Describes the Bologna Process (a European-wide project to create a European Higher Education Area and harmonize degree structures), examining how educational policy has reached a stage for considering a European Higher Education Area that examines concepts of harmonization and the Bologna Process. Discusses future scenarios, highlighting why…

A discussion of the need for research on cooperation between European universities and institutions both within and outside Europe looks at the forms of cooperation that could be examined, the methodology to be used, and the potential use of research results. (MSE)

Information presented on recent developments in the international recognition of academic credentials includes an overview of Canada's interuniversity programs for international development and summaries of regional committee meetings on international recognition in Europe, the Arab states, and the African states. (MSE)

The role of the International Council of Scientific Unions is to establish links between organizations around the world for the development of science and technology education, particularly in developing countries. (MSE)

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) has been developed and instituted to facilitate student mobility and academic recognition. This paper presents, discusses, and illustrates the pertinence and the limitation of the current statistical distribution of the ECTS grades, and we propose an alternative way to calculate the ECTS…

To meet the challenges of global competition, universities must still maintain a strong regional role. Szeged University, Hungary, provides an example of a university that reaches out to cooperate with other European institutions while retaining the delivery of local educational services. (SLD)

In this article the author addresses some of the ethical and moral challenges embodied in the global era. He considers the case of European universities and their heritage, particularly in light of the massification of West European, and now East and Central European, higher education systems. It is argued that European integration rests on…

The principal set of challenges facing tertiary education today is that set which links it to the construction of knowledge societies. Governments, the private sector, and the World Bank have specific tasks to perform in meeting these challenges. Countries--depending upon whether or not they are transition economies, low-income countries, or small…

Asserts that the principal driving forces changing higher education are the development of knowledge societies and economies, the all-pervasiveness of information technologies, globalization, and the debate on the public or private nature of higher education. Suggests that these forces generate a myriad of responses that, while defying the…

Asserts that the interaction of twin philosophies in U.S. higher education (commitment to the discovery and furtherance of knowledge, and fulfillment of the needs of the people) has been tempered by public control of higher education through boards of trustees, open admissions for high school graduates, the university in service to the community,…

The newly appointed secretary-general of the International Association of Universities (IAU) reflects on her years of association with UNESCO-CEPES, first as one of its liaison officers and then as a member of its advisory board. Asserts that the Centre has played--and still plays--a key role in East-West cooperation in higher education. Calls for…

Chairman of the Steering Committee for Higher Education and Research of the Council of Europe focuses on cooperation between UNESCO-CEPES and the Council of Europe, pointing out that central building blocks of the Bologna Process are results of this cooperation. (EV)

Summarizes the conference proceedings, asserting that two fundamental questions were addressed: "How can international cohesion be achieved without also reducing diversity?" and "How can collateral damage to local higher education systems be avoided?" (EV)

Discussion asserts that Romania recognizes the crucial importance of higher education's role in the development of the knowledge society of the twenty-first century, the importance of university education for the training of young people, and the need to develop Romanian higher education according to the norms of the Bologna Process and of…

Romania's prime minister evokes the role of UNESCO-CEPES as a forum for discussion of the principal issues of higher education. The pre-1989 activities of the Centre are compared to the post-1989 ones and to the role of the Centre in supporting the general reform of higher education in Central and Eastern Europe. (EV)