European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

WHAT UNDERLIES EUROPEAN POLICIES? INSTITUTIONAL OBJECTIVES IN ... 107Availability of specifically European education, that is, an educationwith a higher profile, more visible and able to create greater interest ata world scale. It follows that strategies to build closer co-operationamong the Higher Education Institutions and the member states areneeded to produce this profile with a good management of diversity asrichness.It is interesting to note that it is in the recent communication of theCommission —“A project for the European Union”— that, for the firsttime and in a general contribution to the debate on the future ofEurope, education is mentioned as one of the policies to reinforce theEurope of knowledge and employment and growth.A second set of actors comes into the scene around 1998 with theSorbone Declaration, followed by the Bologna Declaration 1999. Theprocess Bologna-Prague-Berlin was also set in motion and, this time, bythe Ministers of Education of the member states. The objective of thecreation of a common area of Higher Education was as logical asrevolutionary, and it initiated a process of Reforms in Higher Educationin all the signatory countries. This development of a common area ofHigher Education in Europe, matched by a parallel common area ofresearch launched by Directorate General for Research, is a powerfulweapon to advance towards a European identity.Important measures were agreed upon:—The development of a system of easily readable and compatibledegrees based on two cycles.—The adoption of a common system such as the European creditsystem to measure outcomes and student workload.—The generalized introduction of the Diploma Supplement tobring understanding and transparency to the degrees from allover the world.—The promotion of mobility.These measures were to be followed up by the promotion ofEuropean co-operation in quality assurance; the development of bothspecific joint curricula and modules and units fostering the EuropeanDimension. The creation of European Higher Education Area should alsobe relevant to learning throughout the whole life of the person sinceknowledge needs continuous up-dating, and changes in employmentmay require the development of a different set of competences. Animportant objective in these developments and in the whole process isthe Promotion of the Attractiveness of the European Higher EducationArea. The impact of this creation of a common area of Higher Educationis difficult to measure at this point; but it is clearly transforming the