Investigating Kurdish EFL University Students' Perceptions on Implementing the Bologna Process at the Universities of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Abstract

Iraqi Kurdistan Region has started implementing the Bologna Process in some universities as part of the higher education institutions’ reform to meet the needs of the new century and enable graduates to compete and enter the local and international labour market. From this perspective, the current study aims at investigating the Kurdish EFL university students’ perceptions on implementation of the Bologna Process and the challenges they face. For this purpose, a questionnaire was distributed and taken 245 students of sixth semester at the departments of English from four different universities. The collected data were analyzed using IBM, SPSS. The result revealed that crowed classes prevent the students them from taking an active participation the learning process; This means the student-centered approach is not applied in this context. Moreover, the mobility action line has not been achieved so far since the majority of the students did not participate in any exchange programs with the universities of the European Higher Education Area. Finally, the study suggests some solutions such as establishing and developing cooperation among departments of English at Iraqi Kurdistan Region universities. Curricula reform, providing instructors with training to apply the student-centre approach in a way that matches the Bologna Process action lines.