The European Space for Higher Education

The construction of the European Space for Higher Education (EEES) allows the promotion of quality and international competitiveness of higher education in Europe, making, an increase in the mobility and employment of European university graduates, possible. This system is based on a comparable structure of degrees and in the long run, should enable Europe to foment its economic and social growth. The 1999 Bologna Declaration is the initial reference document in the whole process.This Declaration specifies the motives that lead the signing European countries to boost a greater integration and an improvement of the whole of European Higher Education:

• Strengthening of the intellectual, cultural, social, scientific and technological dimension of Europe.
• Recognition of the central role of higher education and of universities in the promotion of citizen mobility, the demand for qualified population and the general development of the Continent.
• Increase of competitiveness and the appeal capacity of the European higher education system in the international fair.
• Promotion of the job market in Europe in a changing context, which demands life-long training, the adoption of a system of easily comparable university grades and face, with guarantees, the new challenges of knowledge society.

See Bologna Process.