Bologna Seminar: Doctoral programmes in Europe
7-9 December 2006, Université de Nice, France
Organised by EUA and the French Ministry of Education and Research, this seminar was hosted by the University of Nice.
- Final recommendations of the Seminar
- Presentations and final recommendations of the work groups
- Work Group Summaries
- Programme
- List of participants
- Background documents
Theme Outline
Doctoral programmes provide a key link between the development of the European Higher Education and Research Areas. They also play an important role in meeting the objectives of the Lisbon agenda aimed at building a Europe of Knowledge. The importance of research and research training as an integral part of higher education was stressed at the Berlin meeting of the Ministers of Education in 2003 and since then several activities have been developed in order to raise awareness of the issues related to doctoral training across Europe.
EUA carried out a Socrates-funded project "Doctoral Programmes for European Knowledge Society" (2004-05) which involved 48 universities from 22 countries. Together with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, EUA organised a Bologna Seminar on doctoral programmes in February 2005 in Salzburg, Austria. Doctoral programmes have also been discussed at other conferences organised by EUA (conference on research training in 2004 in Maastricht and the EUA Glasgow Convention in 2005). The enormous interest shown by the academic community on the topic of doctoral programmes highlights the importance of this issue in the development of the Higher Education and Research Areas.
In May 2005, the European Ministers for Education gave EUA, together with other interested partners, a mandate to prepare a report on the further development of the basic principles for doctoral programmes, to be presented to the ministerial meeting in 2007. This led EUA to set up a Follow-Up Project covering a number of activities with the main objective to further develop the basic principles agreed at the Salzburg Bologna Seminar and to disseminate the EUA Doctoral Programmes Project results. The Bologna Seminar “Doctoral Programmes in Europe” will bring together academics, experts, policy-makers and other stakeholders to discuss all aspects of doctoral programmes in order to develop final recommendations which will be presented to the Ministers of Education at the next meeting of the Bologna Process in May 2007 (London, UK).
Main objectives of the Seminar
- to explore current issues and debates on doctoral programmes in a wide forum of experts
- to analyse the state of doctoral programmes in Europe
- to identify the main development trends, priorities and weaknesses found in doctoral training in Europe
- to raise awareness on the development of doctoral programmes and stimulate cooperation among universities and among various stakeholders
Outcomes
The Bologna Seminar will lead to final recommendations for the Bologna Follow-Up Group on doctoral programmes in the Bologna Process. These recommendations will be presented at the ministerial meeting to be held in London in 2007 and will feed into the preparation of the London Communiqué.
Contact
If you have any question about the seminar, please send it to doctorates-seminar@eua.be.