The Scottish Government

Background to the Bologna Process

The overarching aim of the process is to create comparable and increasingly coherent systems of higher education across Europe, in order to maximise attractiveness, competitiveness, transferability and mobility within the European Higher Education Area.

The broad objectives are to:

• remove the obstacles to student mobility across Europe, in particular through facilitating recognition of qualifications
• enhance the attractiveness of European higher education worldwide
• establish a common framework for higher education systems across Europe and for this common framework to be based on a Bachelor/Masters/Doctoral studies model.

Ministers from participating countries meet every two years to assess progress and set priorities for the next two year period, recorded in an agreed Communiqué and Stocktaking Report . Ministers last met in Belgium in April 2009.

Further information on the Bologna Process, including the latest Communiqué, can be found here.

Scottish involvement

The emerging European Higher Education Area provides an excellent opportunity for Scotland, its institutions and its students. It enables our universities to work collaboratively with their European counterparts and exchange information which will improve the standard of learning and teaching and broaden the range of opportunities open to Scottish students, as well as students from other parts of Europe.

The Minister for Schools and Skills attended the Ministerial Conference in April 2009 and in the Stocktaking Report, produced for the Conference, Scotland achieved the maximum scores for all action lines and was the only country to do so.

Government officials take part in meetings of the Bologna Follow Up Group as part of the UK delegation and run a Scottish Bologna Stakeholders Group to encourage Scottish HE stakeholders to take part in Bologna-related events across Europe, to promote knowledge and understanding of the Scottish HE system and learn from the good practice of others.