The European Commission has awarded the prestigious ECTS label to Wageningen University. It is therefore the first institution of higher education in the Netherlands that is allowed to use this quality hallmark. The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) label may be displayed only by institutions that apply the ECTS system in a transparent and reliable fashion throughout their entire education programme. It guarantees the quality of the study programme. Experts in higher education consider the ECTS label to be a prestigious acknowledgement of the international character of an educational institution.
Besides Wageningen University, the ECTS label was awarded this year to the Catholic University of Leuven and Fachhochschule Vorarlberg in Dornbirn, Austria. These three institutions were selected out of 56 applicants. The ECTS label was awarded for the first time last year, when 11 European educational institutions received the label. The decision to award the ECTS label is based on the recommendations of independent experts. Wageningen University will be allowed to use the ECTS label on its publications and website for three years, through the 2007/2008 academic year.
ECTS is a system that is based on the study load of the individual student. It specifies the attainment of learning outcomes and competencies. Using ECTS in an education programme enhances and facilitates the mobility of students in Europe, assures the quality of the programme and prevents study delays for students who want to participate in education at multiple institutions. ECTS is one of the two pillars supporting the Bologna process of the European Commission; the other is the Bachelor-Master (BAMA) system. Wageningen University was also the first educational institution in the Netherlands to fully implement the BAMA system, which it did in 2002.
Note to the editor
You can read a detailed description of the ECTS label at http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/ects_en.html. For more information, contact Fred Jonker, Education Marketing at Wageningen University, tel. 0317 482048, e-mail fred.jonker@wur.nl or Bouke de Vos, Wageningen UR Press Officer, tel. 0317 480 180, e-mail: bouke.devos@wur.nl. For more information about ECTS, contact Sveinbjorn Hannesson, Directorate General Education & Training tel. +32 2 296 4260, e-mail: sveinbjorn.hannesson@cec.eu.int.