Looking for Synergies: Education for Sustainable Development and the Bologna Process

Abstract

In defining quality of higher education, competences achieved by graduates are interpreted as essential criteria. There are two political processes in education dealing, among other issues, with competence development: the Bologna Process in European Higher Education Area and a global process—the United Nations (UN) Decade (2005–2014) of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This article presents the desired learning outcomes and the strategic principles for achieving them based on both the Bologna-2020 action lines and the UNECE Strategy for ESD as the regional strategy for the UN Decade. A possible interplay and synergy between these processes could bring a new insight to the development of the quality assurance concept within the Bologna Process. Key principles of ESD such as a value-orientation, a holistic approach, reflexivity and achieving transformation provide a learning philosophy and a strategy relevant to emerging qualities of the postmodern society.