Author(s): Devrim VURAL YILMAZ
Higher education has been witnessing sweeping transformations in the 21st century. Science and higher education became an indispensable part of economic rivalry with the advancement of a global knowledge economy. Accordingly, in many countries mission of higher education has been redefined and shifted from “social, cultural, national” domain to “economic and international” domain. In Europe, this shift has been very much stimulated by a unique regional integration project. In 1999, 29 European countries initiated ‘Bologna Process’ and committed themselves to reform their higher education systems for a common higher education area. Turkey participated in the process in 2001 and implemented significant reforms since then. Yet, structural reforms at national level haven’t been diffused into the institutional level, and there are many challenges regarding the adoption of the process in universities. This is partly due to the top-down implementation and poor participation of main stakeholders and practitioners. Yet, voices of both practitioners and stakeholders is crucial for sustainability and success of the process. This paper aims at reflecting views from universities and reveals the findings of a survey carried out in 2015 with Bologna coordinators of 57 Turkish universities. Main findings indicate that while Bologna reforms are perceived as necessary and useful for Turkish universities, there are significant problems in practice and it could be argued that there is a democracy deficit regarding the implementation process of Bologna reforms.
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