Problems with implementation of the Bologna Process in civil engineering degree programmes

Abstract

The author presents the systemie framework of the European reform of technical education at universities in the field of civil engineering, as laid down in the Bologna Declaration. He discusses the results of monitoring over the implementation of new educational Solutions, with a special focus on assessing the progress of reforms as of 2009. This assessment was given in the ElTs most recent report (Stocktaking Report), presented at the Conference of European Ministers Responsible of Higher Education, held in Leuven, Belgium, in April 2009. The author draws particular attention to the challenges facing the Polish academic community as they need to introduce a new system based not on educational content but on ‘educational outputs.’ This would be in order to adjust the system to the National Oualifications Framework, currently being introduced in Poland. Such steps should enforce a change in how the objectives of higher education are perceived: the role of teaching being replaced with the role of learning. The author analyses problems resulting from the implementation of the Bologna process in Poland in one of the most traditional (and also most popular among candidates) technical fields, i.e. construction. He discusses those problems in the context of results achieved by the only European Thematic NetWork in technical education, called EUCEET (Civil Engineering Education and Training). The network was established in the European Union soon after signing the Bologna Declaration and has existed sińce then as a multi-partner Erasmus project. The selected Solutions which are discussed in the paper may be helpful for implementing the Bologna Process in other fields of technical education across Polish universities and colleges.