Partnerships between Bologna Member States

By Hanna Drozdowski

The continent of Europe is unique compared to other regions in the world for many reasons. The distance between countries, for the most part, is short, yet cultural differences, such as language, religion, traditions, and cuisine are quite vast! I think this diversity is what makes Europe so fascinating, and one of the things that Europeans relish most. However, when it comes to education such differences can make it challenging for students, academics, and educational institutions to work together smoothly; hence opportunities for frameworks such as the Bologna Accord to enhance collaboration.

There is truly an overwhelming amount of policies, views, information, resources, etc. on the successes and failures of the Bologna Process – way too much to cover in a blog post. However, one of the major pillars for the implementation of the Bologna Process was to increase student mobility by increasing awareness of, appreciation for, and ease of studying in different countries, as well as alleviating the frustrations and complexities of grade credit transfer, differences in course structure, etc. It can be assumed that the Bologna Process has prompted its member states’ schools to implement more partnerships with each other, or encouraged more collaboration to promote not only student mobility, but also faculty mobility and collaborative degree programs, research projects, and other initiatives. 

I decided to look at the partnership trends of the Bologna Process member states that participated in our 2010-2011 Collaborations Survey. Figure 1 below compares the proportion of partnerships schools in each country reported having with schools in other Bologna member states and in “non-Bologna” member states. As one would expect, the data shows a majority have more partnerships with other Bologna countries. In fact, schools in 12 of 17 of the represented countries had more partnerships among other Bologna signatory countries than beyond the group. However, schools in five countries actually reported having more partnerships with non-Bologna countries, i.e. France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Romania, and Belgium; or where the number of partnerships with each group is very close.

Why would schools in some countries be more likely partner with schools outside Bologna? Unfortunately, our data cannot answer that question. However, I decided to take a look at the ethnic representations for each of these countries, using the CIA World Factbook (keep in mind that some of the census data is somewhat dated). Figure 2 shows the ethnic groups found in each country, according to the CIA World Factbook. 

Figure 1. Bologna Countries and Their Partnerships
(Click on the figure to view a larger version.) 

Figure 2. CIA World Factbook: Ethic Groups per Country
(Click on the figure to view a larger version.) 

When we look at the distribution of ethnic groups from various world regions (Figure 3), we see that those countries that have more partnership with countries outside of the Bologna Process, are made up of more diverse populations. Perhaps a country’s higher level of ethnic diversity has some influence on where schools choose to establish partnerships with?

 Figure 3. Etnnic Distribution from the Following World Regions 
(Click on the figure to view a larger version.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Colin]

These are interesting findings! With regard to the reasons why certain European countries reported more collaborations in our survey with non-Bologna countries, I think it's important to take into account the number of respondents in each country, and how that may skew the data. Romania and Belgium, for example, each had only one school that responded to the 2010-11 survey.

Another thing to consider is the relationship between former colonial powers (e.g., France, the Netherlands, and the U.K.) and their former colonies. Continued relations between those countries may help to account for a larger percentage of collaborations between schools in these and non-Bologna countries.