Les étudiants dénoncent une mise en oeuvre "à la carte" du processus de Bologne

Education Commissioner Ján Figel’ urged the need for more action to modernise higher education in Europe. "Governments should give institutions more autonomy. Universities should modernise the content of their curricula, create virtual campuses, reform their governance and professionalise their management of human resources, investment and administrative procedures, diversify their funding and open up to new types of learners, business and society at large," he said.

The National Unions of Students (ESIB) published, ahead of the ministerial conference a study entitled Bologna With Student Eyes. The report analyses how the commitments made in the Bologna Process are implemented in practice at national level. It accuses European governments of "picking those commitments which fit their national agenda, and neglecting others at the same time". For example, "only few take really care about the social situation of students in their country, although the Social Dimension has been marked as a priority of the Bologna Process for two years," said ESIB Chairperson Koen Geven warning that "this à la carte approach endangers Bologna's success".

The European University Association asked the education ministers for greater autonomy and increased funding for universities "in order to enable Europe to compete with the rest of the world". The EUA declaration entitled Europe’s Universities beyond 2010: Diversity with a common purpose urges the need for more autonomy as "more autonomy would give universities more flexibility to adapt to our changing society and would boost university-business knowledge transfer and attract more private funding for universities." 

"If we can't decide who to employ, and what to spend our money on, we are never going to be able to change," said says EUA secretary general Lesley Wilson.

"Raising the employability of graduates is a key issue for improving the functioning of European labour markets," states BusinessEurope. "The evolution towards process-oriented and interdisciplinary work organisation increasingly requires employees to be adaptable, to develop problem solving skills and to work in teams. Graduates’ employability thus has to become a key mission for universities and other higher education institutions. This has to be reflected to a greater extent in the design of study courses and become a main criterion of quality for future degrees." 

Alan Johnson the UK Secretary of State for Education and Skills highlighted the need to focus on the learning outcomes of students with regard recognition of qualifications gained in other countries. "How we compare courses across international boundaries is perhaps one of the most difficult issues facing us now. The single most important thing to an employer when they are looking to hire someone is not how long that individual has spent in any given higher education institution, but what he or she has learnt at the end of it, and whether they have the right skills to do the job. This must be what we focus on as we award credits for courses," he said.