Exercise 1. Scan the words and memorize them.

Exercise 2. Translate the following words and word combinations without the dictionary:

national borders, higher education reform, ministerial-level communiqué, basic motivation, integration effort, the national identity, project of integration, intellectual, cultural, social, scientific, technological, a form of globalization, international and global cooperation, competitiveness and influence in several spheres, the traditional measures, mobility and free movement, cultural aspects, joint training programmes, the international academic mobility, an essential part, exchange and standardization, the new generation of the elite, an internal and isolated phenomenon, the main concrete goal, major factors, standards and teaching methods.

Exercise 3. Explain the following collocations in your own words.

The Bologna process, the Bologna Declaration, a European Higher Education Area, the Common Space of Research and Education,the Road Map on the Common Space of Research and Education, the Information Age,
the Bachelor, the Master, the Ph. D.

Exercise 4. Answer the questions before reading the text.

1. What do you know about the Bologna process?

2. What was it launched for?

3. Read the headline of the text and predict its contents. Give 3–5 ideas.

Exercise 5. Skim the text and find out the reasons of Russia's participation in the Bologna process.

The Bologna Process, Russia and Globalization

The Bologna process is presently the major higher education reform and integration effort in Europe. The aim of the process is to establish a European Higher Education Area, forming a genuine pan-European project of integration in this particular field.

A global challenge

The Bologna process is not simply a matter of higher education. It is yet another form of globalization, like the global markets, global media or global terrorism. Broadly speaking, the Bologna process is part of the larger script in which people, ideas and information are moving freely across national borders. One of the core domains of the national identity, the higher education, is being increasingly internationalized, as states are adapting their policies to this new development. The driving force and basic motivation of this process is not only the wish and need of international and global cooperationin the field of higher education but global competitionas well. Thus, the Bologna Declaration from 1999 states that we must in particular look at the objective of increasing
the international competitiveness of the European system of higher education. This refers, naturally, first of all offering better opportunities to European students.

European higher education institutions want to be in a position to attract talent from all over the world. The most recent ministerial-level communique on the Bologna process from May 2005 states in the same spirit that The European Higher Education Area must be open and should be attractive to other parts of the world. Higher education is, however, in a way only an instrument towards the wider goal of increasing Europe's competitiveness and influence in several spheres. First, the objective is to strengthen Europe's whole intellectual, cultural, social and scientific and technological dimensions. Second, it is no secret that the Bologna process is closely connected to Europe's strive for strengthening also its economic competitiveness in the pressure of globalization. Third, this process is also closely related to another European core value, namely democracy. Thus, the Bologna Declaration proclaims that the importance of education and educational co-operation in the development and strengthening of stable, peaceful and democratic societies is universally acknowledged as paramount. In other words, the Bologna process should not be seen only as an internal and isolated phenomenon of the academic and higher education communities in Europe, but as a part of much wider effort to answer to the challenges facing the European societies in the context of ongoing globalization.

The main concrete goal is greater compatibility and comparability of those major factors characterizing higher education, including, inter alia, degrees, credits, curricula, quality assurance etc. This development should lead towards greater mobility and free movement of higher education students, researchers, teachers, and ultimately also of academic labour force in many other fields than higher education.

The Bologna process takes its name from the Bologna Declaration, which was signed on 19 June 1999 by the Ministers of Education of 29 countries in Europe. While it in its first sentences refers to the EU and its enlargement process, it would be wrong to see the Bologna process as a EU project. Rather, the spirit of the process is clearly pan-European, with Russia's full participation. Russia joined officially the process in the autumn 2003, and other post-Soviet countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and the Ukraine joined the Bologna process formally in May 2005. Thus, the current number of participating countries is 45. The Bologna process is closely connected to
the EU – Russia relations. The Bologna process, leading to the European Higher Education Area, is defined as the core framework in the EU – Russia cooperation in the field of higher education. The current approach in the EU – Russian integration is to create so-called four Common Spaces. The Road Map on the Common Space of Research and Education, including Cultural Aspects in its education part repeats the Bologna process goals, and includes co-operative actions and instruments for pursuing the Bologna process objectives, such as joint training programmes.