The Bologna Process, launched with the Bologna Declaration of 1999, is one of the main voluntary processes at European level, as it is nowadays implemented in 49 States, which define the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
Every two or three years there are Ministerial Conferences organised in order to assess the progress made within the EHEA and to decide on the new steps to be taken. The latest Ministerial Conference was hosted by Albania between 29-30 May 2024 in Tirana, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the process.
The event brought together ministers and policymakers responsible for higher education, and key European stakeholders as consultative members of the Process (such as the European Student Union (ESU) and European Universities Association (EUA) partners of ASEF) to discuss and shape the future of higher education in the EHEA. As a key outcome, the Tirana Communiqué 2024 was adopted. The statement envisions an inclusive, innovative EHEA, which promotes internationalisation and mobility while preserves core academic values and advances the social dimension of higher education. The ASEF Delegation was headed by Ambassador Toru Morikawa, Executive Director of ASEF.
ASEF was invited to speak at the Global Policy Forum session at the event. The Global Policy Dialogue of EHEA aims at developing continuous dialogue with other regions and international organisations on matters of common concern and relevance for higher education with respect to which cooperation and sharing of ideas and policies can be mutually beneficial. The session featured speakers from different regions, such as HE Talgat Yeshenkov, Vice Minister for Higher Education, Kazakhstan; Mr Manuel Bouard, Deputy Director for European and International Affairs, France; Mr Gonzalo Baroni Boces, President of the Buenos Aires Convention Committee and Director of Education at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Uruguay; and Ms Reka Tozsa, Director of Education Department, ASEF. The discussion was prepared and moderated by Ms Liesbeth Hens, Policy Advisor on Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Training, Belgium Flemish community and explored which macro- region(s) are of interest to EHEA, and how to work with them.
Ms Reka TOZSA, Director of ASEF’s Education Department highlighted the opportunities in working closer with the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Education Process (AEP) in the framework of the Global Policy Dialogue, and use this platform for discovery and peer learning, as a laboratory for collaboration and testing new ideas to reinvent inter-regional mobility, quality assurance, qualifications recognition.
She also highlighted the recent developments regarding the ASEAN Common Higher Education Space, which was inspired by the EHEA through the EU-SHARE Programme that run from 2010 until 2022. Today, the ASEAN Secretariat and SEAMEO RIHED (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation, Regional Institute of Higher Education Development) together advance the idea of an ASEAN Common Higher Education Space with its own regional quality assurance and qualifications frameworks, and mobility programmes, which has a great potential for continued policy exchange and collaboration with the region.
The EHEA Ministerial Conference adopted the Global Policy Forum Statement, as a result of exchanging information and engaging in dialogue on topics of common interest with partners in different world regions (including the ARC9 Policy Dialogue event in 2023). The Statement calls on partners to continue to work together to foster innovation in student-centered learning and teaching, to facilitate access to higher education by underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, to develop all forms of reciprocal mobility of people and knowledge, make learning credits comparable and transferable, develop joint approaches to technological developments, and to reach a common understanding of the ethical principles and values of international academic cooperation. The Statement invited all participants in the EHEA Global Policy Forum to continue to engage in global policy dialogue and to identify the themes where synergies can be found between regions.
ASEF was also invited to contribute to the breakout session on “Quality Assurance of Higher Education: Global Perspectives and Strategies” to provide updates from Asia. Speakers of the panel were Ms Anna Gover, Director, European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education of (ENQA); Mr Olusola Oyewole, Secretary General, Association of African Universities (AAU); Mr Félix García Lausín, Director-Coordinator of the Ibero-American Knowledge Space, Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB); and Ms Reka Tozsa, Director of Education Department, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). The session was moderated by Ms Daniela Cristina Ghițulică, Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.
ASEF is organising Asia-Europe policy dialogues on “[Un]debated Ways of Rethinking Higher Education” in the framework of the upcoming 10th ASEF Regional Conference on Higher Education. Stay tuned to be the first to hear about upcoming dialogue events by subscribing to the Higher Education mailing list below:
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