Events

According to Mikhail Zhuravkov, Belarus observes almost every principle of the Bologna Declaration. There are only formalities left. Almost every university of Belarus provides a credit system, opportunities for exchange education and double degrees, has agreements with foreign universities. “Joining the Bologna Process is one of the means to enhance the quality of education. It does not mean the replacement of our education system with some other model. Taking our specifics into account we should develop further. The Bologna Process will provide young people with an opportunity to see new technologies, discover the world and come back to Belarus as highly-qualified specialists ready to develop our country. However, foreign experience alone is not enough in order to enhance the prestige of the whole education system. Everyone should contribute to the matter, including educators and teachers. The Education Ministry cannot solve the issue by itself,” the minister stressed.

The ideas for the European University Community and the Single European Space of Higher Education come from Italy’s oldest University of Bologna. In 1986 getting ready to mark its 900^th anniversary the university addressed all the universities of Europe with a request to adopt the Magna Charta Universitarum. The idea was supported and in 1988 the document that celebrates university traditions and encourages bonds amongst European universities was signed by rectors of 80 universities. In 1999 Bologna hosted the first conference of 30 European education ministers. They adopted a declaration on the European Higher Education Area that defined the main goals for the achievement of consistency and the harmonization of national education systems of higher education in the European countries. The declaration gave start to the Bologna Process.