Is the new ECTS system better than the traditional one? An application to the ECTS pilot-project at the University Pablo de Olavide

Abstract

At the meeting of the joint Bologna Declaration, EU representatives agreed on the establishment of a common European Higher Education Area by 2010. Since then, several universities have implemented pilot projects, although no formal research has been carried out to analyse their results. In this study, we analysed one of these pilot projects with two objectives. First, we examined the performance of the new system as compared to that of the traditional system. We used a procedure based on a modified model of Data Envelopment Analysis that is able to distinguish students¿ efficiency (managerial efficiency) from efficiency based on the educational programme used (programme efficiency). Then we analysed whether the different systems perform differently for different types of students.