How the Bologna process has affected the German university system [31.05.19]
The Bologna reforms are about to celebrate their 20th anniversary. In 1999, 31 European countries committed themselves to the reform aiming at unifying the European higher education system. Major changes were to be made at German universities and universities of applied sciences by 2010. The German diploma was to be replaced by new Bachelor'and Master degrees in order to shorten average duration of study and to harmonize international university degrees. However, these changes were strongly criticized at times. Large student protests led to compromises in the implementation of the controversial reform. To date, the new system has still not been established in some areas. Most engineering courses, for example, still rely on the worldwide renowned diploma degrees. In his new article, Hohenheim's former university president George Turner describes the effects of the Bologna reforms on the German university landscape.
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Publication
Turner, George (2019): How the Bologna process has affected the German university system. In: Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, S. 1–3. DOI: 10.1080/13511610.2019.1611419.
Abstract
In June 1999, 31 European states jointly signed a declaration in Bologna titled The European Higher Education Area. Hereby, they pledged to create comparable degrees in Europe until the year 2010. The activities that followed are commonly called the “Bologna process”.
In quintessence the reform should achieve the following:
-Adoption of a “graded” study system with the degrees of Bachelor and Master for most programs. The first cycle of usually three years should lead to a level of qualification “relevant to the European labour market” and also grant access to the second cycle and the master degree.
-These new degrees should be created and made comparable by a “diploma supplement” detailing the content of courses and exams. This was considered necessary because the master and bachelor degrees were to be distributed both by traditional universities (in this article further referred to as “universities”), and by professional schools including the German and Austrian “Fachhochschulen” (“Universities of Applied Sciences”, in this article further referred to as UAS).
-Introduction of a credit point system for every course in order to facilitate the move from one university to another across Europe
The member states declared as their goal to introduce all these reforms until the year 2010, and in fact, by today most German university and UAS diplomas and state certificates have been modified and replaced by bachelor and master degrees.
