Click here for the article, May 18, 2009.
INTERNATIONALISATION IS AN INCREASING PRIORITY FOR EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AS THEY INTRODUCE REFORMS AS PART OF THE BOLOGNA PROCESS. EUROPE AIMS TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE EDGE OVER TRADITIONAL OVERSEAS DESTINATIONS BY MAKING ITS DEGREES MORE ‘COMPATIBLE AND COMPARABLE’
Malini Sen and Ashwamegh Banerjee/TNN
... “The Bologna Process will mean a true
revolution in higher education. Effectively, the European Union (EU)
will become the United States of Europe, well at least in what refers
to education,” says Santiago Iñiguez, dean, IE Business School, Spain.
Imagine a Greek computer science graduate who heads to Ireland to
finish his studies and gets accepted to do a Master’s in computer
science and is taught by a Polish professor — all of them there
voluntarily on account of the reputation of the university that they
attend.
“This example will be greatly amplified in number
and will have enormous ramifications in terms of mobility and dynamism,
creating the healthy situation where each university has to
differentiate itself from every other comparable one in Europe. This
transformation is the equivalent in higher education to what happened
in the European economy with the adoption of the Euro,” says Iñiguez.
He
elaborates, “Currently, university studies across Europe vary widely,
both in terms of duration, content and degrees, among other important
issues. The first stage of the process consists of the harmonisation of
the different systems across Europe in three different cycles —
Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD — in line with the prevalent model in the
US and UK. This has to be completed by 2010.” ...
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