The future of graduate management education in the context of the Bologna Accord. Highlights

The first steps towards an open Europe for higher learning were taken in May 1998 when France, Germany, Italy and the UK signed the Sorbonne Declaration. This declaration set out the need to remove barriers to, and develop frameworks for, teaching and learning within Europe. Fundamental to the declaration was the need to converge higher education structures and thus a two-cycle system of undergraduate and postgraduate stages was proposed.

The Bologna Accord, signed in June 1999, built upon the foundations laid by the Sorbonne Declaration and represents a firm commitment to higher education reform. Twenty-nine countries signed this new agreement, which outlined the key objectives each country would undertake by 2010 in order to achieve higher education convergence. The objectives included 1. establishing a system of easily recognisable and comparable degrees 2. creating a two-cycle system of university studies leading to recognised qualifications with relevance to the labour market at the end of each stage 3. developing a European-wide credit system, with credits earned in studies or non-traditional learning paths, to promote student mobility 4. promoting student and teaching/support staff mobility 5. co-operation between quality assurance bodies to develop comparable systems, criteria and methodologies. 6. creating networks of European learning.

Fundamentally, the Bologna Accord splits the traditional European first degree (roughly comparable to a Master degree in an Anglo-American curriculum) into two components: the Bachelor degree and the Master degree. Such an elemental shift will radically alter the landscape of European education and will have tremendous, though little understood, consequences for higher education, and in particular for business schools, in Europe and around the world. In Europe alone, more than 750m people will be affected by these changes at some point in their lives. The impact will travel far beyond national borders and become part of academic and professional life around the world.

In this new post-Bologna environment, students will graduate with a Bachelor degree after three or four years of study.

They can then continue their studies or go directly into employment. The first wave of 'new' Bachelor holders has already begun in some European countries and the overall system must be in operation by 2010.

Sensing the shockwaves that could result as 2010 draws near, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) decided to sponsor a project to assess the impact of the Accord on graduate management education. A specially selected task force was assembled that included key figures from graduate education, industry associations and employers.

Their diverse perspectives and thoughtful reflections on the impact of the Accord have framed this paper, which outlines the major issues facing each of the four key stakeholder groups: governments, institutions, employers and students.

GMAC: Press Release, 20.01.05: GMAC Bologna Project Task Force Releases Report http://www.gmac.com/gmac/VirtualLibrary/Tools/BolognaTaskForceReleasesReport.htm

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