EUA Survey Of Master Degrees In Europe - European University ...

An agreed system of notation9. The second cycle is dynamic; profusion of provision is the rule. Transparency is therefore at apremium. NQFs will be important reference points. To complement them, Bologna signatorycountries should consider adopting a system of markers, to indicate the salient features ofMaster programmes:• duration, full-time or otherwise• ECTS value• whether covered by EU legislation• whether professionally accredited• attendance and delivery modes• status of provider(s)• combinatory power: mode of access from Bachelor and to doctorate• accessibility for purposes of professional development• pedagogic approach• with or without work placement• funding and price• available financial support.10. All stakeholders must be able to make a ‘first glance’ appreciation of what a Master programmerepresents. Specialist admissions officers, careers counsellors and professional regulators shouldconstitute the second-line recourse. The system of markers would signal the features of thequalification offered, as opposed to the Diploma Supplement, which details the characteristicsof the qualification obtained.Interoperability in the second cycle11. Access to the Master, and to which form of Master, is more constrained in some national systemsthan in others. Binary systems are, by their very nature, less flexible. Bologna countries mustwork towards a common policy of access to the Master: from ISCED 5b, from the Bachelor,via the recognition of prior learning. And they should do likewise regarding progression fromthe Master to the doctorate. Bologna stocktaking and the Trends reports should then monitorinteroperability on a transnational basis.12. Selection to the Master should become a universal practice, based on fair, published andmonitored criteria. HEIs should ensure that their own Bachelor students are not advantaged inany way.Alignment of Bologna with EU legislation13. The Bologna cycles and Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualificationsare not in alignment. There is considerable scope for re-engineering the Directive. Bolognacountries and the European Commission should jointly contemplate action on the followingpoints:• the use of learning outcomes, ECTS, Dublin Descriptors and other mobility instruments inthe text of the Directive and in the mechanisms which it prescribes for the recognition ofsectoral qualifications and for the management of the general system• the role of quality assurance agencies in confirming compliance in the case of sectoralqualifications obtained via inter-cycle transnational mobility• the viability of a labour market entry point to the sectoral professions at the Bachelorstage69