The Conference of Education Ministers in May in London this year appropriately ended in an upbeat mood, with ministries, higher education institutions, students, and social partners feeling proud of the scale of achievement since 1999. They all renewed their commitment to intensify efforts to create the joint European Higher Education Area by 2010.
The Bologna process, combined with other global and national forces driving the development of knowledge economies and societies, has brought about enormous changes to the European higher education landscape. It is extraordinary that an agenda for higher education reform is even being discussed, let alone shared and agreed upon, among as many as forty-six countries – and this is now being increasingly acknowledged across the world.
Nowhere are these reforms more important than in South East Europe. The countries of the Western Balkans are facing the problems of transition economies that are shared by other former socialist bloc countries, as well as the necessity to respond and adapt to the fast-changing global environment. What sets them apart is that they are facing these challenges during a period of societal recovery from conflict, and experiencing them as a key element of democratic societal development within a new European future. Moreover the current generation of students were children during the period of violent disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, and it is therefore a humanitarian responsibility to support their educational development.
So how does South East Europe compare to the rest of Europe in terms of implementation of reforms? At one level, there is a great deal of similarity in terms of the progress being made on the Bologna action lines. Degree structures are changing, credit systems are being introduced, quality assurance mechanisms are being established, and people are beginning to think differently about the purposes of education, as well as its organisation.
Yet many problems persist. The European University Association’s (EUA)’s Trends V report, prepared for the Ministers in London on the basis of quantitative and qualitative research, highlights the issue of university integration as the key challenge in South East Europe. Unless institutions move away from their traditional organisation as independent and loosely connected faculties, other reforms may prove impossible to realise. Universities, not faculties, must have the autonomy to organise their activities themselves for the benefit of the communities they serve. What is the point of introducing ECTS credits if there are no possibilities for students to move between faculties, let alone for study periods in other institutions to be recognised? Are curricula really being reformed to reduce the amount of overloaded content – much of which may be irrelevant to future societal needs? In many cases, the Bologna process has brought these issues to the fore, and developments are beginning.

The main challenge ahead is that universities in the region must address the real implications of student-centred learning. When student-centred learning becomes the main focus of reform, re-thinking curriculum will no longer be a matter of dividing study programmes into shorter cycles, but instead questions will focus on what students actually need from study programmes. This approach to curriculum – thinking about the outcomes required by students and society before looking at the inputs from academic staff – may yet prove to be the most important pedagogical revolution not only in South East Europe, but across the continent as a whole. Higher education is certainly changing, and the momentum needs to be maintained.

Article published in eJournal summer 2007.