OSCE CONCERNED ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF BOLOGNA PROCESS IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (April 15,2008) – This year, first generation of students in Bosnia attending the universities according to Bologna Process will graduate. Neither students nor their professors are satisfied with the implementation of this process.

Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia, Douglas Davidson, stated for Bosnian daily Dnevni Avaz that most of the universities he visited in Bosnia stated that they have already implemented Bologna Process.

"But, in practice, little has changed, which is the reasons for dissatisfaction of students. There are no visible concrete improvements", said Davidson.

He stresses that the biggest cause of dissatisfaction with Bologna Process is non-existence of corresponding institutions.

"Bodies in charge of certain areas, such is agency for quality and exchange of information, which would enable domestic diplomas to be recognised elsewhere, giving an opportunity to young people to study where they want, have not been established. The most important issue is to establish those agencies as soon as possible",Davidson said.

"The question we should pose is whether Bosnia can afford such great number of universities. Maybe, what is needed is to increase salaries to professors in higher education institutions, so that they do not have to lecture, as it is case today, on five universities in order to survive," concluded Davidson.

The purpose of the Bologna process (or Bologna accords) is to create the European higher education area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe.

It is named after the place it was proposed, the University of Bologna, with the signing in 1999 of the Bologna declaration by Ministers of Education from 29 European countries in the Italian city of Bologna.
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