When I visited Greece this summer I had the opportunity to talk with Harris Geronicola, president of City University in Athens. After my limited research on the Bologna Process last year, I was very interested in getting a “globally connected” educator’s perspective on this higher education coalition. The Bologna Process is an agreement between many European Universities to develop quality academic standards in an effort to create compatible systems of higher education. Since Greek universities have higher academic standards than mandated by the Bologna Process, they are not fully invested in the Process. Geronicola said that they have joined the coalition because they believe in the ideals, but they have had to find creative ways to continue holding their students to traditional standards.
Greece Holding on to Traditional Standards
Full participation in the Bologna Process would require that Greece award university degrees to students who under their current system only earn a professional degree. Greece has two distinct types of higher education institutions and two distinct degrees. The first is the university degree which entails four years of undergraduate work and a diploma upon completion. This can be followed by one to two year master’s programs and three or more years for a doctorate. The second is the professional degree, which students earn at technical schools (polytechnics). These professional programs do not include a full general education curriculum and take three years or less to complete. This is not to say that the polytechnics or professional degrees are less rigorous – many engineering or medical degrees, for example, are professional and are followed by specializations if desired.
The discrepancy exists because the standard that the Bologna Process promotes is a three-year undergraduate university degree. Education leaders in Greece are not willing to change their traditional standards for a university degree to fully comply with the Bologna Process. They believe that a valuable undergraduate university degree must be based on a four-year curriculum that includes a strong general education core. Aware of the rigor of their education, Greek academics believe that if one of their four-year graduates attends another European university in the Bologna system, he or she should be able to transfer some of the work as part of a master’s program. (Greece National Report: Implementation of the Bologna Process in 2003.)
Greece Doing What it can to Embrace the Future
In an effort to stay involved in the Bologna Process but still maintain high standards, Universities like City U have circumvented the program by connecting with American institutions. City University is a foreign studies location for City University in Seattle. With this connection, City U in Athens must comply with American standards which align more closely with Greek higher education standards. This solution allows Greece to continue a connection with the global university system while maintaining their standards. According to Geronicola, Greece is hoping to influence the Bologna Process to raise the academic standards for participating European institutions of higher education. If this happens, European universities within the Bologna system will have the best of all worlds to offer students- a rigorous education, accessible global instruction and experience, and a world of career opportunities.
What This Might Mean for the U.S.
Geronicola predicts that a university degree from the U.S. will become less and less desirable in the near future. In the past, European countries have experienced what is commonly known as “brain drain” – well educated students pursuing higher education and careers in countries other than their own (typically the United States). Greece is a prime example. The Greek government provides every Greek citizen with a full education from primary through graduate school. In spite of this, many students, Geronicola included, come to the United States to complete their education. For many years European students have favored American universities over other higher education systems due to the rigorous and robust nature of the humanities and general education they provide. An additional draw is that the United States has provided many opportunities for employment after graduation, an important factor since unemployment is high is Greece. According to Geronicola, although most Greek citizens have Ph.D.’s, they do not have a desirable profession. Geronicola chose to return to Greece to work but this is not always the case; for example, the daughter of Aphrodite Vavouyios, a resident director at City U, attended university in the United States and stayed. She and her husband are both successful professionals in the Midwest. Today, they and their two children proudly call themselves Americans.
The bad news for the United States is that Geronicola sees this trend beginning to shift. The perception among Greek students today is that many American institutions are less rigorous than they once were and that the Bologna Process promises to provide the wide-range global connections that the United States cannot. Today, more and more Greek students looking for global opportunities are opting to attend the more rigorous European schools, such as those in Great Britain.
