Introduction

The 2011 “Future of Higher Education - Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference” provided the opportunity for researchers dealing with higher education to interact and contribute to the political process shaping the European Higher Education Area. The participants looked at both the theoretic research activities with a focus on the Bologna Process and its effects, as well as the efforts made to define the national and broader international framework under which the EHEA tools could be implemented.
 
With the second edition of the Conference, the organizers wish to continue this initiative, turning it into a landmark for European and international higher education research and policy making. The focus of the conference will include both the progress on the consolidation of the EHEA towards the increasingly close 2020 political deadline, as well as the broader regional and international developments that shape national higher education and research policies. In this vein, the event aims to bring together researchers on higher education, as well as leading academics and policy makers. Selected articles will be published in a peer-reviewed research volume and the message coming from the conference will be conveyed to the 47 EHEA ministers meeting in Yerevan in May 2015.

Programme

The Conference will be focusing on aspects connected to the status of the theoretic research activities on the Bologna Process, on providing insight regarding actual developments related to the Bologna Process and their effects “in the field”, in particular regarding the efforts made to define and refine the framework under which international norms could be operationalized at the national and institutional level.

More about the conference can be found on the website of the event

Download the agenda from the Conference website

Research volumes

The research volumes offer unique insights regarding the state of affairs of European higher education and research, as well as forward-looking policy proposals.
More than 50 articles focus on essential themes in higher education: Internationalization of higher education; Financing and governance; Excellence and the diversification of missions; Teaching, learning and student engagement; Equity and the social dimension of higher education; Education, research and innovation; Quality assurance, The impacts of the Bologna Process on the EHEA and beyond and Evidence-based policies in higher education.

"The Bologna process was launched at a time of great optimism about the future of the European project – to which, of course, the reform of higher education across the continent has made a major contribution. Today, for the present, that optimism has faded as economic troubles have accumulated in the Euro-zone, political tensions have been increased on issues such as immigration and armed conflict has broken out in Ukraine. There is clearly a risk that, against this troubled background, the Bologna process itself may falter. There are already signs that it has been downgraded in some countries with evidence of political withdrawal. All the more reason for the voice of higher education researchers to be heard. Since the first conference they have established themselves as powerful stakeholders in the development of the EHEA, who are helping to maintain the momentum of the Bologna process. Their pivotal role has been strengthened by the second Bucharest conference."
Peter Scott, Institute of Education, London (General Rapporteur of the FOHE-BPRC first edition)