Bournemouth University is part of the University Alliance, previously convened informally as the Alliance of Non-Aligned Universities, which was formed in 2006 and comprises a mixture of pre and post 1992 universities. The member institutions have a balanced portfolio of research, teaching, enterprise and innovation integral to their missions and represent a strong voice from the middle sector making a vital contribution to the prosperity of the country.
Bournemouth University is among the first UK higher education institutions to issue Diploma Supplements to graduating students.
In addition to their diploma or degree certificates, all BU students graduating from postgraduate and undergraduate programmes since 2007 receive a Diploma Supplement.
The four-page document describes the qualification undertaken by the student, outlines the programme content, provides a full transcript of the students' performance and outlines the structure of the higher education system within which it was issued.
Issued by the University's Registry, the Supplement holds the University seal. It aims to provide greater transparency and uniformity to the presentation of programme details and acts as an aid to student mobility, access and lifelong learning and employability.
The Diploma Supplement is one of the initiatives resulting from the Bologna Declaration - an intergovernmental agreement signed in 1999 that aims to create greater coherence and transparency to European higher education.
The University will be shortly seeking official Diploma Supplement endorsement.
Extract from the Bologna Process at European Unit.
The Bologna Process is an intergovernmental initiative which aims to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010 and to promote the European system of higher education worldwide. It now has 46 participating countries and it is conducted outside the formal decision making framework of the European Union. Decision-making within the Process rests on the consent of all the participating countries.
It was launched in 1999 when Ministers from 29 European countries, including the UK, met in Bologna and signed a declaration establishing what was necessary to create a EHEA by the end of the decade. The broad objectives of the Bologna Process became: to remove the obstacles to student mobility across Europe; to enhance the attractiveness of European higher education worldwide; to establish a common structure of higher education systems across Europe, and; for this common structure to be based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate.
In 2005 the Europe Unit produced the first edition of its own Guide to the Bologna Process. This was updated by the Unit's Guide to the Bologna Process - second edition which was published at the end of 2006. For further information on Diploma Supplements and other aspects of the Bologna Process please visit: Europe Unit, The UK Grad Programme, Bologna Process, European University Association.