Council of Europe: Bologna must combine structure and vision

In his speech to the Ministerial conference of the Bologna Process as Head of the Council of Europe delegation, Sjur Bergan said that the Bologna Process must combine structures and vision. Speaking to the ministers gathered in Leuven on 28 April, the Head of the Council’s Department of Higher Education and History Teaching underlined that like our medieval fortresses, however, structures only make sense if they fulfil a purpose.

The Bologna Process has been very successful so far, but the success of its next decade will depend on whether higher education will help develop societies that are sustainable economically but politically, culturally, socially and environmentally. We need to examine the role of public authorities, and we need to make sure that higher education is able to fulfil all of its missions. Not least, the European Higher Education Area must be open to cooperation with other parts of the world. See the full text here.

The ministerial conference reconfirmed the Council of Europe’s position as one of the main contributors to the European Higher Education Area. The Council submitted a report on its activities to further the Bologna Process since the previous ministerial conference. The Council of Europe was also responsible for reports on qualifications frameworks (read more), as Chair of the Coordination Group as well as an analysis of national action plan for recognition, written by Andrejs Rauhvargers and Agnese Rusakova. The Council of Europe was also an active member of the Working group on the European Higher Education Area in a global context, chaired by Barbara Weitgruber of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research.