Usually holders of any of the degrees are considered for admission to postgraduate (not necessarily doctoral) studies. The acceptance or rejection of the diploma not only varies because of different academic standards, but also because of political, regulatory and administrative reasons. The variations in the acceptance of degrees was one reason the EU initiated and executed the Bologna Process. Part of the Bologna Process shall ensure comparability between higher-education qualifications in the EU. As part of this process Germany has introduced Masters and bachelor's degrees and has largely phased out the awarding of new diploma degrees. A process not universally welcomed by the German academic and engineering communities. The already awarded "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)" and the "Diplom (FH)" degrees remain valid indefinitely and are not exchanged for master's or bachelor's degrees. Current German binding recommendations state that the newly German master's and bachelor's degrees come with the same eligibilities as the old degrees "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)" and "Diplom (FH)", respectively. This is, for example, important for joining certain career paths in government administration, military, or regulated professions, where some kind of diploma was required. It also implies that "Diplom (FH)" holders can join a master's degree program. It does not imply the degrees are the same, a fact stretched multiple times in the cited reference. An actual comparison, in case it is needed, is done via ECTS points which are retroactively calculated/assigned to old "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)" and "Diplom (FH)" degrees, when needed. This calculation is e.g. done when a holder of a "Diploma (FH)" wants to join a Masters program and needs to know the number of additional ECTS point to study for to obtain a Masters. Since the old diploma study programs were all a bit different there is not a single ECTS value or comparison chart for all kinds of diplomas. Almost universally, however, when retroactively calculating ECTS points for "Diplom / Diplom (Univ.)" degrees they end up well into the ECTS point range for a master's degree. The situation is different for "Diplom (FH)" degrees. Those tend to end up at least at the Bachelor's ECTS point level or above, and below the ECTS point level for a master's degree. The ranking is roughly shown in the following table, from lowest to highest rank. Typical ECTS points are provided for a very rough comparison, individual points vary.