Ministers met in Bergen, Norway, in May to adopt an over arching framework for qualifications in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).   

The framework comprises three cycles (including, within national contexts, the possibility of intermediate qualifications), generic descriptors for each cycle based on learning outcomes and competences, and credit ranges in the first and second cycles. 

The generic descriptors are the so-called Dublin descriptors, drafted by members of the joint quality initiative. These descriptors will in some countries form the basis for the national qualifications frameworks foreseen in the Bergen communiqué (see p30).    

Terry Mitchell