The participants recommended:

That Ministers, meeting in Bergen in May 2005

• adopt the overarching framework for qualifications of the European Higher Education Area as proposed by the BFUG Working Group;
• mandate the BFUG to elaborate criteria and procedures for a self-certification system for national frameworks of qualifications where quality assurance is included and to submit it for final adoption to the Ministerial meeting in 2007;
• delegate responsibility for the maintenance and development of the overarching framework to the BFUG and any successor executive structure;
• commit to elaborating national frameworks of qualifications compatible with the overarching framework for qualifications of the EHEA by 2010;
• commit to taking adequate account of the overarching framework for qualifications of the EHEA, as well as to consulting all parties to the Bologna Process, in any future development of frameworks for other parts of the education system.

That public authorities responsible for national education systems

• in elaborating and maintaining their national qualifications be guided by and ensure compatibility with the overarching framework for qualifications of the EHEA;
• involve all relevant stakeholders both within and outside of higher education;
• identify a nationally agreed set of purposes for their national qualifications framework;
• ensure that their national framework link academic standards, quality assurance systems and public understanding of recognised qualifications;
• ensure that the description of each qualification within their national framework of qualifications explicitly states:
  • to which further qualification(s) that particular qualification gives access;
  • the relationship of the qualification in question to the three generic cycles of the overarching framework;
• ensure that their national framework associate the relevant transparency instruments, such as the Diploma Supplement, ECTS and Europass;
• ensure that their national framework facilitate learning paths that integrate non-formal and informal learning as well as various entry and exit points.

That higher education institutions as well as students and their organisations continue to contribute as active stakeholders to the development and maintenance of national frameworks of qualifications as well as the overarching framework for qualifications of the EHEA.

That ENIC and NARIC Networks and individual recognition centres provide clear and adequate information on the overarching framework for qualifications of the EHEA as well as on national frameworks to recognition networks and centres and higher education institutions in other parts of the world.

That appropriate international bodiesreview current transparency instruments, such as ECTS and the Diploma Supplement, in the light of the development of qualifications frameworks.

Source: General Report to the Bologna Follow-Up Group to the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education - Bergen 19/20 May 2005
Bologna Process between Berlin and Bergen

Related documents

Seminar on Qualifications Frameworks - Copenhagen 2005

Recommendations
General Report

"A Framework for Qualifications of the EHEA", Working Group on QF, December 2004 (seminar edition with paragraph numbers)
"A Framework for Qualifications of the EHEA", Working Group on QF, December 2004 (normal edition without paragraph numbers)

Programme
Participants

Presentations and statements (in order of appearance)

Mogens Berg, Chairman of the Bologna Working Group on Qualifications Framework Framework
Bastian Baumann, ESIB
Christoph Anz, UNICE
Nina Arnhold, EUA
Roland Vermeesch, EURASHE
Helle Otte, ENIC/NARIC

Workshops

Workshop 1. Cycles, levels and credits as elements in the EHEA-framework
Workshop 2. Developing national qualification frameworks and their alignment to the EHEA-framework
Workshop 3. Qualifications frameworks, transparency instruments and recognition
Workshop 4. Qualifications Frameworks in Bologna, Copenhagen and Lisbon Processes

General Rapporteur Sjur Bergan Council of Europe