The Bologna Declaration which triggered the so-called Bologna Process - is a joint document signed on June 19, 1999 by the Education Ministers of 29 European countries gathered in the Italian city of Bologna. The statement marks a change from the policies related to higher education of the countries involved and established in common a European Area of Higher Education from the commitment of the signatory countries in promoting reform of their education systems. Inspired by the Bologna Project of higher education of European Union, it was restructured UFBA. The main change planned is the introduction of Bachelor degrees Interdisciplinary (BI), undergraduate courses that are requirements for graduate careers and academic education postgraduate.

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THE BOLOGNA PROJECT OF HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION AND THE PROJECT OF NEW UNIVERSITY IN BRAZIL
Fernando Alcoforado *
The Bologna Project of higher education of the European Union was analyzed using as
a basis the content of the following articles: 1) O processo de Bolonha (The Bologna
process) available on the website
<http://www.dges.mctes.pt/DGES/pt/Estudantes/Processo+ of Bologna + / + Process of
Bologna + />; 2) Processo de Bolonha, bacharelado interdisciplinar e algumas
implicações para o ensino superior privado no Brasil (Bologna Process,
interdisciplinary bachelor's degree and some implications for private higher education
in Brazil) available on the website
<https://www.revistaensinosuperior.gr.unicamp.br/artigos/processo-de-bolonha-
bacharelado-interdisciplinar-e-algumas-implicacoes-para-o-ensino-superior-privado-no-
brasil>; 3) O Processo de Bolonha, a avaliação da educação superior e algumas
considerações sobre a universidade nova (The Bologna process, the evaluation of
higher education and some aspects about the new university) available on the website
<https://ape.unesp.br/pdi/execucao/artigos/avaliacao/a02v13n1.pdf>.
The Bologna Declaration which triggered the so-called Bologna Process - is a joint
document signed on June 19, 1999 by the Education Ministers of 29 European countries
gathered in the Italian city of Bologna. The statement marks a change from the policies
related to higher education of the countries involved and established in common a
European Area of Higher Education from the commitment of the signatory countries in
promoting reform of their education systems. The declaration aims at taking joint
actions towards the higher education of the countries belonging to the European Union
with the main objective to promote equivalence between the various national education
systems, seeking to integrate the national university systems, to equate degrees,
diplomas, Titles University, academic curricula and adoption of in-service training
programs that have equivalence in European Union members.
The Bologna Process includes in summary the following: 1) Adoption of an easily
readable and comparable degrees system; 2) Adoption of a system based on three
educational cycles: a first cycle, a BA (Bachelor), with an important role for the
European labor market; a second cycle, leading to master's degree; and a third cycle, the
doctorate; 3) Establishment of an accumulation and credit transfer system (such as the
European Credit Transfer System- ECTS, already in use in the Socrates and Erasmus);
4) Promoting the mobility of students, teachers, researchers and other workers,
removing administrative and legal obstacles to the recognition of diplomas; 5)
Promotion of European cooperation in evaluating the quality of higher education; and,
6) Promotion of European Higher Education.
The Bologna process goes beyond the document itself, signed in 1999. The reform of
European higher education started in practice a year earlier, at the meeting of the
Sorbonne in Paris, and provided for its implementation by 2010, but has not been
exhausted in that year and goes beyond what was written in Bologna. Several
documents produced in the biennial meetings held by the European Union deepened and
detailed what were written there. Reform engendered by the Bologna Process is
basically putting in place of a reflection made by the leaders of the European
community that it should play a role of importance in global education, as it had been

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assuming the world economy, and become a world reference, competing with the US
system thus regaining its former status, partly lost after the post-war.
It is worth noting that the existing university model by the end of the 1990s in Europe
was tributary of the model devised by Humbolt in Germany, based on teaching and
research. From this matrix, were created in Europe three classic models: French,
German and Anglo-Saxon in nineteenth century each with their following described
characteristics: a) the French model, which was characterized by the public, lay and
standardized education, strongly controlled by the state and emphasizing the training of
professionals for the labor market and occupations in the state itself frameworks; b) the
German model, in which the university was characterized by autonomy and sought to be
an intellectual center of high culture and quality as well as conducting research and elite
training with the State's responsibility for its funding; and, c) the English model, in
which the university ideal stemmed from the principle of integral education of the
students at an almost individual method, where scientific research and vocational
training were relegated to the background.
In contrast to European models, the US university system, which historically was
characterized by its immediate character and usefulness for the nation in the mid-
twentieth century, began to be seen as a competitive system, characterized, among other
factors by diversification and ranking of higher education institutions (HEI) that serve
different roles. In this system, they are present both traditional universities, which
conduct research and education and welcomes an elite, as a range of HEIs that offer
short and professional courses for a mass of individuals.
What we sought to reform higher education in the European Union is to repeat in
education what was happening in the economy, that is, the unification of the higher
education system in a model that would allow mobility and use of which was made
from one country to another. It was created a system to revise the old university
traditions by transforming higher education institutions in centers not only academic
excellence, but also management model, as it occurred in the United States, causing
Europe to return to international educational landscape able to compete with the big
American universities.
It should be noted, however, that there are several criticisms of the reform of higher
education in the European Union based on the Bologna Process. Many students and
teachers complain that the reformulation of the durations of the various courses offered,
for example, degrees in France, which had a duration of five years, the new system
cycles fell for three years doing to reduce the quality of education, particularly by
reducing years of studies in the initial cycle. This fact very poorly reflected in the
French society that values the training of teachers. Thus, the model of three cycles has
the following characteristics: initial cycle of training at least three years, second cycle
post-graduate stritu sense of two years for a master's degree and the third cycle of three
years for the doctorate. In essence, the proposed change by Bologna Process has the
objective restructuring to reduce the time spent in higher education in order to ensure
competitiveness with the US system, which by their format puts the faster the young in
the labor market and invests in post-graduate for advanced student training.
It is worth noting that higher education as a public good, which should take a social and
democratic public policy dimension, appears considerably neglected in the Bologna
Process. The associations representing the European students have established itself as
one of the most critical sectors, noting that the conditions of the students have rarely

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improved, the financial barriers to mobility persist, student participation in the
evaluation process is still very fragile and access to second cycle (master's degree) and
post-graduate (PhD) is quite difficult in some countries, up to pay very high fees per
student.
In addition, various measures of "rationalization" and “downsizing” have been carried
out through neoliberal managerial logics that tend to become even more precarious the
employment contracts of teachers, mostly without tenure. Reducing the duration of the
first cycle courses (undergraduate), in some cases in the order of two years, seems to be
constituted, as feared, as a good opportunity to adopt logical reduction of charges by the
state, and not to improve working conditions in schools. If that continues, even
university pedagogy proposed by the Bologna Process will risk being a superficial
change or cosmetic with little substance and unable to make changes in the teaching
environment and students, in adopting tutorial support schemes for students, in class
sizes, in the transformation of assessment processes and attention to cultural, ethical,
political and civic formation of students.
Inspired by the Bologna Project of higher education of European Union, Naomar de
Almeida Filho, former Rector of the UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), proposed the
restructuring of UFBA [See the article O que é afinal a Universidade Nova? (What is
ultimately the New University?) Posted on the website <http:
//www.ces.uc.pt/bss/documentos/UFBA_universidade_nova.pdf). The main change
planned is the introduction of Bachelor degrees Interdisciplinary (BI), undergraduate
courses that are requirements for graduate careers and academic education postgraduate.
BI should last three years, covering major fields of knowledge: Humanities, Arts,
Sciences, Technologies. Its resume will be mostly optional, with three components:
general education (FG), differential training (FD) and vocational training (FP).
The FG modules may include philosophy (logic, ethics and aesthetics), history,
anthropology, classical studies, mathematical thinking, principles and computer use,
politics and citizenship, ecology, scientific research, community curricular activity, plus
sequence courses- trunks throughout the program, such as language and Brazilian
literature and modern foreign language. The FD modules will be defining the options of
BI. At this stage, introductory modules will be offered to professions, such as the
"Introduction to Engineering" existing at the Polytechnic School and the "Introduction
to Psychology" at the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences. This could help to
mature choices of career. FP modules are elective and only offered to the students of the
corresponding BI knowledge area that concluded the FG. As enrollment priority will be
granted for student achievement in FG and FD modules, there will be permanent
stimulus to the good performance of students who intend to use BI as input via
vocational training.
Once completed the BI, the egress may face the labor market, with a bachelor's degree
in general area of knowledge. If student wish, there will be options for further study, if
approved in specific selection processes for: a) undergraduate (examples: BI Degree to
Matter Science in Physics or Chemistry; BI in Life Sciences for Degree in Biology)
with 1-2 years of vocational training, which enables the graduate to teach in primary
education; b) professional courses, with over 2-4 years of specific training, taking
advantage of every BI credits; c) students with outstanding talent and performance may
enter directly into professional or academic master's degrees, may proceed to the
Doctorate, if he or she wants to become a teacher or researcher. It is hoped that the BI

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host higher pupil / teacher. In addition, it is expected substantial reduction in dropout
rates because the career choices will be made with greater maturity and better
knowledge of their formations.
Article of Madalena Guasco Peixoto, General Coordinator of the National
Confederation of Workers in Education Institutions, entitled A Proposta da
Universidade Nova - Encantos, Perigos e armadilhas (A Proposal of New University -
Charms, hazards and traps), posted on the website
<http://www.contee.org.br/secretarias /educacionais/materia_56.htm>, praises and
criticisms of the project Universidade Nova. According Magdalene Peixoto, "the New
University proposal has some attractions that before a quick scan end up in delight: End
of the vestibular, humanistic and general, interdisciplinary, university baccalaureate two
to three years and after this general training the possibility of continuity, giving the
learner conditions of a choice and more mature in his college career. In addition, the
proposal promises: enlargement of the studies, curricular flexibility, integration of
contents, postponement of career choices and reduce high dropout rates".
The proposal of the New University divides higher education into three basic vocation:
the vocation of teaching, the vocation for specific careers or professionals (architecture,
nursing, law, engineering, medicine etc.) and vocation for research indicating the
possibility of after attend the initial cycle, the students go straight to the professional or
academic masters and a doctorate. Magdalene Guasco Peixoto questions the fact that the
student with vocation for teaching being selected to study for a degree of the different
areas of knowledge for a period of one or two years. As initial training is generalist and
interdisciplinary, specific training for the licensee who must necessarily concentrate all
training in pedagogy and specific training in the area of knowledge, would be reduced
to maximum two years would be insufficient because, today, by the Guidelines
curriculum for degree courses would be impossible pedagogical and specific training in
less than three years. What would represent in practice a much more superficial training
than exists today for both pedagogy as to the degrees of basic education content.
Another real problem highlighted the proposal of New University by Madalena Guasco
Peixoto is that the student who intends to pursue a professional career after attending
two to three years of general education, which will give it an interdisciplinary
Bachelor's degree in humanities, interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts, interdisciplinary
Bachelor technologies and interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science, will have after the
internal selection, attend four, five or six years depending on their chosen profession
extending their access to the labor market. Another important question concerns what
the student will do after to graduate in Bachelor of humanities if he or she is not
selected to attend a degree or a professional course or a postgraduate?
Another criticism of the creation of the New University is that by proposing to create a
humanistic and interdisciplinary basic cycle for the development of a general education
and critical as a prerequisite for student maturing before continuing your college course
that would form as an educator, historian, sociologist, psychologist, lawyer, doctor, he
necessarily had to participate in a selection, but now within the university, and if there
are not enough vacancies, the student will leave the university, now with an
interdisciplinary bachelor's degree, that would not prepare him effectively for the world
of work.
With the New University, his mentor takes the view that it would decrease the dropout,
now very large both in public and private higher education. According Naomar de

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Almeida Filho, evasion is partly because the student does not have matured their choice,
or the fact that he abandons the continuity of his course because he was not having a
multidisciplinary training. This is a mistaken view because in practice, the
circumvention takes place in public and private network because the student did not
have the necessary preparation in basic education also in private schools because the
student abandons mainly by financial difficulties and in public schools because Students
are forced to abandon their courses in order to work.
Magdalene Guasco Peixoto says that the proposed New University delights
businessmen from the private network, for three reasons: 1) Because the initial training
is generalist and multidisciplinary will be easier to manage the relationship between
teacher and student, a teacher in any field of the humanities to a group too big of
students who can attend the same time, regardless of multidisciplinary bachelor's degree
who have chosen the same class of general interest; 2) Within two years will be
conferred the degree of Bachelor indisciplinary in the humanities, arts, etc. and students
want will continue to pay four, five years or six years of tuition in order to have his
diploma of psychologist, doctor, lawyer etc.; and, 3) This type of interdisciplinary
Bachelor's general course is easier to be administered remotely. It gains secured the
three points.
*Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) and
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015).