Priorities for the development of the European Higher Education Area, to which Ukraine has been a member since 2005, were identified during conferences of ministers responsible for higher education in the European Higher Education Area, organized by the Bologna Follow-Up Group. The Rome Ministerial Conference took place last week, concluding the two-year cycle of the Bologna Process Support Group.

The event was held online for the first time in the history of the Bologna Process. Daria Horbenko, Candidate of Law, Senior Researcher of the Unit for the Organization of Scientific Activity and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, has taken part in the conference on behalf of the National Academy of Internal Affairs.

The conference included a round table with representatives of the Council of Europe, UNESCO and the Ministers of Education (or their representatives) of 48 member states. During the round table participants approved the Rome Ministerial Communiqué, a founding document, outlining development priorities for EHEA countries for the next 10 years.

The Rome Ministerial Communiqué emphasizes the fundamental values of higher education – academic freedom, university autonomy and the rule of law. Traditionally, the priority areas of the European Higher Education Area in international cooperation, social dimension, digitalization, recognition of qualifications and quality assurance in higher education have been identified.

Fair academic mobility and the digital environment of higher education are precisely the areas that the Academy has been actively and successfully implementing in recent years.

Unit for the Organization of Scientific Activity and
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, NAIA