Trade unions’ demands to education ministers about the future of the Bologna Process

Published:

On 19 November, at the occasion of the Rome Ministerial meeting of the Bologna Process, the European education ministries will adopt the Rome Communiqué which sets the main goals and challenges of the Bologna Process for the next decade. ETUCE high-level representatives express their demands on the future of the Bologna Process, calling their ministers attending the Rome Ministerial meeting to:  

  • Include sustainable public funding to higher education and research as part of the principle of the public responsibility; 
  • Increase long-term public funding to support higher education and research, rather than favour market-driven strategies that penalise the quality of research and academic teaching; 
  • Guarantee academic freedom as it is the only effective solution to guarantee innovation of research and knowledge transfer; 
  • Limit the deterioration of freedom of research caused by performance assessment and managerialism; 
  • Cease the pressures on academics and researchers resulting, for example, in their assessment entirely based on quantitative evaluation methods;  
  • Enhance the centrality of teachers within the Bologna Process so that they can be better supported and be guaranteed decent working conditions and more reliable career paths; 
  • Respect and implement all the values and principles that governments subscribe in treaties and declarations.The next Rome Ministerial Meeting constitutes an important milestone for the future of the Bologna Process and ETUCE and the representatives of education trade unions have been strenuously working to include the academics and researchers’ demands within the priorities for the future of higher education and research.  

ETUCE prepared a Call to the ministers of education of 48 Bologna Process countries attending the Rome Ministerial Conference and a Report which present the demands of the education trade unions in relation to the implementation of the Rome Communique which will be adopted at the Rome Ministerial Conference.  

The ministerial event can be followed by public streaming on 19 November 2020 following this link.