Abstract:

The Bologna Process, which can be seen as a result and a follow-up of several European conferences as well as certain political decisions leading to the creation of so called European space of tertiary education, has raised both high hopes and at the same time some serious concerns. It aroused a lot of feedback among academic staff, students and general public.

The Bologna process represents such a big impact on higher education that some authors in this context write, for instance, about a paradigm shift in university education. The Bologna Process is regarded by many as the most extensive and systemic reform effort in the history of the European higher education. At the same time, the Bologna Process is very complex and internally contradictory. It has its critics and supporters, its weak and strong points. Currently there does not seem to be any other educational phenomenon more controversial than the Bologna Process and the whole agenda associated with it.

Nowadays there are many evaluation reports, analyses, studies, articles, monographs or anthologies available that deal with the Bologna Process from different perspectives. This paper has three main goals. First, to structure and subsequently analyse materials that deal with the evaluation of the Bologna Process and its impact on the higher education sector. Second, to provide information about the feedback on the Bologna Process related to the structuring of higher education into bachelor study programs and follow-up master study programs in the Czech Republic and Abroad. The third goal of this paper is to present results of an empirical research carried out among students of the Faculty of Education of Charles University concerning their opinions about structured and non-structured teacher education.

Keywords:

The Bologna Declaration, the Bologna Process, structured studies, bachelor study program, follow-up master study program, preliminary teacher education.