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As described in Wikipedia article,

The Bologna Process is a series of ministerial meetings and agreements between European countries to ensure comparability in the standards and quality of higher-education qualifications.

Universities usually go through a series of supervisions to obtain the certificate that demonstrates the above mentioned quality of education.

These supervisions are, but not limited to, number of classrooms, regulations for exams, lab facilities, etc.

I am particularly interested in oral exam regulations. For instance, my former university had a strict rule:

There must be at least three lecturers/professors during the oral exam, and full voice recording is mandatory.

I wonder if such rule applies for all universities in the Bologna process, or my former university was being over cautious.

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  • Looking at procedures for PhD defences might help you find your answer. (I'm unaware of any university that records defences.)
    – user2768
    Apr 9, 2018 at 14:11
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    @corey979 can you show the reference?
    – padawan
    Apr 9, 2018 at 14:23
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    @padawan Any oral exam includes defenses... So you need only consider those to infer whether universities follow the Bologna process.
    – user2768
    Apr 9, 2018 at 14:31
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    @padawan Oral examinations are indeed a superset of defenses. I don't understand how I'm answering a more general question. Surely I'm asking a narrower question? This suffices to answer your question assuming the answer is negative, which is what MJeffryes has pointed out.
    – user2768
    Apr 9, 2018 at 14:42
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    @padawan What is more likely: All universities in the UK are failing to correctly implement the Bologna process, or that there are no rules about the number of faculty members present at oral exams? The UK procedure for oral exams is (as far as I know) quite different from other countries in Europe, which is further evidence against the possibility that the rules are harmonised.
    – MJeffryes
    Apr 9, 2018 at 14:46

1 Answer 1

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I don't believe there are any Bologna-wide regulations regarding the conduct of oral exams.

In general, the Bologna process is designed to set up the means of making education "portable," not strictly uniform. Individual countries and schools are given wide latitude for how they internally implement the processes: for instance, just look at the wide of grading systems used throughout the EU.

As a counterexample to your question, I worked as a faculty member in Germany, and the rules varied between faculties, let alone universities. For instance, one or two professors could conduct the oral exam, notes were taken by a recorder, and the exam was rarely, if ever, recorded. The only situation where things got more complicated is if a person could fail out of the program by failing the oral exam, in which case having two professors, one of whom did not teach the subject, was required.

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