Tools
In the last two decades, various instruments have been developed, adopted and implemented at the European, national, regional and institutional level aiming at facilitating fair recognition of foreign qualifications and/or study periods abroad. Those instruments are amongst others, the ENIC and NARIC networks, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), the Diploma Supplement (DS), the overarching and national qualifications frameworks (QFs), the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance of Higher Education (ESG), etc.
Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG)
The revised version of the “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area”, commonly known as ESG has been endorsed by the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) in September 2014. The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) 2015 were finally adopted by the Ministers responsible for higher education in the European Higher Education Area in May 2015.
Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)
The framework of qualifications
The overarching framework of qualifications of the European Higher Education Area sets the parameters within which the countries of the EHEA will develop their national qualifications frameworks. This means that national frameworks will have much in common, but not that they will be identical.
The overarching framework of qualifications of the European Higher Education Area was adopted by the Ministers of Education of the Bologna Process at their meeting in Bergen in May 2005, through the Bergen Communiqué.
The framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area - May 2005
European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)
The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a tool of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for making studies and courses more transparent and thus helping to enhance the quality of higher education.
The revised ECTS Users’ Guide was endorsed by the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) during its meeting on 27-28 November 2014 in Rome. The guide was approved at the Ministerial Conference in May 2015 in Yerevan, Armenia.