Transcript Slide 1

PROF. IORDANKA KOUZMANOVA, DSC
President of Bulgarian Rectors’ Conference
Ani Georgieva
Contents:
1. Review of the European eductional systems
2. Bologna Process Midway to 2010
Consequences for National Legislation
3. The Bologna Reforms after Bergen: the
Challenges of Implementation and the
Role of Universities
4. Conclusions
“Universities’ independence and autonomy ensure
that higher education and research system
continuously adapt to changing needs, society’s
demands and advances in scientific knowledge.”
That principle statement in the Bologna declaration
outlines the total aspiration of the European
countries to harmonization of the higher education
systems.
Common tendencies:
The number of higher education institutions, including of
the private ones, is constantly increasing. As a general rule
the private universities cover only a restricted area of courses
compared to the state universities;
A serious increase in the number of students has also been
registered. There is also a change in the student structure by
areas – the greatest increase rate has been reported for the
students in computer science and information technologies;
There is a serious increase in the number of people
employed in the area of education (the rate in the different
countries varies within 3 – 8 % and in Bulgaria it is 7,8 %;
There is discrepancy between the increasing number of
students and the reasonable number of students per
person engaged in research, keeping in mind the world
experience confirming that better quality is achieved when
there is a smaller ratio between the number of students to
the number of teachers (35 : 1 in Denmark, 28 : 1 in France,
11 : 1 in Bulgaria);
There is a tendency towards increasing the expenditures
in education but the picture of financing the education is
quite varied between the countries;
The
tendency that is being established definitely is the
closer cooperation between education and business.
I. Bologna Reforms Midway to 2010.
Consequences for National Legislation
The degree structure of Bulgarian higher education was
introduced by virtue of the Higher Education Act of 1995.
That Act set the beginning of the organized reform in
Bulgarian higher education by all the components of the
system, the most important of them being structuring the
education in degrees, thus replacing the former existing
one-level system. As a result of that, in 1999 when signing
the Bologna Declaration, Bulgaria was fully ready for the
changes included in the common European reform.
The Higher Education Act of 1995 set the
following educational structure:
 First degree – “Bachelor’s” – provides broad
background preparation by four-year training.
 Second degree – “Master’s” – provides further
specialization of education by at least one-year training
after the “Bachelor’s degree”.
 Third degree – “Doctoral” /PhD/ – an educational-andscientific degree acquiring at least three-year studies after
the “Master’s” degree.
In relation to the need of introducing “easily readable and
comparable degrees”, in 2004 the Higher Education Act of
Bulgaria was amended, introducing the European Diploma
Supplement as the major document issued by the higher
education institutions.
The amendments in the Higher Education Act, Regulation
No. 21 was adopted on 12 October 2004 by the Ministry of
Education and Science, guaranteeing an unified approach
for applying the credit system and the compatibility of the
national systems to the European Credit Transfer System
/ECTS/.
Students and university teachers started their
participation
in
the
mobility
schemes
of
Socrates/Erasmus programme. Until now 3280
students in Bulgarian higher education institutions
and 1248 teachers have been awarded mobility
grants.
In 2005 the Socrates National Agency designed a website about the Bologna process in Bulgaria:
http://bologna.hrdc.bg/ containing information about
the major documents, activities, workshops, contact
details and links.
PROGRAMME SOCRATES ERASMUS NATIONAL
OUTGOING STUDENT MOBILITY BY YEARS
800
600
400
200
0
2
1
9/
9
9
0
0
0
2
/2
0
00
1
0
0
2
2
1/
0
0
2
0
0
2
2
2/
0
0
3
0
0
2
/2
3
00
4
0
0
PROGRAMME SOCRATES ERASMUS
National outgoing student mobility rate per countries
Outgoing students: Highest and lowest growth 2003/04
70
60
50
40
30
% 20
10
0
LI
MT
IS
LV
SI
BG
CZ
LT
PT
FI
PL
LU
NO
BE
NL
SE
EE
-10
The red line indicates average student mobility for Europe
-20
UK
DK
CY
The procedures about the recognition of awards and
qualifications are carried out by the Commission within
the Ministry of Education and Science, structured by
virtue of the Higher Education Act. Those procedures
are in full compliance with the principleas of the
Lisbon Convention ratified with an Act passed by the
National Assembly of Bulgaria in 2000.
Quality assurance of higher education complies with
the principles set by the Bologna declaration and it is
provided by the National Agency of Evaluation and
Accreditation – an independent body of external quality
assurance established by virtue of the Higher Education
Act of 1995 – as well as by internal university systems of
quality assurance, developed in accordance with the
amendments of the Higher Education Act of 1999 and
2004.
Legislative basis of the Bologna reforms was
the first stage in the establishment of the
European Higher Education Area /EHEA/.
All the documents of the Ministerial meeting in Bergen
underlined repeatedly that 2005 was the midway to
2010, the period marked by issues set to the
governments for including the Bologna process in the
national policy reflected in legislation and in the
structure of the higher education systems.
II. The Bologna Reforms after Bergen: the
Challenges of Implementation and the Role
of Universities
Higher Education Degrees
The Bulgarian higher education framework of degrees
functions in compliance with the motifs of degree
structure of education in all the countries.
Under the conditions of necessary and inevitable
competition, the universities transformed the “Bachelor’s”
degree into a study period providing broad background
preparation, while the “Master’s degree is a real
manifestation of the institutional differentiation and
qualification diversity. After the completion of one Bachelor’s
degree, the universities offer 8 – 10 different MSc courses.
The choice of the Master’s degree is based on quality of
the education offered, practical application of the
knowledge acquired and the competitiveness of the
graduates on the labour market.
The greatest challenge now faced by both the
universities and governments is the development of
the national qualification frameworks compatible with
the European overarching framework of qualifications.
The adoption of the European overarching framework of
qualifications as a principal approach for improving the
imperfectness in the national systems, for creating unified
political vision about the essence and aims of higher
education qualifications, about the links among the
qualification levels, as well as for defining the exact place of
the intermediate qualifications.
We fully realize the clear qualitative and quantitative
dimension of the suggested in Bergen qualification
framework as an opportunity of expressing the national
qualifications and easier recognition of qualifications
acquired in foreign universities.
The outcomes-based framework for qualifications and the
introduction of credits for describing the study workload
and the results achieved is an excellent practical
instrument which will significantly improve the quality of
higher education.
The challenges we are facing now are:
Synchronizing the student workload in individual and
distant learning forms of study, gaining experience from a
number of European countries;
Credit allocation to modules in a flexible way enabling
the student to choose the modules and the period of
enrolling a certain module without breaking the academic
rules and without hampering the educational process.
Mobility
From the point of view of legislation student and
teachers’ mobility is fully provided. The autonomy of the
higher education institutions guarantees them the right to
sign agreements with different universities in the frames
of Socrates/Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci programmes.
Universities also send students to foreign universities by
virtue of intergovernmental agreements, after a
competition organized by the Ministry of Education and
Science.
One possibility would be to develop better structured
international cooperation through bilateral or multilateral
agreements.
One fundamental point is to simplify legal and
administrative procedures for academic recognition. The
coherent frame work of qualifications and compatible
quality assurance systems will contribute to this.
All forms of mobility should be explicitly valued as a factor
enriching studies at all levels.
Quality Assurance
in Higher Education was
placed in the Bergen Stocktaking Report in the sector
needing further efforts in the period 2005-2010. Quality
assurance in Bulgarian higher education is legislatively
provided and meets all the requirements set by the
Bologna process.
External quality assurance is realized by the National
Agency of Evaluation and Accreditation as an independent
and trustworthy institution.
Summary of Average Scores for the Three Priority Action Lines
(5)
(4)
(3)
(2)
(1)
Bulgaria
It is worth listing the major elements of the
quality assurance process, which will be
focused on in the recent future:
Improving the system of teacher’s evaluation;
Student involvement in the process of self-evaluation;
Availability of the results to public;
Applying outcomes-based approach in quality
assessment procedures;
Fixing the financial stimuli for the teachers to the results
they had achieved in training and research;
Harmonization of the indicators for measuring the quality
with the systems of the European universities.
Partnerships with the business
Bulgarian universities wound be able to respond better and
faster to the market demands and to develop partnerships
with the business community, recognizing that their
relationship with them is of strategic importance and form
a part of their commitment to serving the public interest.
That is why 22 Bulgarian Universities have built Carrier
Centers to improve these links.
Career Development Center is the
instrument bridging the gap between
the business, academic circles and the
product they offer, i.e. the university
degree specialist.
What is the Role of the Career
Development Center:
For the University:
building database with the aim of
supporting the realization of the graduates
on the labour market;
receiving feedback from stakeholders
about quality of education;
supporting future career development of
the graduates;
For the students:
 preparing their professional realization;
 offering internship placement;
 career orientation;
For the employers:
finding applicants for internships or a job;
presenting the company before the potential
future staff;
announcing their needs for the required
knowledge and skills.
The future of the Career
Development Center:
 Strengthening the position of the career
counsellor as a mediator between the needs of
industry and the education;
 Valorization of internships as a compulsory
part of curriculum for which students are
awarded academic credits;
 Flexibility on behalf of the universities and
employers in organizing internships.
Provide the right mix of competencies
Development of enterpreneurial, management and innovation skills
should become an integral part of education, research, training and
lifelong learning strategies.
10 Bulgarian universities are now becoming entrepreneurially
oriented building Enterpreneural Centres.
Lifelong learning presents a new challenge requiring from
universities to be more open to providing courses for students at
later stages in their life cycle.
Some Bulgarian universities have established Centres for
Continuing Education.
As a
conclusion it can be summarized that Bulgarian
universities are fully aware of the priorities and aims of the
Bologna process. In the frames of their unifying organization
– the Bulgarian Rectors’ Conference, they definitely state
their readiness to work in cooperation with the governmental
institutions in the country, with the European higher
education institution, with ЕUA /European University
Association/, ESIB /National Unions of Students in Europe/,
ENQA /European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher
Education/, EURASHE /European Association of Institutions
of Higher Education/, UNESCO-CEPES, etc. for the
successful realization of the Bologna reform and the
establishment of the European higher education area.
Universities are key players in Bulgarian’s future and
for the successful transition to a knowledge-based
economy and society.
Thank you for the attention!