Summary of the European Convention on the General Equivalence of Periods of University Study (ETS no. 138)

This Convention is the first legal instrument to have been concluded on a Europe-wide scale to make it easier for students to move from one university to another during their studies.

It constitutes the legal basis for recognition by a student's university of origin of periods spent in a university abroad, whether or not a certificate is issued attesting to them.

Such recognition presupposes that there has been a prior agreement between the two universities concerned.

Parties to the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (ETS No. 165) undertook to abstain from becoming a Party to this Convention to which they are not already a Party (see Article XI.4 of ETS No. 165).

European Convention on the General Equivalence of Periods of University Study

Open for signature by the member States of the Council of Europe and any other State Party to the European Cultural, in Rome, on 6 November 1990.

Entry into force : 1 January 1991.

Summary of the treaty

Parties to the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (ETS No. 165) undertook to abstain from becoming a Party to this Convention to which they are not already a Party (see Article XI.4 of ETS No. 165).