Since 1990 the Czechoslovak higher education system has been breaking apart and the sudden need has arisen to restructure it. Unfortunately neither the Ministry of Education nor any other institution coordinated activities at that time. Universities and faculties made use of the full autonomy giving them by law and started to create new rules of study, not coordinated often within a University. The Faculties of Mechanical Engineering from all Czech and Slovak Universities agreed on joint principles of the rules based on a credit system and on mutual information for their creation. The Faculties of Electrical Engineering did the same.
European CATS are much younger, dating back to the early eighties.
Many Czech and Slovak faculties observed and studied CATS and ECTS developments in EC countries. Unfortunately, the activities were implemented without any systematic approach and proper influence from Western European countries. The fact that information on ECTS was not readily made available early enough to all who were concerned got some faculties to introduce the American credit system. The engineering study is divided into two stages. The first, three years stage, represents a general engineering base and is finished with the first state exam.