The fourth Ministerial summit was held in Bergen, Norway in 2005. By this time, 40 countries were participating in the Bologna Process and five more joined in Bergen.

Ministers adopted the overarching Framework for Qualifications of the EHEA with the following features:

• an overarching, generic framework with three cycles (“including, within national contexts, the possibility of intermediate qualifications”);
• generic qualifications descriptors for each cycle based on learning outcomes and competencies;
• typical credit ranges in the first and second cycles;

Ministers also called for the elaboration of national qualifications frameworks to be compatible with the overarching framework by 2010. Ministers “underlined the importance of ensuring complementarity” between the overarching framework for the EHEA and the European Commission’s proposed broader framework for qualifications for lifelong learning. The UK is broadly supportive of the Framework for Qualifications for the EHEA.

Ministers adopted the report on ‘Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA’ (ESGs). The report was produced by the European Association for Quality Assurance (ENQA), in cooperation with the European University Association (EUA), European Association of Institutions of Higher Education (EURASHE), and the National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB - now the European Students' Union, ESU), the so-called ‘E4 group'.