GERMANY: Nationwide Bologna protests

Thousands of students took to the streets last Tuesday to voice their anger over the way the Bologna reforms are being implemented in Germany. Opposition to tuition fees was also clearly reflected in the motto "Education is not for sale". The student protest has met with at least a partial response by government officials who are now considering restructuring of new courses and better financial support. All sides involved stress, however, they are not opposed in principle to the Bologna process.

More than 80,000 students took part in the protests, including 6,000 who joined a demonstration in Berlin. Similar demonstrations were held in other large university cities and there have been sit-ins in lecture halls at around 20 universities throughout the country.

Students are calling for the new bachelor programmes, introduced in the context of the Bologna process, to be abandoned. They complain the courses are too rigid and crammed with contents.

Contrary to the Bologna objective of enhancing mobility, there are claims that present credit transfer regulations are making switching from course to course or university to university more difficult, let alone allowing students to go abroad to study. A further item on the student protest agenda was the introduction of tuition fees and, under the motto "Education is not for sale" they called for the fees to be scrapped altogether.

Tuesday's demonstrations marked a climax of the autumn protests although further activities are planned for early December, including a partial blockade of the City of Bonn where the Conference of Cultural Affairs Ministers is to meet.

Conference President Henry Tesch said he sympathised with much of what the students were saying and offered to talk with their representatives.

"These campaigns should really have started years ago," Tesch said. "Much of what has been done is like pouring old wine into new bottles. You can't press what used to be a 'Diplom' [standard German qualification in engineering and several other subject fields] programme of at least eight semesters into a six-semester course."

In a conference declaration, Tesch stressed that opting for Bologna was certainly the right move, a sentiment that is generally backed. But the implementation process needed correcting.

Courses had to be manageable for students and institutions ought to create 'mobility windows' facilitating students changing universities and studying abroad. Students should be actively integrated in a quality enhancement way for the new courses focusing on teaching and content structures.

The conference is also urging better government financial support for students via Germany's BAFöG student grant system as well as a strengthening of the student welfare system.

Lower Saxony's Education Minister, Lutz Stratmann, announced the new courses in his state were to be restructured as an eight-semester programme, also allowing for more specialisation.

Federal Education Minister Annette Schavan conceded that "technical mistakes" had been made in implementing Bologna. Schavan announced the government was considering raising the level of BAFöG support.

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