The Bologna Process in Finland and at Åbo Akademi University Timetable Feed-back from the universities on the PM from the Ministry of Education in Finland during the spring - Working groups at the university, the faculties gave proposals on the degree programmes and reports given to the Senate of Åbo Akademi University in the autumn. - The working groups wereInternational issues Language issues Development of admissions Labor market issues Inspection of the registration of study results Education of secondary school teachers plus a senate committee and a quality board.

- Meetings, seminars and information on the national level as well as university level and also together with the student organizations - Cooperation started with a company in order to build up a computerized instrument for guiding, planning and controlling the studies. The essential part is the electronic personal study plan, which will be compulsory for each student Reports from the working groups, new Act of examination and new reports given to the Senate in the spring The academic year The faculties settle the plans for teaching for the academic year

The functionalism of the education system - Personal study plans - The increased importance of the Bachelor-level degree - Increased mobility in the education system - Relations to the labor market - Competition with other HEIs

The new degree structure - The new degree structure will be applied from at the universities and polytechnics in Finland. There will be a transition period until , one year longer for the Technical education - Changes in the University Act and Law - The first cycle, lasting three years, ends in a Bachelor-level degree (180 credits). The second cycle consists of the Master’s degree (120 credits). - The Doctoral degree: amounts to 240 credits. Alternatively: the Licentiate degree (120 credits) + Doctorate (120 credits) together. - Our Finnish credits (study weeks) will be replaced by credits (study points or ects). (Now 40 sw per year, from ; 60 cr per year) - Systematical analyses of the substance of the studies (must know, should know, nice to know), targeted study plans (collective learning outcome) will be introduced as well as personal study plans

-The students will automatically be accepted to both the bachelor’s and master’s degree, but if a student changes the main subject he/she will have to apply again - Åbo Akademi University will use the ECTS grading scale except for the Master’s and Doctor’s thesis which will graded according to the grading scale in Latin. - Åbo Akademi University will continue issuing a Diploma Supplement in English to each examination certificate. - The national targets concerning mobility are ambitious; every third Finnish higher education student should study at least part of his/her degree abroad.

- Åbo Akademi University strives to be able to offer the possibility to all students to study and/or practice abroad for at least half a year. The study period abroad needs to be planned in such a way that the studies can be transferred to the degree at the home university. - All Finnish higher education students have to have the required competence in both national languages plus competence in at least one foreign language. In addition to these minimum requirements, students may also include studies in other languages in their degrees.

Other questions concerning the new degree structure - The denominations of the degrees in English -The definition of the credits - The requirements of knowledge in foreign languages - The bachelor’s degree will have to be relevant to the European labor market - The Master’s degree will have to give preparedness for the labor market and for being experts and developers/generators

And even more open questions… - Deadline for when the bachelor’s examination should be passed, prerequisites for advanced studies - Language competence for studies - Publications of master’s thesis - Diplomas, certificates, extra credits and credit transfer in general - Binding teaching plans or open plans as earlier? - Public education

- The right to study and what that means, including limitations of the right to study - The development of the education, evaluation processes - The examination regulations of the faculties - Transition period regulations