Bologna Process at Bilgi

What do we do in the campus now?

It is the semester break for students but we work on several bureacratic tasks. I change readings every semester so now i have to work on two syllabi for the courses I will be lecturing in the Spring semester. The classes will begin on 16 Feb. But next course registrations begin, which is a very busy week.

However, we all also work on the Bologna Process adaptation. It is officially announced. Higher Education Council expects a fast adaptation in all Turkish universities. Our syllabi and academic programs have to be in accordance with the Process: 

Acc. to wikipedia: 

The purpose of the Bologna process (or Bologna accords) is to create the European higher education area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe, in particular under the Lisbon Recognition Convention. It is named after the place it was proposed, the University of Bologna in the Italian city of Bologna, with the signing in 1999 of the Bologna declaration by Ministers of Education from 29 European countries. This was opened up to other countries signatory to the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe; further governmental meetings have been held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003), Bergen (2005) and London in Spring 2007.

……….

With the Bologna process implementation, higher education systems in European countries are to be organized in such a way that:

• it is easy to move from one country to the other (within the European Higher Education Area) – for the purpose of further study or employment;
• the attractiveness of European higher education is increased so many people from non-European countries also come to study and/or work in Europe;
• the European Higher Education Area provides Europe with a broad, high quality and advanced knowledge base, and ensures the further development of Europe as a stable, peaceful and tolerant community benefiting from a cutting edge European Research Area;
• there will also be a greater convergence between the U.S. and Europe as European higher education adopts aspects of the American system.

 

Our system is already based on Western university structures.  However, it is hard to talk of a single European academic structure while American system is quite standardized. Ours is somewhere in between. I do not believe in the short run Bologna process will bring a leap for the European academia but in the long right, it will certainly help… In the mean time, we will have to figure out how to be more "student oriented" according to this logic.