IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BOLOGNA PROCESS AT THE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING FACULTY OF THE WROCLAW UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

The process of harmonising the education systems in the international aspect – commonly known as the Bologna Process – has been initiated on June 19, 1999. On that day, 29 higher education ministers from European states signed the so called Bologna Declaration (BD). In the course of the Bologna Process implementation, Poland has undertaken a series of changes and modifications to the existing higher education system by introducing, among others, the common use of the Diploma Supplement, developing the study system based at 3 educational stages, adopting the credit point transfer system ECTS, and creating the National Accreditation Commission for supervising most of the tasks related to the BP implementation at various faculties. The legal document which fulfils the BP recommendations is the Higher Education Act of 27.07.2005 (Dz.U. for 2005, No 164, pos. 1365) along with later Regulations of the Minister of Science and Higher Education. The Wroclaw University of Technology (positioned according to various rankings within the top three places for universities of technology) have also been actively implementing the recommendations and resolutions of the BP, the proof of which was creation of the special academic unit called the Basic Education Study, aimed at proper preparation of the medium school graduates for study at the Wroclaw University of Technology, within the basic sciences (mathematics, physics and related technical sciences). One of the biggest faculties at the Wroclaw University of Technology is the Mechanical Engineering Faculty. The work presents the way of the BP implementation at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty. Detailed description of the present educational system at the Mechanical Engineering of the WUT has been presented. An analysis of the BP implementation advancement degree at the background of other European universities offering the same education form at the Mechatronics direction (such as the German and Spanish ones) has been made. The equivalent study levels have been compared with indicating the ways of the BP resolution implementation. The work was not focused only at the subjective feelings of the Authors, but rather at the actual status of the resolutions implementation. Moreover, the shape of the future plan for BP accomplishment both, at the ME Faculty, and at the WUT has been drawn.