SJUR BERGAN

THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA AS AN INSTRUMENT OF TRANSPARENCY?

THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA: ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is a thing of the future, not only because it is a promising development but also because it will not formally come into being until 2010. 46 European countries are currently engaged in the Process (Bologna Process web site), which is intended to lead to establishing the EHEA by 2010.1 The Bologna Process was launched in 1999, so the project to establish a European Higher Education Area will last for more than a decade. It constitutes the most far reaching reform of higher education in since at least the immediate aftermath of 1968, but there is an important difference. “1968” was a movement from below, in which students took to the streets to demand reform of higher education as well as changes in society. “Bologna” was launched by Ministers of Education, who vowed to reform higher education in response to changes in society. However, it is no easier to reform higher education without leaving ministry offices than it is to do so without leaving the streets. The Bologna Process takes some of its unique characteristics from this basic fact. The EHEA is a cooperation process not only between 46 countries but also between Ministries, higher education institutions, students and faculty. Public authorities have a much stronger role in devising higher education policies in Europe than they do in North America, but European higher education institutions nevertheless have strong institutional autonomy – the principles of which are outlined in the Magna Charta Universitatum adopted by university rectors in Bologna in 1988 – and university autonomy is one of the underlying principles of the EHEA. Public financing remains a cornerstone of European higher education, even if few higher education institutions can now realize their ambitions through direct public funding alone. European integration after World War II has been carried out in the framework of intergovernmental organizations and institutions, in particular the and the . Both contribute substantially to the creation of the EHEA, as do UNESCO and a number of non-governmental organizations, not –––––––––––––– 1 It is significant that the title of the Praha Communiqué (2001) is “Towards the European Higher Education Area”.

S.P. Heyneman (ed.), Buying Your Way into Heaven, 121–134. © 2009 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

SJUR BERGAN least those representing higher education institutions, faculty and students. Nevertheless, the Bologna Process is an independent process, initiated and run by its members and consultative members. There is every indication that the EHEA will be a separate construction not linked to any existing organization and probably with a structure loose enough to question whether the EHEA will be an “organization” in the proper – and even in the legal – sense of the term. When the Bologna Process was launched in 1999, it included 29 countries. The Bologna meeting followed a smaller meeting in 1998, where the Ministers of Education of , , and the met for the 800th anniversary of the Sorbonne and signed the Sorbonne Declaration. The Bologna meeting was, in part, an answer to the frustration of several countries that the four largest countries had adopted what was perceived as an important declaration without consulting other EU members. Twenty-eight of the countries that signed the Bologna Declaration were members of the European Union or of the , or they were party to a relevant EU higher education program. The 29th country was , which had chosen not to join the European Economic Area but whose higher education institutions were closely involved in European cooperation. That was not included in the Bologna Process from the outset seems to have been an oversight. Liechtenstein was discretely included in the ministerial meeting in Praha in 2001, which admitted another three countries to the Process. The most significant change came in in 2003, however, when 7 new countries joined the Bologna Process. It was not only the number of new members that was unprecedented, but above all the scope of membership. For the first time, countries that had no formal relation to the EU or its higher education programs joined, and the European Cultural Convention (Council of Europe, 1954) – developed by the Council of Europe – was accepted as the institutional framework for the Bologna Process. In addition to being parties to the European Cultural Convention, new members were required to commit in writing to the goals of the Bologna Process and to submit reports backing up their application. The change came about for several reasons, but the most weighty reason was that it would have been politically impossible to turn down the Russian application for membership for the purely formal reason that was not a party to the relevant EU programs. Clearly, a process that aspired to establish a European Higher Education Area could not make it impossible, on purely formal grounds, for a number of European countries to join. The Bologna Process became truly European in in 2005, when a further five countries – , , , and – joined. The 46th country joined in in 2007, and this was again a special case. was a part of the Bologna Process as a part of the State Union of and Montenegro and was required to rejoin after it declared independence in June 2006. Since the London meeting, and have indicated an interest in joining the Bologna process. If they submit formal applications, these will be considered at the next ministerial meeting, to be held in /Louvain-la-Neuve in April 2009.

122