Being educated for the 21st century: tuning the European Universities

Fundamental changes are taking place in Europe within the higher education sector. These changes are driven in part by changes within the European labour market and in part by an increased mobility within Europe and therefore a need for increased standardisation of qualifications. The EU is responding to these challenges with some exciting projects. TUNING the Educational Structures in Europe, is a new pilot project that builds on the discussion that began with the Bologna Process. While the Bologna process was initiated and co-ordinated by the European ministers of education, the TUNING project is composed of participants at the grass root level at European universities. The European Commission has financed the TUNING initiative with 500 000 euros.

The main conclusion from the Bologna process was that convergence between the different educational systems in Europe would require adaptation of curricula in terms of structure, contents and definition of learning outcomes. Currently, discussions are occurring on many levels and between many countries or institutions. The TUNING project aims to pool together and build upon the accumulated experience of these discussions, particularly the experiences gleaned from the Socrates programme.

There are several major points.
1) proposals for a system of easily readable and comparable degrees
2) adoption of a two cycle degree programme: Bachelors (180-240 ECTS, 3-4 years) and Masters (+60-120 ECTS, 1-2 additional years)
3) adoption of universal credit system (ECTS = European Credit Transfer System)
4) promotion of mobility (students, faculty, researchers, staff - being exposed to the richness inherent in Europe with its democratic values, diversity of cultures, languages, diversity of systems, …)
5) co-operation in quality assurance (ENQA = European Network of Quality Assurance)
6) inclusion of European content in curricula
7) taking into account the ideas of life-long learning and student social dimensions
8) promoting and marketing a European education

Five subject areas have been targeted to participate in the TUNING pilot. These include: Mathematics, Geology, Business, History, and Educational Sciences. Numerous other subject areas are involved in related synergy projects.

A representative from the University of Bergen attended the Bologna meeting in 1999, and UiB has agreed to participate in the History part of the TUNING Pilot. The work in this part will be largely represented by an ongoing initiative between History Departments at a number of European universities, the CLIOHnet. The CLIOHnet is part of the Socrates programme. The History Department at the University of Bergen is involved in the CLIOHnet project.