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Bologna SeminarUnlocking Europe’s potential - Contributing to a

better worldImpact of Globalisation

Prof. dr. Martin Valckehttp://allserv.ugent.be/~mvalcke/CV/CVMVA.htm

May 19-20 2008

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Structure

• Setting the scene• Conceptual analysis• Questioning Bologna• Quality• Conclusions

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Setting the scene

• Cases:– Master level students in Education get in touch with a

collaborative reserach project, set up in Ecuador and want to take their research internship in Ecuador.

– Master students in Aquaculture at Ghent University want to study the mud crab farming in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam an dthis in the context of his Masters Thesis

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Setting the scene

• Cases:– A Student from Uganda with a Bachelor degree in

Biology, gets access to University of York (UK) in view of getting a Masters degree in Education .After obtaining this Masters degree, she applies for a PhD degree in Education at Ghent University (Belgium).

– A Chinese student asks to take a Master level degree programme in Psychology on the base of her Bachelors level from Beijing Normal University

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Setting the scene

• Cases:– Three Flemish universities set up a inter-university

cooperation with a university in Mozambique to foster training at masters level and PhD level of local staff .

– An Ecuadorian, Norvegian, Australian and Belgian University set up a joint-degree Masters programme that can be taken online. The participating universities agree on access criteria and credit transfer.

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Conceptual analysis

• Cases imply that:– International Higher Education space goes beyond

European geographical space– Knowledge base goes beyond European borders– Research interests goes beyond European borders– We already deal with extra-European mobility– External international mobility knocks at European

doors; e.g. Grants from Chinese Scholarship Council

Conceptual analysis

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• Bologna ~ developing countries:– “Education” is part of national developing

countries policies– Europe takes responsibility in fighting worldwide

poverty and fosters world educational development– Huge demand for HE– Huge demand to develop research capacities

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Questioning Bologna

• Focus of HE within Europe is not limited to Europe - % of non-European students/researchers

• What about Bologna: restricted to Europe?

• Only priveledged non-European partners?

• Room for “developing countries dimension”? Social dimension?

Quality

• Going beyond Europe ~Quality

• Bologna = rich set of procedures, rules, experiences ~quality in HE

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Conclusions

• Current HE goes beyond Europe

• Bologna ~ international trend

• Bologna results inspire new extra-European HE dimension

• Extra-European space can easily incorporate developing countries

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Bologna SeminarUnlocking Europe’s potential - Contributing to a

better worldImpact of Globalisation

Prof. dr. Martin Valckehttp://allserv.ugent.be/~mvalcke/CV/CVMVA.htm

May 19-20 2008