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A European Higher Education Area is born…

Today sees the launch of the European Higher Education Area. Ministers of Education from 46 countries across Europe are gathering in Vienna and Budapest to celebrate the launch of the European Higher Education that started in the Italian city of Bologna.
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NUS Scotland President and Deputy President, Liam Burns and Jennifer Cadiz, will be there to join in the festivities along with HE Minister David Lammy.

The “Bologna Process” aims to enable graduates to be able to work and study within any signatory country as well as enhancing graduate employability. The Process aims to facilitate mobility of students and graduates by having greater transparency and comparability of the structures of higher education across Europe – including degrees based on similar amounts of credit and understanding of what makes up a degree as well as the development of quality assurance processes.

The UK, as one of the original signatories, has seen many benefits including greater emphasis on involving students in assuring the quality of their courses, introduction of a framework to explain how degrees compare with one another and a renewed focus on students studying abroad.

Last year Ministers set a target of 20% of graduates having had a period of study or training abroad by 2020 and how we meet this challenging ambition will be a key focus for the next ten years.