Per Nyborg

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The Compostela Group, Brussels 8-9 September
2005The Bologna Process Post-Bergen Autonomous
Universities

• Per Nyborg
• Head, BFUG Secretariat from Berlin to Bergen

2
Reporting in Bergen (1)

• For many countries, Bologna has been an
  inspiration and a recipe for highly needed
  reforms nationally.
• Together we are developing a common framework to
  realise that students and staff shall be able to
  move freely within the EHEA, having full
  recognition of their qualifications.

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Reporting in Bergen (2)

• Halfway in the Bologna Process towards 2010, we
  see the contours of the EHEA.
• It is not a single, unified higher education
  system, but a group of national systems
  developing according to jointly agreed
  principles.

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Principles of the Bologna Process

• International mobility
• of students and staff
• Autonomous universities
• Student participation in governance
• Public responsibility for HE
• - including a social dimension of HE

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Reporting in Bergen (3) on structures

• An overarching framework for qualifications and
  individual national frameworks based on three
  main cycles
• European standards for quality assurance
• Ratification of the Lisbon Recognition Convention
  by 36 of 45 states.

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Reporting in Bergen (4)

• In addition to structures (qualification
  frameworks, quality assurance, recognition),
• the EHEA will have a social dimension
• Higher education should be equally accessible to
  all.

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The Bergen Communiqué (1)

• We all share the common understanding of the
  principles, objectives and commitments of the
  Process.
• We confirm our commitment to coordinating our
  policies through the Bologna Process to establish
  the EHEA by 2010.

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The Bergen Communiqué (2)

• We underline the central role of higher
  education institutions, their staff and students
  as partners in the Bologna Process.
• ... all the more important now that the
  necessary legislative reforms are largely in
  place ...

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The Bergen Communiqué (3)

• As we move closer to 2010, we undertake to
  ensure that higher education institutions enjoy
  the necessary autonomy to implement the agreed
  reforms and recognise the need for sustainable
  funding of institutions.

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What is institutional autonomy? (1)

• The 1988 Magna Charta Universitatum
• The university is an autonomous institution at
  the heart of societies differently organized
  because of geography and historical heritage it
  produces, examines, appraises and hands down
  culture by research and teaching.
• To meet the needs of the world around it, its
  research and teaching must be morally and
  intellectually independent of all political
  authority and intellectually independent of all
  political authority and economic power.

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What is institutional autonomy? (2)

• An autonomous institution may have the right to
  decide its organisational and administrative
  structure, decide its priorities, manage its
  budget, hire its personnel and admit its
  students, decide the content and forms of its
  education and research - or at least a number of
  these rights.
• The degree of autonomy is usually defined in
  national legislation. It may be restricted to
  universities or it may be given to all higher
  education institutions.

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Signals from Bergen

• HE institutions need autonomy to implement the
  agreed reforms
• Some (common) guiding principles should be
  codified in the legal framework of autonomy
• Trust in institutions is a key to the success of
  the Bologna Process success.

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• All documents related to
• the Bergen Ministerial Conference
• are available at
• www.bologna-bergen2005.no