CHEPS, INCHER-Kassel, ECOTEC: The Bologna Process Independent Assessment. The first decade of working on the European Higher Education Area. Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, Austria 2010.

The consortium of CHEPS, INCHER-Kassel and ECOTEC has made an assessment of major elements of the first decade of the Bologna Process in order to obtain an independent view on the progress made so far. This assessment study was contracted out by the European Commission, to evaluate the extent to which the operational objectives of the Bologna Declaration have been achieved in the areas of curriculum reform, quality assurance, qualifications frameworks, recognition, mobility and social equity. It also evaluated the extent to which the operational objectives have led to the achievement of the strategic objectives of the Bologna Declaration, i.e. ‘to establish the European area of higher education and to promote the European system of higher education world-wide’.

The study concludes that, overall, higher education across the 46 EHEA countries looks substantially different from 10 years ago - perhaps with the exception of the social dimension – even though there is a large difference in the speed of implementation between individual countries. It also asserts that whilst student mobility within the EHEA did not increase substantially, mobility from other parts of the world towards the EHEA has increased significantly and faster than international mobility has grown worldwide.

Volume 1: Detailed assessment report

Volume 2: Case studies and appendices

Executive Summary, overviews and conclusion