Bologna Process Implementation in Romania: Policy Implementation Lessons

Romania is one of the signatories of the Bologna Process Declaration in 1999.Following this decision, Romania made efforts for the alignment of its higher education system to the objectives and the policies promoted by the Bologna Process. In this process different action lines have received different attention, as the understanding of the policy problems and the national priorities were not always in line with the EHEA ministerial agreements. The current article looks at the main commitments Romania has made within the Bologna Process by analysing the overall national implementation, the associated funding policies and institutional practices. The article focuses on three Bologna Process action lines: social dimension, quality assurance and internationalization of higher education, due to their complexity (beyond legal changes), impact at the grassroots level and their various understandings by the stakeholder community. The article ends with a short overview of the policy lessons that can be drawn regarding Bologna Process and its national translation for other countries which found themselves in policy transitions in the past two decades.