24.07.2025 (Caucasian Journal). What is the relationship between education and democracy? Why is EU membership important for education?
The Caucasian Journal has a rare opportunity to pose these and other questions to Sjur BERGAN, one of Europe's leading education policymakers. He served as the head of the Council of Europe's Education Department for many years and played a pivotal role in shaping European higher education policy. Previously, he represented the CoE in the Bologna Follow-Up Group for over two decades, chaired the working groups on structural reforms, and was the main author of the landmark Lisbon Recognition Convention.
▶ ქართულად: The Georgian version is here.
To be the first to view exclusive interviews, please subscribe here to our YouTube Channel
Sjur BERGAN: “I DON'T THINK YOU CAN HAVE DEMOCRACY WITHOUT GOOD EDUCATION”
Alexander KAFFKA, editor-in-chief of Caucasian Journal: Today, our special guest is Dr. Sjur BERGAN, who served as the head of the Council of Europe's Education Department for many years and played a pivotal role in shaping European higher education policy. Previously, he represented the Council of Europe in the Bologna Follow-Up Group for over two decades, chaired the working groups on structural reforms, and was the main author of the landmark Lisbon Recognition Convention.
So, Dr. Bergan, welcome to the Caucasian Journal!
Sjur BERGAN: Thank you very much.
AK: The primary question is rather straightforward. What does a full European Union membership truly mean in terms of education opportunities? For example, Georgia is already a member of the European Higher Education Area and has access to Erasmus+. What's the added value that the countries would receive as full members of the EU?
SB: I was head of the Education Department in the Council of Europe (CoE) for quite some time. I'm now retired, so now I speak as an independent, not on behalf of the CoE, and the Council of Europe, of course, is a broader organization than the European Union, with 46 members, of which all three South Caucasian countries are members.
If you ask about the advantages in everyday life, I think education is one of the areas in which broader European cooperation, whether within the framework of the EU or within the framework of the European Higher Education Area, is quite developed. So, I think there are many opportunities with EU programs like Erasmus+, also for students and staff from the South Caucasus countries. But on a day-to-day level, you may not feel an immediate difference, at least in higher education.
Populism tends to downplay or even challenge the notion that societal decisions should be based on academic knowledge.
I come from Norway originally, and Norway is bound by the decisions that the EU makes, but it's not a party to those decisions. If you're committed to European cooperation, whether it's through the CoE or the EU, you want to be in when the decisions are made.
I think the advantages are less at an everyday level than at the policy and decision-making level: The EU Education Committee, which is made up of ministry officials, coordinates policies in a way that would not include countries that are not members or very closely related to the EU.
So, I don't think you'll see a difference from day one, but from year one or year ten, yes, I think you would.
AK: In your opinion, do all the European member states share the same values to the same extent? And how important is this consistency? I believe you are the right person to ask this.
SB: The short answer is yes and no. I think you need to distinguish between what they have adhered to, in terms of declarations and policies, and what they actually put into practice.
In the European higher education area, all ministers have agreed to implement six fundamental values of higher education: Academic freedom, academic integrity, institutional autonomy, student and staff participation in higher education governance, and public responsibility of higher education. In the context of the CoE, all member states or all the countries in the European Cultural Convention have adopted the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.
Education alone will not ensure democracy, but I also don't think you can have democracy without good education.
So, the notion is that democracy is certainly democratic institutions: parliament, city councils, laws, and the constitution. But not only the constitution and elections are, of course, key to democracy. The notion of democratic culture means that these institutions, laws, and elections will not be democratic unless they build on what they call “culture of democracy”. And that's really a set of attitudes and behaviours. If you look at how you put them into practice, that's something else. There are issues, I think, in several countries.
In the context of the European Higher Education Area, the fundamental values were largely taken for granted. They were always present in the declaration, and there was an assumption that they functioned quite well.
That assumption, I think, changed somewhere between 2012 and 2015. Why this change? Because in many countries, you see an emerging populism - mostly on the right, sometimes on the left. Populism has several aspects. One is that populism tends to downplay or even challenge the notion that societal decisions should be based on academic knowledge and understanding. And that, of course, has an impact on higher education.
AK: You have already touched on my next question, which was about the connection between education and democracy, which I think is fundamental. I would still very much like to hear your opinion on this.
SB: To me, education alone will not ensure democracy, but I also don't think you can have democracy without good education. And the CoE has defined for major purposes of education - obviously preparation for the labor market, but also preparation for life as active citizens in democratic societies, personal development, and then a society that needs a broad and advanced knowledge base. So if you look at the factual knowledge aspect of education, it's easy to make the case that in modern societies, this is essential.
That doesn't make the societies democratic. So the democratic dimension comes in through the attitudes that education should also develop.
Democracy is not just about institutions and laws. It's about making these democratic in practice. And I don't quite see how this can function unless the attitudes and the competences to do so have been developed through the educational system. It needs to start at the very earliest age and then continue all through education, even also at universities.
And we also have a concept called the whole-school or the whole institution approach, which is really not about each individual subject, but about how people interact at the school or at the university. Are the interactions marked by respect? Do students at all ages feel that they have some influence on their own everyday situation? It can be a very simple project, and it can be quite a complex project.
AK: You have a tremendous experience working at the Council of Europe. Can you name any good examples of the new democracies getting closer to Western standards?
SB: If you look at the road traveled since about 1990, which is when I started at CoE, when several countries in Central and Eastern Europe were new member states and the countries emanating from the former Soviet Union were not yet member states, it's certainly not been without problems, but it's been tremendous.
Georgia has contributed substantially to the development, for example, of the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. Georgia had very good representatives in the Bologna Follow-Up Group, which is overseeing the European higher education area. Armenia organized the ministerial conference of the European Higher Education Area in 2015 and certainly influenced this very strongly.
I think you've seen a great development in attitudes among many people in the new member countries. If you look at countries like Georgia and Armenia, you have in the academic community people who are very focused on international cooperation, not only making the experience of other countries available to their own countries, but also saying, “our experience is also valuable and other countries may also learn something from our own experience”. I mean, if you look at a country like Armenia and its participation in Erasmus+, and I think the same is true for Georgia, I think this has had a great impact.
So I think certainly the Erasmus+ program, which is an EU program, has been hugely significant. It's an open possibility for student and staff exchanges that would not have been there otherwise. There are also opportunities for academic exchange between institutions, so that you have several cooperation agreements from one institution to another, and that's important that institutions in the South Caucasus countries take full advantage of this.
And then you have some areas that may seem very technical, but are nevertheless important. If you want to study in another country and then come back to your own country, you need to be sure that the work that you do abroad is recognized, and you need to be sure that the qualifications that you have when you go abroad are recognized.
There is something called the Lisbon Recognition Convention, which is a Council of Europe and UNESCO convention. It was developed in 1997. It encompasses all of Europe, and in UNESCO terms, that's the European region, so it's also North America.
All three South Caucasus countries are party to it. Azerbaijan was actually the first country that ratified the convention.
And the three countries, I think, are active participants in what we call the ENIC network (European Network of National Information Centers). In each country, there is a center that would provide information. So if you're a Georgian, you want to study abroad, but you're not sure whether your program will be recognized, unless your university can provide information, that's where you can go.
European countries started developing what we call qualifications frameworks. Now, a qualification framework is a description not just of each individual qualification in a country, but how they fit together, how, as a learner, you can move within the system.
Europe incarnates the kind of values that the South Caucasus societies should aspire to.
In Europe, the national frameworks are developed within a broader framework, which is the framework of the European Higher Education Area and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), which is EU-driven.
Now, these are fully compatible. The difference between them is that the EQF encompasses all levels of education, but in our framework - higher education only. So once you have your framework in place, it means that, say, if you have a Georgian degree at a bachelor's level, that is comparable to a bachelor's level in France, Germany, the UK, Norway, or any other country.
AK: If you are facing average people in our countries and decision-makers as well, what would be your message from your experience and background?
SB: I think my starting point would be my favourite quote about education. It's not a European quote, but from a Chilean sociologist, Eugenio Tironi: If you want to answer the question “What kind of education do we need?” first of all, you have to answer another question - “What kind of society do we want?”
My answer to that is certainly that I would want a society that is democratic, in which all citizens can influence their own situation, and help develop society. I would also want a society in which we seek to give every citizen the opportunity to develop their aspirations and competences to the full. Now, I think that democracy, education, and society in general cannot be developed within very strict confines.
I think if you look inward, you will not be able to develop as much as if you look outward. Now, there is a saying that whoever is limited to his mother's tongue will get stuck in his mother's world. I think that's true, not just when it comes to language, but when it comes to society as a whole.
I believe at this moment, Europe, both in the sense of the EU and Council of Europe, incarnates the kind of values that we need to develop the kind of societies in which we would want to live ourselves, in which we want our children and grandchildren to live. So, a close European cooperation, whether in EU or the broader sense of the Council of Europe, I think, is essential to making Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan the kind of countries in which people feel comfortable. At this moment, Europe incarnates the kind of values that the South Caucasus societies should aspire to.
I think they have demonstrated, not least through their participation in education programs, that there are very many people in all three countries who aspire to these kinds of values.
I've been to both Armenia and Georgia quite a few times, and less to Azerbaijan. I feel a great affinity for the South Caucasus. I've seen many promising developments. I've met many very competent people who clearly aspire to the kind of societies in which we would want to live. And I believe that education plays a key role.
European cooperation is not just about the EU or Western Europe transmitting knowledge to the South Caucasus. It's also about looking at the South Caucasus experience, traditions.
There are things that Western Europe can certainly learn also from that. Hospitality is certainly one of them, but not only. It's respect for people in society, respect for learning. Both Georgia and Armenia, the two countries I know best, have a very strong and ancient tradition of valuing education. So I think you have a very good starting point.
AK: Thank you very much. It was an excellent discussion, and I hope we stay in contact.
SB: Absolutely. And again, thank you very much for your invitation. It was a very enjoyable conversation.
No comments:
Post a Comment