Bologna: A Challenge for Liberal Education and an Exceptional Opportunity

Overview & Synopsis

Given a reasonable resolve to learn from the best that the Bologna Process has to offer, the author contends that one might also respond to the challenge it offers by standing up for the singular strengths of U.S. higher education: (1) long-standing commitment to broad access; (2) embrace of diversity as an educational good; and, most notably, (3) distinctive commitment to providing "tertiary level" students with a liberal education. More effectively developed and articulated, this commitment could become an even more highly visible strength of U.S. higher education and, thus, an even more competitive asset internationally. Indeed, aspiring to a liberal education for all college students may represent the best means available by which U.S. higher education can maintain or even advance its long-standing reputation for preeminence.