Bologna Process

Diploma Supplement Workshop

2011

Gerry O’Sullivan National Agency Erasmus

• The Bologna Process began in 1999 as an initiative of Ministers of Education who came together in the

Italian city

• Ireland was one of the original 29 member states – now 47

• Although not an initiator of the Bologna Declaration, today the European Commission is playing a key role in assisting in the realisation of the aims and objectives.

• reform the structures of their higher education systems in a

convergent way - its goal is the creation of a ‘European

Higher Education Area’ (EHEA) by 2010.

• Berlin Communiqué (2003) – every student graduating from 2005 should receive a Diploma Supplement automatically and free of charge

While it is now the case that Irish higher education institutions are issuing Diploma Supplements to graduates who request them, it is by no means universal that Supplements are issued to allgraduates ‘automatically and free of charge’, as was intended in the Europass policy.

Edwin Mernagh, 2010

Promotion of the Diploma Supplement one of the tasks of the Bologna Experts

‘How do we translate the impressive progress made in protocols and instruments into the real world of higher education practice, innovation and the economy?’

Tom Boland, 2010

Diploma Supplement

• Recognition Tool• Transparency• Opportunity to record learning outcomes• Employers often recruit on the basis of “soft skills” – DS allows one to record these• An opportunity to give recognition to the learning acquired through extra-curricular activities undertaken by students. • A record of work experience, language ability and other employment related skills as well as formal academic

qualifications.• Assessing applications from other countries - standard format and detailed information of the Diploma Supplement

Distinction between large companies and SMEs

• Could be a means for universities to increase student mobility, since students would    • understand that their mobility (study and work placement) achievements would be recorded and endorsed in a formal document with international currency.

• An important development in the use of the Diploma Supplement, pioneered in a number of institutions, is to make the Supplement available on-line in a secure and validated format. This means that a graduate can have access to it at any time and from any location.

• if there are particular skills shortages and they have to look outside the 1 national frontier, it is more likely that the information provided by the Diploma Supplement will be used.

• evidence of the international dimension of HEI