Bologna and the Aberdeen
Curriculum Review
Presentation to the Curriculum Review
Steering Group, 26 June 2008
Graeme Roberts
Senior Associate, Higher Education Academy
The UK and the Bologna reforms
Key reforms were part of the shake-up of UK HE in
the 1990s, especially after the Dearing Report (1997)
• UK already had a three-cycle system
• First-cycle qualifications recognised by UK employers
• Effective internal and external QA systems that comply with
Standards and Guidelines for QA in the EHEA (Bergen, 2005)
• Paradigm shift to student-centred learning
• Employability and transferable skills embedded in the curriculum
• Use of learning outcomes, subject benchmarks and level
descriptors to ensure transparency and comparability
• Development of national qualifications frameworks
• Promotion of lifelong learning and the social dimension through
widening access and participation schemes
Scotland and the Bologna reforms
In addition, in the case of Scotland
• National credit system compatible with European Credit Transfer
and Accumulation System (ECTS)
• High level of student involvement in quality assurance
In the 2007 Bologna Stocktaking Exercise, the Scottish
“scorecard” was found deficient in only two areas:
• Level of international participation in QA system (addressed in
revised ELIR)
• Automatic issue of European Diploma Supplement to every
student on graduation (meant to have been implemented in
2005)
First Report of the Curriculum Commission
• All degree awards in the framework for provision to
be compliant with the requirements of Bologna (n.9)
• Would it be necessary for students on the enhanced
three year programme to take courses at level four
“to ensure full Bologna compliance”? (n.11)
• New one year taught masters that is closely linked to
the honours programme “would provide a fully
Bologna compliant programme of study to masters
level” (n.14)
What is meant by “Bologna compliant”?
Degree programmes can be said to do so:
• If they conform to the relevant national qualifications
framework for HE and
• If this framework has been verified as compatible with
the overarching Framework for Qualifications of the
European Higher Education Area, adopted in 2005 as
a common reference point and source of guidance
Framework for Qualifications of Higher Education
Institutions in Scotland (part of SCQF) was so verified
in October 2006: so if Aberdeen’s new qualifications
conform to this they are “Bologna compliant”
The real issue
• Not compliance with national or supra-national
framework but how readily Aberdeen’s new
qualifications will be understood, recognised and
valued by employers and other HEIs
• Have major UK and international employers said that
the proposed reforms will enhance Aberdeen
graduates’ prospects in the global jobs market?
Increasing understanding and recognition
• Use European Diploma Supplement to clarify what
is distinctive about new programmes: e.g. Aberdeen
Graduate Attributes and setting of disciplinary study
in a “broader context of knowledge and approaches”
so as to enhance student’s “preparation for work,
personal development and citizenship”
• Become much more active in European partnership
programmes and networks: too late to join Tuning
Project (to identify points of reference for generic
and subject-specific competences of first and second
cycle graduates in various subject areas)
Erasmus Mundus scheme
• Aims to improve quality of European HE and promote
intercultural understanding with third countries
• Funds high quality integrated masters programmes offered by
consortia of at least three HEIs from at least three European
countries that require students to study in at least two HEIs and
lead to the award of a joint or double degree
• Annual grant of 15,000 euros to each consortium
• 824,000 euros a year for 5 years for scholarships for c.20
graduate students and 3 academics from third countries
• Additional funding for partnerships with third country HEIs and
to support mobility of European students and staff
Erasmus Mundus and Aberdeen
• Next year 103 programmes with 2000 students and 450
teaching staff from outside Europe will benefit
• Nearly 40% of programmes involve UK HEIs: Edinburgh, HeriotWatt (3), Queen Margaret, St Andrews (2) and Strathclyde
• Next phase (2009-2013) has total budget of 950 million euros:
it will include joint doctoral programmes, increased scholarships
for European students and greater structural cooperation with
third country HEIs
If one purpose of the Curriculum Review is to develop “a high
quality, distinctive and attractive educational experience for…
postgraduate students…which takes account of developing
international approaches” – it’s worth including Erasmus
Mundus in your plans.
Mobility
• Re-affirmed by 2007 ministerial summit as “one of the
core elements of the Bologna Process” and put at top
of its list of priorities for national action up to 2009
• Ministers pledged to consider ways of providing
further incentives, including encouraging a significant
increase in the number of joint programmes and
urging HEIs to take more responsibility for more
equitably balanced staff and student mobility
ERASMUS scheme
• While Scotland performs well relative to the rest of
the UK, the number of outgoing students is less than
half the number of incoming students and is 40%
down on the peak year of 1994-95
• 73% of outgoing students come from Edinburgh
(22%), Strathclyde (16%), Glasgow (14%), Heriot
Watt (11%) and Aberdeen (10%) and study
languages, business and law
Scotland’s International Lifelong Learning
Strategy (March 2007)
• Not listed as one of the publications on government
educational policy considered by Curriculum Review
• Aims to position Scotland as “a world leader in
international post-school education” and calls for the
development of “a mindset in which an international
outlook is embedded as a core value”
• “We need to ensure that there is an international
dimension to all our college and university courses,
and also that domestic students are encouraged to
gain experience of living and working or studying
overseas. Both of these will help to foster global
citizenship in our students at all levels.”
Scotland’s International Lifelong Learning
Strategy (March 2007)
• In June 2007 the new Scottish Government called for
“actions aimed at increasing the numbers of students
on programmes of study abroad and also to
encourage strategic links between our colleges and
universities and those in other countries”
• First Report largely ignores this important
international dimension
Why promote student mobility?
• Enhance their knowledge and understanding of their discipline
by exposing them to a different system of learning and teaching
• Foster their awareness of the international dimension of
knowledge
• Give them access to techniques, equipment, technologies,
expertise and resources other than those that are available at
their home institution
• Improve their competence in a second language
• Provide an effective context for the development of their
capacities for critical reflection and self-directed learning
• Encourage them to become more resourceful, adaptable and
self-confident
• Develop their awareness of and respect for cultural diversity
• Prepare them to work successfully in novel situations and to
adapt their practice to take account of different social and
cultural circumstances
Why promote student mobility at Aberdeen?
These aims map very well on to the key qualities in the Statement
of Aberdeen Graduate Attributes: e.g.
• independence and flexibility of mind
• personal development
• intellectual curiosity
• openness to new ideas
• effective communication in different contexts
• self-directed study
• awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity
Putting transnational student mobility at the heart of Aberdeen’s
curricular reforms would also ensure “a challenge for the best
students“ and would “set their disciplinary study within a broader
context of knowledge and approaches” by allowing them to
experience how their disciplines work in other countries.
An employer’s view
"More than anything, the kind of people we will need are ones
who can solve problems, who can deal with change, who can
cope in a world where – from year to year, even month to month
– the rule book is ripped up and a whole new set of rules comes
into play.
Of course, that ability, whether you want to call it resilience or
something else, lies partly in personalities. But, perhaps more
so, it’s dependent on having the capacity to question and to
learn, not simply to do.
I don’t hire someone because they have a business or a
technical degree. Quite the opposite – I don’t care what they’ve
studied, so long as they can think, question, communicate,
imagine.
In case the penny hasn’t dropped, the qualities I’ve been
describing are exactly those qualities someone might develop if
they’ve studied abroad, if they’ve been mobile.“
Susan Rice, CEO of Lloyds TSB Scotland, October 2006
Working paper on Bologna after 2020
“As a matter of ‘Bologna policy‘ all students
should…be encouraged to take a number of credits
outside their disciplines and thus develop intercultural
competence. Study programmes and processes
should help students to develop knowledge, skills
and habits of mind to be able to reflect on their own
beliefs and the choices they make; they should be
aware and critical of their own assumptions and
beliefs and engage open-mindedly with different
cultural forms and historical moments.”
Bologna Follow-Up Group, March 2008