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Glossary

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Degree

A paper document issued by a competent higher education institution attesting that a person has achieved the learning outcomes intended by a programme. A degree is normally awarded after the successful completion of a recognised higher education programme.

  • Adapted from: Bologna Follow-Up Group, Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area, 2005, p. 30

Diploma

A diploma is a formal document (certificate) that acknowledges that a named individual has graduated from a named programme and institution or that a named individual has received a named degree awarded by an insitution (or other competent authority).
In general, diploma is not used for higher education.

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Diploma mill

The term ‘diploma mill’ (or ‘degree mill’) is an internationally accepted term for any type of person or organisation that sells diplomas and academic degrees purely for profit and without requiring any serious academic achievement or study. Diploma mills come in various shapes and sizes, ranging from fully-fledged diploma production lines to small-scale internet traders.

Diploma supplement

The Diploma Supplement explains the contents and form of the qualifications delivered by higher education institutions. It does not replace or modify those qualifications. Rather, the Diploma Supplement seeks to explain the qualifications in an internationally understandable form.

  • Convention on the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education in the European region: explanatory report, Article IX.3

Distance learning

Distance learning provides students the opportunity to take up studies at off-campus locations via internet, video conferencing, television broadcasts, satellite classes or other means.

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Doctoral degree

A Doctoral degree refers to the qualification awarded after successfull completion of the third cycle in the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area. The degree usually requires a minumum of three or four years of research.

Dublin Descriptors

The Dublin Descriptors are the cycle descriptors (or "level descriptors") developed in 2003 and adopted in the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area.
They offer generic statements of typical expectations of achievements and abilities associated with awards that represent the end of each of a (Bologna) cycle or level.

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