La universidad española ante las exigencias de implementación de la actual reforma del sistema educativo

Abstract

In this article examines the relationship between the implementation of the Bologna Process and the significant drop in public expenditure in education in Spain. The article begins by outlining the alignment of the Spanish higher education system to EU education programmes, the Lisbon agenda and the Bologna Process in order to constitute a European higher education space. In the first part basic concepts such as knowledge society, employability, lifelong learning, graduated mobility and active methodologies are analysed. They are seen as representing the rationalist and utilitarian framework under which the Bologna process is performed. The article concludes with an analysis of how different educational challenges are produced by the current politics, in particular because the Spanish University has recently seen a significant drop in public expenditure. The central claim is that budgetary reductions in higher education lead to very serious deficiencies putting at serious risk the achievement of the European Higher Education Area goals.