Unfolding the Higher Education Package, Part 1 of 3
At the end of March 2024, the European Commission adopted a higher education package of proposals aimed at fostering greater transnational cooperation, boosting the quality and relevance of higher education, facilitating automatic recognition and promoting truly European learning opportunities.
In a series of three articles, we will unfold how the blueprint for a European degree and the proposed Council Recommendation on a European quality assurance and recognition system try to achieve those aims. This first article looks at the European degree.
A European degree offers students the opportunity to study across EU countries and benefit from a student-centred learning experience that includes skills vital for navigating the green and digital transition. Rooted in the recognition that existing regulations often hinder cross-border collaboration, the European degree initiative also seeks to dismantle obstacles that institutions currently face when setting up joint programmes.
At the heart of the European degree lies a set of ambitious criteria that build on, but go beyond the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programs (EA). These criteria include inter alia, a minimum period of physical mobility, learning outcomes that include green and digital skills, respect for democratic values and the use of interdisciplinary elements. The programme must be designed and delivered jointly by a consortium of higher education institutions, awarding a joint degree. An open question that remains is how the criteria could also be used for micro-credentials or other smaller units of learning.
The communication outlines two possible entry points. At first, a European degree label will be available for joint degree programmes that comply with the agreed criteria. In the longer term, EU Member States are encouraged to include a European degree in their national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) as a specific qualification, next to “regular” Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees and with regulations that facilitate transnational cooperation.
The implementation will be steered by a policy lab, bringing together relevant national authorities and key stakeholders, as well as further project support. Some existing joint programmes might swiftly qualify for the label, while the criteria will be more challenging for others. Embedding a European degree into national systems will be a longer process, but in many cases will be a prerequisite to really dismantle obstacles to joint programmes.
In other words: the proposal for a European degree aims to encourage the development of study programmes that are highly attractive to students and relevant to the labour market, and at the same time to cut red tape for institutions. The proposal is accompanied by new recommendations to further develop the European quality assurance and recognition system – these will be the focus of the next weeks.