The Bologna Process in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Strengthening, Re-Branding, or Undermining Higher Education?

Several years after Bosnia-Herzegovina formally agreed to partake in the Bologna Process of higher education reform, confusion, frustration, and misconceptions still abound among the country‘s students and educators about what Bologna actually means. This paper will analyze and discuss the process of integrating the Bologna process into college and university English language programs in BiH.The paper will use a number of sources in order to facilitate an in-depth exploration of the complexities surrounding Bologna implementation. Official guidelines, texts, and declarations published by the Council of Europe about the Bologna process will be a major source of research for this paper. The paper will also incorporate interviews with students, assistants, and professors from English departments of local universities to understand the perceived reality of these changes in college-level English programs. Drawing these sources together will be the case study of a year-long Council of Europe project devoted to curricular reform in BiH, one which included participation of both education experts and local English professors. By examining these sources together, this paper will contrast and analyze the fundamental tenets of the Bologna reforms, as well as the onthe- ground perceptions of the same process among English language teachers and learners. The paper will seek to pinpoint some sources of confusion between these positions, and to discuss the broader implications of these disconnects