Dear Friends,
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ESU is currently enjoying a sense of satisfaction with a 'job well
done' at the end of a month which has seen an almost unprecedented
level of activity in and around our Brussels headquarters. The
publication of our Bologna with Student Eyes 2009 report is in itself a
major triumph; the only independent, stakeholder perspective on the
Bologna Process published this year, and a comprehensive,
evidence-based analysis of the progress with the Process to date.
It
gets better - the inclusion of a 20% target for balanced mobility
across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in the Leuven
Communiqué at the end of the Bologna Process Ministerial Conference is
a major success for ESU coming after two years of campaigning. ESU
had launched the target in a speech celebrating two decades of Erasmus
and had been pushing for it to be adopted by as a firm commitment by
European countries ever since. Furthermore, the renewed and
strengthened commitment of Ministers to the social dimension reflects
the effectiveness with which the student voice made its voice heard in
the context of the negotiations.
Progress has been made with the
Process: the emphasis on quality assurance as a priority in ensuring
transparency and the renewed commitment of Ministers to ensuring that
higher education remains a public good and financial responsibility are important steps in the
right direction.
Of course these are all just words on a page at
present. The hard work now begins to translate paper promises into a
better reality for European students.
Until next month.
Frances
Editor - The Student Voice
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Student pressure forces Education Ministers to raise their game on Bologna
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 We did it! After tough negotiations, student representatives from
across Europe walked away from the small Belgian city of with Leuven
with a deep sense of satisfaction after Ministers from the 46 Bologna
countries committed themselves to a much more student-focused future
for the Process.
Following strong criticism of the lack of
attention paid to the social dimension of Bologna in recent times,
Europe's education ministers agreed to set national targets for
widening participation in Higher Education. At the Leuven and
Lovain-la-Neuve ministerial meeting this week, the ministers promised
to develop data collection to facilitate the monitoring of progress on
the social dimension and mobility, marking a major step forward in
ensuring the delivery of these crucial action lines.
Another
student victory came in the form of an explicit target for mobility
across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). All 46 Bologna
countries will now be working towards achieving a target of 20%
balanced mobility by 2020. This is a huge victory for ESU, which
originally conceived such a target and has been fighting for it
consistently over the last two years. Such a target and a focus on
significantly increasing the level of student mobility is essential for
ensuring that the EHEA takes shape in much more than name over the next
decade and it will be an objective easy to measure how other Bologna
action lines have progressed. If mobility number go up, it means that
students have enough financial support (social dimension), that
recognition is no longer feared and that students feel a mobile study
period is academically meaningful (quality assurance).
Read more...
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Looking at Bologna Through Student Eyes : BWSE revealed
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 Timed to coincide the Ministerial Conference of the Bologna Process
this week, ESU has just launched its much-anticipated Bologna With
Student Eyes 2009 report, the only independent stakeholder evaluation
of Bologna Process implementation published this year. Using data from
33 national unions of students in Europe, the report shows that, two
years after the last BWSE, member countries are still taking a
'pick-and-choose' approach to Bologna Process implementation, selecting
certain action lines and overlooking others. There has also been a
persistent failure to match words with action and to translate the
commitments made on paper into tangible outcomes.
The report
particularly draws attention to the tendency to neglect the social
dimension of the Bologna Process and to focus instead on the structural
elements of Bologna reform such as the three-cycle system. While
progress can be seen on certain action lines, notably quality assurance
and student participation, the harsh reality is that progress is
lagging on almost all action lines of the Bologna Process, making the
goal of a European Higher Education Area still appear as something of a
distant aspiration for the time being.
Read more...
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Rankings? No thanks!
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The vast majority of national student unions in Europe do not want to
see a European system of university rankings or classification, nor do
such proposals work in the best interests of European students. This
was the strong message in a statement issued this week by ESU on the
'transparency tools' currently being touted as a quality-enhancement
and choice tool at European level. With the European Commission having
launched a call to tender for a 'feasibility study' into how Europe
could follow its UK and US counterparts by having a system for the
ranking of universities, ESU launched its counter-declaration to
clearly demonstrate why such proposals work against the needs and
priorities of both students and higher education institutions.
Read more...
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Taking it to the Parliament : Student debate on education policy with MEPs
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 Students from across Europe converged on the European Parliament
yesterday to debate education policies with some of those responsible
for making them. Around 60 students from both the European Students'
Union and partner organisation AEGEE gathered together with members of
the Parliament's Culture and Education Committee to discuss key issues
affecting the learning opportunities of young people in Europe. Key
topics for the debate were the latest developments in the Bologna
Process, the EU's Strategic Framework for Cooperation on Education and
Training and the Parliament's role in education policy in its
forthcoming mandate.
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Upcoming ESU Events
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12-14 June, Equity training for NUSes, Austria
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Interesting bits from elsewhere
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The European Commission has just launched a new Youth Health Initiative (YHI)
project designed to encourage young people to become active partners in
promoting their health. ESU is a partner in the project, and you
can visit the newly created website here here
The European Commission has just published its first ever Eurobarometer survey on how European students view higher education in Europe. The full survey can be found here
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Resources
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The full text of the Leuven Communique of the Bologna Process Ministerial Conference can be found here
A statement by Bologna Ministers regarding the Ministerial can be found here
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Coming up...
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28-29 April - Ministerial Conference of the Bologna Process, Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
7 June - European Parliament elections
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