Proces Boloński. Ku Europejskiemu Obszarowi Szkolnictwa Wyższego

Phenomena occurring in the European higher education system for the last tens of years have been inseparably linked with social, political and economic changes on our continent. They are in particular clearly combined with aspirations for building Europe as a space of peace and international co-operation. An input of work academic centres have made in the after-war reconstruction of Europe illustrates meaningfully their significance as a contributory factor to social progress based on truth, knowledge and skills. A new situation was created across the continent and in the world after the Eastern bloc collapsed and the former states of the so-called real socialism embarked on transformation of their political systems. The idea of European integration acquired a dimension that has been unimaginable so far because these states manifested their absolute attachment to European values as well as acceptance of civilisation and cultural order built on such a foundation. Almost all academic centres in the former Soviet bloc got involved in the international academic movement that was emerging out of the ideas expressed in the Bologna Magna Charta Universitatum, which was adopted at the oldest European University in Italian Bologna (1988). The Lisbon Convention on recognising university qualifications in the European region (1997) and the Sorbonne Declaration (1998) spoke for the evolvement of the concept of creating a strategic pan-European project of the unity of higher education. The Joint Declaration of the European Ministers of Education signed on 19 June 1999 by ministers of 29 countries, immediately called the Bologna Declaration, opened a new, important stage of co-operation and development, which has been defined as the Bologna Process since then. This document provides for the construction of the European Higher Education Area by 2010 as a systematic space based on common discussions and decisions about the co-operation of governments, academic centres, international and national institutions involved in science and education. The system of comparable professional and scientific degrees (titles) provides for easier employability in the European common market. The agreed changes in national models of education aimed at reaching the three-level structure of studies, and an increased emphasis placed on research assignments in the Universities, are to promote the improvement of the study quality. The promotion of students’ and University staff’s mobility is not only for providing them with an opportunity for freedom of travelling in the European territory but it is also for extending the knowledge of the world, bringing people together and collecting new experiences in the environment of different cultures. All this conditions shaping of the new uniting Europe that is built under the Europe of Knowledge watchword pinpointing its accurate sense and nature. Poland has been actively involved in the Bologna Process since the late 1980’s. The changes occurring now in higher education are fully compatible with the principles of the Bologna movement and with what has been mutually agreed by its participants. Polish academic institutions and their respective authorities face a series of problems that should be gradually eliminated to ensure that the Bologna Process means more opportunities for improving knowledge, learning about the world and realising personal aspirations to all Polish students and scholars. And last but not least, it is important for Polish universities to become centres to which students and lecturers from all over the European Area will be willing to come