The Challenge of Bologna

The impact of Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ of November 2003, and of the peaceful political change that followed it, have been strengthened by a number of expatriate Georgian intellectuals who, for the first time in more than a decade, have begun to return to work in academia, building a knowledge society at home on the basis of strengthening a stable, peaceful and democratic society, as suggested in the Bologna Declaration (Declaration 1999). A message to this effect was delivered in the inaugural speech of the President of the Republic of Georgia, Michael Saakashvili, on January 25 2004. He highlighted education as one of the key strategic areas of development in building a free and prosperous Georgia (Saakashvili 2004). Incorporation into the European Higher Education Area offers Georgia a unique opportunity for integration with Europe beyond the traditional spheres of political and cultural co-operation by building close links in higher education and through this, offering the globalised world access to the treasures of the Georgian educational tradition.