Discordant Implementation of Multilateral Higher Education Policies: Evidence from the case of the Bologna Process

Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.18. 13 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY http://cshe.berkeley. edu/ Discordant Implementation of Multilateral Higher Education Policies: Evidence from the case of the Bologna Process December 2013 Masataka Murasawa, Jun Oba, and Satoshi P. Watanabe * Research Institute for Higher Education Hiroshima University, Japan Copyright 2013 Masataka Murasawa, Jun Oba, and Satoshi Patten Watanabe, all rights reserved. ABSTRACT In pursuit of enhanced employability of university graduates, along with their increased mobility in a rapidly globalizing economy, colleges and universities in the world today participate in regional alliances and partnerships in which shared targets with mutually recognized degrees and curricula are sought across boundaries through transnational higher education policies. The Bologna Process is certainly exemplified as one of the most important multilateral efforts in the recent history of higher education, in establishing such a system of quality assurance within the European Higher Education Area. Although the member states of the Bologna Process endeavor to meet the common benchmarks on the preset assessment criteria, the speed of policy implementation is found to widely vary across the participating countries. This paper attempts to identify the sources of discrepancies in achieving the common policy targets among the member states and explore in particular the extent to which varying stages of socio-economic as well as political development, along with indigenous ethnic and linguistic complexities, affect the robust progress of implementing multilateral higher education policies. Our findings generally suggest significant impacts of these indigenous factors. Keywords: Bologna Process, Multilateral Policies, European Higher Education Area, Generalized Linear Mixed Model The Sorbonne Declaration which was signed in Paris by the four education ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. in May 1998 was followed by the Bologna Declaration of 1999 with much enthusiasm from the 29 participating countries expressing their willingness to commit to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of European higher education. The Bologna Process initiated by these Declarations is aimed at structural convergence of European higher education, typically represented by the compatibility of academic programs and degrees in the context of improved employability of graduates, which would appeal to potential applicants residing outside the region while enhancing student mobility and partnership among institutions of higher education within the region (Teichler 2008). At the core of the Process is the stipulation of a common structure for a sound quality assurance system for universities in the member states (Musselin and Froment 2007). The Bologna Process was then inherited as a critical element of the Lisbon Strategy of 2000, whose aim was to make the European Union (EU) “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” by year 2010 (European Council 2000). Since then, universities and research institutions have been identified as the principal medium of nurturing human resources as well as innovative research and development (RD Froment 2007; Vinokur 2008; Wende 2007). The European Higher Education Area (EHEA), realized as an important mission of the Bologna Process was finally launched in 2010, and the unremitting endeavor by the member states in pursuing the original aims of the Process continues today. Masataka Murasawa and Jun Oba are Associate Professors, and Satoshi P. Watanabe is Professor, all three affiliated with the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. Corresponding address: 1-2-2 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8512, Japan. Email addresses: M. Murasawa (mrswm@hiroshima-u.ac.jp), J. Oba (oba@hiroshima-u.ac.jp), and S.P. Watanabe (sw259@hiroshima-u.ac.jp). The authors welcome and appreciate any thoughts and comments on the contents of this working paper despite its preliminary stage of analysis. CSHE Research & Occasional Paper Series