Bologna Digital 2020 White Paper on Digitalisation in the European Higher Education Area

Europe needs new visions for contemporary higher education in the digital age. Digitalisation is not only an additional challenge, but also an effective means to address key challenges for higher education in the 21st century. This paper focuses on current developments and the discourse to be sharpened by 2020, but looks to the future of higher education. It follows the vision that in 2030, universities and colleges of higher education offer courses of study that are much more flexible and offer different learning pathways recognising the diversity of the student population. They are central institutions of lifelong learning, on campus and on digital platforms. The university will be a networked and open institution in 2030, which cooperates much more closely with other universities as well as the community and jointly develops and provides educational programmes.
The aim of this White Paper is to provide a basis for public discourse and a foundation for strategic policy development on how to harness the digitalisation of higher education in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
As preliminary work, an internal background paper was disseminated among European experts as preparation for an international workshop, which took place in Berlin in December 2018. The workshop was part of the European activities of the German Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age / Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) and thus sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
It invited European experts and stakeholders to comment on selected topics and positions and further develop joint approaches on making best use of digitalisation in the EHEA. As a follow-up, the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research (BMBWF) invited stakeholders to a second workshop which took place in Vienna in May 2019 and, amongst others, focused on examples of good practice.
Based on the discussions and outcomes of these workshops, this paper aims to highlight major topics and measures to be focused on by 2020 and beyond. Through showcasing practical examples from throughout the European Higher Education Area it also aims to set the ground for stronger European peer-learning in the context of digitalisation in higher education. These practical examples have been provided by experts and European stakeholder organisations that played an active role in the recent discourse.
The workshops gathered university representatives, European higher education stakeholders, governmental staff from different member states and other stakeholders active in European higher education. Participants included representatives from public authorities in Austria, Germany, the Holy See, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania as well as European stakeholder organisations such as the European University Association (EUA), the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE), the European Students Union (ESU), the European University Foundation (EUF) and the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR).The experts representing these organisations agreed that there was an urgent need to take the topic of digitalisation further within the European Higher Education Area and its member states. This White Paper has been developed on the basis of fruitful discussions with the individuals who attended the two workshops and was subject of several feedback rounds. However, responsibility for the final formulation of the concepts, challenges and opportunities in this paper rests with the authors of this paper.

1.2 Digitalisation as a Policy Focus
Higher education is the domain, where many aspects of change arising for the digitalisation of our world come together. There are four specific requirements of a higher education, if society is to fully embrace the opportunities of the digital age within the framework of sustainable development:
• Learners need to acquire new skills and competences, which enable them to fully benefit from the ‘digital dividends’ of technology
• Study programmes need to reflect on and react to the developments in society and the labour market
• Higher education institutions should be a place to consider and even practice future social reform, which can truly harness the benefits of digitalisation for all
• The opportunities of digitalisation for creating new learning spaces should be harnessed to improve the accessibility and quality of educational provision
This understanding of higher education echoes what Ron Barnett has called the ‘ecological university’, which above all focuses on its role in society (2011).
Until recently, and as in many political circles, digitalisation has rather been seen as an additional challenge in connection to higher education reform, instead of being viewed as an integral part of higher education provision in a digital world.
In 2015, the EHEA ministers made a strong connection between teaching and learning at higher education institutions and this process of digital transformation:
“Enhancing the quality and relevance of learning and teaching is the main mission of the EHEA. We will encourage and support higher education institutions and staff in promoting pedagogical innovation in student-centred learning environments and in fully exploiting the potential benefits of digital technologies for learning and teaching.“ (Yerevan Communiqué, 2015)
An even broader discussion was expressed early 2018 in the Position paper ‘Bologna Digital’ (Orr, van der Hijden, Rampelt, Röwert, & Suter, 2018b)5, which was endorsed by several organisations (HFD, Kiron, FiBS, EADTU, ICDE, Groningen Declaration Network). The authors argue:
“[..] Digitalisation has not been ignored within the Bologna Process. […] However, the full potential of digitalisation has not been reached on systemic level. This is partly due to digitalisation being viewed as an additional challenge, rather than a means to meet existing challenges for higher education.”

While this argument is neither original nor new, the paper was welcomed in preparation for the ministerial meeting of the Bologna signatory countries in April 2018 due to its clarity and for its emphasis on the fact that the current goals of the Bologna Process can be better achieved through harnessing digital technology. One of the first European events focussing on higher education following the Paris Communique and organised under the Austrian European Presidency took on this view to discuss the opportunities for flexibility presented through digitalisation (Unger & Zaussinger, 2018).
The European Commission has focussed on the topic of education in the digital age. As early as 2016 its communication on modernising education stated:
"Digital transformation is changing the job market and requiring new skill sets. Digital technologies will also offer new ways of learning provided that there is adequate access to these technologies. To reap the benefits of these trends, education and training systems need to respond better to these changing realities." (European Commission, 2016)
In 2018 it launched the Digital Education Action Plan, which set out three priorities: making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning; developing relevant digital competences and skills for the digital transformation; and improving education through better data analysis and foresight.6
The final communiqué of the Paris Ministerial Conference similarly set a new focus on the possibilities of digitalisation (Paris Communiqué, 2018):
“Digitalisation plays a role in all areas of society and we recognise its potential to transform how higher education is delivered and how people learn at different stages of their lives. We call on our higher education institutions to prepare their students and support their teachers to act creatively in a digitalised environment. We will enable our education systems to make better use of digital and blended education, with appropriate quality assurance, in order to enhance lifelong and flexible learning, foster digital skills and competences, improve data analysis, educational research and foresight, and remove regulatory obstacles to the provision of open and digital education. We call on the BFUG to take the issue of digitalisation forward in the next working period.”
This is promising and leads to the expectation that the Bologna Process will maintain a more open understanding and focus on digitalisation in the period leading up to the next ministerial conference in Rome in 2020. The aim of the “Bologna Digital” initiative is to galvanise debate and activities around this until 2020 and beyond.