Lina Novik

The democratic revolution of 1989 in Poland, the first of its kind in Eastern Europe, laid the foundation of transformations in all spheres of life of the Polish State. The victory over the three whales of the Soviet model of the State governance – political monopoly of one party, unitary nature of the State power and singleness of the State property – demanded the radical transformation of the third, public sector, as well as the first, State one; as for the entrepreneurship, it should have been built from scratch. All this required new human resources: one way or the other, they still were all-important. This is why the educational reform was among the most important ones, in my opinion.
When the comprehensive reform of the entire educational system was implemented, they took into consideration absence of adaptive capacities of the existing system of education to the progress rate and extent of civilization and social changes and of equal chances in accessibility of education at its every level, low percentage rate of young people who got secondary and higher education, as well as discrepancy between the professional education and rapid changes of requirements in the market economy.
Today, as we know, after graduating from a Polish university a student gets a diploma which meets the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). The education itself, again at the European level, costs out much less than education along similar programs but in other European countries. Some institutions where tuition is done in English even issue two diplomas: Polish and British. Polish universities are popular among foreigners as well: now Poland ranks No. 7 in the world rating for the number of foreign students – and it happened, in my opinion, also owing, in many respects, to reforms undertaken in 1989.
Since then in Poland numerous private primary and secondary schools emerged – parochial schools as well as “public” ones whose activities are partly financed by donations; several new private universities have also been established.
This process acquired special magnitude since 1991. Private universities became then serious competitors of the State ones, and it was actually the main reason of development of education and improvement of its quality. Also, it pushed municipal universities to implement a new reform – to bring educational institutions to the standard of an American “university-enterprise”.
Reforms of higher education reached the most diverse spheres of this process such as organization of higher education, scientific programs, management of institutions of higher education, and scientific research. Besides, programs which were used in the European Union even at that time were put to use in the implementation of structural changes of higher education in Poland. These were primarily Jean Monett, Tempus, Socrates, Erasmus and Leonardo.
All these steps towards the international level education in the conditions of today’s Poland allowed the country to join the Bologna Process and to become part of the single European educational space after ministers of education of twenty-nine European States signed the so-called Bologna Declaration.

That is not to say that the process of joining was an easy one for Poland: as numerous other participating countries of the Bologna Process Poland faced several problems such as need to streamline areas of education, creation of the second level of education, issues of correlation between the first and the second level (Bachelor’s and Master’s programs) and many others. However, as a result, Polish universities got new opportunities for international cooperation with other European universities, a possibility to send their students and professors abroad for a certain time in the framework of the so-called mobility programs but above all – to issue diplomas recognized in Europe.
Two years later in Prague four new countries joined the Bologna Process. In 2003 at the third conference in Berlin the community of participating countries of the Bologna Process was enlarged by seven more countries including Russia. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine joined in 2005. Altogether, to this date forty-six countries joined the Bologna Process – these are all European States except Belarus.
Actually, the discussion on inclusion of Belarusians to the European educational processes started already in 1990s. For example, some of the principles which universities in Europe adhere to were included in the academic practice of the European Humanities University already several years before the Bologna conference.
EHU’s experience was used by other Belarusian universities as well. Nevertheless, practically all best practices and ideas of leading Belarusian philosophers and methodologists of education as well as proposals on peculiar modernization of the Belarusian educational system which would allow it to be coupled with the European system were rejected by the Government and the Ministry of Education already in early 1990s at the launch of the educational reform. The fate of EHU is also well known. Speaking before students at the Brest State University on September 23, 2004 President of the Republic of Belarus Alaksandar Lukashenka said that EHU was forming the new national elite which should lead the country to the West, and the European future of Belarus was, therefore, at variance with the president’s plans. In July 2004 EHU was stripped of its license issued in May that year. After the involuntary cessation of activities former employees, professors and students of EHU experienced an attack of the Belarusian authorities and security officers. The university was able to resume its activities in Vilnius with political, organizational and financial assistance from the Lithuanian Government, the European Commission, the Nordic Council of Ministers, MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation (New York), the Open Society Institute, the American Councils for International Education, Eurasia Foundation, as well as governments of Belgium, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. It still continues its activities, forms bachelors and masters, takes parts in the scientific life of the region but now on the territory of Lithuania and on behalf of a private Lithuanian university.
Possibility of Belarus joining the Bologna Process was discussed on several occasions but no definite official decision on the State level was ever taken. In different times different European elements were introduced in Belarusian universities – ten-point evaluation system, systems of credits and the model of “two-level” education “Bachelor – Master”, ratings, centralized testing as a form of the unique entrance examination to be admitted to the Belarusian universities and even the twelve-year system of school education as a required element to ensure the quality formation of future students. However, surprisingly, all these “western novelties” were accepted only because they could exist in the conditions of the Soviet school (“We accept all the good which existed in the Soviet system of education as well as very judiciously – some elements of the European one”, Uladzimier Zdanovich, deputy of the Chamber of Representatives pointed out once), and thus the character of the Belarusian higher education did not practically change since 1991 up to date. To introduce the system of credits and the ten-point evaluation system is not sufficient to become a European institution: one of the main conditions of the Bologna Process is democratization of education which is still impossible in the Belarusian universities.

Just some years ago Belarus’ accession to the Bologna Process could be regarded by the Belarusian authorities as a political instrument, a way to start a dialogue with Europe. However, it is not of current interest now. But despite the foregoing, Belarus cannot remain in isolation being situated in the center of Europe. This is evidenced by the fact that European universities, in particular, the Polish ones, become more and more popular among graduates of Belarusian schools. And it means that several years later a respectable community of graduates of European universities, having notion about the European education, its weaknesses and strengths and understanding mechanisms of its functioning will exist in Belarus – and this is enough to enroot these mechanisms in Belarus as well. Of course, if Belarus needs it.