bly specified in terms of the learning outcomes and competences to be acquired.
The Bologna scheme calls for all courses to be award ECTS credits, and that these credits be accepted freely around the region in order to facilitate student movement. At present, credits are closely tied to the average time theoretically required to achieve the desired learning outcomes and competencies, rather than any demonstration of achievement. Obviously, the system would be more robust if the credits related to demonstration of actual achievement of some base level of learning outcomes and competencies, but thus far there are no identified methods to do this uniformly.
All of this can be viewed from the perspective of defining modules of “production” in the educational cycle. This fits one common model of modular production in which input/output characteristics of the module are specified precisely by the central design (Bologna), with considerable flexibility being given to the module producers (the institutions of EHEA) in how those characteristics are realized.
Importantly, however, the customer (the student) is also part of the production process, and this changes the power relationships of production considerably. In the industrial model, it is the “producer” of the finished product who picks the outsourcing partners who will produce modules that go into the finished product. In the Bologna case, within wide limits, the customer decides where to get the various modules that in the end will result in the degree “product”. This reversal of power positions may provide considerable challenges, and opportunities, to universities in the future.
The Bologna Process is a very bold experiment that has the potential to change higher education in ways probably not envisaged by its creators. The very elements that enable and encourage movement about the EHEA, if successful, are those that could open up globalization of higher education generally. One of the greatest obstacles to greater globalization at the moment is the inability to judge and validate the educational modules offered by potential partners around the world. Should Bologna be able to define workable “best practices”, they could easily become the de facto standards that enable quality control in a modularized approach to higher education. This is an experiment that deserves more attention from American higher education!
This article was originally published on the author’s weblog, Changing Higher Education, in September 2008, and has been reprinted with permission.