It is now seven years since 29 European education ministers met in Bologna and made a pledge to reform the structures of HE degree programmes and create a ‘common framework of readable and comparable degrees across Europe by 2010’. Mobility and employability of students and staff, not just across the member states but across the world, were the main driving forces of what has become known as the Bologna Process. International competitiveness of European HE versus the rest of the world was also high on the Bologna agenda. Since then ministers have met every two years and there have been many seminars in between focusing on the details of the framework. With just four years to go, how close are the member states – which now total some 45 countries, including Russia – to realising the original vision of a European HE area?  

Moving on from Bologna 

By around 2002, the participating signatories had agreed on a three-cycle framework for HE, ie a three–four-year bachelors degree, followed by a one–two-year masters degree, and then a PhD. Over the past few years there has been a strong move in continental Europe towards a ‘3+2+3’ system. Now most of Western Europe – including France, Germany and Italy, and Scandinavia, where chemistry plays an important part in the respective economies – has gone for a three-year first cycle qualification. Russia, a growing competitor in the global, industrial markets, has adopted a four-year first cycle. In the UK, apart from Scotland, which has four-year bachelors degrees, the first-cycle qualification is three years. The UK ‘integrated masters’ degrees, including the MChem, however, still seem to fall between the first and second cycles. And despite the recent push from the Universities UK (UUK) to place such degrees as a second-cycle qualification, there seems to be little consensus on this issue among the continental partners.  

The ‘Bologna ministers’ agreed to use the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) which defines programme credits in terms of student contact hours and workload. The past three years has seen progress towards the development of a European quality assurance (QA) framework. The European Association for Quality Assurance in HE (ENQA) now has a register of QA agencies, of which the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) is one, that can support the framework.  

Fine tuning 

At a recent workshop on the European qualifications framework held at CPE Lyon in France, Dr Tony Smith of CPE Lyon, explained how the ‘Tuning Project’, the overall team charged with ‘tuning’ the educational structures and programmes across the member states, has developed the methodology by which institutions can now design their degrees. This involves: 

• identifying social needs and resources; 
• defining degree profiles in terms of objectives and learning outcomes, ie what students are expected to know, understand and be able to demonstrate at the end of their degrees; 
• identifying generic and subject-specific competences, ie generic and subject-specific skills and abilities; 
• translating the former into curriculum content and structure; 
• translating the former into modules and approaches towards teaching, learning and assessment; 
• quality assurance, ie built-in monitoring, and evaluation procedures. 

In a recent study, explained Smith, the Tuning Project, sent out questionnaires to three target groups – new graduates, employers and academics – asking them to rank in order of importance 30 generic competences. In total seven subject areas were covered – business, geography, history, mathematics, physics, education, and chemistry – from 101 HEIs in 16 countries. According to Smith, the responses were remarkably coherent – there were little differences between subject areas and countries. Where there were differences, he said, were between the three groups of respondents, with graduates and employers having similar priorities, but different to academics’. So while the ‘capacity to adapt to new situations’ was in the top five for graduates and employers, it didn’t appear in the academics’ list. Graduates ranked elementary computing skills high, while employers ranked interpersonal skills higher. Neither appeared on the academics’ list. Top of their list was basic knowledge of the subject, followed by a capacity for generating new ideas. This information has been used in the development of the chemistry Eurobachelor qualification. 

The chemistry Eurobachelor 

The chemistry Eurobachelor qualification has now been defined by the chemistry subject group – the European Chemistry Thematic Network (ECTN) – of the Tuning Project. It is a modular course based on 180 credits, 150 of which will be for chemistry, and any supporting physics, biology or mathematics required. The course must include either a bachelors thesis of 15 credits or an equivalent industrial placement, and there is a requirement for a second ‘community’ language. There are three types of module: 

• compulsory – covers core chemistry and is worth at least 90 credits;  
• semi-optional – a minimum of three 15-credit modules from biology, computational chemistry, chemical technology, macromolecular chemistry, and others depending on what’s on offer at the institution; and  
• elective. These have been added to give the students more choice and to make them think what they might do at the end of the first cycle – either go on to second-cycle qualifications or move away from the subject.  

The outcomes in terms of subject knowledge and skills and abilities have been defined for the modules and are based on the QAA’s benchmarks. In April 2004, a chemistry ‘Eurobachelor label’ was offered to institutions that met the course requirements. This involves self-assessment, and a one-day site visit by one national and two international experts who tour the facilities and question institution leaders, programme coordinators, teachers and students. To date, there have been 16 applications from 12 HEIs for the chemistry Eurobachelor label, with the first award being made to the University of Helsinki. Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK is among the current applications. Professor Ray Wallace, department of chemistry at NTU, told Education in Chemistry, ‘We hope to give the Eurolabel to students following the BSc and MChem programmes. The Eurobachelor chemistry label should help us to attract students from continental Europe since the label will put us on a par with HEIs such as the Universities of Helsinki, Bologna, and the Institute of Chemical Technology of Prague among others’.  

What’s next? 

ECTN is now developing a chemistry Euromaster qualification together with its accreditation ‘label’. According to Terry Mitchell, professor of chemistry at the University of Dortmund and ECTN member, speaking at the Lyon workshop, ‘Inevitably the chemistry Euromaster will be different to the Eurobachelor. The thesis will be worth more, and the programme will be designed for students who will be expected to go on to do a PhD’. The masters programme of study is expected to involve 90–120 credits, at least 60 of which must be at masters level, and the thesis is expected to be worth at least 30 credits. There will also be the option for ‘high flyers’ to go on to a PhD without the formal award of a masters degree. The chemistry Euromasters are expected to be employable as professional chemists in the chemical industry and in the public services.  

In 2007 the European education ministers will meet in London. The European Qualifications Framework should be in place, and the discussions are expected to focus on the final arrangements of the quality assurance system. On the agenda, too, will be doctoral programmes and their links to the masters programmes. For the UK, the rather ambivalent approach of the Government and many universities to the European HE area will need to be resolved if the Bologna system is to be embraced. The risks to chemistry students, if it is not, must be considered. 

Kathryn Roberts