The Bologna plan: education as a business service

May 16, 2009
Issue 

The Bologna process is the name for the measures contained in the proposed European Higher Education Area. The stated aim of the European Union's EHEA is to create compatible and coherent higher education systems across the continent.

Under the Lisbon Recognition Process of the Council of Europe, degrees and study periods are mutually recognised by EU members..
Through such measures, the EU claims to promote education and labour mobility around Europe, in accordance with the existing European study exchange program, the Erasmus Program.

It also bases itself on the English educational system, which divides the years of study and the methods of knowledge accumulation differently to other national systems.

The actual driving force behind these EU higher education measures is economic, as it always is for the EU. It is an attempt to enhance European economic "competivieness" by cutting costs.

To help in this goal, a Europe-wide standardisation of the "values" produced in each national higher educational system is pushed.

From the start, this process has been criticised by many student organisations across Europe. It is seen as part of a process leading to the privatisation of higher education.

One of the main criticisms of the measures is they don't guarantee enough money for either education institutions or students. This risks creating a dependence on funding from private business, with a potential to distort the types of education provided.

Under the plan, business will be allowed to finance some university degrees. This could worsen inequalities between university institutions, depending on the private funding each receives — such as between rural and urban institutions.

When universities are funded from public sources, governments can ensure a more or less equal distribution of the resources. This has been the case in several European countries, which is now threatened.

Student grants would be eliminated under the EHEA. Instead loans provided by banks would finance a student's studies, with the accompanying high interest rates.

Under the plan. universities will be considered a business, which produces particular economic benefits and which can be invested in by other private companies. Knowledge will be converted into a product, students into customers.

Scientific investigation would not be guided by a human spirit and collective solidarity, but by business criteria — how well it serves capitalist interests.

As a consequence, social inequality between those who can afford a better degree and those who can't will worsen.
In Barcelona, Spain, a protest against the Bologna Plan occurred on November 22. It culminated in hundreds of students and teachers occupying the chancellor's office at the University of Barcelona. The occupation continued for four months.

On March 18, on the chancellor's orders, the police violently removed the protesters. This was followed by a protest of more than 5000 people in the streets of Barcelona. There have been ongoing student protests since.

The goal of the Bologna process is not the improvement of education. It is obtaining more economic benefits for business interests. According to the logic of capitalism, if culture and human development are not profitable, they should not be promoted.

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