Bologna in European research-intensive universities. Implications for bachelor and master programs

The Bologna-declaration changes fundamentally higher educationin Europe. It introduces a clear distinction between bachelor andmaster programs and invites research-intensive universities for afundamental refl ection on the relationship between research andeducational activities.
Some of the prominent questions are: how canstudents’ learning experiences within a research-intensive contextbe characterised, what effects can be expected from and what is theactual impact of learning in an environment that in general focuses onresearch rather than on education and student learning, and how canresearch be integrated in education in view of optimizing learning.

Considering the literature on the one hand and building upon thein-depth refl ections of faculty-members in European researchintensiveuniversities, the authors Jan Elen and An Verburgh makea number of educational proposals, pertaining to goals, orientationand curriculum structure of bachelors and masters programs aswell as to the instructional activities and possible quality assuranceprocesses in research-intensive universities.
The proposals areformulated in view of encouraging ongoing discussion and debate onthe nexus between education and research. They aim at increasing theattractiveness and effectiveness of educational activities by stressingthe need for a thorough, systematic and diversifi ed integration ofresearch in educational activities.