What is Bologna Process? 

The Bologna Process is a collective effort of public authorities, universities, teachers, and students, together with stakeholder associations, employers, quality assurance agencies, international organizations, and institutions, including the European Commission. Bologna Process aims to create the European higher education area by harmonizing academic degree standards and quality assurance standards throughout Europe for each faculty and its development. The objectives are the introduction of undergraduate and postgraduate levels of education in all countries, a European Credit Transfer System, and the elimination of remaining obstacles to the mobility of students and teachers.

The process was proposed at the University of Bologna in 1999 by the Bologna declaration by ministers of education from 29 European countries in the Italian city of Bologna. Further governmental meetings have been held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003), and, Bergen (2005), the next meeting took place in London in Autumn 2007. In May of 1998, the ministers in charge of higher education of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany signed the so-called Sorbonne Declaration at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Other European countries later subscribed to the Declaration.

The Sorbonne Declaration is focused on:

• The progressive convergence of the overall framework of degrees and cycles in an open European area for higher education
• A common degree level system for undergraduates (Bachelor’s degree) and postgraduates (Master’s and doctoral degree)
• Enhancing and facilitating student and teacher mobility (students should spend at least one semester abroad); removing obstacles to mobility and improving recognition of degrees and academic qualifications.
• Adopting a system of comparable and transfer degrees
• Adopting a system with two main cycles (undergraduate/postgraduate)
• Establishing a system of credits (ECTS)
• Promoting educational mobility
• Promoting European co-operation in quality assurance
• Promoting European standards in higher education
• Ministers stressed the need to develop mutually shared criteria and methodologies and agreed that national quality assurance systems should include:
• A definition of the responsibilities of the bodies and institutions involved
• Evaluation of programs or institutions, including internal assessment, external review, participation of students, and the publication of results
• A system of accreditation, certification or comparable procedures, international participation, cooperation, and networking

The Two-cycle System

Ministers asked for the development of an overarching framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area. Within such frameworks, degrees should have different defined outcomes. First and second cycle degrees should have different orientations and various profiles to accommodate a diversity of individual, academic, and labor market needs.

Recognition of degrees and periods of studies

Ministers underlined the importance of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, which should be ratified by all countries participating in the Bologna Process. Every student graduating as of 2005 should receive the Diploma Supplement automatically and free of charge.

The Third cycle

Ministers also considered it necessary to go beyond the present focus on two main cycles of higher education to include the doctoral level as the third cycle in the Bologna Process and to promote closer links between the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Research Area (ERA). This added a tenth action line to the Bologna Process: Doctoral studies and the synergy between EHEA and ERA. Ministers charged the Follow-up Group with organizing a stocktaking process in time for their summit in 2005 and undertaking to prepare detailed reports on the progress and implementation of the intermediate priorities set for the period.

What is a credit system?

The credit system is a systematic way of describing an educational program by assigning credits to each of its parts. Identification of credits in the higher education system can be based on various parameters, such as the student’s credit, learning outcomes, and the amount of classroom workload.

What is ECTS?

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a system developed for the benefit of students and is based on determining the student credits that are needed to achieve the goals of the program. It is necessary to refine these goals, namely the results of learning and acquired skills.

How has ECTS been developed?

ECTS was developed in 1989 under the Erasmus program, which is currently part of the Socrates program. ECTS is the only successfully tested credit system used throughout Europe. Initially, ECTS was designed only for credit transfer. The system contributed to the offset of education that was obtained abroad, and thus increased the quality and quantity of mobile students in Europe. Recently, ECTS has been transformed into an accumulation system that is being introduced across Europe at the institutional, regional, and national levels. This is one of the key goals of the Bologna Declaration of 1999.

Why do you need ECTS?

ECTS simplifies understanding and comparison of the curricula for all students (domestic and foreign). ECTS encourages mobility and academic recognition. It helps universities to organize and review their syllabus. ECTS can be used for different curricula and forms of study. This system makes obtaining higher education in Europe more attractive to students from other continents.

What are the main features of ECTS?

ECTS is based on an agreement that 60 credits represent the full-time student’s workload during the academic year. In most cases, the student’s full-time academic load in Europe is 36/40 weeks a year, and in those cases, one credit is equal to 24-30 working hours. Credit refers to the approximate time required by the average student to achieve the required learning results.

Credit is also a way to transfer the learning outcomes quantitatively. It means that students acquire the set of skills that help them to know, understand and complete a course workload regardless of the duration. ECTS credits can be obtained only after the completion of the required work and the corresponding assessment of the results of learning.

The distribution of ECTS credits is based on the official duration of the training program cycle. The total load essential for a bachelor’s degree, which requires 3-4 years of study, is equal to 180-240 credits. Students’ academic workload in ECTS includes time spent listening to lectures, seminars, individual work, preparation, examinations, etc.

Credits are distributed across all educational elements of the training program (modules, disciplines, internships, thesis, etc.) and reflect the amount of work required to complete each part due to the total required workload to complete the full year of study in this program. Students’ success is characterized by local/national assessments. Additional ECTS assessments are desirable, especially in the case of transfer credits. The ECTS scores students on a statistical basis. The distribution of assessments among students who received an assessment above the unsatisfactory course is as follows:

A – the best 10%;

B – the next 25%;

C – the next 30%;

D – the next 25%;

E – the last 10%.

For unsuccessful students, there are FX and F estimates. Between them, there is a difference that FX means: “did not perform any part of the work necessary to obtain an assessment above unsatisfactory”, and F: “did not do all the necessary work.” The inclusion of FX and F estimates in decoding evaluations is optional.

What documents are essential for ECTS?

The current Information Package / Catalogue of educational institutions in two languages (or only in English for the programs taught in this language) is posted on the Internet and/or published solidly in one booklet or more booklets. Information package / Catalogue of disciplines must contain a document that allows foreign students to receive information of interest to them.

An education agreement contains a list of disciplines to be studied by the student, agreed with the responsible department of the educational institution, where the student will undergo training. In case of a need for credit transfer, the Education Agreement must be agreed upon between the student, the former, and the new facilities before leaving the student for a new institution, and updated as the changes occur.

Decoding grades (Academic Reference) reflects the student’s progress, showing the list of disciplines he/she studied, received credits, and local assessments (possibly, ECTS estimates). In the case of a credit transfer, the decoding of the ratings is issued before the student’s leaving, his/her institution of education, and the other institution – the student coming to study at the end of his period of study.