The integration and the enhanced cooperation with Europe in the sphere of higher education have become and remained an important component of the European integrative intentions of Ukraine. For many years, our state has been an important strategic partner for Europe. Since gaining independence, the government of Ukraine has constantly declared the will to implement the European principles in all spheres of the social life. The sphere of education and science was no exception. Through many years in Ukraine, the process of reforming both the educational system as a whole and higher education system in particular is still in progress. These reforms continue in difficult times for our state. The authorities and the governments are changing, but all of them have been declaring “the European choice of Ukraine”. It is clear-cut that the process of reforms, transformations and innovations is complicated, often painful and is perceived ambiguously by society. However, it is obvious that one way or the another, but the Ukrainian educational system needed to be reformed, updated and modernizated.
In 2005, our state became an official participant of the Bologna Club by signing the Bologna Declaration, which gave rise to the Bologna process – the process of creating a united European educational space. The main principles of the Bologna Process have been and remain the following principles: the establishment of similar, understandable and accessible educational standards, mutual recognition, the intensification of academic mobility and academic exchanges, the development and the financing of various educational projects, programs and grants, the creation of conditions for the formation of a common market, the enhancement of the competitiveness of European educational system. As part of the Bologna process, our state entered a new phase in reforming the education system. First of all, the reforming of the higher education by committing itself to gradually move to the European educational standards, introducing the basic principles and elements of the Bologna process.
The article examines the main stages of the reform process of the Ukrainian higher education system within the framework of participation in the Bologna process, describes the legal and regulatory framework for the transition of the national higher education to European educational standards, justifies the importance and perspective of educational reforms on the path to European integration.
Essence and identity in polytechnic higher education in Portugal: from the basic law on the educational system to the Bologna Declaration
