Bologna Process
Mark Goodacre and Chris Spinks have both posted on the differences between Ph.D. programs in the US and the UK. Mark did his Ph.D. in England and works in the US, while Chris did his doctorate at a US institution that has similarities to the British system. For those who don’t know, the main difference between the two systems is the presence of classwork in US Ph.D. programs, while British programs jump straight into research.
Since the topic of education in the US and Europe has been raised, I wanted to mention some changes that are currently being made in European universities.  I bring this up because many scholars in America are probably unaware of these changes. I ony learned of them while working in Lithuania.
The changes are part of what is known as the Bologna Process — which is not to be confused with processed bologna.  The process is named after the University of Bologna, which first suggested the changes. Twenty-nine countries met in Bologna in 1999 to discuss the changes. Follow-up conferences have been held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003), and Bergen (2005). You will sometimes hear people discussing “Prague accords” or other things that were proposed at those conferences, but they are all part of the Bologna Process.
The basic idea of the Bologna Process is to bring the system of university education in Europe into some kind of harmony. Currently, the system is widely divergent. One country offers one degree as their first level (e.g., specialist) while another country offers a different one (e.g., license). If specialist takes 4 years and license takes 3, there are problems when someone who has a degree from one country wants to do graduate work in another.
The Bologna Process is intended to provide some uniformity across the board. They are implementing a system that resembles the US system in some ways:
- Level 1: Bachelor’s, 3 years
- Level 2: Master’s, 2 years
- Level 3: Ph.D., 3 years
The accords from Bologna stipulate how much work (i.e., credit hours) must be done to achieve each level. They also include a standardized grade system, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), which is on a ten point scale.
Having worked in Eastern Europe, I can tell you it is a headache to figure out student transfer credits. LCC is a liberal arts college on the American model, but we still had to do work to move toward compliance with the Bologna Process. While I was there, we shifted to the ECTS system of grades and added the diploma supplement that was required.
It will be interesting to see how US universities deal with this. Currently, US universities offer four year bachelors. When European students with three year bachelors begin applying for masters work, the US school will have to decide what to do with them. Of course, they already have to work with differences between the US and European systems, so this will simply be a change in the questions being addressed.
On April 25th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
There’s the added complexity of different schooling. Since part of the difference is at the beginning we can (perhaps - though remember that we learn faster and more effectively younger!) forget this, but many European countries continue schooling a year longer than the USA… Personally I’m all for a system that has a test for entry rather than automatic entry if you have done secondary schooling! (In NZ if you are over 25 you can enter many University courses without any secondary qualification - the theory is that you are old enough to make your own decisions! (Though there is a voluntary preparatory year as well.)