Diploma supplement comes on stream

Citation

(2005), "Diploma supplement comes on stream", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 4/5. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447dab.012

Diploma supplement comes on stream

Higher-education institutions should be ready to issue a new document to students who graduate in or after 2005. The “diploma supplement” – which provides information about the higher-education qualification, the credits achieved and the education system it fits into – should be issued free of charge to students who ask for it. The document is part of the so-called Bologna process. In 1999, ministers from 29 European countries signed the Bologna declaration to outline the objectives for setting up a European higher-education area by 2010. This aims to improve student mobility, employability, the recognition of qualifications, and the competitiveness of European higher education.

More than 30 European countries, including all the European Union (EU) member states, are now part of the Bologna process and have pledged to reform their higher-education systems in a convergent way. A common system of easily readable and comparable degrees based on three cycles – first degree, master and doctorate – is being introduced. This is being supported by the implementation of the diploma supplement.

More information on the diploma supplement is available on the internet, at www.naric.org.uk/ds.asp or http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html

Meanwhile, some European management schools will be forced to adapt and take on their US rivals, while others will disappear, according to the report of a special task force of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) on graduate management education under the Bologna accord.

The report, The Future of Graduate Management Education in the Context of the Bologna Accord, states: “Global employers already struggle to distinguish between titles such as bachelor, laurea and diplomkaufmann. While a bachelor’s degree in business administration may be more clearly understood under the accord, a potentially confusing array of new Master’s degrees hovers on the horizon. There will be degrees where no work experience is required, which are granted simply as an extension of bachelor study. Post-experience degrees, specifically targeted at students with a professional background, may flourish, but it is equally possible that they will be lost in the alphabet soup of Master’s level credentials”.

The Bologna accord will be fully implemented in 2010. The Future of Graduate Management Education in the Context of the Bologna Accord is available for download at www.gmac.com