Location: MIC Hotel & Conference Centre, London
This Bologna Discussion Forum was the first major UK meeting to follow up and review the implications of the Ministerial Summit of 46 nations on the Bologna Process, hosted by the UK in London on 16-18 May. The Council was very fortunate to have secured the services of three very experienced presenters who gave eye-witness accounts of the Summit - namely Professor Drummond Bone (VC, Liverpool) who had represented UUK as adviser to Minister Bill Rammell, Chairman of the Bologna Summit, the others as observers for UUK (Jessica Olley, Acting Manager, UK HE Europe Unit) and the UK Universities (Professor Mary Ritter, Pro-Rector, Postgraduate and International Affairs, Imperial College).
The Forum was designed as a natural follow-on from the UKCGE’s 2006 Summer Conference (“New Dimensions for Doctoral Programmes in Europe – Training, Employability and the European Knowledge Agenda”, reported in Newsletter Issue 53) and two earlier Fora on the outcomes of the European University Association meetings held in preparation for the international ‘Bologna Follow-up Group’ position paper, which served as the baseline for the London Ministerial Summit.
Professor Drummond Bone, Chair of UUK, gave a wide ranging and very open description of the Ministerial meeting based on the key issues in the final communiqué and his viewpoint as a participant sitting at the Ministerial table. His presentation acted as an excellent scene-setting plenary session and clarified the important issues arising on the London Ministerial agenda, as noted below. Professor Mary Ritter gave an analysis of the situation regarding master’s entry to the PhD cycle, presenting evidence from a recent survey at IC on the time-commitment of full-time master’s students during a one-year registration. This showed clearly that, at least in IC, all the requisite learning outcomes at master’s level were supported by a time-commitment approaching the norm for 90 ECTs, especially when the additional time for write-up and presentation were considered. Jessica Olley confirmed that the issue of acceptance of the one-year Master’s degree under Bologna (as in the UK and Ireland) had not been fully resolved at the London Summit and that discussion would continue.
In the presentations and break-out group the volume of discussion on facts and ideas was wide ranging and stimulating. The authors of this report have drawn out the key points to illustrate the breadth of the output.
As regards the comparison of UK Master’s programmes with those in other Bologna signatories, it was concluded that rather than the time taken to graduation, what really mattered was the extent to which the learning outcomes and skills achieved by the graduate student were of value to the eventual employers, whether in the UK or overseas. There was also a need to understand the demography of the most highly qualified sector in the UK workforce: while almost 40% of PhDs in the STEM workforce in the UK are from overseas (NB the figure is almost 50% in the US), there appeared to be a potential demographic time-bomb impacting on much of Europe in terms of the lack of sufficient doctoral graduates. It was clear that this would demand a range of solutions: if universities were to respond to the wide-ranging requirements for employability in different sectors of the doctoral workforce, it would be essential for diversity of provision to be the key factor, rather than risk the negative impact of over-regulation.
It was noted that a key outcome of the Ministerial Summit was to empower the EUA to survey the development and employability of doctoral candidates, and to support doctoral education through the formation of a “European Council for Graduate Education”. Progress on these issues would be reported at the next Ministerial Summit.
The key issues and concerns raised by presenters and delegates included:
- concern about the position of the 4-year UK integrated Masters courses (so-called ‘undergraduate masters’)
- whether the standard Master’s programmes in the UK would be acceptable in their own right and for entry into the doctoral cycle, by colleagues in the rest of Europe by the tergate date of 2012 - though Professor Bone indicated that in his opinion “the one-year Masters would win out”
- whether a Master’s year integrated into a doctoral programme would resolve the dilemma in the UK over its Master’s courses
- the relatively poor facilities (offices, etc) offered to international doctoral students relative to those for example, in the US
- whether the resistance of UK HEIs to a two-year Master’s programme would change if students (and universities) were fully funded for them – and in response to the need for candidates (UK and overseas) to acquire 90 ECTs.
- the continuing need for the UK to lobby politely and constructively wherever and whenever possible over the full range of issues relating to Master’s and Doctoral programmes
- whether Master’s students in the UK should be eligible for a student grant (or loan)
- the increasing competition for postgraduate students throughout Europe from countries with lower (or no) fees, where English is increasingly used as the language of tuition and discussion
- the feasibility of a ‘golden hello’ for doctoral students
- a view that merely achieving compatibility with Bologna would not guarantee the quality of a doctoral award
- the need to involve employers in the design and validation of master’s and doctoral programmes
- the over-riding need to ensure diversity of candidates and flexibility and diversity of types of doctorates and modes of study
- the complexity of funding and quality issues for joint/double doctoral degrees
- a need to continue to have a flexible approach to the entry requirements of doctoral programmes
- the challenge and potential conflict between professional/career development and intellectual development in doctoral programmes
The Forum was fully subscribed and attended by probably the widest range of delegates at any UKCGE workshop. The most significant message that emerged was the need for academia in the UK to be as actively engaged as possible with the Bologna agenda, as it moves forward to the watershed of 2012, when a wide-ranging Ministerial review is scheduled – preparation for which will commence at the next Ministerial Summit, to be held in Leuven, Belgium, in March/April, 2009.
Report Authors: Tony Fell & Ian Haines
