Project: TUNING Educational Structures in Europe is a university initiative aimed at offering a universal approach to the implementation of the Bologna Process at the level of individual higher education sectors. The TUNING approach, recommended by the Bologna Declaration, concerns the methodology of creating or modifying education programmes, their improvement, application and assessment methods for each level of education. In addition, Tuning serves as a platform for finding common points of reference at the sectoral (specialised) level. This concerns the creation of comparable, compatible and clear (transparent) education programmes. The points of reference are expressed in terms of learning outcomes and competences.
AEC learning outcomes answer the question of what a student should know, understand and/or be able to demonstrate after completing the learning process. According to the Tuning methodology, AEC learning outcomes are expressed in terms of the level of competences acquired by the learner. Competences represent a dynamic combination of cognitive and metacognitive skills, knowledge and orientation, interpersonal, intellectual and practical skills, and ethical values. The development of these competences, which should be taught and assessed throughout the educational process, is the task of all educational programmes.  Some competences are tailored to the field of study, while others are generic (general) and common to all programmes. Typically, the development of competences during the programme is integrated and cyclical. In order to make education levels comparable, groups of sectoral (specialised) programmes have created descriptions of degrees (and their levels) also expressed in terms of competences.

According to the Tuning methodology, the introduction of a 3-level system forces a radical change in the approach to learning and teaching processes: from an academic-oriented approach to a student-oriented attitude. It is the student who must be prepared as well as possible to fulfil their future role in society.
With this in mind, the Tuning project organised a Europe-wide consultation process involving employers, graduates and academic staff. Its aim was to identify the most important competences that should be clearly defined and developed in programmes leading to academic titles and degrees. The result of these activities is visible in a set of benchmarks – generic (general) and specialist competences identified in each sector.

In addition to addressing the implementation of the 3-cycle structure within the Tuning project, attention was drawn to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), currently in use throughout Europe, which refers to student workload. According to the Tuning methodology, ECTS is not only a system that facilitates student mobility at European level through the accumulation and transfer of credit points; ECTS can also facilitate the creation and improvement of education programmes, particularly in terms of coordinating and rationalising the requirements imposed on students by competing subjects (lectures). In other words, ECTS allows us to plan how to make the most effective use of students' time to achieve the objectives of educational processes. As a counterbalance to the view that students' time is essentially unlimited, it takes much less account of teachers' working time. According to the Tuning methodology guidelines, credit points can only be awarded when learning outcomes have been achieved.

The use of an approach based on learning outcomes and competences may also influence changes in the approach to teaching, learning and assessment methods. The Tuning methodology has identified ways of addressing this issue and defined best practices for formulating specific generic and specialist competences.

Finally, the Tuning methodology drew attention to the role of quality in the process of creating, redesigning, improving and implementing study programmes. It developed an approach aimed at strengthening quality at all stages of the learning process. It also developed the necessary tools to promote a pro-quality approach and identified examples of good practice that can help institutions promote the quality of their study programmes.

Launched in 2000 and supported financially and conceptually by the European Commission, the Tuning project currently involves most of the countries that signed the Bologna Declaration. The results of the Tuning project are fully recognised by all countries and key participants involved in the Bologna process. At the conference of education ministers held in Berlin in September 2003 and later (at the so-called follow-up conference), programmes leading to academic titles and degrees were the main subject of debate.
The conceptual framework on which the Berlin Communiqué was based is fully consistent with the Tuning methodology. This is evidenced by the use of terminology typical of this methodology, in which ministers recommend describing academic titles and degrees in terms of workload, level, learning outcomes, competences and profiles.

Following the Berlin Conference, the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) took the initiative to create a Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area, in which the language used and the general concept are entirely consistent with the approach characteristic of the Tuning methodology. This framework, which draws on the work of both the Joint Quality Initiative (JQI) and the Tuning project, was approved at the conference of education ministers held in Bergen in May 2005.

JQI, an informal group of experts in the field of higher education, has created a set of descriptions of levels differentiating between individual degrees. These descriptions are commonly referred to as the Dublin Descriptions. From the outset, the complementarity of the JQI and Tuning projects was evident. The JQI focused on the comparability of degrees in general terms, while the Tuning project sought to define descriptions of programmes leading to academic titles and degrees at sectoral (specialised) level.
The most important objective of all three initiatives (the Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area, Joint Quality Initiatives and the Tuning project) is the transparency of European higher education. In this respect, the European Framework is an important element of development, as it provides guidelines for the creation of National Qualifications Frameworks based on AEC learning outcomes and competences, as well as credit points. We can also observe that there are parallel influences of the Qualifications Framework and the Tuning methodology regarding the role of initiating and maintaining dialogue between the higher education sector and society, as well as the importance of consultation processes – in the case of the Qualifications Framework taking into account higher education, and in the case of the Tuning methodology – the profiling of academic titles and degrees.

In the summer of 2006, the European Commission launched the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF). Its purpose is to bring all learning processes together in one general description. Although the concepts on which the above-mentioned Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area and the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning are based differ, both are fully consistent with the approach represented by Tuning. The continuing education variant is also based on the development of competence levels. From the Tuning perspective, both initiatives have their value and assigned roles in the creation and further development of a coherent European Education Area.

This publication refers to the effects of activities related to the field of music. These effects are presented in a Template, which allows for quick comparisons within a given specialisation (field). The summary (previous chapter) provides concise information on the basic elements needed for a quick introduction to the area of specialisation and shows the final consensus reached by the working group after intensive and lively discussions. The publication also includes more comprehensive documents on which the Template is based. They provide a more detailed overview of the work carried out by the working group.
 

 Further information on the Tuning project can be found on the website: http://www.unideusto.org/tuningeu/