THE BOLOGNA PROCESS: BETWEEN PAST REFORMS AND THE INNOVATIVE FUTURE

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1 Education & Educational Research THE BOLOGNA PROCESS: BETWEEN PAST REFORMS AND THE INNOVATIVE FUTURE Cristina Veronica Partenie 1, PhD Candidate Andreea Orîndaru 1, PhD Candidate Robert Bumbac 1, PhD Candidate 1 The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania ABSTRACT In an ever-changing values system, education is still the core institution of the contemporaneous society. Given its importance, education is under the spotlight as it is currently undergoing substantial challenges. The major reforms started once the Bologna Process became a reality of the European educational setting. 15 years after this reform started, there is a crucial need for evaluating the steps took until now, as well as establishing future development steps that education should undergo. Therefore, the current paper presents a pilot quantitative research based on a survey aimed at evaluating students and graduates opinion on the progress made by the educational system in Romania since its compliance to the Bologna Process. Major findings of the research conducted relate to students perception of educational system improvement in the Bologna era, along with their trust that the process of lifelong learning will increase their chances in the labour market. The results of the current study also draw attention on the need for connecting the contents of the curriculums to the labour market's needs. Further areas that should be considered for reform include dealing with the increasing financing pressure especially on higher education as well as ways of building powerful educational institutions images as a premise of survival on the crowded educational market. The first objective can be achieved through thinking within the innovation paradigm for identifying and benefiting from opportunities to diminish the financing issue. The second objective can be reached through adopting a marketing view on the educational institutions as means to build sustainable, long-term relationships with all the educational stakeholders. Keywords: Bologna Process, educational reform, innovation, marketing for education INTRODUCTION The constant and massive changes in the contemporary age require now more than ever flexibility and stronger adapting abilities among people everywhere. As the main framework that prepares young generations for the future society, the educational system is currently under the spotlight to nourish these competencies within its main beneficiaries. Within this context, a need for compliance and reform emerged in the European continent that eventually led to the establishment of the Bologna process. Complying with the requirements of such a cross-national process is particularly challenging as different cultures, visions and perspectives are aiming to adopt a common point of view. Additionally, another challenge of developing the Bologna process lies in the need to balance the wishes of different groups, from the professor

2 SGEM 2014 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts who seeks to uphold traditional ways and produce rounded graduates, to the ardent entrepreneur who seeks university trained staff to make immediate and concrete contributions [5]. Despite cultural barriers and implementation challenges, the Bologna process represents a voluntarily enter-base for bringing some degree of uniformity to the higher education systems in Europe, while keeping a diversity of approaches [5]. THE BOLOGNA PROCESS At a time of social, political and economic change, Europe was struggling to find its own voice on the scene of the global powers, being still marked by the effects of the Cold War, the end of the Soviet Union and the slow movement towards democracy of the Eastern European countries. Thus, in addition to the European Community, there was a need of a common education strategy in order to build a Europe of Knowledge as an important factor in social and human growth [6]. At the midst of this struggle, four of the EU ministers of higher education (from France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) signed the 1998 Sorbonne Declaration that one year later would become the Bologna Declaration. The 1999 document was signed by 29 national ministers of education in an effort to create a more complete and far-reaching Europe, in particular building upon and strengthening its intellectual, cultural, social and scientific and technological dimensions through reforms in higher education across the countries that will form the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Each of the signing countries voluntarily agreed to implement a series of reforms in its own higher education system and thus to create a pan-european convergence, all for the aim of a more unified and transparent higher education. Despite being drawn up by supranational and pan-european bodies, its purpose is not the creation of a singular system. The measures have been implemented in order to adapt the institutional structure to the two study cycles. Thus, each country, through its higher education system remained unique, keeping its national characteristics [9]. The objectives of the Bologna Declaration consisted in the adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees, the adoption of a system essentially based on two cycles, the establishment of a credits system, the promotion of mobility, the promotion of European cooperation in quality assurance, the promotion of the European dimension in higher education. These six would be later completed through the 2001 Prague Communiqué that pleaded for lifelong learning, the partnership of higher education institutions and students, promoting the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The 2003 Berlin Communiqué referred to the doctoral studies and the synergy between the EHEA and the European Research Area (ERA). The Bergen Communiqué (2005) brought about the implementation of references and guidelines to guarantee quality, as proposed in the ENQA report (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), the introduction of the national qualification frameworks, awarded and recognized joint degrees, including the ones at doctorate level, and set the base for creating opportunities for flexible pathways for training in higher education. In 2007 at the London conference representatives assessed the measures implemented as a progress, but further suggested the focus, among others, on promoting the students and staff s mobility and developing measures for evaluating this mobility and improving ways to raise employability linked to the three-cycle degree system and lifelong learning [11].

3 Education & Educational Research In the midst of the world economic crisis which occurred in 2008, the Bologna Process would face its challenges in the form of budget cuts for education, low incomes and thus low expenditure on education of the population and high rates of unemployability, especially among young people, seen as a consequence of the poor adaptation to the market s needs. Nevertheless, the ministers acknowledge through the Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué that education is the key to bringing about sustainable recovery and development [6]: We recognise that higher education has a key role to lay if we are to successfully meet the challenges we face and if we are to promote the cultural and social development of our societies. Therefore, we consider public investment in higher education of utmost priority [2]. After the 2012 Bucharest Ministerial Conference, the implementation report [7] shows the remarkable progress of the Bologna Process implemented in 47 countries across the EHEA. 90% of the student population in 26 of the countries is currently studying in programmes drafted according to the Bologna two-cycle system, and in more than a quarter of the participant countries [11] this figure rises to more than 50%. Furthermore, the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) has been adopted in all of the countries, but there are still a number of them in which 50-74% of the programs do not use ECTS as a form of quantifying the students work. Probably the most important achievement is the involvement of students through its representatives. The stakeholders involvement builds thus the form of joint ownership [3]. In spite of these results, there is still more to be achieved, in respect to the academic recognition, the mobility of both students and teaching staff, and to the implementation of national monitoring systems. The Bologna Process has however been able to understand its mission, not in the form of creating a higher education area, but to educate students with the knowledge and skills needed to ensure their employability [7]. Nevertheless, the Bologna Process has also a number of detractors, some of them are actually students. In its report on the 2009 Bologna + 10 ministerial meeting, Bologna with Student Eyes, 2009, the students body representative, the European Students Union (ESU), referred to the measures taken by the BFUG (Bologna Follow up Group) as a stagnation in many areas of the process [8]. There are also voices who argue that because of the scale to which the Bologna Process has extended, including now 47 countries, the national systems will prevail and that the convergence will be done only formal. This will mostly be a result of the discussions among ministers whose declarations must be sufficiently vague in order to be accepted unanimously [4]. One must not believe that measures implemented by means of the Bologna Process are cut to edge innovate, but they rather they respond to challenges that Europe was forced to face in a globalized and competitive higher education market. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND MAIN FINDINGS The Bologna process is far from having completely achieved 100% of its goals, but major progress is to be recognised across Europe. In order to evaluate Romania s educational system progress in the form of the compliance to the Bologna requirements, a research was conducted among Romanian students to assess their perception opinion on the current educational framework. Research Methodology The following hypothesises were made as a basis of the conducted research:

4 SGEM 2014 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts H 1 : The adoption of the Bologna Process is beneficial to the educational system in Romania generating flexibility along with greater specialization in specific fields and increasing retraining opportunities. H 2 : Together with the transition to the Bologna system, Romania s educational system increased its graduates chances of entering the labour market. H 3 : The adaptation of the educational curricula to the labour market in Romania is moderate and it needs improvement. H 4 : Financial pressure on HEIs is increasingly higher, pushing them to seek for innovative solutions and to increasingly invest in the institutional image or brand to remain among their candidates preferences. In order to assess the progress of the educational system in Romania so far and to identify the steps required for its further improvement, a pilot quantitative research was conducted among 131 Bachelor, Master or PhD students, between May and June The data collected through an online questionnaire aimed also to identify whether the graduates perceive the impact of graduating a Bachelor or Master program on their employability and to what extend do they think that study programs are correlated to the labour market s real needs. For collecting data, the tested variables were measured using the 7-point Likert scale where 1 represents respondents strongly disagreement and 7 highlights total agreement to the statements in the research questions. Results and Discussion Analysis of the recorded data showed that the contribution of the Bologna Process for the specialization of graduates in a particular field reached an average of 5.19 level of agreement from a maximum of 7. This shows that respondents appreciate as positive the Bologna Process s contribution in their specialization in a specific domain. One reason for the respondents perception lays in the Bologna process s core: dividing higher education system in three cycles: Bachelor, Master and Doctoral. The positive attitude of the respondents may lead to the conclusion that the adoption of the Bologna process is seen as a step forward in terms of a graduates preparation for a particular field. Furthermore, a need for determining factors that influence respondents perception on the Bologna Process usefulness emerges. It was thus found that more than 84.7% of the respondents (mean: 4.89; median: 5) consider that students currently have more flexibility in determining their study path (Figure 1) and find it easier to customize it according to their needs. Additionally, 88.7% of respondents (mean: 4.91; median: 5) believe that the implementation of the Bologna Process has significantly contributed to increasing the chances of professional reconversion (Figure 2). One cause of these results might be the two-cycle studies which the Bologna Process introduced. Thus, after completing their Bachelor studies students can choose either to specialize in the graduated field or to minor in another one. Furthermore, the concept of lifelong learning comes to support the reality of professional reconversion, a genuine challenge for the future generations. More than 83.3% of respondents expressed their conviction that the educational system in Romania has improved after the implementation of the Bologna Process. As a result, the first hypothesis of the research is validated: H 1 : The adoption of the Bologna Process is beneficial to the educational system in Romania generating flexibility along with greater specialization in specific fields and increasing retraining opportunities.

5 Education & Educational Research Figure 1: Easier educational path planning Source: Data analysis using SPSS Figure 2: Greater chance of retraining While investigating the contribution that the transition to the Bologna system has on facilitating access to the labour market for graduates, 74.8% of respondents (mean: 4.59; median: 5) revealed that they felt that a candidate s chances in the labour market have increased by acquiring more educational qualifications as shown in Figure 3. Also, we observed that 82.4% of respondents (mean: 5.02; median: 5) believe that master graduates are better perceived by employers in comparison to only Bachelor graduates (Figure 4). Based on these results, the second hypothesis is confirmed: H 2 : Together with the transition to the Bologna system, Romania s educational system increased its graduates chances of entering the labour market. Figure 3: Increasing opportunities for entering the labour market Source: Data analysis using SPSS Figure 4: Employers perception on master graduates The third direction of the conducted research refers to the degree of synchronization between the content of the educational curricula and existing knowledge needs in the labour market. In this regard, it may be observed the universities moderate reaction to the changes in the labour market with a mean of 3.76 and median of 4, a reaction that is usually visible through the introduction of new undergraduate and graduate programs that comply with these new needs, as shown in Figure 5. Figure no. 5: Fast adaptability to changes in the labour market Source: Data analysis using SPSS Figure 6: Relevant information for the employment in the graduated domain

6 SGEM 2014 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts Responses regarding information relevance in the undergraduate program curricula for that specific domain create a more optimist perception trend than the variable measuring the adaptability to market s changes, but as can be seen in Figure 6, they are mainly positioned in the neutral area and this demonstrates an average agreement with a mean of 4.00 and median of 4. Thus, the third hypothesis is validated, although with lower confidence: H 3 : The adaptation of the educational curricula to the labour market in Romania is moderate and it needs improvement. The last research direction relates to the negative factors that affect HEIs current activities for which management teams must find solutions. An example in this regard is the increasing level of tuition fees charged by HEIs that from the students and graduates perspective are not reflected in the services quality level as claimed by 58.8% of respondents, with a mean of 3.20 and median of 3 (Figure 7). Figure 7: Tuition fees level reflect the services quality Source: Data analysis using SPSS Figure 8: Access to undergraduate programs has increased in the past 25 years Despite this negative aspect, the implementation of the Bologna Process has significantly contributed to the increasing access to undergraduate programs in the last 25 years, as shown by the 91.5% of respondents (mean: 5.28; median: 5) who agree with this statement (Figure 8). Based on these results, the last hypothesis is validated: H 4 : Financial pressure on HEIs is increasingly higher pushing them to seek for innovative solutions and to increasingly invest in the institutional image or brand to remain among their candidates preferences. The research conducted revealed the progress perceived by students and graduates when referring to the Romanian educational system. The improvements brought by the Bologna process in Romania refer to the easiness of educational path planning, increasing professional reconversion opportunities and labour market entering opportunities. Nevertheless, the areas where improvements are still to be made are relative to the correlation between fees level and educational services quality or the information relevance to the employment domain. THE FUTURE OF BOLOGNA PROCESS The research conducted revealed major steps took so far by the educational system in Romania within the Bologna process framework. While development of the European educational system compliance across borders is still a work in progress as the aims of the Bologna process are yet to be 100% achieved, the European educational systems have to answer the Bologna process main emphasis: becoming more competitive [12]. The competitiveness of the educational systems and particularly of the higher education

7 Education & Educational Research institutions is also a survival premise in the educational market, described nowadays by two major problems: financing pressure and image dilution. The first issue relates to the education s costs and how and by whom should they be covered. The problem is determined by one major cause, deepened by a secondary cause. First, the major cause refers to the shift in higher education financing responsibility from central governments to individual students [3], thus putting extra pressure on the beneficiaries. Second, this finance shift problem is deepened by the lack of a pan-european consensus on how different stakeholders should contribute to covering ever-increasing costs [5]. For solving this important matter of the higher education systems a change in management paradigm is needed as a broadening view on available opportunities is a must. Adopting the innovation paradigm for both maximising available opportunities to create and deliver added values services to a wider customer spectrum and enlarging vision on how to approach different stakeholders relationship is one path that is likely to lead to a less financed challenge higher education institution. The second issue, the HEIs image dilution, is a result of an unprecedentedly growth in the educational market that led to increased competition for gaining students from a decreasing young population. Within this context, taking a marketing approach adapted to the sector might release some of the competition pressure. Marketing higher education aims at building strong HEIs images in their target market, the institution s projected features in its stakeholders mind that is gaining more and more importance when choosing a higher education program. Additionally, previous research has shown that an institution s image has a strong and direct impact on both students satisfaction and their loyalty [1]. Therefore, adopting a marketing view in each educational program elaboration, interaction with students and communicating to HEIs external stakeholders represents one step closer to building a powerful image that conveys trustworthiness, respect and willingness to offer higher quality services to all its stakeholders and, particularly to current and future students. CONCLUSIONS Even though there might seem that the aims of the Bologna process are still far from completely achieved, the higher education system s progress is to be noticed and appreciated, especially since the most important beneficiaries of this reform really do appreciate the higher education growth and similarity in the European context. Still, the current competitive educational setting requires higher education systems to take further steps for their own survival on the crowded educational market. These steps include solving the financing pressure put on them through adopting the innovation paradigm as well as building stronger and more visible higher education institutions images through marketing philosophy and practice in the educational field. When referring to the limits of the current research, we might include the geographical extent approach as well as the perception influence that might occur post-experience. Even though a single analysis of the Bologna process implementation progress and perception is useful, a comparative study with similar educational systems might prove particularly interesting for evaluation. Also, when addressing respondents for their perception post-experience within the educational framework, an unwanted influence might occur and, thus, a longitudinal study might offer some more accurate results on the real perception of the beneficiaries of the educational system.

8 SGEM 2014 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was co-financed from the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development , project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/ Performance and excellence in doctoral and postdoctoral research in Romanian economics science domain. REFERENCES [1] Alves H. & Raposo M. The influence of university image on student behaviour. International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 24/issue 1, pp 73-85, 2009; [2] Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, 2009; [3] Crosier D. & Parveva T. The Bologna Process: Its impact on higher education development in Europe and beyond, UNESCO: International Institute for Educational Planning, France, 2013; [4] De Rudder H. Mission accomplished? Which mission? The Bologna process a view from Germany, Higher Education Review, vol. 43/issue 1, 2010; [5] Dennis Farrington. Legislative initiatives in the context of the Bologna Process: A comparative perspective, Papers on Higher Education, Romania, 2005; [6] Dodds T. The Bologna Process and the Transformation of European Higher Education, University of British Columbia and ECAR Richard N. Katz, ECAR; [7] Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency. The European Higher Education Area in 2012: Bologna Process Implementation Report; [8] European Students Union. Bologna with student eyes, Belgium, 2009; [9] King C. The Bologna Process: bridge or fortress? A review of the debate from a North American perspective, Institute of European Studies University of British Columbia; [10] Maringe F. The students as consumer: affordances and constraints in a transforming higher education environment, in M. Molesworth R., Scullion R. & Nixon E. (eds.) The marketisation of higher education and the student as consumer, Chap. 12, Routledge, Oxon, 2011; [11] Portela M., Sa C., Alexandre F. & Cardoso A.R. Perceptions of the Bologna process: what do students choices reveal? Higher Education, vol. 58, pp , 2009; [12] Wachter B. The Bologna Process: developments and prospects, European Journal of Education, vol. 39/issue 3, 2004.