EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA DEVELOPMENT: LEGAL ASPECT

Abstract

The article says about the current state of development of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), namely about the analysis of the results of this process after the adoption of the Bologna Declaration and it identifies possible prospects. The basic material research is authentic independent reports for European Commission made by group of researchers. The analysis of the implementation of the EHEA process has been made on the following criteria: 1) Expansion of higher education. 2) The Bologna three-cycle structure of the higher education. 3) European credit transfer and accumulation system and the Diploma Supplement. 4) The National Qualifications Framework. 5) Student mobility. 6) Trends in higher education. Although the trend towards mass higher education began even before the Bologna process, the speed of transition was accelerated during the last decade. The amount of students in Armenia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Romania has increased almost twice. The structure of the three cycles of study (bachelor- master-doctor) was fully implemented in most institutions and programs in the countries participating in the Bologna process. According to the researchers the implementation of ECTS as a system of transfer and accumulation of credits is almost complete in general. All countries are at different levels of NQFs implementations – 80% (28 countries) are developing or have developed comprehensive NQFs, 40% (14 countries) have formally adopted NQFs, 74% (26 countries) have proposed an 8-level framework with sub-levels. Some countries have identified mobility as a part of their strategy: Belgium, France, Malta and Switzerland joined the 20% benchmark set by the EHEA by 2020. Some countries have established metrics for their national systems that go beyond the 20% (EHEA): Austria and Germany plan to encourage 50% of their students spend at least one semester abroad in 2020. Other countries have a lower level of ambition. Estonia set 4-5% participation in mobility programs by 2015. The percentage of people with higher education in Europe has been increasing since 2008 and in the European Union as a whole – from 31.1% in 2008 to 33.6% in 2010 in the vast majority of European countries. The study results allow to predict the future direction of development of the EHEA, where the primary can be further expansion of higher education systems.