Frank Jones, General Secretary of IFUT, attended the conference The Future of Higher Education: Sharing Knowledge and Supporting Implementation for a Stronger Bologna Process, held in Bucharest on 16 and 17 September 2026.
The conference brought together representatives of governments, higher education institutions, students, academic trade unions, researchers and other stakeholders to examine the continuing relevance and influence of the Bologna Process at national and institutional level.
There was a broad consensus among those participating that the Bologna Process has had an enormous and lasting influence on higher education throughout Europe. However, there was also recognition that its future effectiveness will depend on whether it can respond to a very different set of challenges from those that existed when the process began.
An important record of achievement
The Bologna Process was formally launched in 1999 and led to the establishment of the European Higher Education Area. Its achievements include the development of more comparable qualification structures, the three-cycle system of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral education, the wider use of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, greater recognition of qualifications and periods of study, and stronger cooperation on quality assurance.
These developments also supported student mobility and helped make participation in programmes such as Erasmus more accessible and effective. The Bologna Process has therefore played a significant role in reshaping European higher education over the past quarter of a century.
Its impact has not, however, been uniform.
In some countries, the commitments and recommendations agreed through the Bologna Process are translated into legislation, national policies and institutional practice. In those circumstances, the commitments carry considerable weight, including those concerning the social dimension of higher education, widening participation, student inclusion and meeting the needs of diverse student populations.
In other countries, implementation has been less consistent and the connection between the European-level process and what happens within individual institutions is not always clearly understood.
Indeed, many people working in higher education may be unaware that the Bologna Process and the Bologna Follow-up Group remain active. There can be a perception that the work was largely completed once qualification frameworks, ECTS arrangements and systems for recognition and quality assurance had been established.
That view underestimates both the continuing importance of the process and its potential to address the challenges now confronting higher education.
New challenges require a renewed process
The issues facing higher education today are not the same as those that dominated discussion in 1999.
Artificial intelligence is already transforming teaching, learning, assessment, research and academic work. Demographic change is altering the profile of learners and placing new demands on institutions. Lifelong learning, professional development, micro-credentials and the recognition of prior learning are becoming increasingly important. At the same time, higher education systems across Europe are experiencing persistent underfunding, increasing commercialisation and growing pressure on staff and students.
These challenges cannot be addressed by governments or institutional managements acting alone. Nor should the response be left to private, for-profit providers.
Lifelong learning is a public responsibility. It is too important to be determined by market demand or commercial interests. Governments must accept their responsibility to provide properly funded, accessible and high-quality opportunities for people to return to education and develop their knowledge and skills throughout their lives.
The Bologna Process can provide an important framework through which European countries address these questions collectively. It can help to develop common principles and support implementation across the European Higher Education Area. However, it can fulfil that role only if it is adequately resourced and connected to the people who teach, research, learn and work within higher education.
The academic and student voice must be central
One of the strongest messages emerging from the Bucharest conference was the need for much greater and more meaningful involvement by stakeholders.
Students and their representative organisations must be fully involved in shaping the policies that affect their education and participation. Academic staff, researchers and their trade unions must also have a direct and structured role.
For Irish academic trade unions, participation in the Bologna Process has historically been largely indirect. The Irish trade-union perspective has generally been communicated through the European Trade Union Committee for Education, which represents education unions at European level and contributes to the work of the Bologna Follow-up Group.
That European trade-union representation is important. However, it is not a substitute for structured engagement at national level with the unions directly representing academic staff and other higher education workers in Ireland.
There has traditionally been closer engagement between the responsible government department and student representatives and certain other stakeholders. More recently, there has been an increased focus on engagement with the academic trade unions. This is welcome and should now be placed on a permanent and properly structured footing.
In the Irish context, the representative academic trade unions are IFUT and TUI. Both unions bring the direct experience of those delivering teaching, conducting research, supporting students and implementing policy within our higher education institutions.
The collective academic voice cannot remain outside a process that has such significant implications for the organisation and future direction of higher education.
Moving from consultation to structured engagement
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is working to support Ireland’s participation in the European Higher Education Area. However, if that participation is to become more effective, the work must be properly resourced and supported by a formal structure for stakeholder engagement.
This cannot be limited to occasional consultation after proposals have already been substantially developed. Meaningful engagement requires the early and continuing participation of students, academic trade unions, institutions and other relevant stakeholders in the development, implementation and evaluation of Ireland’s Bologna priorities.
There should be a structured national forum through which the Department, students, academic unions, institutions and other stakeholders can consider developments within the European Higher Education Area and contribute to Ireland’s national position.
Such a forum would help ensure that commitments made at European level are understood and implemented nationally. It would also allow experience from Irish universities and technological universities to inform the European process.
The same principle should apply across the European Higher Education Area. The concern among trade unionists that the collective voice of academic staff has too often remained outside national decision-making is not confined to Ireland. It is a concern shared in many countries.
A renewed purpose for the Bologna Process
The Bologna Process has already demonstrated what can be achieved when European countries work together towards common objectives. It now needs a renewed purpose for the next decade.
That purpose must include defending higher education as a public good and a public responsibility; confronting the underfunding and defunding of education; addressing the implications of artificial intelligence; supporting lifelong learning; responding to demographic change; protecting academic freedom; and ensuring that students and staff are central to decision-making.
Europe needs a united voice on the importance of adequately funded public higher education. The Bologna Framework and the Bologna Follow-up Group can help to provide that voice, but only if they are given the resources, participation and political support necessary to do so.
The discussions in Bucharest provide some grounds for optimism. There appears to be a genuine recognition among governments, employers, students, academics, researchers and trade unions that greater stakeholder inclusion is essential.
The relevance of the Bologna Process over the next ten years will depend on whether that recognition is translated into permanent structures and meaningful participation.
IFUT will continue to advocate for a properly resourced process in which students, academic staff and their trade unions have a direct and influential voice. The Bologna Process helped transform European higher education during its first 25 years. With renewed ambition, adequate public investment and genuine stakeholder engagement, it can remain equally relevant to the challenges of the decades ahead.