Nincs diac

1
Implementing the Bologna Process The Experience
of Hungary
Baku, 21 April 2005
2
The National Context

• Achievements
• Thousands of students - expansion of higher
  education
• Excellent talents, prize winners
• Traditions of education and research
• New University Centers to serve regional needs
  (mergers)
• Weaknesses
• Higher education expansion is not accompanied by
  emphasis on quality
• The current course structure is inflexible and
  does not support mobility
• The financing system does not provide sufficient
  freedom for competitiveness
• The infrastructure is inadequate for the changing
  demand
• The current payment system does not provide
  incentives for excellence
• Funding for research is far below the EU average

3
Number of students in Hungary 1990-2003
4
Hungarian UNIVERSITAS Programme A long-term
strategy for reform and investment

• Objectives
• Provide high quality teaching and research,
  competitive knowledge and skills also by
  international standards
• Increase support for students and international
  mobility
• Ensure equal access right
• Introduce performance based funding and payment
  schemes for lecturers/researchers
• Create the conditions for good quality teaching
  and research also in the infrastructure
• Strengthen links between higher education and the
  economy

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Pillars of the Hungarian UNIVERSITAS Programme
(2004)a

1. Joining the European Higher Education Area
2. Extending students rights and financial support
   for mobility
3. Institutional management and finance reform
4. Infrastructure investment programme involving
   private investors (PPP)
5. Research and Development Programme with increased
   funding

6
Implementing Bologna

• Legislative reform the Bologna objectives, new
  steering and funding mechanisms (to provide both
  for public and private institutions), new
  governance structures for institutions
• A large number of programmes and support schemes
• The latecomers symptom
• Student Participation
• National Follow-up Structure
• National Bologna Board
• Ministry of Education The Hungarian
  Rectors Conference
• National Accreditation Subject Specific
  Steering Groups
• Board Higher Education
  Research
• Council
• National Union of Students

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Aspects Vital to the Implementation of the
Bologna Process

• Degree structure Adoption of a system
  essentially based on two main cycles
• All Ministers commit themselves to having
  started the implementation of the two cycle
  system by 2005.()
• Ministers encourage the member States to
  elaborate a framework of comparable and
  compatible qualifications for their higher
  education systems, which should seek to describe
  qualifications in terms of workload, level,
  learning outcomes, competences and profile. They
  also undertake to elaborate an overarching
  framework of qualifications for the European
  Higher Education Area. () First cycle degrees
  should give access, in the sense of the Lisbon
  Recognition Convention, to second cycle
  programmes. Second cycle degrees should give
  access to doctoral studies.()
• Berlin Communiqué

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The two cycle system

• Duration and orientation of programmes which
  subjects should not be covered by the new system
• Employability the National Qualifications
  Framework with an outcomes based approach may be
  helpful
• A unique opportunity to revise pedagogical
  concepts (focus on the learner)
• Qualification frameworks and their relevance to
  curriculum development and recognition
• Access to HE
• Progression from one cycle to the next

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The three cycle system(The new course structure)
6 semester/ 180 credit Doctoral studies (PhD)
3-4 semester/ 90-120 credit Master
Unified Programmes (unchanged)
6 semester/ 180 (30) credit Bachelor
4 semester/ 120 credit Higher Vocational
Programmes
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Implementing the new course structure

• Challenges for institutions
• Structural changes and quality
• The pace of reforms changeover from the old
  system to the new
• Dividing teaching content between Bachelor and
  Master level
• Extra administrative burden (e.g. implementing
  ECTS)
• The value of a Bachelors degree
• The binary system
• Some comformity is needed but NO Straightjackets!
• A national debate to prepare
• Students
• Staff
• Employers
• Tracing the career path of graduates
• National coordination groups to develop new
  curricula at subject level

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Master Programmes

• Challenges
• Distinction between professional and research
  Masters
• One step at a time approach
• Too narrow fields a lot of specializations
• Consecutive approach
• Interdisciplinary programmes
• Funding
• Joint Degrees
• No legal obstacles growing interest among the
  institutions (inter-university cooperation)

12
Curriculum Reform

• Implementing learning outcomes the experience of
  the Tuning Project
• The National Qualification Framework yet
  criteria are defined by the Accreditation Board
  subject specific standards are still input
  oriented

13
National Frameworks of Qualifications

• Descriptors of qualifications and learning
  outcomes
• Dublin descriptors (generic)
• Knowledge and understanding
• applying knowledge and understanding
• making judgements
• communication skills
• learning skills
• Not subject specific

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Recognition

• Ministers underline the importance of the Lisbon
  Recognition Convention, which should be ratified
  by all countries participating in the Bologna
  Process, and call on the ENIC and NARIC networks
  along with the competent National Authorities to
  further the implementation of the Convention.
  They set the objective that every student
  graduating as from 2005 should receive the
  Diploma Supplement automatically and free of
  charge. It should be issued in a widely spoken
  European language. They appeal to institutions
  and employers to make full use of the Diploma
  Supplement, so as to take advantage of the
  improved transparency and flexibility of the
  higher education degree systems, for fostering
  employability and facilitating academic
  recognition for further studies.

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Student Mobility

• Measures to support and increase mobility
• State support for studies at European
  institutions
• New system of loans for students also for
  foreign studies
• A comprehensive programme for building new
  infrastructure
• ECTS
• The credit accumulation and transfer system has
  been implemented (legal provisions)
• Moving from contact hours to student workload is
  still an issue 
• A further challenge is assigning credits to
  courses in the new system.
•  

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The Diploma Supplement

• Legal basis the DS must be issued in Hungarian
  and in English
• the majority of institutions are able to comply
• a student record system on the institutional
  level
• new national student data software has been
  developed
• Issues
• DS needs strong ICT background
• comprehensive translation work
• centralized storing of student data
• Integrating learning outcomes into the Diploma
  Supplement
• Direct link between the DS, the correct
  implementation of ECTS, the modularization of
  programmes and a new style QF
• Mutual trust and confidence there is no
  identical content

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QUALITY Enhancement and Quality Assurance  

• the quality of higher education has proven to be
  at the heart of the setting up of a European
  Higher Education Area.
• the primary responsibility for quality assurance
  in higher education lies with each institution
  itself and this provides the basis for real
  accountability of the academic system within the
  national quality framework. The Berlin
  Communiqué

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Implementing Quality

• The Bologna Process as an opportunity to reflect
  upon the quality of education, research and
  services provided by HE
•  guidelines, criteria and processes in the QA
  mechanisms - external QA processes
• the practices of HE institutions (curricula,
  teaching approach, staffing, etc.),
  self-evaluation
• resources and scope of autonomy - the
  realization that greater autonomy brings about
  better and more coherent QA practices
• changes in the internal governance of the
  institutions, granting autonomy
• the participation of students (success rates,
  drop out rates and career choices)
•   a set of measures to support quality
  improvement e.g. part of any salary increase is
  linked to performance, normative research funding
  is tied to performance indicators
• changes in the methodology of programme
  accreditation (and not evaluation) from input
  and structure to output
• the debate between evaluation v. accreditation
  and programme v. institutional focus
•  

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SUCCESS FACTORS

• Bologna and other higher education reforms (the
  trigger effect
• A synergy between top-down and bottom-up
  approaches (an impetus to strategic planning)
• The role of guidance, support and regulations at
  national level
• The timing and pace of reforms (speed and
  fine-tuning)
• The reaction of the labour market to the new
  degrees
• The future of the binary system
•