Work programme of the Bologna Follow-Up Group 2007-2009
Eurostudent III Final Conference
Who are the students in the European Higher Education Area and how do they organise their studies? Understanding the social dimension of higher education.
About the conference
The social dimension of higher education is becoming a focal point of policy debates and a touchstone for the assessment of the effectiveness of different education systems. In this context the 2007 London Communiqué from the Ministers Responsible for Higher Education in Bologna signatory states expressed the following objective for the European Higher Education Area:
We share the societal aspiration that the student body entering, participating in and completing higher education at all levels should reflect the diversity of our populations.
From this statement it is clear that studies should focus on issues of access to higher education, individual study framework conditions and outcomes. It is appropriate to centre debates, analyses and studies on international comparisons under the assumption that many countries have to deal with the same challenges and policy-makers can learn from the exchange of ideas. A central prerequisite for such debates is the availability of appropriate, comparable data.
At this conference the EUROSTUDENT Synopsis of Indicators will be released and some of the key results discussed with an international audience of experts. The Synopsis of Indicators compares aspects of the social dimension, including social make-up of the student body, accommodation, income and support, time budget and mobility in over 20 European countries. The basis of this report is national surveys of students of higher education carried out in each of the contributing countries using the EUROSTUDENT core set of questions and data conventions.
About the project
The EUROSTUDENT project collates comparable data on the socio-economic background and living conditions of students throughout Europe. In the current - third - round of the study, over 20 countries have taken part, which means that the data covers most of larger Europe and very diverse higher education systems - from Finland to Bulgaria and Turkey to Portugal. The EUROSTUDENT data set includes nearly 250 key indicators.
The objectives of EUROSTUDENT are:
To deliver comparable key data and basic information in order to describe and map out the socio-economic living conditions of students in Europe.
To provide a structured and standardised monitoring system with which the effects of structural measures and changes can be identified for specific student groups.
To describe the current situation and with the aid of international comparison to identify obstacles to an inclusive and effective European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
The main aim of the EUROSTUDENT project is to collate comparable data on the social dimension of European higher education.