Bologna Declaration 1999
At 1998, The roots of Bologna Process is founded with Sorbonne declaration as a result of the meeting of France, Italy, Germany and England Education Ministers which is held in Sorbonne. The idea of founding a common higher education area is first aroused with this declaration. But the Bologna Process, officially, at 1999 started when29 European countries in charge of higher education signed and published the declaration. The 6 of the basic aims of the Bologna Process is announced with this declaration. These aims are:
1.To present a clear, understandable and comparable diplomas and degrees (with this aim, developing the application of Diploma Supplement).
2. At higher education and Master Degree appliying two progressive system.
3- To apply European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
4. To enable the mobility of the students and the teachers.
5. At higher education to enable the quality guarantee system and to create the network.
6. To develop European dimension in higher education.
What happened after 1999?
Two years after the publication of the Bologna Process, with attendance of the 3 more countries including Turkey (Turkey, Croatia and South Cyprus), 32 European countries Higher Education Ministers came together at 19 May 2001 at Prag in order to follow the Bologna Process and to determine the future of the Process.
Prag Declaration 2003
In Prag, 3 more aims are included to the Bologna Process:
1. To foster lifelong education,
2. To supply the active attendance of the students and the high education Institutes,
3. To make European Higher Education more attractive.
Berlin Declaration 2003
At 2003,Higher Education Ministries from 33 European countries had a meeting. At this meeting , they added 10th aim. The aim is creating a synergy between European Research Area and European Higher Education Area and Doctrate. Morover, to make the process more faster and to detect the situations , 3 factors were decided.
At Higher Education (liscence and higher liscence ) 2 progressive degree structure,
The recognition of the High Education diplomas or degrees and their process.
Quality gureantee.
At the conference hold in Berlin, 7 more countries (Albania, Bosnia - Herzegovina, Vatican Republick, Russia Federation, Serbia Montenegro, Macedonia and Andora) were joined to the Bologna Process. Thereby, in total 40 countries joined the process.
Bergen Declaration 2005
At 19 – 20 May 2005, at the 4th conference of European Education Ministry conference 5 countries were accepted to the membership. In total there were 45 countries. At this conference, they decided on 4 aims:
1. To create a synergy between European High Education Area and European Research Area,
2. To strength the Social part of Bologna Process,
3. Mobility of the students and the teachers,
4. To make the European Higher Education Area more attractive and to create a collaboration with the countries outside the Europa.
At the meeting, it was decided to prepare an evaluation report (Stoctaking Report) in order to notice the improvements that was expected until 2007 and the applications of the 4 methods of the member countries. The methods are:
1.At other member countries the application of the “Quality Guarantee Strandards and Application Principles” that is developed by Association of Quality Assurance(ENQA).
2. To apply National Qualification Outlines,
3. Common High Education programmes including doctorate programmes,
4. To create flexible education strategies.
Bologna Process is a reform process that aim to create European Higher Education Area until 2010. It is a peculiarprocess that is managed and sustained by 47 countries with the collaboration of international associations. The membership of the process is not ground on any accords between the governments. The declarations that are published within the context of Bologna Process do not have legal binding arrangements. All the countries attend the process completely with their free will and those countries have the right to accept or not to accept the aims and objectives which are offered by the Bologna Process.
The citizens of the country that is in the European Higher Education Area which the Bologna Process aims to construct can easly move to Europa in order to get education or work there. Europe will become preferable by people from different countries both for education and for working facilitations.