Final Report Pilot Project - Relaciones Internacionales de la ...

The Length of Higher Education Degree
Programmes in Europe: Contribution
to the Debate by the Tuning Project
Introduction
When the Bologna Declaration was made public, in June 1999,
attention was drawn, among others, to two points in particular:
—Adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees.
—Adoption of a system essentially based on two main cycles,
undergraduate and graduate. Access to the second cycle shall
require completion of a first cycle study, lasting a minimum of three
years.
In the Communiqué of Prague of May 19th 2001 the Ministers
noted with satisfaction «that the objective based on two main cycles,
articulating higher education in undergraduate and graduate studies,
has been tackled and discussed».
The Bologna Process was welcomed as a major step forward in
convergence of the architecture of the systems of European higher
education. For quite a long time such a step has been thought necessary
by many to keep up with economic developments. Although the need for
one European economic area, including one European labour market, was
clearly recognised by the EU countries, the development of one European
higher education area has drawn less attention. This is surprising because
of the importance of higher education for the future European labour
force.
Although the Bologna Declaration is an important milestone, it
should be seen as a first step in a longer process. It is the opinion of
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