News
30.04.2009
20% mobile students by 2020
The ministers of Education of the 46 countries of the Bologna Process gathered in Leuven on the 28th and 29th April and published the Communiqué which outlines a roadmap for the Bologna Process which has been extended until 2020 and that can be found online here (pdf file).
The communiqué reviews the achievements of the Bologna Process in the past decade and takes on further challenges, notably with concerns the social dimension whereby “each participating country will set measurable targets for widening overall participation and increasing participation of underrepresented groups in Higher Education”.
Also agreed is that by 2020 at least 20% of the European graduates should have a period of study or training abroad. This renewed commitment to expand student mobility is particularly noteworthy because it is also noted that opportunities for mobility shall be created in the each of the three cycles.
Minister François Biltgen, speaking on behalf of the Benelux Presidency of the conference, noted with satisfaction that it is the first time that the Bologna stakeholders dared to agree on an ambitious quantitative objective for student mobility. The outcomes of the conference are also in line with the main criticism voiced by the European Students Union, which has been adamant in pushing for more concrete action to be taken in improving student mobility and its social dimension.
Also worth of note is what is not written in the Communiqué: the fact that Ministers could not agree in setting standards for the length of the exchanges envisaged paves the way for very short mobility periods to be statistically relevant simply for the sake of meeting objectives, although only time will tell if this threat will come into being.