Michael D. Higgins
Question:68 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans his Department has to ensure the compliance of Irish third level institutions with the Bologna Declaration. [17120/01]
Vol. 537 No. 5
68 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans his Department has to ensure the compliance of Irish third level institutions with the Bologna Declaration. [17120/01]
The Bologna Declaration is a commitment by the initial 29 signatory countries to the establishment of a European area of higher education and to the promotion of the European system of higher education in a global context.
A set of objectives was drawn up and agreed by the signatories. These objectives include: adopting a two cycle system, a system of easily readable and comparable degrees; promoting systems of credit accumulation and transfer; promoting mobility; promoting co-operation in quality assurance; and promoting the European dimension in higher education.
European Ministers in charge of higher education, representing 32 signatories, met in Prague on 18 and 19 May to review the progress achieved in relation to the Bologna Declaration and to set directions and priorities for the coming years of the process. Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the objective of establishing the European higher education area by 2010.
The Ministers said efforts to promote mobility must be continued to enable students, teachers, researchers and administrative staff to benefit from the richness of the European higher education area, including its democratic values, diversity of cultures and languages and the diversity of its higher education.
The Ministers committed themselves to continue their co-operation, based on the objectives set out in the Bologna Declaration, building on the similarities and benefiting from the differences between cultures, languages and national systems, and drawing on all possibilities of intergovernmental co-operation and the ongoing dialogue with European universities and other higher education institutions and student organisations, as well as the Community programmes.