| Abstract |
Ten years after the tearing of the iron curtain in Europe the ministers in charge for higher education
met in the oldest European university in Bologna in June 1999 - initialized by the Sorbonne declaration
from May 1998 - starting an initiative to establish a modern education system for a Europe of
knowledge which meets the challenges of the globalization in science, technology and economy for
the new millennium. The increasing importance of education for the employability, the growing mobility
of the citizens and the outstanding role of research for a successful competition on the world
market was seen as a reason to suggest European-wide common goals, e.g. easily readable and comparable
academic degrees, a two-cycle study, a system of credits, promotion of the mobility of students
and staff and installing a system of quality assurance. Since 1999 the Bologna process is under consideration
and under way in the EC and many other European countries. The first follow-up meeting held
in Prague in May 2001 representing the meanwhile 32 signatories and the planned next meeting on
18th/19th September 2003 in Berlin are milestones on this way.
Embedded in this process the Engineering Education is an important part. Several Engineering Organizations
e.g. SEFI (European Society for Engineering Education - established 1973) and CESAER
(Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research - established
1990) taking care to bundle the interests of engineering in the Bologna process. Together with organizations
of industry (ERT - European Round Table of Industrialists) and of the universities itself (EUA
- European University Association - established 2001) a struggle for a common strategy and for acceptable
measures is under way to adopt the aims of the Bologna process in engineering education [1].
This paper presents the chances, the risks and the current state of the Bologna process in Germany
from the view of the German General Assembly of Electrical and Information Engineering Departments
(Fakultätentag für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik e.V. (FTEI)). |
