Bushra Hassan Marouf
University of Sulaimani

Abstract

The main concept of the emergence of the bologna process was to reform the higher education system in several countries in Europe. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research-Kurdistan Region initiated the establishment of a new educational system a few years ago as a bologna process, for improving the learning outcomes in Kurdistan Universities. The curriculum and the education program in the bologna process have been rearranged based on the student-centered learning approach. This report summarizes the development of the bologna process in Kurdistan region universities, factors for changing the teaching strategies toward student skill achievement, advantages of the bologna process, challenges for the implementation of this process, suggestions for easier practice, and greater outcome. Furthermore, the report addresses this question; Do Kurdistan Universities ready for bologna implementation? The future prospects of this process have also been addressed.

This documentary report has been prepared as a pilot bologna project application that has been implemented for three years in College of Pharmacy-University of Sulaimani. All the changes and modifications in the curriculum were done based on the formal letters from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The strategies and the methods adopted for implementation of this process was derived from the experience of the college itself. Challenges and barriers for implementation of bologna process in this region can be summarized as; shortage of academic staff number to fulfill the requirement of appropriate staffstudent number, lack of the fundamental facilities for practical application of all the elements of this process in order to reform the classical one. After implementing the bologna process, the quality assurance assessment system is needed to be structured to evaluate the entire process in the context of implementation. Monitoring of the application of this process in the entire colleges of all universities belong to Ministry of Higher Education is crucial to highlight the positive impact of this system on the education outcome in Kurdistan region.