Bologna trundles on…

An increasingly globalised graduate workforce is putting increasing pressure on universities to create unified, portable qualifications. Europe responded in 1999 with a plan to create a European higher education area and increase the mobility of students, researchers and university staff by 2010. The Bologna process, as it is called after the city where the plan was first agreed, is a voluntary intergovernmental agreement aimed at helping Europe's universities achieve just this, partly by greater use of both qualification frameworks and credits. The 45 signatory states decide the priorities rather than the European Commission, although the commission does fund projects that come out of the Bologna process, and it has representatives on the body that helps to move the scheme along. But progress is sometimes slow, given the diversity of institutions. One key issue is the credit system for university qualifications. The Commission's Features European efforts to achieve some standardisation in university qualifications to help mobility of students and staff — the Bologna process — move on slowly but steadily as other institutions embrace the idea. Nigel Williams reports. European Credit Transfer and Accumulation Scheme is widely used, but it is seen as too prescriptive and focused on workload, rather than learning outcomes, by some institutions. But Tony Ashmore, education director at the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry, highlights the problems of those institutions failing to follow the Bologna lead. He said: " Most of the rest of continental Europe has moved to a system of BA after three years and two-year programmes to masters and then a further three years to PhD. There's concern about the competitiveness of our masters graduates and how employers will perceive them. " Embracing: Europe is seeking to agree standards for qualifications but students at Melbourne University look set to be among the first to have qualifications accredited more widely.