The establishment of a “European space for higher education” in the Bologna Declaration led Germany to replace its traditional Magister and Diplom programs with new B.A. and M.A. degrees. International competitiveness, global comparability, and shorter periods of study were the main reasons for the reform, but the changes were also motivated by the desire to make German degrees more compatible with the European university landscape.

This photo shows 77 graduates of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Engineering in Potsdam throwing their mortarboards into the air at their graduation ceremony on March 23, 2007.