Fascinating Bologna: Impact on the nature and approach of academic development

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Notes

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System is a student‐centred system based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a program, objectives preferably specified in terms of learning outcomes and competences to be acquired. ECTS was introduced in 1989, within the framework of Erasmus, now part of the Socrates program. ECTS is the only credit system which has been successfully tested and used across Europe. ECTS was set up initially for credit transfer. The system facilitated recognition of periods of study abroad and thus enhanced the quality and volume of student mobility in Europe. Recently ECTS has been developing into an accumulation system to be implemented at institutional, regional, national, and European levels. This is one of the key objectives of the Bologna Declaration of June 1999.

Useful websites: http://www.bologna‐berlin2003.de/en/national reports/index.htm, http://www.bologna‐bergen2005.no/, and http://www.eurydice.org/Documents/FocHE/en/FrameSet.htm