Bologna and Liberal Arts featured in recent publication

The Fall 2008 edition of Liberal Education, a publication of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, is dedicated to “Globalization and U.S, Higher Education” and includes several articles of interest for European educators. In an issue that “explores the potential impact of the Bologna Process on higher education in the United States” articles by Clifford Adelman (Accountability “Light”: Our Version Is Going the Way of the Dollar vs. the Euro), Paul Gaston (Bologna: A Challenge for Liberal Education – and an Exceptional Opportunity) and Sheldon Rothblatt (Global Branding and the Celebrity University) are of special interest to liberal arts’ educators.
In her introductory message (Bologna Plus: The Liberal Education Advantage), AAC&U President, Carol Geary Schneider challenges European educators when she writes, “Some will point to the greater precision—criterion-referenced standards for specific disciplines—that is being attempted through the Bologna Process with its “tuning” of cross-national degree requirements. But the Bologna Process does not promise European students an integrative, cross-disciplinary liberal education that is clearly tied to the responsibilities of democratic and global citizenship. Absent that promise, both its vision and its precision are insufficient.” The entire issue is on line here.