| Abstract: |
The Bologna process aims at creating a European Higher Education Area where
intercountry mobility of students and staff, as well as workers holding a
degree, is facilitated. While several aspects of the process deserve wide
public support, the reduction of the length of the first cycle of studies to
three years, in several continental European countries where it used to last
for four or five years, is less consensual. The paper checks the extent of
public confidence in the restructuring of higher education currently underway,
by looking at its implications on the demand for academic programs. It
exploits the fact that some programs have restructured under the Bologna
process and others have not, in Portugal. Precise quantification of the demand
for each academic program is facilitated by the rules of access to higher
education, in a nation-wide competition, where candidates must list up to six
preferences of institution and program. We use regression analysis applied to
count data, estimating negative binomial models. Results indicate that the
programs that restructured to follow the Bologna principles were subject to
higher demand than comparable programs that did not restructure, as if Bologna
were understood as a quality stamp. This positive impact was reinforced if the
institution was a leader, i.e. the single one in the country that restructured
the program. Still an additional increase in demand was experienced by large
programs that restructured to offer an integrated master degree, thus
conforming to Bologna principles while not reducing the program duration. |