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Finland’s education success

When it comes to international results, Finland’s schools score consistently at the top.

However, pupils study the fewest number of class hours in the developed world.

The BBC travels to Helsinki to find out the secret of the Finns’ education success.

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The European Higher Education Area: Retrospect and Prospect

We’re moving into the start of ‘prime-time season’ for watchers of development and change related to the Bologna Process (which is fueling the establishment of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)), and its cousin, the European Research Area (ERA)).  This is because the 2012 Bucharest Ministerial Conference, which will be held in Bucharest, Romania, on 12-13 April, is the setting for two key gatherings that stir up analyses.



First, the 2012 Bologna Ministerial Conference:

is expected to bring together 47 European Higher Education Area ministerial delegations, the European Commission, as well as the Bologna Process consultative members and Bologna Follow-Up Group partners.  The meeting will be an opportunity to take stock of progress of the Bologna Process and set out the key policy issues for the future. The EHEA ministers will jointly adopt the Bucharest Ministerial Communiqué, committing to further the Bologna goals until 2020.

Second, The 2012 Bologna Policy Forum:

organised in conjunction with the Ministerial Conference is aimed to intensify policy dialogue and cooperation with partners across the world. The theme of the third Bologna Policy forum is “Beyond the Bologna process: Creating and connecting national, regional and global higher education spaces”. The Policy forum has four sub-themes, which will be addressed during the parallel sessions, namely: “Global academic mobility: Incentives and barriers, balances and imbalances”; “Global and regional approaches to quality enhancement of Higher Education”; “Public responsibility for and of HE within national and regional context”; “The contribution of Higher Education reforms to enhancing graduate employability”. This year’s edition of the Bologna Policy Forum will be finalised with the adoption of the 2012 Bologna Policy Forum Statement.

In other words, two key events, which occur every two years, will spur on deliberation, debate, and a lot of hard thinking about what has happened, what is happening, and what should happen.
It is too early, at this stage, to analyse how the development process has been unfolding with respect to the EHEA and the ERA. Rather, this entry is the beginning of an attempt to compile the first of numerous reports that will be released over the next 3-4 weeks.  These reports are being prepared by a variety of institutions, and are excellent resources for deepening understandings of some critically important phenomenon related to the globalization of higher education and research.
What I will do, then, is incrementally flag each of these reports, as they emerge. I’ll be updating this entry over time, versus issuing new entries. I will also ‘Tweet‘ when new reports are added to this particular entry.
Happy reading, and if you have any suggested additions, please let me know!
Kris Olds
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22 March 2012