Moving towards the Bologna Ministerial meeting: New study maps development and future of Master programmes in Europe
A new EUA study published this week gives a detailed overview of the development of Master degrees in Europe. Based on a wide-ranging survey of European students, universities (leaders and academics) and employers, it specifically looks at how Master programmes in Europe have developed a decade after the Bologna process was launched.
As a result of Bologna, the overall degree structure of many European countries has been fundamentally changed with the implementation of three degree cycles (Bachelor, Master and Doctorate) that are defined in terms of learning outcomes and credit ranges. The results of the study show that a Bologna Master ‘template’ is developing across Europe albeit in three distinctive forms of course provision: taught Master with a strong professional development application; the research-intensive Master which functions as a pre-doctoral degree; and courses delivered to learners returning to education from the workplace.
While nearly all 46 of the Bologna signatory countries have implemented a Master cycle into their national higher education systems, the study shows that there is still much work to be done in terms of making the Master cycle more transparent and readable across national borders – to help facilitate recognition of degrees, mobility and exchanges between institutions.
The new EUA report provides a detailed mapping of the Master degrees in Europe – including a country by country overview of how the Master cycle has been adopted into national higher education systems and how students enter the 2nd cycle. It also shows how the Bologna process has been enshrined in national legislations. The study concludes that no one system has been aligned with Bologna long enough for it to be embedded but instead systems are in varying degrees of transition.
The study also addresses the issue of student mobility. It concludes that the Master degree will play a crucial role in the future, particularly as vertical mobility (students completing the Bachelor in one country and the Master in another) will certainly grow, as has been the case notably in the UK. However, the report also highlights that there are still too many barriers to all types of mobility (within programmes and between degree cycles) – notably due to difficulties in terms of recognition of prior learning and qualifications.
According to the study, the Master is the most ‘marketised’ of the three degree cycles despite a wide diversity in terms of how students have access to Master programmes, and in terms of tuition fees. Looking to the future, the report predicts that the number of Master programmes will continue to grow – particularly in terms of English-taught programmes and joint degrees.
It also stresses that the provision of Master programmes needs to be more flexible, if it is to satisfy labour market needs, and underlines that employers, in particular, need to be more involved in curriculum development. The author is positive, however, that the European Master will become more readable as national qualification frameworks are gradually put in place. “As the Master provision becomes more flexible and integrated into national systems, it will help develop the high level of skills required by Europe to respond to the current economic crisis,” he notes.
The results of EUA’s work will be presented to the 46 ministers of education who will attend the Bologna process Ministerial Summit in Belgium on 28/29 April.
Please click here to download the full study. This project was supported by the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning programme.
Published on: Thursday, 23 April 2009 12:51