good/ responsibility
significant role of HEIs and students in this process
link with European Research Area, doctoral studies
The various Bologna communiqués reflect an increasing attempt to link educational level, aims and instruments, education and research.

4. Bologna as a Process of Innovation: Vision and Hopes
International readability and attractiveness
Move to outcome-based/ student centered learning and teaching, as new structuring principle of curricula
Quality enhancement through better comparison
More coherent approach to teaching, more institutional attention to quality of teaching
More institutional attention to international dimension and good practice abroad
Bologna has also become a means of transporting national & institutional reform agendas
The instruments which were supposed to enhance transparency at first were increasingly used to introduce the idea of learning outcomes and competences, i.e. of more fundamental reforms of teaching, into the debate.

5. Bologna: From national commitment to institutional reality
It takes concerted action on all levels to make the European Higher Education Area a reality…
An overarching international process of peer pressure
national
commitment
national
legislation
national
incentives/
support
institutional
leadership/
policy
instit.
communication
deliberation
decision
instit.
reality
Almost all countries have by now introduced the two cycles system. Few HEI were still waiting for more detailed governm. regulations, some governments plan amendments. But majority of HEIs still find that nat.legisl. undermines auton. decision-making
Only 6 countries have provided some funding for implementation at institutional level
Bologna reforms have become an integral part of inst. strategy
Role of academics: investing lots of extra time and ideas, many taking up the challenge.
Some scepticism remaining. Signs of reform fatigue.

6. Bologna scorecard 2005 (self-declared national data): What is hiding behind these colours?
National level progress is defined differently from university progress. Less interest in real innovation, more interest in being able to say quickly: We have done it.
At institutional level, it is not enough to say „We have done it“. One has to look at what has been done when one has done it to see whether or not the effort was worth the trouble.

7. Average Scorecard Performance
Quality Assurance
Two-cycle system
Two cycles system reforms most advanced. Now even more than in 2005, recent EUA data shows.

8. The Bachelor 1
Slow but steady progress toward establishing Bachelor as self-contained degree
Duration: Mainstreaming for readability vs. different programme profiles
Overload: content compression
Academic validity: not enough grasp of a field
Information to students lacking
Duration:
Bologna does not “prescribe” 3+2 but there is a mainstreaming trend toward 3+2 with some countries having pushed this with legislation. Some disciplines argue that 3 years are too short for a meaningful first degree and request more autonomy in designing their degree programmes. Different models within same institution.
Duration should be looked at in terms of programme profiles and expected outcomes not just nominal duration.
Overload:
Content of traditional 4 (or 5) y programmes often compressed into 3 years. BA curricula often reported to be more rigidly structured than traditional ones (many compulsory subjects and contact hours). People often tried to save the position of their specialty rather than thinking about which competences and knowledge their students need most urgently in view of later professional and learning life.
Also the idea of lifelong learning remains to be integrated. A student is still seen as having to leave university with mastery of a subject area once and for all, rather than having done a first decisive step.
Academic validity:
Many professors doubt that 3 y -degrees can be academically valid and relevant to labour market (seen as lowering of academic standards).
Information: In many universities, students felt badly informed about value of a Bachelor in its own right, most plan to go for a Master, often supported by professors

9. The Bachelor 2
Employability is the key concern of the Bologna reforms.
How can Bachelors be regarded as employable?
What makes university education different from professional education if the key concern is employability?
How do universities identify the needs of the employers? To what extent should they respond to these perceived needs and to what extent should they identify and prepare for future needs themselves.
Employability is regarded as important concern by 66% of institutions (55% three years ago)
Ba graduates: preparation for labour market or Master-studies?
Huge differences between countries. In UK, Ireland, Turkey, Latvia, Lithuania, Bachelors are well accepted by labour market. In other countries, the employability of Bachelors is still a great problem.
Insufficient dialogue between HEI, governments with employers to give the BA more credibility, and adapt public service employment (career, service grades, salary). Not enough consultation between univ. and employers: only 28% of Higher Education Institutions are closely consulting employers (2006).
Emphasis on employability has impact on dual systems: Universities in some binary systems fear competition from polytechnics: Poly-Ba (dual sector) can be more attractive to employers (practical experience). Many want to see Ba-degrees as a platform for re-orientation towards a Ma-programme. Polytechnics more confident.

10. Modularisation, Learning Outcomes and Student-centered Approaches to Teaching and Learning
Many HEI have modularised their programmes (ECTS, TUNING), but very different interpretations of “modularisation”. Students welcome the concept of modularisation but complain it often has been done superficially, not leading to more flexibility.
Move to student-centered approaches? Many HEI are familiar with the concept of LO or competence-based learning. Very few HEI voiced explicit criticism or reservations against LO. Unclear how far implementation goes.
To what extent are qualifications frameworks relevant for universities? Very positive reference to qualifications frameworks (QF) in DK and Scotland (curricular dev., recognition); but little has happened elsewhere (Germany exception).
Outcome-based approaches to teaching would imply not just defining learning outcomes (including competences) but also reflecting about how these can be achieved and assessed.
Student centered approaches:
The use of learning outcomes and competences is necessary in order to make study programmes and their course units or modules student centred / output oriented. This approach requires that the key knowledge and skills that a student needs to achieve during the learning process determine the content of the study programme. Learning outcomes and competences focus on the requirements both of the discipline and of society in terms of preparing for citizenship and employability. Still today, many study programmes are staff centred, which means in practice that they are input oriented. They often reflect a combination of the fields of interest and expertise of the members of staff. In effect this leads to programmes of rather loose units which might not be sufficiently balanced and most effective. Although Tuning recognizes fully the importance of making maximum use of the available expertise of the staff, this aspect should not dominate a programme.

11. ECTS
A majority of HEI have implemented ECTS and use it both for accumulation and transfer, but how?
Occasionally reservations were expressed regarding ECTS standards and levels and the ECTS grading scale.
Others are still working on ECTS, concentrating on the accumulation aspect as they used ECTS for transfer before.
Moving from contact hours to student workload (how to assess workload) is still an issue in a number of HEI.
ECTS as a transfer instrument can cause problems with regard to regulated professions in some countries, because of the existing strict directives regarding the curriculum.

12. The Tuning Project
From 2000 – 2006, more than 150 university departments organised an extensive trans-national reflection about subject specific and generic competences from the perspectives of different subject areas.
Five lines of approach have been distinguished to organize the discussions in the subject areas:
generic (general academic) competences,
subject-specific competences,
the role of ECTS as an accumulation system
approaches to learning, teaching, and assessment: subject groups reflected on good practices, in particular how teaching, learning activities and assessment can be best organised in order to allow students to reach the intended learning outcomes of a course of study
the role of quality enhancement in the educational process (emphasizing systems based on internal institutional quality culture).
Each academic involved in the project was asked to reflect on a given number of subject-specific and generic competences and to identify ideas and best practices to develop these competences in a degree programme in terms of learning activities, teaching, and assessment. They were asked to find answers to the following five questions:
What does this competence mean for your students?
How do you help students to achieve this competence in your teaching methods?
What learning activities do your students engage with in order to develop this competence?
How do you assess whether, or to what degree, they have achieved this competence?
How do your students know whether or to what degree they have achieved this competence, and if not, why they have not achieved it?
It is striking to see how differently some generic competences have been understood in the context of the various subject area groups. generic competences are always interpreted in the light of the disciplinary area.
Sometimes strong differences can be noted between different national traditions within a single subject area; however it is more common to observe strong differences in perception and methods between different subject areas.
As part of the second phase of the Tuning project, the subject groups reflected on good practices in teaching, learning and assessment, in particular how teaching, learning activities and assessment can be best organised in order to allow students to reach the intended learning outcomes of a course of study. Biggs (2002) describes this as the ‘alignment' of teaching, learning activities, and assessment with the intended learning outcomes of a course of study. The subject groups discussed the various approaches which are used or could be used in different subject areas, and provided a structured pan-European disciplinary-based context where an exchange of knowledge about approaches currently used or potential, could take place and where new understanding could be achieved.

13. The Master level
In spite of Bologna-Consensus on Ma programmes: huge variety, focus on competitiveness
Duration: In many countries ECTS not seen as internationally competitive.
UK, IR, NL, Sweden: 1y-Ma (often > 60 ECTS) particularly attractive.
300+ ECTS programmes continue to exist in some countries (PL, HG, IR, Scotland) and disciplines (medicine, engineering)
Tendency to create too many M-programmes: no institutional strategy
Ma programmes often designed with narrow focus on preceding Bachelor programmes. Some HEI welcome opportunity to define interdisciplinary Ma. “Stand-alone” Ma still the exception.
Vertical mobility seen first as a threat, but increasingly also as an opportunity.
Future lack of public funding for Ma level?
Master approached very differently from Bachelor.
More opportunities for innovation realised at this level.
Opportunities for internationalisation and link to research strenghts seen.

14. Degree Structures: Joint Degrees
Major instrument for international positioning & visibility
Rising interest (2005 already more than 2003 surveys where level of interest in Joint Degrees had been “medium to low”).
Legal situation regarding JD is slowly improving. In most countries JD are now legally possible (at least not explicitly excluded), the others will amend their legislation.
Existing programmes: information and exact figures are available only in some countries.
One of the biggest practical problems with JD is quality assurance/accreditation –European guidelines would help.
Pooling of expertise increasingly valued, to not just look for full range of expterise within the walls of one‘s own institutions.
Joint degreses with partners outside of Europe?

15. Access to higher education, progression through the system
Access to Ba programmes:
In many countries no real selection is possible: all holders of formal qualification have to be admitted .Some HEI are worried that this will weaken their competitiveness at the European level.
Access to Master programmes:
Most HEI can select candidates but even here some constraints can be found. Automatic right for local Bachelors to access Master level.
Admission to doctoral level:
In most but not all HEI left to the discretion of the faculty. Increasingly a matter of doctoral schools which are spreading
However, in a small group of HEI no selection seems to be possible at any point, neither at Ma nor at PhD level.
More and more HEI want to select students that correspond to their institutional profile and quality standards.
If you spend great care and invest time in the definition of competences and teaching and assessment methods, you also need the compatible entry qualifications.
Competitiveness of the institution is also defined by student body, especially as you move higher up in the elvels to the research intensive degrees.

16. Toward Comparable Structures and Beyond: Opportunities for Innovation
find meaningful internationally compatible and academically viable definition of degree levels, describe learning outcomes,
make use of the opportunity for more far-reaching curricular reform of teaching contents and methods
make concrete sense of the slogan „flexible learning paths“ (flexibility between what?), use modular structures and ECTS to underpin such flexibility
select areas for targeted positioning (masters, link to reserach strengths, good networks, even joint degrees)
define selection and recognition procedures to define student body
adapt adminsitrative processes and develop staff to meet new needs
contribute to reflections and decisions on the institutional profile and its articulation/ communication with the „outside world“

17. Quality Enhancement : Putting Quality Assurance into Context
Quality Enhancement > Quality Assurance
Qual. Enhancement = Sum of many methods of institutional development
Ex: Added value of Bologna reforms
Opportunity to reflect and review curricula
Opportunity to reform teaching methods (student centred learning, continous assessment, flexible learning paths)
Strengthening horizontal communication and institutional transparency
Most limiting factor for quality enhancement is not nature of internal or external QA but limits to resources when room for improvements identified.
Examples:
Close cooperation between NL and Flanders (Belgium) and between the Scandinavian Countries
European Commission proposal to have foreign accreditation labels accepted as equivalent to home label

18. Internal Quality Development: Teaching, Learning, Services
Institutional organisation of quality development, especially
feed back
Synergies between qual. dev. of different functions
Instruments (e.g. student questionnaires, discussion on curricula in committees)
Institutional autonomy  systematic approach to quality development
National Constraints
External QA Processes?
National Quality (Dis-) Incentives?
Level of activity in internal qual. dev. processes has risen
Focus largely on teaching and learning (all inst.), some attention student support services
Not enough surveys of relevance and transfer of knowledge after a few years of graduation, what has become of graduates, to feed this info back into design of curricula.
Research quality: emphasis on external review, only a third of inst. have some form of internal research review
Internal qual. dev. of administration and support services less developed (less than a sixth of inst.) and more ad hoc (some countries more active: e.g. UK)
Lack of coherence reg. qual. development processes -- only few inst. pursue a systematic institutionalised approach to quality development

19. Relation of Internal and External QA
External QA more appreciated in build-up of internal QA
Institutions find that internal qual. processes are more improvement oriented and more attuned to institutional goals.
an advanced internal quality culture should be mirrored in a light external quality control.
Positive Impact / Effectiveness of External QA
Degree of Advancement of Institutional Qual. Development

20. Quality Assurance: future challenges
At institutional level:
establish improvement-oriented QA without disproportionate costs and administrative burden
build up coherent internal quality assurance which makes synergetic use of external QA procedures and reduces their extent in the long term
Between national agencies:
creating transparency,
exchange of good practice but also
enough common criteria to allow for mutual recognition of each others‘ principles and procedures without undermining positive forces of competition; acceptance of accreditation labels from abroad

21. Impact of Bologna Reforms on Research and Research Training
Impact of new programmes on research exposure at the different levels
Shift of research experience from Bachelor to Master level
3 years of Ba-programmes regarded as too short for appropriate res. experience – Master level: primary level for research in action (although some more „professional“)
Often less time for independent research in new programmes due to compressed continuously assessed programmes
Impact of new structures and reinforced focus on teaching quality on research training at doctoral level
Impact of strengthened institutional communication on internal research cooperation – interdisciplinary programmes
Shifting time resources from research to teaching (teaching more time intensive, not compensated) if no new staff is hired
Increasing need of research skills among larger part of labour force? What does it mean for normal degree to be Bachelor, if Bachelors are not reallly trained in research?
Doctoral level:
More and more institutions introduce doctoral schools and teaching modules (often on transferable competences) to make sure PhD are prepared for wider array of professional choices (especially in industry). Competence discussion wide spread at this level.

22. Institutional Effects

23. Strengthening the Institutional Level
Noticeable impact of Bologna reforms on institutional communication, new bridges between units and faculties
Some institutions used Bologna as part of their positioning, but rarely in relation to research strengths (only a minority had identified strategic res. priorities at institutional level in relation to intern. markets)
Research and education are separately managed at most institutions, development comes together at level of individual/ department but not of institution – but at the master and doctoral level there is a new opportunity to join research and education
Scepticism regarding idea of research priorities in terms of overarching themes
Growing awareness of need to increase marketing efforts, especially in Asia
Competence-based teaching and degree of internationalisation used as quality labels of institutions.
New global orientation can have major effects on internal processes (internationalisation of services).
How to recruit students, and professors, and support them appropriately.

24. Bologna‘s goals: what could they mean for a given European university‘s profile?
What are the primary values which act as driving forces? e.g. flexible access, pushing frontiers of science (selective/competitive research)
Which community do I serve and which communities do I want to target in addition?
Where and according to which criteria do I recruit my students, teachers, reserachers, partners?
Which qualities, skills, competences, attitudes do I want to promote in my students, professors, scientific and adminsitrative staff?
Which reference points do I want to use in the development of my offer (teaching curricula: qualification frameworks, learning outcomes according to disciplines, programmes, research: emphases and their effect on teaching)?
How do I promote institutional thinking (beyond identification with disciplines) to allow for a will to coordinate thoughts and efforts? How and when do I include my partners in these sensitive already difficult deliberations?
How do I define success and progress in these processes? Which targets do I set and how do I defend these to the outside world (politicians, industrial partners)?

25. Targeting Europe?

26. Promote attractiveness where?
Shift of attention away from US to Asia in 2006

27. Implementing Bologna: Success Factors
Other ongoing reforms
Problem awareness
Institutional communication between units and leadership
Open dialogue with external stakeholders
Dialogue and willingness to include key actors in design of reform (institutional / national)
Timing
National financial support for Bol. Reform only granted in small minority of countries
Autonomy: in half of BP countries can institutions decide autonomously over key elements of reform (liberal or prescriptive)
Transforming
top-down reforms
into an
bottom-up agenda of institutional change
Those that were not already occupied with other changes wms.
Those that had identified room for improvement more readily used B.R. as trigger for pushing reforms forward
Those that managed to create bridges between faculties and groups wms.
Those that saw a benefit in a dialogue with outside stakeholders wms.
Those that consulted different groups without hesitating to take institutional level action wms.
Those that had incentives and money for the changes were more successful. Those that had clear and open national dialogue and coordination wms.
Those with more autonomy had more room to use the reforms for institutional positioning.
Those that had enough time to deliberate but did not lose the momentum wms.
Institutional autonomy – balance between national regulation/ coordination and institutional leeway
Many criticisms of wrong mix of little guidance and information but (often rushed) overregulation
Examples of good practice exist, e.g. in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, some parts of Germany
Not just governments but sometimes accreditation bodies can limit the institutional autonomy significantly
National financial support
Only 6 countries provided support to institutions for the implementation of the Bologna reforms
A few others provided a little incentive money for a few projects or funds for national level coordination (but none for implementation at institutional level)
The majority did not interpret their commitment as having a financial dimension.
Other ongoing reforms: in a third of the countries, B. ref. form an integral part of a wider review of the entire HE system, according to national rectors‘ conferences
Institutional:
Internal Communication (especially horizontal): Added value: more transparency (also for resource distribution), opportunity to develop new interdisciplinary programmes at master level, better link to research
Leadership, institutional coordination and guidelines
Timing: Balance between enough internal deliberation and keeping the momentum to move forward
Two thirds of institutions decided to adopt the B. reforms as their own reform agenda

28. Systemic Effects of Bologna Reforms
Move to student-centered learning in a majority of countries
„Scolarisation effect“? More compact programmes, more time pressure, more assessment, more efficiency, less time for independent study?
Blurring differentiation between universities and other HEI: Employability at Bachelor level, former competitive advantage of other HEI – new definition of differentiating profiles needed
Retreating State Funding?
Retreating from full funding of the Master level?
Not paying for move to more individualised learning paths?
Not increasing institutional grants = paying for quality enhancement of teaching out of research resources

29. Conclusions
HEI have adopted the Bologna reforms and accepted ownership in a majority of cases. The reforms have revealed and in some cases even strengthened the institutions‘ capacity for change.
According to HEIs, the Bologna Reforms have already brought a considerable array of added values and multiple opportunities for enhancing the quality of HE in Europe.
In view of its aims of enhancing the quality, attractiveness and competitiveness of HE in Europe, many opportunities for improvements are still waiting to be used, often on hold for lack of available resources.
Many institutions are ready to move forward and have identified priorities for change. Some but not all national contexts are providing good conditions for helping them make use of Bologna as a process of innovation.

30. Thank you for your attention!