TOGO: Protesting students reject Bologna system

20 June 2010

Police intervened this month at the University of Lomé's faculty of arts and economic sciences where students were demonstrating against the new higher education system based on Europe's Bologna process.

According to reports from the Republic of Togo, the students claimed the university was not suitably equipped to introduce the system, known in French as LMD (Licence, Master, Doctorat for the three, five and eight-year degrees on which it is based).

"We don't want the LMD. The University of Lomé doesn't yet have an adequate infrastructure like western universities for it to apply this kind of teaching at the same rhythm as the others," said one of the protesters.

"How can one comprehend that out of 4,000 students enrolled in law, eight were successful? In sociology, out of 2,000, only seven students passed. It's incredible! We demand to be allowed to sit the exams again and ask the university authorities to train the teachers who have the annoying habit of awarding ridiculous marks."

On the second day of demonstrations police intervened to head off trouble, reported the Republic of Togo.

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