U. of Europe?(creation of Europe-wide educational standards)(Cover story)

Byline: Silvia Spring

The partisans of a united Europe like to hail its most famous successes, like the creation of a central bank, a single currency and a common market. For some reason, though, an achievement that is perhaps no less important gets almost no attention, at least outside Europe: the common university system. Begun only eight years ago, and it is largely complete. Who knew?

Not long ago, moving students and staff between Europe's largely state-controlled universities was next to impossible; U.K. admissions officers, for example, were baffled when confronted by Portuguese transcripts, which graded students on a 20-point scale. And the Portuguese were equally confused by what exactly differentiated a British first-class degree from an upper second. National funding systems across Europe discouraged mobility, rewarding institutions that retained students and providing no incentives to study away from home.

Now, finally, much of that is changing. Degrees have become much easier to translate, thanks to the introduction of a uniform academic transcript--the Diploma Supplement. And the length of time it takes to complete a bachelor's or master's degree is also being unified. The continent's students hoping to study abroad won't be the only beneficiaries. The better Europe gets at moving its own students and academic staff around--and the less idiosyncratic its famously eccentric schools become--the more competitive it will be on the global education market.

In this sense, the changes are well timed. Around the planet, more and more students are starting to act like picky global consumers. Europe has little choice but to make its academic menu as appealing and easy to read as possible. To that end, 45 nations have been working since 1999 through the so-called Bologna process to make comparing courses and transferring students and staff easier.

Already, the changes have produced a quiet revolution. A full 82 percent of European universities have ditched their old five- to six-year undergraduate programs, which tended to be expensive for both taxpayers and students. Teaching requirements on various subjects are also being aligned, and 75 percent of institutions now use a common system for bestowing and transferring academic credits.

The new European Higher Education Area (as the Bologna process is properly known) should have fully standardized its member states by 2010, as planned. That represents an extraordinary success for advocates of a unified Europe. Lesley Wilson, secretary-general of the European University Association, says the new system should entice more students to "travel across the wider European area," producing the kind of flexible, cosmopolitan grads whom employers are looking for and raising the overall competitiveness of Europe and its schools.