Going Beyond Bologna: Issues and Themes

Abstract

This introductory chapter is based on the final report by the general rapporteur at the Bologna Researchers Conference held in Bucharest in October 2011. It reviews the wider political and economic context in which the Bologna process has developed since 1999, and argues that the economic difficulties triggered by the banking crisis of 2008 have created a very different environment for the European Higher Education Area (and associated Europe-wide initiatives). However, the most appropriate response to this new environment is not to retreat from but to go beyond Bologna, accelerating the pace and broadening the scope of the process. The chapter also comments briefly on the synergies, and tensions, between the Bologna process and the eight themes addressed during the conference.