home > News > 2007 > Bologna seen from Luxembourg: interview with Prof. Germain Dondelinger

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In the eve of the Bologna Process 5th Ministerial Conference we take a look at the Bologna Process through the eyes of one of its most knowledge actors, while also passing in review other projects in which Prof Dondelinger is heavily engaged. 

German Dondelinger, born 1953, Professeur attaché, is the coordinator for higher education in the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture, Higher Education and Research. Prof. Dondelinger is also a member of the Bologna Follow Up Group since its founding (2001). In 2005, during the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union, he took up its chairmanship and was heavily engaged in the negotiation of the Bergen Declaration, which has put the social dimension of student mobility at the center of the agenda. In conjunction with playing a fundamental role in the implementation of the University of Luxembourg he has also been engaged in the development of Campus Europae as a member of its Administrative Board.

Campus Europae: Prime Minister Juncker agreed to take over the patronage of Campus Europae in 2001 and the Luxembourg Government has been institutionally committed to its funding and development ever since 2004. What have been the motivations and expectations for this strong engagement in CE?

Germain Dondelinger: Student mobility has always been a cornerstone of higher education policy in Luxembourg. Having students trained and educated abroad is a source of cultural enrichment and yields economic benefits. Furthermore, the European dimension is at the heart of most policies and Luxembourg has traditionally been a staunch advocate of the European ideal. It was felt that Campus Europae would promote the European dimension of higher education, that it would complement existing measures while at the same time adding a further dimension to them. Encouraging students to study at two different foreign universities increases their language competencies as well as their cultural skills. It also increases their chances on the labor market.

The Luxembourg higher education has been revolutionized ever since the University was created in 2003. What can you tell us about this ongoing process, both regarding learned lessons and its mid-term development?

The University of Luxembourg is still very much in its start-up phase. It has just finished defining its priority areas for future research and the new bachelor and master programs are developing well. Furthermore, an increasing number of foreign students are choosing Luxembourg as their place of study. The university is also attractive to researchers with a solid scientific background as is shown by both the number and the quality of the applicants that would like to join the university. So far, there is a sense that the governance model, i.e. having a university with a board that enjoys great autonomy is the right one.

Prof. Germain Dondelinger, coordinator for higher education in the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture, Higher Education and Research

You are one of the promoters of the CE Degree. How do you situate this new offer in the context of the already existing European joint degrees and how would you describe its specific added value? Would you like to anticipate when it is likely that the first CE Degrees will be awarded?

At this stage there are not very many joint degrees being awarded in Europe. This is still quite a recent phenomenon. Campus Europae very much aspires to work like an integrated network and a joint degree would show this. The individual degree holder would benefit from it, since he/she would be in a position to demonstrate the international dimension of his education. The institutions, too, would hugely benefit from jointly offering programs defined in terms of learning outcomes. However, there is still work to do to understand the nature of joint degrees better and in order not to confuse a joint degree with a mere label. In this sense we have asked Campus Europae to indicate what study programmes are most likely to lead to the awarding of joint degrees, which universities are involved and what the status of the respective diploma is.

Having chaired the Bologna Follow-Up Group you were in a privileged position to follow the development of the Bologna Process across Europe. Now that eight years have past since the Bologna Declaration how to you feel that one its main targets - increasing student mobility – is being achieved?

Mobility remains the “parent pauvre” of the Bologna Process. While the structural reforms, i.e. the introduction of the three cycles, of the standards and guidelines for quality assurance make good progress, this is not the case for mobility, which has hardly risen over the last eight years. This also the reason why the ministerial meeting to be held in London this May will look into ways of promoting mobility. The student organization ESIB is becoming increasingly impatient at the lack of progress in this area and their pressure should add momentum to this area of the Bologna Process. This would be a welcome development.

 

Find bellow a round of some of the documents that will set the tone of the London Declaration:

• Bologna Secretariat Report 2005-2007 (pdf file)
• Trends V EUA report (pdf file)
• European Comission contribution (word file)
• ESIB's manifesto "Bologna with Student Eyes" (pdf file) and Berlin Declaration (pdf file)
• Social Dimension and Mobility of Staff and Students Working Group Final Report (pdf file)