14TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FLORENCE NETWORK BUILDING BRIDGES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN DIMENS

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• 14TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FLORENCE NETWORK
  BUILDING BRIDGES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE
  EUROPEAN DIMENSION FOR NURSE AND MIDWIFERY
  EDUCATION
• Is the Bologna Process sufficient to achieve the
  harmonisation of Nurse and Midwifery education?
• 9th 12th May 2006, Napier University,
  Edinburgh, Scotland
• Dr. Brian Whittington, Deputy Dean,
• Faculty of Health, Leeds Metropolitan University
• b.whittington_at_leedsmet.ac.uk
• ? Dr. Brian Whittington, May 2006

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• Is the Bologna process relevant to the task of
  establishing mutual recognition of qualifying
  awards for professional practice in Europe?

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• What is the nature and logic of the Bologna
  process?
• Does it demonstrate an understanding of the
  particular nature of professional/vocational
  Higher Education?
• How has Europe dealt with professional
  recognition to date?

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Bolognas Essentials

• Harmonisation
• European Higher Education area
• Voluntary process
• Mutual trust
• Comparability and compatibility of student
  learning
• Mutual recognition of awards
• National HE structures and processes and quality
  assurance systems

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Academic Model

• relatively autonomous HE institutions
• defining standards of awards
• (emerging) national quality assurance
• agencies defining frameworks of QA
• academically oriented HE institutions
• a discipline based curriculum structure
• (academic) research oriented institutions

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Professional/Vocational Model

• practice (rather than academically) oriented
• professional/vocational field based (not
• discipline based) curriculum structure
• applied (rather than academic) research
• referencing stakeholders/organisations/interest
• groups outside universities and national QA
• agencies in defining qualifying standards
• both long qualifying and shorter cycle more
  frequent learning

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The Copenhagen Declaration (30 November 2002)
stated that

• strategies for lifelong learning and mobility
  are essential to promote employability, active
  citizenship, social inclusion and personal
  development. Developing a knowledge based Europe
  and ensuring that the European labour market is
  open to all is a major challenge to the
  vocational educational and training systems in
  Europe. These systems need to continuously
  adapt to new developments and changing demands of
  society.

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• Some of its more concrete aspirations are similar
  to Bologna
• a single framework for transparency of
  competencies and
• qualifications to facilitate recognition
• system of credit transfer for VET
• common criteria and principles for quality in VET
• And more progressively than Bologna
• common principles for the validation of
  non-formal and
• informal learning
• lifelong guidance
• http//europa.eu.int/comm/education/copenhagen/in
  dex_ex.html

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• Lisbon Declaration (March 2000) in which
  government leaders set the EU a 10 year mission
  to become the most competitive and dynamic
  knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of
  substantial economic growth with more and better
  jobs and greater social cohesion. Lifelong
  learning is a core element of this strategy.
• (http//europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/111/
  111_en.html)

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• Vocational education and training (VET) is
  generally closely linked to the economic life of
  the country and its purpose is to be directly
  responsive to the needs of employment. VET tends
  to be locally grounded and is expected to adapt
  to local economic trends. Employers and social
  partners are involved, to varying degrees, in the
  development of VET in matters such as governance,
  regulation, organisation, financing, standard
  setting, developing qualifications, competencies
  and curriculum development as well as in the
  provision of learning.
• Deane and Watters (2003)

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Social Cohesion and Market Competitiveness Two
Agendas
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• Deane and Watters (2003) make the point
• Other higher education institutions are more
  difficult to compare across frontiers.
• In general higher education offered outside the
  traditional universities tends to be more
  vocationally orientated and provision may
  therefore straddle both the education and
  training systems. In some cases these
  institutions offer courses that complement or
  form part of the practical elements of
  apprenticeships. In some Member States it is
  becoming more common for programmes in these
  institutions to be delivered on a dual basis with
  periods of work practice in enterprises. These
  programmes require close co-operation between
  employers, the social partners and the
  institutions. Differences in governance,
  management and provision have an impact on the
  autonomy of these institutions and on external
  stakeholder involvement in their operations.
  These combined factors increase the possible
  degrees of diversity between higher education
  institutions and thereby increase the
  complexities of international co-operation.

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Characteristics of the Learning
ExperienceImplications for Quality Assurance (1)
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Characteristics of the Learning
ExperienceImplications for Quality Assurance (2)
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What Makes Advanced Practice Oriented HE
Different from Academic HE in Terms of Quality
Assurance

• External Stakeholders
• Matching HE curricula and outcomes to labour
  market requirements and professional
  developments.
• Rapid and flexible response to changing market
  needs (short cycle updating, delivery on client
  premises, producing new curricula for delivery to
  tight deadlines etc.)
• Relationship of theory and practice (uses of
  practitioners as teachers, teaching and learning
  methods, forms of assessment)
• Work/Practice Placement Quality
  Management/Control
• Admission criteria/procedures aptitudes,
  prohibitions, and practical experience
• Mode of delivery (part-time, mixed mode, e-based,
  distance learning)
• Responding to national policy and legislation
  changes

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• Academic recognition decisions are ones that
  allow a person to pursue or continue a course of
  study or confer the right to use a national title
  or degree from the host country on the basis of a
  title or degree acquired in the country of
  origin.
• Professional recognition utilises methodologies
  and procedures for evaluating credentials for
  work purposes. The system of professional
  qualifications reflects both the national system
  of education and the organisation of professions,
  industries and professionals themselves.
• J. Divis (2004)

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Aspects of Mutual Recognition (1)
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Aspects of Mutual Recognition (2)
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Conclusions

• The binary line is alive and well and living in
  Bologna!
• Bologna
• - Harmonisation of a European Magna Charta
  University Area NOT of a European Higher
  Education Area
• Reflects binary element in European higher
  education
• Advocates and assumes University autonomy
  (closed system of award standards)
• Marginalises professional/vocational HE and
  relevant external stakeholders
• Understates associated QA and recognition
  issues
• Recognition of academic awards does not equal
  trust in professional competence
• Harmonisation of academic higher education is
  not the
• same as regulation of labour market for
  professional services