Minority Higher Education and the Bologna Process

Minority higher education - religious-based, community owned or established by national and ethnic minorities - have been one of the typical developments of the political transition (1988-94) on Central Europe. They partly served the special requirements of those who contributed to their births and early developments? And partly they served the higher education expansion which was 20 years late compared to other parts of Europe. These institutions were under siege right from the beginning. They were attacked by the majority societies, by the governments, and, lately, by the developments during the Bologna Process. The Bologna Process - according to its declarations and communiqués - is intended to create the "European higher education area" by the support of the participating governments. Is there any room for the minority institutions in those government supported modernization? According to the case studies they may have two alternatives. They might integrate into the governments-based higher education systems of their countries (and scarify their autonomies and original missions). Or they might save their autonomies and pay the expensive prices of marginalization. Few cases show a possible third way: the establishing of alternative networks of world-wide cooperation in accreditation and quality assurance processes. These cooperations may give the hope that the minority institutions might save their autonomy even into he European higher education area.