Belarusian society has a great hope, that it will not be only irresponsible declaration, but the real step to ensure Bologna transformations of Belarusian high school.
We welcome the Republic of Belarus intention to join the European Higher Education Area. Belarusian society has a great hope, that it will not be only irresponsible declaration, but the real step to ensure Bologna transformations of Belarusian high school. However, there is reason to doubt Belarusian officials’ sincerity and seriousness.
The Belarus second application to join the EHEA has been prepared in an atmosphere of the complete secrecy. Ministry of Education reluctantly admitted the fact that application has been submitted after a month when it was done. This closeness could be explained by the desire to avoid a public debate on whether the Belarusian higher education is ready to accept the values and goals of the EHEA and, consequently, the risk of being once again criticized by the European institutions concerning the status of academic freedom, institutional autonomy and student participation in the HEI management in Belarus.
The content of the official report, submitted to the Bologna Secretariat by Belarusian Ministry of Education, is completely unknown to Belarusian public. At the same time the officials’ statements indicate that Ministry of Education position has hardly changed since 2011. The leadership stubbornly denies the existence of any problems regarding students’ access to the universities management or academic repression in the Belarusian universities.
Independent Bologna Committee believes that it is necessary to provide up-to-date information on the institutional autonomy status, academic freedom and studentsт’ participation in the higher education management. Thus, this report is focused on exactly those areas of academic life that, like previously prevented Belarus joining to the European Higher Education Area in 2012.
The full report IBC_MEMORANDUM_24_11_14
The full report IBC_MEMORANDUM_24_11_14