The Bologna declaration (in full, Joint Declaration of the European Ministers of Education convened in Bologna on 19 June 1999) is the main guiding document of the Bologna process. It was adopted by ministers of education of 29 European countries at their meeting in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

in 1999. It proposed a

European Higher Education Area The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was launched in March 2010, during the Budapest-Vienna Ministerial Conference, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Bologna Process. As the main objective of the Bologna Process since its ince ...

in which students and graduates could move freely between countries, using prior qualifications in one country as acceptable entry requirements for further study in another. The principal aims agreed were: # "Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees". That is to say, countries should adopt common terminology and standards # "Adoption of a system essentially based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate. Access to the second cycle raduate educationshall require successful completion of first cycle lasting a minimum of three years. The degree awarded after the first cycle shall also be relevant to the European labour market as an appropriate level of qualification. The second cycle should lead to the master and/or doctorate degree as in many European countries." Th
Bergen meeting
subsequently refined the second point, and produced a three-cycl
framework of qualifications
which in the UK terminology (adopted, at least partially, by many European countries) would be Bachelor for a first degree of three years, Master for subsequent study, and Doctor for a degree which has "made a contribution through original research that extends the frontier of knowledge by developing a substantial body of work". The Bologna declaration has later been followed up a series of meetings between EU ministers. Each meeting has produced a communiqué based on their deliberations. To date these include th
Prague communiqué
(2001), th
Berlin communiqué
(2003), th
Bergen communiqué
(2005), th
London communiqué
(2007), th
Leuven & Louvain-la-Neuve communiqué
(2009). European Commission has published ( European Communities, Feb. 2009) an "ECTS Users’ Guide", including one "Overview of national regulations (...)" and "Status of the proclamation". Th
Bologna Ministerial Anniversary Conference 2010 in Budapest and Vienna
was held in March 2010. It issued th
Budapest-Vienna Declaration
The communiqués indicate that progress is being made towards the Bologna Declaration's aim of a

, however such an area is not universally accepted as being a desirable outcome. According to the Budapest-Vienna declaration, the next Ministerial Meeting was held in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

on 26–27 April 2012."Making the Most of Our Potential: Consolidating the European Higher Education Area - Bucharest Communiqué"
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References

External links

London 2007 websiteStudents' viewECTS Users’ Guide - Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, European Commissionfull text of the Bologna Declaration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bologna Declaration Educational assessment and evaluation Educational policies and initiatives of the European Union Declarations of the European Union de:Bologna-Erklärung nl:Bolognaverklaring