Abstract
With the advent of the Bologna Process to develop higher education in the European Union, university teachers and students have gone through a process of change. This change required an adjustment to the demands of higher education reform governed by European convergence. However, the resulting transformations in pedagogical practice have ostensibly affected not only teacher-student attitudes and relationships but also the academic culture.
 
 Within the new educational paradigm, the shift to a student-centered pedagogy has meant the empowering of individual students providing them with the opportunity to direct their own learning. However, the issue now is how to address and exercise student empowerment in the real-life class. This study is an investigation into the role of teachers to strike a balance between the forces pushing them to adapt to the new pedagogical framework and the need to improve student self-reliance and ownership of learning. It concludes by reaffirming the advantages of applying an empowerment-based approach, already recognized by current research, that enhances teacher and students relations in an effective learning environment.
Highlights
Since the European Convergence in 1999 (Sorbonne Declaration 1998), the common European Higher Education Area was set to harmonize national higher education systems in Europe by 2010 through the Bologna Process
With the advent of the Bologna Process to develop higher education in the European Union, university teachers and students have gone through a process of change
The Bologna Process (Bologna) identified through a European Union ministerial communiqué the concept of ‘student-centered learning’: i.e., an approach to education where learners and their needs are the focus of the whole teaching and learning process
Summary
Since the European Convergence in 1999 (Sorbonne Declaration 1998), the common European Higher Education Area was set to harmonize national higher education systems in Europe by 2010 through the Bologna Process. The main objective is to strengthen the activities and interactions of the student learning process (García-Ruiz, Gonzalez, & Contreras, 2014) This new arrangement has contributed to revolutionize the teaching environment with new technologies supporting this tremendous change. Autonomous learning is considered essential since students have to become independent from the teacher and learn how to organize their learning agendas They engage in the process of knowledge construction and remain open to alternative forms of study: i.e. blended learning, flipped classrooms, MOOCs, OER. Universities do not want to be left behind and all compete for visibility in higher education rankings, at least national rankings Faculty have seen their workload increase considerably by having to make a personal follow-up of each student more closely than ever before including their level of knowledge and competences. What is important for students now is that they feel they have gained more attention and interest from all institutions in such a way that their modes of learning, their views and interests form a valuable part of the educational process, and enhances their empowerment
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