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Abstract
The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999 signed by ministers of education from 29 European countries resulted in the so-called Bologna process: a starting point and platform for various university reforms in the signatory countries. The present paper explores the implications of the Bologna process for the situation of the study of religion\s in selected countries that are subject to this process.
Acknowledgements
For relevant discussions and feedback on a preliminary draft of the present article I wish to thank Gregor Ahn, Peter Antes, Christoph Bochinger, Giovanni Casadio, Francisco Diez de Velasco, Mariachiara Giorda, Wim Hofstee, Kocku von Stuckrad, David Thurfjell, Christoph Uehlinger and, in particular, Alexander Rödel. Steven Engler has painstakingly copy-edited the article.
Notes
1 While the percentage of students enrolling in the Humanities has declined, the Social Sciences have grown, possibly resulting in a situation of tension for Religion and Theology in the contemporary university – between a branch steering towards the Humanities and one towards the Social Sciences (Alles Citation2008: 309–311).
2 According to Teichler (Citation2007: 20), ‘institutions of higher education have lost much of their special character. They are expected to be more similar to other institutions, and the functions they perform are less exclusive’ (emphasis in the original).
3 See our introductory essay for a discussion of the status of the study of religion\s as an academic discipline and criteria for the identity of academic disciplines (Engler and Stausberg Citation2011).
4 See Hinnells (Citation2004) for a review of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and the Teaching Quality Assessment (TQA) and their implications for Religious Studies in Britain.
5 This process is in tune with changes in the structure of universities characterized by a concentration of resources and an output-based allocation of funds; see Münch (Citation2007: 377).
6 The Center for Leadership and People Management at the Ludwig Maximilans University München offers courses for PhD candidates.
7 For recent accounts see Amaral et al. (Citation2009); Brändle (Citation2010); Gaston (Citation2010). In addition to scholarly works, there are many published evaluation reports; many popular publications discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Bologna process.
8 To some extent, this reflects a widespread scepticism Europeans share towards the European political machinery.
9 In this respect, the study of religion\s has probably not been different from most other disciplines.
11 It should be pointed out that this two-tiered structure is interpreted in most European countries as two stages rather than as a dividing line; for the most part, teaching and learning styles across these stages are only moderately different, and both kinds of programs are typically offered by the same institutions (see Teichler [Citation2007: 201]).
13 Higher-education scholars (e.g. Knight and Yorke Citation2004) are seeking to promote new understandings of the concept of ‘employability’ and its curricular and practical implementation; in addition they study the relation of graduates to the world of employment and employers' expectations.
14 Reflecting this three-tiered structure, in France the Bologna process is referred to as LMD (licence [= bachelor], master, doctorate). In many program descriptions, the abbreviation Bac + 3 refers to the first cycle (made up of three years of university education), Bac + 5 refers to the second cycle, and Bac + 8 to the third cycle.
15 In the following, the various interpretations of the aims and goals of the Bologna Declaration will not be discussed.
16 In some countries, ECTS is known by names such as studiepoeng (STP) in Norway, högskolepoäng (hp) in Sweden, studiepunten in Dutch (where the abbreviation ECTS is used), or credito formativo universitario (CFU) in Italy. In Germany, there are several names. One academic year corresponds to 60 ECTS, and one semester to 30 ECTS. One ECTS corresponds to a workload of some 25 to 30 hours. In addition to the ECTS credit system, an ECTS grading system was introduced, initially in order to compare the various grading systems in place in different countries. Some countries, however, have changed their grading system and adopted one main principle of the ECTS grading system, namely the assigning of grades based not on achievement but according to relative position in a given cohort. In this system, the grade A is given to the top 10 percent of students. In practice, there is a fair degree of flexibility in using this system.
17 Trow (Citation2006: 269) argues that core elements of the Bologna process witness in fact tendencies of convergence on American models; to his eyes, this is ‘because American higher education as a system is simply better adapted, normatively and structurally, to the requirements of a “post-industrial” age’ (p. 269). Gaston (Citation2010), on the other hand, challenges U.S. higher education to learn from the Bologna process.
18 This is the case for the Norwegian master's degrees in history analyzed by Mangset (Citation2009). Similar window dressing seems to have been applied when the new master's degrees in the study of religion\s were devised.
19 In many countries, some subjects are excluded from this structure; Medicine is typically exempt from the new two-tier structure and temporal restriction (Teichler Citation2007: 211).
20 Minors (minoren) are also established at Dutch universities. Groningen, for example, offers two minors: Religions in the Modern World (30 ECTS) and Religion in Europe: Pluralism and Identity. French universities sometimes offer majors (‘majeur de formation’) and minors (‘mineuer de formation’).
21 Even Leiden offers several research master's programs, including the following: New Testament and Early Christian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Comparative Area Studies: Asia and the Middle East.
22 Giorda and Stilla (Citation2010) provide the most up-to-date survey of the History of Religions at all Italian universities.
23 According to the list of teachers (http://host.uniroma3.it/master/scr/docenti.htm), the teacher in charge of the History of Religions course is Marco Bartoli, a specialist in Medieval History based at Libera Università Maria Ss. Assunta (LUMSA, Rome), a private Catholic-Humanist university (founded in 1939) that belongs to the national Italian network of universities.
24 Officially, the term laurea magistrale (introduced in 2004) has replaced the term laurea specialistica (introduced in 1999). However, the latter appears to be still widely used in program descriptions at Italian universities.
25 Mariachiara Giorda informs me that the program was recently closed, officially because it had fewer than ten registered students, which is the minimum number for that kind of program. Having such minimum numbers is another feature of the recent reforms.
26 In both cases, students who have taken certain first-cycle degrees can access the second-cycle program directly.
27 Within two-year programs, M1 refers to the first year of studies, and M2 to the second year.
28 For a sociological analysis and critique of German excellence in higher-education politics and rhetoric see Münch (Citation2007). The German case aside, ‘excellence’ was, alongside ‘quality,’ already becoming a keyword in higher education policies throughout Europe in the 1980s (Teichler Citation2007: 147).
30 In addition, the EASR has sponsored several electronic discussion lists.
31 Email to the author (10 August 2010).
32 Email to the author (9 September 2010).
34 At the same time, the bachelor's degrees are meant as preparatory for the second-cycle programs, leading to a certain tension in their curriculum.
35 In Spain, internships are also part of the more general first-cycle programs (see also below).
36 As part of the Bologna process, the Diploma Supplement (DS) was introduced. As defined by the European Commission, Education & Training, the DS ‘accompanies a higher education diploma, providing a standardised description of the nature, level, context, content and status of the studies completed by its holder’ (http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc1239_en.htm.) One of the aims is ‘easier access to opportunities of work or further studies.’ The Diploma Supplements issued are not publicly available. The Diploma Supplements that I have seen provide no relevant additional information about the nature of study of religion\s programs.
37 This institution runs the http://world-religion-watch.org website.
38 Some of these courses are shared with the research master program in Religion et société en Europe et en Méditerrané (Religion and Society in Europe and the Mediterranean Region) offered by the same institution.
39 See Stausberg (Citation2009: 274) for the formation of that institute.
40 The program requires a minimum number of 12 students to become activated. The program has a relatively high tuition fee by continental European standards (_C 2,500).
41 The director of the program, Professor Emanuela Prinzivalli (Sapienza di Roma, Dipartimento di Studi Storici Religiosi), has kindly supplied the information on which the above is based.
42 I am told that sometimes seemingly irrelevant aspects of material infrastructures were discussed as well.
43 In the report I have seen, this latter criterion was ranked as satisfactory because the alumni did not face more problems in finding a job compared to alumni from other programs in the Humanities.
44 In countries where students have to pay heavy tuition fees, career prospects and employability are probably relevant in a different manner for the students, who will need to keep in mind servicing their debts.
45 In German, this is called Verschulung, which has no counterpart in other languages I am familiar with. The term reflects the idea that universities are qualitatively different from secondary educational institutions; accordingly, universities should not be contaminated by elements commonly associated with secondary education (e.g., with respect to independence and examination).
46 In Germany, this category of positions is called Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben (university teacher for special assignments); in Bremen they are called Lektoren (lecturers). In Britain and Sweden there have long been similar positions purely devoted to teaching.
47 Apparently, there are also developments in the opposite direction. At the Sapienza University of Rome, for example, the reforms have transformed Anthropology from ‘what was a specialized major (for graduates with degrees in Philosophy or Letters) into a basic discipline’ (Romano Citation2010: 64). For Anthropology, in Rome, the reforms resulted in increased visibility and consolidation as a discipline.
48 In France, the study of religion\s has a long tradition of disciplinary invisibility (or, as Despland (Citation2001), has aptly put it: a type of study that is practiced but not taught; see also Boespflug (Citation2010), for a comprehensive survey of Religious Studies in France and other Francophone countries in Europe). This has remained unchanged in the LMD (Bologna) system. Some of the main centres of research such as the EPHE and the EHESS in Paris do not issue first-cycle degrees at all, but they offer a shared second-cycle Sciences des religions et société (Sciences of Religions and Societies), which is a branch (mention) of a general master's degree (either en sciences sociales [EHESS] or in sciences historiques, philologiques et religieuses [EPHE]). A first-cycle program carrying Religious Studies in its name is offered by Lille Catholic University at the Faculty of Theology with its first-cycle program in Philosophy and Sciences of Religion (Licence de philosophie et sciences des religion), which is made up of seven modules: two in Philosophy, one in History of Philosophy, one in ancient languages, one in modern languages, one in sciences humaines (which also includes courses on Psychology of Religion, Sociology of Religion, and Sociology of Christianity), and one in Histoire et sciences des religions (comprising introductions to various religious traditions but no systematic, comparative, general modules). Among the master's programs (in addition to the ones already mentioned in the main text), the Université Lumière – Lyon II, the Université Jean Moulin – Lyon III, and the Université de Savoie – Chambéry jointly offer a master II (= one-year program, based on a master I) in sciences humaines, mention histoire, specialité histoire des religions (mention and specialité respectively refer to two levels of specializations, i.e., the master in sciences humains, which is a domaine, has several optional mentions, and the mention in history has several optional specialités). This program is situated in the disciplinary context of history, and the teachers are mainly historians (starting with the professor in charge of the program, Yves Kumenacker, a noted historian of [French] Protestantism from the 16th to the 18th centuries). The Université de Strasbourg offers three master's programs relating to religion, among them one with the title Sciences religieuses, which is part of the mention Théologie protestante et sciences religieuses, which is again part of the domaine Sciences humaines et sociales.
49 The Wissenschaftsrat (Council of Science and Humanities), an official advisory body on higher-education policy, has recently addressed this problem in a published recommendation and suggested the formation of some new main centres (http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/download/archiv/9678-10.pdf). This is unlikely to happen, for several reasons; see Bochinger (Citation2010) for a speech by the current president of the German Association for the study of religion\s given at a meeting arranged by the Wissenschaftsrat in June 2010 to discuss its recommendations.
50 See Berner (Citation2011) for an example.
51 A recurrent topic in the German debate about ‘Bologna’ was that the space for language learning is much too restricted in the structure of the new bachelor programs.
52 Email to the author (15 October 2010).
53 Under the assumption that the universities are competing to attract students, such diversification is sometimes desired by administrators.
54 The two chairs in Potsdam are held by scholars who were not trained in the academic study of religion\s (in a narrow disciplinary sense), which may have influenced their strategy as they may have felt less committed to a disciplinary approach.
55 It is called Religion, Science and Ethics: Philosophical Approaches.
56 The same specialization is also offered in the master's program at the University of Amsterdam.
57 The same faculty also offers a master's program in Islamologie. Both programs are affiliated to the large PRISME (Politique, Religion, Institutions et Sociétés: Mutations Européennes) research unit.
58 At least in Germany, there now is talk that the transfer from the first to the second cycle (from a bachelor's to a master's program) shall also count as mobility.
59 In Leiden, the master's program is offered in Dutch if no international students have registered.
60 The Bologna Declaration has emphasized the importance of life-long learning. This should result in the establishment of advanced training/continuous education programs. I have not noted such developments on a notable scale in our discipline.
61 My impression is that the issue of employability is emphasized in official documents much more than in actual teaching at the course level; it is unclear to what extent students in our field are concerned with employability, and if so, to what extent that shapes their learning behaviour.
62 The same is true, as Alexander Rödel reminds me, of the potential impact of the ideological framework underlying the Bologna process with its key notions of comparability, employability, two educational cycles, and mobility. The discursive prominence of concepts such as employability, promoted by powerful institutions, will probably eventually impact on mentalities among students, administrators, staff, and faculty members, but so far this has not been studied empirically.