The goal of the Bologna Process was to develop a European Higher Education Area within a decade. The goal and the process proved to be attractive, new countries steadily applied for accession, and the Bologna Process has brought about substantial reforms. At the same time, the drive and optimism of the early years has given way to more measured…

While the Bologna Process in Europe is the leading example, regional efforts towards harmonization of higher education are taking place in every corner of the world. In Africa, such a process has its roots from decades ago, although more coordinated activities are only recent phenomena. This paper looks back at the harmonization processes in…

Quality assurance processes have developed in Latin America since the beginning of the 1990s, trying to deal with the changes in higher education. This article is organized from two main perspectives: the first is mostly descriptive, and it focuses first on a brief outline of structural changes, that impact on the features of higher education in…

Ethical competencies are included in all competency-based education models and are considered essential for the professional preparation of students, especially in terms of their professional conduct and workplace preparedness. As such, the Tuning Academy, along with incorporating ethical competencies in its group of generic competencies, also…

The November 2014 issue of the Tuning Journal appeared under the theme "Policy and Implementation: Actions for Curriculum Reform". This article is a personal reflection on the role of curricula in achieving the aims of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and beyond. Its background is the postulate that the most important goals of…

Tuning is a faculty-driven initiative designed to improve the quality of higher education by establishing transparent and fully assessable learning outcomes and proficiencies for degrees, discipline by discipline. Unlike many other initiatives in the United States which function within an individual institution, the Utah Tuning Project involved…

Given the increasing demand for interculturally competent graduates and employees, it is incumbent upon the Tuning community to incorporate intercultural competence into Tuning Frameworks. With the growing diversity in the world today, beyond national diversity, intercultural competence cuts across disciplines, subjects, and contexts. This essay…

The rationale of the present paper is to investigate and stimulate a reflection on the "Tuning contribution to academic innovation" through the collection of case studies among some Tuning projects, focussing on methods and tools to implement successful and "innovative approaches to learning, teaching," and assessment…

Universities cater mainly for national audiences. But the days of splendid isolation are over. Students, graduates, faculty and staff vote with their feet. Institutions and system are, increasingly, involved in processes of regionalisation and globalisation. This article describes how a number of European initiatives are transforming the way…

The European Chemistry Thematic Network is a non-profit making association focused on enhancing the quality and harmonising the features of chemical education and training all over the European Higher Education Area. In the context of quality assurance, it developed European Quality Labels in Chemical Sciences, which were initiated in the frame of…

This paper describes the contribution of the Tuning Methodology toward harmonisation of undergraduate mechanical engineering programmes in Africa. This methodology is an interactive process in which academics develop high quality curricula and learning standards for students through the identification of generic and subject specific competences in…

The competence and learning outcomes approach, which intends to improve effective performance of academic staff and students, is becoming dominant in today's higher education. This was quite different 15 years ago. This contribution aims to offer insight in the reforms initiated and implemented, by posing and answering the questions why the time…

There is growing consensus in Latin America on the necessity to reorganize the degree profiles in a competence-based and student-centred system, with identified learning outcomes, innovative learning and teaching strategies, and new methodologies for assessing competences which could be useful for students. There is also agreement on the need to…

This article provides an overview of the profiling of higher education programmes in Europe as part of the overall process of higher education reform in Europe over the past decade (2000-2012) and of the role of Tuning in this process. The article starts with a recall of the architecture and objectives of the change process, based on the interplay…

During the last 25 years international mobility has become paramount in higher education. International and national authorities and higher education institutions have set-up effective structures to facilitate and implement this process. It has become part of a higher education modernization process which obtained a serious push with the start and…