Macedonia: Bologna Education Process to Be Modified after 11 Years

Ways of passing exams and duration of studies are the initial proposals on how to change the Bologna Process, i.e. the higher education reform introduced in 2003 Macedonia aimed at implementing European standards in education.

The package of five legal solutions announced by the Ministry of Education and Science does not precisely indocate the changes to the existing Bologna Process. The package contains proposals for the law on academy for teachers, the law on teachers in primary and high schools, law on institutions of higher education for teaching staff in pre-school, elementary and high school education, the draft-law on changing the law on higher education and the draft-law on training and examining the directors of the educational institutions.

"Macedonia is a signatory of the Bologna Declaration. We cannot fully revoke it, but it leaves space for modification. Most probably, the changes will consist of oral exam besides the existing written one, and exploration of the possibilities regarding the three-year study process," officials from the Education Ministry say.

A comprehensive analysis of the advantages and the flaws of this education model has not been prepared so far. Two years ago, during the "re-verification" of the Bologna Process, the rector of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Velimir Stojkovski, recommended to "keep the mobility and the European framework of qualifications because of the joint labor market, but to also work on the manner of evaluation and assessment of students.

Ljudmil Spasov, Professor at the Faculty of Philology, says that if the re-definition of the Bologna Process means introduction of an oral exam, one needs to have in mind that oral examination already exists in higher education.

"Bologna does not indicate whether the exams should be oral or written. On the contrary, the professor and the group of students decide together on the ways of evaluation. Some faculties apply only written exams, some only oral, and some both. The same refers to the system of studies - in some faculties have introduced the 3+2 (Bachelor's+Master's studies), and other 4+1. From that aspect, these proposals are incomprehensible for me. However, in my opinion, the Bologna Process is not complete and should constantly develop. What we are missing, is a mobile society, greater mobility of students and greater access to European programmes. But we should work on that, because what are we suppose to do if we give up Bologna?" Spasov argues.

The Bologna process has rendered the professor-student relation almost obsolete. Photo: Radovan Vujovic

Professor Biljana Vankovska, in her interview for Telegraf.mk said that Bologna is degrading the higher education.

"One of the catastrophic consequences of the Bologna Process, is that by wanting to grade students' knowledge with points, the process itself has become dehumanized and mechanic. We barely have direct contact with the students because they are the majority, and we do not have teaching assistants, nor sufficient number of teaching staff, so we work with 200 students at the same time," Vankovska said.

Professor Ilija Aceski believes that the basic principles of that system were only partially implemented.

"This is an expensive process, operation or system which realistically speaking, requires more resources, and secondly, the capacity of the larger number of higher education institutions were not prepared enough to accept that process in order to be able to implement it fully," Aceski said in a statement for Radio Free Europe.

The Bologna Declaration is ratified by more than 40 European countries. Besides Macedonia, the declaration was signed by Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania. Last year, a discussion was initiated in Serbia on whether the state should give up the process, after research conducted by the University in Belgrade showed that two thirds of the students were not satisfied with the way it was implemented, and there was certain degree of dissatisfaction as well with the professors. On a scale from one to five, the Serbian students graded this process with the total note of 2. 51. A debate also took place in Croatia, after the professors warned that the problem with Bologna is the fact that students take longer time to complete their studies, while the professors are "suffocating" in bureaucratic procedures because of the ECTS points, whereas the mobility has not increased significantly.