Recognition of Prior Learning in a European Comparison – Adaptation Potential for German Institutions of Higher Education

For more than 60 years efforts have been made at European level to increase the permeability of different education systems in order to improve the educational mobility of people in Europe. From the beginning, the focus has been on the acknowledgement1 and recognition2 of qualifications acquired at school (Europarat 1953) on the one hand and on the recognition of qualifications acquired in an institution of higher education on the other hand (Europarat 1956, 1959, 1990 and 1997). The field of non-traditional qualifications was not a subject of discussion at European level until the ‘Convention on the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education in the European region’3 in 1997. This convention states: