What is Bologna Process?

The Bologna Process is a reform process that aims to create the European Higher Education Area by 2010. It is an unusual process created and maintained by 47 international member states in cooperation with 47 member states (number of member states 45 to 46, with the declaration of independence of Montenegro, and finally Kazakhstan’s membership to 47). The process is not based on any agreement between governments / states. There is no legally binding declaration published under the Bologna Process. The process is a creation of wholeness of each country with free will and the countries have the right to accept or reject the objectives of the Bologna Process.

Citizens of the countries included in the European Higher Education Area, which the Bologna Process aims to create, will be able to travel easily in Europe for the purpose of studying or studying higher education. Europe will be made available to people from other parts of the world in terms of higher education and business opportunities.

What is most undesirable in the European Higher Education Area is to make the education systems of member states a uniform higher education system. The main aim of the European Higher Education Area is to establish a balance between diversity and unity. The aim is to ensure that higher education systems are comparable and harmonized with each other while maintaining their unique differences. In this way, it is planned to facilitate the transition from one country to another higher education system, thus increasing the mobility and employment of students and instructors.

How did the Bologna Process Start?

The basis of the Bologna Process was laid by the Sorbonne Declaration, which was published at the end of the 1998 meeting of the Ministers of Education of France, Italy, Germany and England in Sorbonne. The idea of ​​creating a common higher education area in Europe has emerged for the first time with this statement. However, the Bologna Process officially began in 1999 with the signing and publication of the Bologna Declaration by the ministers responsible for higher education in 29 European countries. Six of the main objectives of the Bologna Process have been announced by this declaration. These goals are:

1. To create easily understandable and comparable higher education diplomas and / or grades (for the purpose of developing Diploma Supplement application),

2. To move to a two-stage degree system, including undergraduate and graduate degrees in higher education,

3. To apply the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)

4. To ensure and promote the mobility of pupils and instructors,

5. To establish and expand the network of quality assurance systems in higher education,

6. To develop the European dimension in higher education.

What happened after 1999?

Two years after the publication of the Bologna Declaration, the ministers responsible for higher education in 32 European countries, with the participation of three new countries (Turkey, Croatia and Cyprus), including our country, will follow the Bologna Process in Prague on May 19, for years to determine priorities.

In Prague, the Bologna Process has three more targets:

7. Encouraging lifelong learning,

8. Ensuring active participation of students and higher education institutions in the process,

9. Making the European Higher Education Area attractive.

The Higher Education Ministers of 33 European countries gathered in Berlin in 2003, the Bologna Process, on the theme of “Establishing a synergy between the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and Ph.D. studies” , Added the 10th target; it also identified the following three priority areas to be implemented before the 2005 Bergen Conference in order to accelerate the process and to identify the situation in Member States:

• A two-level degree structure in higher education (undergraduate and graduate)

• Recognition of higher education diplomas and / or grades and study periods,

• Quality assurance.

Seven countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Vatican Republic, Russian Federation, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia and Andorra) participated in the Konferansta Bologna Process in Berlin and the total number of countries reached 40.

With the acceptance of membership of 5 new countries in the European Education Ministers Conference, which took place on May 19-20, 2005 in Bergen, Norway, the number of member countries increased to 45. At this meeting, 4 priority areas targeted to be realized between 2005-2007 have been identified. These priority areas are:

1. To create a synergy between the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area,

2. To strengthen the social dimension of the Bologna Process,

3. Mobility of Students and Instructors,

4. Making the European Higher Education Area attractive and attracting foreign countries