of Management became the first school in the ex-socialist bloc of the Central and Eastern to offer an MBA degree. Bologna Accord In Europe, the recent Bologna Accord established uniformity in three levels of higher education: Bachelor (three or four years), Masters (one or two years, in addition to three or four years for a Bachelor), and Doctorate (an additional three or four years after a Master). Students can acquire professional experience after their initial bachelor's degree at any European institution and later complete their masters in any other European institution via the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System. Accreditation standards Accreditation standards are not uniform in Europe. Some countries have legal requirements for accreditation (e.g. most German states), in some, there is a legal requirement only for universities of a certain type (e.g. Austria), and others have no accreditation law at all. Even where there is no legal requirement, many business schools are accredited by independent bodies voluntarily to ensure quality standards. Austria In Austria, MBA programs of private universities have to be accredited by the Austrian Accreditation Council (Österreichischer Akkreditierungsrat). State-run universities have no accreditation requirements, however, some of them voluntarily undergo accreditation procedures by independent bodies. There are also MBA programs of non-academic business schools, who are entitled by the Austrian government to offer these programs until the end of 2012 (Lehrgang universitären Charakters). Some non-academic institutions cooperate with state-run universities to ensure the legality of their degrees. Czech Republic January 1999 saw the first meeting of the Association of the Czech MBA Schools (CAMBAS). The association is housed within the Centre for Doctoral and Managerial Studies of UEP, Prague. All of the founding members of the association to have their MBA programs accredited by partner institutions in the United Kingdom or the United States of America. Finland In Finland, Master of Business Administration degrees are awarded by business schools of Aalto University, Hanken, University of Turku, University of Vaasa and University of Oulu. In Finnish this degree is called kauppatieteiden maisteri. Universities of applied sciences award degrees which in Finnish are called tradenomi (YAMK) but use the same English title "Master of Business Administration" as the ones awarded by business schools. Both degrees are recognized as higher education degrees in Finland, yet only the business school graduates are typically referred as "masters". France and French-speaking countries In France and the Francophone countries such as Switzerland, Monaco,