The Process of Applying the Bologna Process in Post-soviet Ukraine
Előadó: Zoltán Zakota, Katalin Pallay
Szerző bemutatkozása:
Zoltán Zakota is lecturer at the Partium Christian University in Oradea, lecturing Economics and ICT. His fields of interest are higher education, the role of ICT in education and regional studies.
Katalin Pallay is a researcher and lecturer at Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, Berehove, Ukraine, lecturing didactics and sociology of education. Her fields of interest are higher education, student mobility and career tracking.
Előadás absztrakt:
Leaving the Soviet Union and gaining independence had very deep implications for the Ukraine. The newly established country had to reshape its public policies, including education. Like in other Central and Easter European countries, the Ukrainian education have become the playground of politics. Especially higher education developed into a battlefield where democrats fight nationalists almost on a daily basis. The bets are high because, beyond (higher) education, the real dispute is over the status of minorities, about discrimination and the rule of law, and ultimately about democracy. Seen from a minoritarian point of view, the Ukrainian education policy is characterized by a fundamental duality: both the European influence and the Ukrainian nationalism can be observed simultaneously. During the political and economic changes, several positive objectives were implemented in the field of education policy, such as the opening towards the European Union, especially through the adoption of the Bologna system. Although one can say that, the country is pursuing an educational policy pointing towards the European values, it is undeniable that there also exists an involution regarding the rights of minorities. In our presentation, we intend to present one aspect of the educational policy of Ukraine from the political transition to the present day, namely the adhering to the Bologna Process. We will explain how Ukrainian education policy has evolved towards EU standards, how serious the Ukrainian Parliament has been in implementing the commitments, and how successful these efforts were. We also intend to examine the impact of the various political happenings on the educational policy of the Ukrainian state, including its minoritarian aspects, with special regards to the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia.
