Strategic Implications
Policy Steer
"The Bologna Declaration, for all its convoluted requirements, has one overarching goal - to make Europe the most competitive continent in higher education. In this, it is doing its job. In July 2007, Michael Gaebel of the European Universities Association said educators in Asia, Africa, Australia, the US and Latin America were all looking closely at the Bologna Process as a potential model for their own higher education systems"
'The long and the short of it'
Hannah Fearn, Times Higher Education, 2 October 2008
The Bologna Process has not been imposed on the institutions in the UK by its Government (unlike other countries who have signed up to the agreement) however there is a Government steer for its adoption and a real endorsement of the values that underpin it and the Government was reported to have stated that it would be a 'mistake' if institutions did not engage with the process. A July 2007 report by the Education and Skills Committee highlighted confusion in the UK over what the Bologna Process is about. The UK Government responded by admitting that more work needed to be done to ensure that universities are made aware that the Bologna Process is 'not about "standardisation or harmonisation" of European higher education systems, but rather, "comparability and
compatibility"'.
['Government defends Bologna university initiative' - Anthea Lipsett, The Guardian, 3 July 2007].
Buying-in to the Bologna Process
In order to meet the challenges presented by the Bologna Process institutions have had to address a number of issues including their competitiveness and reviewing of their processes in order to best meet the challenges of a developing marketplace. However, it has been reported anecdotally that members of some institutions in the UK are of the opinion that the Bologna Process is about little more than applying the UK model to the rest of Europe.
"..lack of Bologna-inspired reform has been perceived in some quarters as a spirit of aloofness"
"The Bologna Process and the UK's international student market" - James Cemmell and Bahram Bekhradnia, Higher Education Policy Institute (hepi)
Whilst the UK Higher Education system is in a strong position to meet the requirements of the Bologna Process, there is not the need to restructure processes in the same way as other countries have had to. It could therefore be argued that the successful implementation of the Bologna Process in the UK is dependent on a collected will from the UK sector to see it succeed. The suggestion that the UK has given the impression that it is rather 'aloof' with regard to the process is not borne out by the actual engagement with the process that is going on 'on the ground'.
Fitting the Bologna Process into the strategy
Useful resources
- Process Review infoKit
- PESTLE tool
- Scenario Planning toolkit
- Change Management infoKit
- Portfolio, Programme and Project Management (P3M)
Access, Identity & Records Management
The Bologna Process has major institutional as well as sector-wide implications and in order for it to be successfully implemented it should 'best fit' with the overarching institutional strategy. It could be seen, not as an 'add-on' but as something that has a seamless relationship with other strategic aspects.
JISC infoNet provides a range of resources (tools, infoKits and other guidance) to help you plan, monitor and align your strategies to best effect. For example, you could find with a more strategic approach that using mechanisms that help the wider impact of, say, internationalisation, could also encompass Bologna-compliant processes, thus negating the need to implement two different approaches. Our forthcoming work on strategic activity includes a look at some common 'strategic challenges' (initial links to this work start on the next page).
As some food for thought, have you considered the various access, identity and records management implications associated with the transfer of learner data not just within but between Bologna-signatory countries? Could perhaps the e-Framework for Education and Research, aiming to facilitate technical interoperability within and across education and research through improved strategic planning and implementation processes, provide some solutions?
This resource is not a 'how to' method in aligning with the Bologna Process, as there are so many different ways to achieve this and each will vary depending on the mission and strategic direction of your institution. Instead we aim to inspire you to rethink, revisualise or simply confirm your strategic objectives and to cross-check these against the requirements. Sometimes we find the least obvious connections between process, policy and strategy are the ones that work to your best advantage!
