The controversies over the Bologna process in Germany also
have a principle side, and that concerns the concept and the
idea or the philosophy of higher education and particularly
of the university. Contrary to the Bologna rhetoric which
evokes the spirit of the 'European' university, the values of
free inquiry, academic freedom (also for students!), critical
thinking, institutional autonomy etc, there is a different
picture of the university, of teaching and learning behind
the 'Lisbonised' Bologna system which belies the Sunday
speeches. That is a picture of prescribed modularised
curricula, developed and organised by professional curriculum
developers, a rationalised system of counting credits, hours,
'workload' (load!), controlled by quality assurance experts
under the umbrella of European Bologna superstructures.
