A process to create a European Area which uses the same unit to measure Higher Education (ECTS credits), with the essential purpose of favouring the mobility and employability of students and graduates.

How did it begin?
The process began in June 1999 when the ministers of education of 29 countries signed the Bologna Declaration. The Declaration set the foundations for the implementation of a common European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. The reformation process to adapt to the EHEA became known as the Bologna Process.

Bologna Process in Spain
Some of the regulations under which the Bologna process has been implemented in Spain are:

• Royal Decree establishing the organisation of university studies (1393/2007 of 29 October)
• Royal Decree establishing the issuing procedures of the European Diploma Supplement (DS) (1044/2003 of 1 August)
• Royal Decree establishing the European Credit Transfer System and the higher learning qualifications system (1125/2003 of 5 September)
• Organic Law 4/2007 of 12 April, which modifies the Universities Organic Law 6/2001

If you wish to view the full list of regulations please visit the Documentation web page.

What does this change represent?

1. More mobility for undergraduate and graduate students, teaching staffs and professionals throughout Europe. Thus, a student at a Catalan university who has completed 180 ECTS credits can register to enrol in a master's degree offered at a German university.

2. Thanks to the European Diploma Supplement (DS) there is more transparency between the higher learning degrees issued in each country, which facilitates validating these qualifications in any other university belonging to the EHEA. Degrees obtained in any of the European universities will be accepted by the other countries in the EHEA, while each university will nevertheless have the right to establish their own additional training requirements.

3. Quality education based on the continuous assessment of students. The aim of universities is to provide students with the tools needed to enter the labour market and with the competences required for critical thinking and the assimilation of knowledge in order to be able to apply them in the real world.

4. An improvement in the competences acquired by the student.

5. To create comparable higher learning quality standards in all areas: management, teaching and research.