CALL FOR PAPERS

The Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference (FOHE-BPRC6)

1 – 3 September 2026

Bucharest

The Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), together with the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research will organise the 6th edition of the ”Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference” (FOHE-BPRC6), in Bucharest, Romania on 1-3 September 2026.

The Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference (FOHE-BPRC) has already established itself as a landmark initiative in the European Higher Education Area. Along its’ five editions carried out so far, the FOHE-BPRC managed to fill in an essential gap within the Bologna Process by galvanizing the voice of researchers and offering a space for evidence-based contributions that feed into the European policy-making, thus bring a significant contribution to the development of the Bologna Process. The FOHE-BPRC, organised by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), is one of the lasting outputs of the Romanian Bologna Secretariat (2010-2012). The Conference brings additional impetus to the implementation of the ministerial commitments within the EHEA by articulating the main research topics and questions about the Bologna Process, identifying policy implications and ensuring the knowledge exchange by presenting them to the wider public and the decision-makers gathered in the Ministerial Conference of the EHEA. The crucial role of knowledge dissemination and policy dialogue with the wider range of stakeholders within higher education has also been acknowledged by the ministers of higher education in the Tirana Communiqué (2024), which “recognised the need for all EHEA countries to disseminate knowledge and engage in dialogue and collaboration on ongoing work, in order to ensure a more effective linkage between the policy level and the higher education community. This may also include the establishment of international and national expert networks, supporting their implementation and cooperation across borders and with the BFUG”.

The 6^th anniversary edition of the event marks 15 years from the first FOHE-BPRC and is organized in the context of the second instance when UEFISCDI is hosting the EHEA Secretariat, held by Romania and the Republic of Moldova between 2024-2027 and culminating with the Iași – Chișinău Ministerial Conference in May 2027.

Under this celebratory backdrop, the upcoming edition of FOHE-BPRC will feature a novel conference format by fully embracing its role for policy translation and fostering science into policy. Concurrently, the Conference will maintain the core features which ensured its success: high-quality research on salient topics authored by renowned and emerging researchers interested in the Bologna Process, rigorously peer-reviewed by leading figures and published in an open-access Springer publication.

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Novelties for the 6th FOHE-BPRC edition

The Conference will promote a broad vision focused on political impact and global outlook. Whereas an essential angle of the Conference lies on the developments in the EHEA and particularly those impacting internationalization, viewed in the broadest terms, the BPRC has been a global conference encouraging cross-regional and international dialogue, benchmarking, comparison and exchange of good practice. As such, previous editions welcomed researchers from over 50 countries and included articles that tackle global challenges in higher education, and analyze comparative solutions and policy implications for the EHEA.

The 6th edition of the Conference will reinforce the link between research and policy-making by dividing the format into two intertwined sections: ‘Researchers’ Voice’ and ‘EduGlobal’. Whilst the first section would maintain the generic structure of international academic conferences and the previous editions, the ‘EduGlobal’ format would bring together European and global decision-makers and organizations (the European Union institutions, national ministries, UNESCO, IAU, etc.) to directly address the issues raised by researchers and other topics of common concern on pressing issues facing the international cooperation in higher education. Within the European framework, such format would further contribute to the coordination between the European Higher Education Area, the European Education Area and the European Research Area. Such coordination represented a leitmotif within the European policy landscape whose necessity has been exacerbated by the global complexities, increasing role of the European University Alliances and the required nexus between academia and research in boosting competitiveness.

Until the next Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference