Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 02/2010

Three-Year Bologna-Compliant Degrees: Responses from U.S. Graduate Schools

April 2009

Institute of International Education

Abstract

Ten years ago, in June 1999, a group of 29 European Ministers signed the Bologna Declaration with the goal of establishing the European Area of Higher Education by 2010 and promoting the European system of higher education world-wide. In April 2009, 46 European Higher Education Area Ministers will gather for the fifth biennial EHEA Ministerial Conference, to take stock of this first decade and jointly define goals for the coming years. At this juncture, it is important to look at the changes that have occurred through the Bologna Process in the context of transatlantic exchange, and how they affect the way U.S. higher education institutions are approaching graduate admissions, awarding transfer credit and credit for study abroad, and advancing institutional linkages.