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France and the changing face of European postgraduate education
We live in a moment in time when education at all levels is one of the most important conditions of contemporary life. Across the world, primary education is being reviewed and overhauled and the ongoing work conducted by the OECD provides a valuable insight to the state of international secondary education. Closer to home, the French education system, particularly at the tertiary level, is facing completely new challenges from within and from external forces. Demands for institutions to produce graduates with a wider view of the world able to contribute to a more mobile and internationalised labour market, combined with the effects of the 1998 Bologna Declaration, means that this could be a moment of great change in French higher education.
Since the signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999, efforts by a range of European agencies have now resulted in the establishment of a �European Higher Education Area� � a single geographic space that stretches from Galway to Vladivostock. Opening up such a vast area presents a unique opportunity for students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels to travel more freely and gain a hugely diverse educational experience resulting in a transportable and internationally recognised qualification at the end of their studies � either undergraduate or graduate. Never before have the education systems of so many different European countries been made accessible and interchangeable for the benefit of the individual student.
"Never before have the education systems of so many different European countries been made accessible and interchangeable for the benefit of the individual student."
Central to the changes related to Bologna is the resolution that all signatories should adopt a higher education system based on easily readable and comparable degrees in order to promote employability and the international competitiveness of the European higher education system. In short, the old system of lengthy French bachelors degrees and academic and professional postgraduate qualifications will be replaced by a standardised structure for the duration of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and will be implemented allowing all students to study for a minimum of three years at the undergraduate level and one year at the postgraduate level. Students will benefit from both a consistent structure of programmes across the entire Area and a greater understanding by employers as to the value and content of qualification obtained. As awareness of Bologna grows amongst students, those institutions not offering the new style programmes are likely to lose out to those � in any European country � that are.
French institutions have been slow off the mark compared with other European countries. In the Netherlands for instance, Bologna-friendly undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes have been commonplace since 2002. Universities like Tilburg, Leiden and Groningen have a full range of undergraduate programmes of three years duration and will be making one-year masters degrees available next year. Moreover, Bologna has facilitated the introduction of programmes taught in English. Ten out of the 13 institutions in the country currently offer more that half of their postgraduate programmes exclusively in English with six offering close to all of their degrees in English, making the education system second to the UK in Europe for the number of courses taught in English. The effects are clear � more international students chose The Netherlands as their destination for study in 2005 than ever before.
Simeon Underwood, Academic Registrar at the London School of Economics and Political Science and advisor on Bologna to one of the world�s leading universities, is in no doubt as to the impact Bologna will have on both students and institutions throughout Europe, �an unprecedented number of choices will face the new generation of postgraduate students � whether to stay in one country for the entire period of their qualification or sample a range of courses and teaching systems throughout Europe. Higher education will become a buyers market � with all the benefits that brings to the buyer in question. French students will benefit from this structure just as many other students will, but French institutions need to match the pace set by some of her European sisters.�
