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Sjur Bergan is an educational policy maker, recognized for his role in shaping education standards and promoting democratic values through educational reform in Europe. As the Head of the Education Department at the Council of Europe until February 2022, he has been a key figure in promoting democratic values and reforming education systems across the continent. Sjur Bergan has been instrumental in advancing the Bologna Process and developing the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). He lives in Strasbourg and continues his activities as a contributor to several projects and and author.

Early Life and Education
Sjur Bergan was born in Oslo on January 1, 1957 and was raised in Moss, Norway. He pursued higher education at the University of Oslo, with a semester at the Université de Grenoble. While in secondary school, he spent one year in Alton, Illinois as an AFS exchange student.

Career
Bergan's professional journey is marked by his long-standing association with the Council of Europe since 1991, where he held the position of Head of the Education Department from 2011 until his retirement in February 2022. Before moving to Strasbourg, he held administrative positions at the University of Oslo, where he was also a student representative in the Academic Senate and its Board 1981 - 82. While in Oslo, he was the co-initiator of the University’s program for Central and Eastern Europe in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Main Activities
Sjur Bergan’s main contributions have been in four areas.

Education and Democracy
Sjur Bergan played the main role in developing the Council of Europe’s contribution to the democratic mission of higher education, in close cooperation with the International “Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy, led by Ira Harkavy of the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center, and later also the International Association of Universities and the Organization of American States.

He developed the concept of “democratic culture”, which found its way into the Action Plan adopted by the Summit of Council of Europe heads of State and Government held in Warsaw in 2005. Democratic culture is understood as the set of attitudes and behaviors that enable democratic institutions, laws, and elections to function in practice. From 2012, he initiated and then led the development of the Council of Europe’s [https://www.coe.int/en/web/reference-framework-of-competences-for-democratic-culture/home Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture].

European Higher Education Area (EHEA/Bologna Process)
At the time of his retirement, Sjur Bergan was the longest serving member of the Bologna Follow-up Group, where he contributed importantly to most debates and decisions. He led the Council of Europe delegation to, and spoke at, every Ministerial Conference from 2005 until 2020. He was also part of the Council of Europe delegation to all Ministerial conferences before that. Within the EHEA, he contributed to the development of the Overarching Framework of Qualifications of the EHEA and chaired and co-chaired working groups on qualifications frameworks (2007 – 12) and structural reforms (2012 – 15). He also contributed to the development of the current criteria for membership of the EHEA, which made the EHEA truly European from 2003 onwards. He led the Council of Europe’s work to advise new and prospective members of the Bologna Process. He played a leading role in developing the roadmaps that accompanied the accession of Belarus to the EHEA in 2015 and that of San Marino in 2019 and was a member of the groups that oversaw the implantation of the roadmaps. Sjur Bergan has been a strong voice for the importance of the fundamental values of higher education. He co-authored the first discussion document on fundamental values in the BFUG. He was a member of groups developing the statements on academic freedom adopted by Ministers in 2020 and on academic integrity, institutional autonomy, student and staff participation in higher education governance, and public responsibility for and of higher education, adopted in 2024.

He was the main author of the Council of Europe recommendation on the public responsibility for higher education and research (2007), which reflects his contention that education and higher education have four major purposes: preparation for the labor market, preparation for life as active citizens in a democratic society, personal development, and the development of a broad and advanced knowledge base.

Recognition of Qualifications
Sjur Bergan was one of the main authors of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, adopted in 1997, and has played an important role in developing European policies for the recognition of qualifications. He played a leading role in establishing the ENIC Network of national information centres on recognition in 1994, as a joint Council of Europe/UNESCO Network, and was its co-secretary until 2009. He played a leading role in developing several subsidiary texts to the Lisbon Recognition Convention, in particular on criteria and procedures for the assessment of foreign qualifications and the recognition of refugees’ qualifications. He also played an important role in developing the understanding of “substantial differences”, a key concept in the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

He played a leading role in developing the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees, which aims to provide a method for assessing refugees’ qualifications even when these cannot be adequately documented and for describing these in a format that can be easily recognized across borders. As of 2024, the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and 22 countries participate in the project.

Publishing
Sjur Bergan has written extensively on higher education and education. He launched and was the series editor of the Council of Europe Higher Education Series 2004 – 23. He contributed to almost all books in the series as co-editor and the author of numerous articles. He is the author of monographs on Qualifications: Introduction to a Concept and Not By Bread Alone. He was also a member of the editorial team for the Leadership and Governance in Higher Education: a Handbook for Decision-Makers and Administrators (2011 – 15). He co-organized sessions on the future of the EHEA and on fundamental values at the Bologna Process Researchers’ Conferences in 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2024 and contributed to the publications from the conferences. He has written numerous articles and book chapters and is a frequent contributor to University World News.

Awards
Sjur Bergan was awarded the degree of doctor honoris causa by Dublin City University in June 2022. In October 2022, he was awarded the title of honorary professor by Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and by Astana IT University. In September 2019, the European Association for International Education awarded Sjur Bergan its award for Vision and Leadership.

Other Activities
Sjur Bergan is was a member of the Board of Directors of AVEPRO (the quality assurance agency of the Holy See) in 2009 – 2021. He is currently a consultor to the Dicastery of Dicastery of Culture and Education of the Holy See and an external member of the Council of the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Strasbourg.