Context

"...we have engaged in a series of reforms to build a European Higher Education Area based on trust, cooperation and respect for the diversity of cultures, languages, and higher education systems.[...] The Bologna Process and the resulting European Higher Education Area, being unprecedented examples of regional, cross-border cooperation in higher education, have raised considerable interest in other parts of the world and made European higher education more visible on the global map. We welcome this interest and look forward to intensifying our policy dialogue and cooperation with partners across the world. [...] We note that adjustments and further work, involving staff and students, are necessary at European, national and especially institutional levels to achieve the European Higher Education Area as we envisage it." (Inter-ministerial Declaration Budapest-Vienna 2010).
 
2010 marks the year of arrival envisaged in 1999 in Bologna by the European Ministers for Higher Education: the result of a season of reforms in the higher education systems with a view to creating a single, common Higher Education Area.
 
A common area defined not only by elements of structural convergence but also the sharing of educational principles, values and policies, in order to set the conditions for true mobility.
 
This year many initiatives have been held to assess the state of progress of the process objectives, the implementation and development of reforms for many different points of view. Important achievements have been highlighted as well as both real and perceived criticisms, expressed in forms of public dissent by both students and teaching staff.

Objective

The purpose of this conference is to analyse the European Higher Education Area from a different angle, beyond the framework of the development of the Bologna process which has been the central focus so far.

Accepting a proposal of the ministers – to work with the greater involvement of staff and students at European, national and institutional levels – the conference aims to assess which conditions and instruments are required to generate ideas and proposals for the 2010-2020 period.

Firstly the debate must define how the European Higher Education Area is "envisaged": if this is a new area in the geopolitical sense of the word, we need to understand the elements which actually plot European higher education on the global map: an area of cultural and scientific convergence, based on principles including freedom, autonomy and academic responsibility which may not have been sufficiently defined.

Above all we need to understand:

• how can universities become real stakeholders in the implementation of a dynamic area of intercultural dialogue?
• to what extent the European Area has permeated the sensitivity of regional, national, European and extra-European institutional stakeholders? (representatives of the European institutions and national parliaments of the EU member states, neighbouring countries and countries from outside the EU which look to European convergence with interest will be invited to debate this issue);
• how can we understand today the meaning of the declared principle of compatibility and respect for diversity?
• which is the strategic role of knowledge, research and teaching in the challenges of globalisation in promoting cultural and social development?
• how are the values of institutional autonomy, academic freedom, social equality placed on the map of the European Area?
• how can we assess the role and current state of play of mobility within the European Area and its external dimension: mobility as a right or as a constraint?
• how can we assure that the European Higher Education Area is more participated and understood as a new context by the public opinion?
• ...

Programme

The proposed conference programme for 15thSeptember starts with an introductory intervention followed by the involvement of the different stakeholders and attendees through panels which aim to respond to some of the issues described above. The function of the panels is to generate proposals on how to envisage a new role for the main stakeholders of the European Higher Education Area. In particular in terms of:

• participation
• communication
• mobility
• actions to be implemented in order to more effectively define the "European Higher Education Area"

AGENDA

Conference moderator: Fabrizio Binacchi, journalist, Director of RAI Emilia Romagna

9.30 – 10.00
Welcome Messages
Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research
Ivano Dionigi, Rector, University of Bologna
Üstün Ergüder, President, Magna Charta Observatory Council
Stefania Giannini, Italian Rectors’ Conference

10.00 - 10.20
Fabio Roversi-Monaco, Honorary President, Magna Charta Observatory, Setting the stage: Bologna 1999-Bologna 2010

10.20 – 11.20
Sergio Romano, Keynote speech

11.20 – 11.40 Coffe break

11.45 - 13.00
Panel: The role of Different Actors 1: The Academic Community in a global context: an on going dialogue with society and the economic world

Aleksa Bjelis, Vice-President, Magna Charta Observatory Council
Joseph Mifsud, President, EMUNI Euro-Mediterranean University
Giuseppe Silvestri, European University Association
Melinda Szabo, European Student Union
Luisa Todini, President of the Fédération de l’Industrie Européenne de la Construction (FIEC)

Moderator: Pietro Greco, Scientific Journalist, IDIS Foundation, Città della Scienza, Napoli.
13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-15.30
Panel: The Role of Different Actors 2: European Institutions

Representative of the European Commission
Luigi Berlinguer, Member of the European Parliament
Gvozden Flego, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Representative of the Bologna Follow Up Group
Ligia Deca, Head of Secretariat, Bologna Follow Up Group

Moderator: Armando Massarenti, Scientific Journalist, Il Sole 24 Ore

15.30-16.00 Coffee break

16.00-17.00
The Role of Different Actors 3: National and Regional Institutions

Hossam Badrawi, Member of the Egyptian Parliament
Patrizio Bianchi,  Councillor for the Emilia Romagna Region with responsibility for Education, University and Research, Labour
Paolo de Castro, Member of the Italian Senate, Member of the European Parliament
Tatiana Koke, Latvia, State Minister of Higher Education and Science
Marius Rubiralta, Secretary general of Universities at the Ministry of Education in Spain
Chiora Taktakishvili, Member of the Georgian Parliament

Moderator: Christina Ullenius, Magna Charta Observatory Council

17.00-17.30
Summary of the day
Pavel Zgaga, University of Ljubljana

17.30-18.00
Concluding Remarks
Speaker 1, Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research
Ivano Dionigi, Rector, University of Bologna
Üstün Ergüder, President, Magna Charta Observatory Council

Organising committee

The conference is jointly organized by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna and by the Magna Charta Universitatum Obeservatory.

Supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Italian National Agency LLP, Bologna experts project.

With the Patronage of the Italian Rectors’ Conference.

Organising Committee: prof. Stefania Giannini (MIUR), prof. Ivano Dionigi (Università di Bologna), prof. Üstün Ergüder e prof. Fabio Roversi-Monaco (Magna Charta Observatory).

Joint events

The conference will be held on 15th September, to link into the annual conference of the Magna Charta which will be held on 16th and 17th September. This year the Observatory conference concerns the effective dimension of the values of the Magna Charta in the life of the university (Making the Magna Charta values operational:Theory and Practice).

On September 13th-14th the university of Bologna hosts the EUA Confernce of the EUDIS project: Towards Financially Sustainable Universities II: Diversifying Income Streams.

On September 15th Almalaurea Interuniversity Consortium, invites to the presentation entitled: Knowledge and assessment of Graduates features and pathways. A cooperation opportunity among European Universities and its neighbouring countries.

On September 15th-17th an exhibition on student and staff mobility (provisional title: Travelling Architectures: over the borders and building new citizenships) will take place in the Conference venue, Aula Magna di Santa Lucia. The exhibition is organised by prof. Giorgio Praderio, Faculty of Engeneering, Department of Architecture and Territorial Planning of the University of Bologna.