Brussels ( Brussels Morning )- The European Commission launches initiatives for a European degree, promoting transnational collaboration in higher education and enhancing quality assurance.
Today, the European Commission has launched three initiatives to promote transnational cooperation between higher education institutions, with the top goal of creating a European degree. A voluntary European degree would help students and the higher education community by promoting learning mobility within the EU and by improving students’ transversal skills. It would enable meet labour market demand and make graduates more appealing to future employers while, at the same time, drawing students from around the world and promoting European competitiveness.
The three initiatives tackle the permitted and administrative barriers to associate universities setting up competitive combined degree programmes at Bachelor, Master or Doctoral levels. The recommendations build on universities’ institutional autonomy and academic freedom. They fully admire the competencies of Member States and regional governments in the domain of higher education.
Today’s package includes a Communication on a blueprint for a European degree and two recommendations for Council proposals to support the higher education sector: one to enhance quality assurance processes and automatic recognition of qualifications in higher education, and the other to earn academic careers more attractive and sustainable.
A Blueprint for a European Degree
The blueprint for a European degree delivered today paves the way for a unique type of joint programme, delivered voluntarily at the national, regional, or institutional level, and founded on a common set of criteria agreed at the European level.
Such a European degree would trim red tape and allow higher education organisations from different countries to collaborate seamlessly across borders and develop joint programmes.
The Communication suggests a concrete cooperation path between EU Member States and the higher education sector towards the outcome of a European degree recognised automatically across the EU. Given the diversity of the European higher education systems across Europe, the Commission submits a gradual approach for Member States towards a European degree, with two possible entry points. The first one is A preparatory European label: a label would deliver a strong European branding. It would be provided to joint degree programmes which meet the suggested European criteria: students receive a European degree designation certificate together with their joint degree.
The second is a European degree: this new type of qualification would be founded on the common criteria and be anchored in national legislation. It would be granted either jointly by several universities from other countries or possibly by a European legal entity designated by such universities: students receive a ‘European degree’ that is automatically recognised.
The Commission will encourage and support Member States in the work towards the European degree through some concrete actions, including a European degree policy lab backed by the Erasmus+ programme, to be set up in 2025, seeking to engage Member States and the higher education community to create guidelines towards a European degree.
In 2025, the Commission intends to launch ‘European degree pathway projects’ within the Erasmus+ programme to deliver financial incentives for Member States, together with their accreditation and quality assurance agencies, universities, students, and economic and social members, to engage in the path towards a European degree.
The Commission’s submission for a Council Recommendation on a European quality assurance and recognition system in higher education asks Member States and higher education institutions to facilitate and improve their quality assurance processes and practices. These are essential conditions for accountability and trust – and academic universities’ performances. Member States are invited to take action to allow higher education institutions to adjust the programmes offered more quickly to societal needs.
This Recommendation would advocate innovative pedagogical offers and guarantee that higher education institutions can form transnational programmes that are quality-assured and automatically identified across the EU. The European degree will depend on robust quality assurance and automatic recognition.
