The context for the work of the Bologna Follow Up Group (BFUG) between 2005 and 2007 was clearly set out in the Bergen Communique, agreed by Ministers responsible for higher education in the Bologna signatory countries at their 4th conference in Bergen, Norway in May 2005. The Bergen Communiqué charged BFUG with a number of tasks, including:

• reporting on the implementation and further development of the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
• considering the practicalities of implementing a European register for quality assurance agencies
• preparing a report on the further development of the basic principles for doctoral programmes
• elaborating a strategy for the external dimension
• continuing and widening the stocktaking process
• presenting comparable data on the social dimension and student and staff mobility
• exploring the issues around arrangements for supporting the continuing development of the EHEA beyond 2010.

Individual BFUG members also took note of the need to continue to pursue the 10 Action Lines previously agreed in the Bologna Declaration and the subsequent Prague and Berlin Communiqués, with a view to realising the EHEA by 2010. These are:

1. Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees
2. Adoption of a system essentially based on two cycles (later three)
3. Establishment of a system of credits
4. Promotion of mobility
5. Promotion of European cooperation in quality assurance
6. Promotion of the European dimension in higher education
7. Lifelong learning
8. Higher education institutions and students
9. Promoting the attractiveness of the EHEA
10. Doctoral studies and the synergy between the EHEA and the European Research Area.

In recent years, there has been a gradual evolution in the working methods used by BFUG to pursue Ministerial goals. The number of Bologna seminars, where higher education stakeholders from across the EHEA come together to develop policy, is reducing. Conversely, working groups and projects are becoming more effective working methods, as policy lines have been largely elaborated and there is an increasing focus on more detailed implementation issues. The need to share good practice and focus on completing the implementation of the Bologna Action Lines at the national level is also becoming more significant as we approach 2010.

Taking this into account, and based on advice from the BFUG Chair (UK), and the BFUG Board, the Secretariat prepared a draft Work Programme for 2005-2007 over the summer of 2005. For the first time, all BFUG members were invited to comment on the draft Work Programme, suggest topics for policy development seminars and volunteer to take part in working groups.

• BFUG7_5a Work programme 2005-2007
• BFUG7_5a Annex A Draft work programme table 2005-2007

Comments on the draft Work Programme were received from more than half the BFUG members, with some 60 members volunteering to take part in working groups. This demonstrates the level of interest in working collaboratively to develop the EHEA. Working Group members were then selected, taking account of the need to ensure group membership reflected the geographical scope of the EHEA.

Following discussion at the Manchester BFUG (October 2005), this led to an agreed BFUG Work Programme for 2005-07 BFUG Work Programme 2005-2007 comprising the following items. 

5 (later 6) working groups on:

• stocktaking
• external dimension
• social dimension and data on staff and student mobility
• qualifications frameworks
• portable grants and loans
• drafting the communique

8 Bologna seminars, considering

• cultural heritage and values of the EHEA
• the attractiveness of the EHEA
• employability
• joint degrees
• Bologna in a global setting
• recognition
• staff and student mobility
• doctoral programmes

2 projects

• the practicalities of implementing a European register of quality assurance agencies
• doctoral programmes

a number of topics for discussion of BFUG, including

• capacity building within the EHEA
• European dimension

agreed priorities for implementation at the national level.

Source: Bergen to London 2007 - Secretariat Report on the Bologna Work Programme 2005-2007
Bologna Process between Bergen and London