European Quality Label and legal status for European higher education alliances
On the 31st of January, EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel launched ten pilot projects to test a quality label for joint European higher education qualifications and institutionalised cooperation instruments. Each pilot project will receive funding of up to €200,000 through the EU’s Erasmus+ education programme.
Six of the ten pilot projects will test the supplementary ‘European Higher Education Qualification’ quality label. The label represents a further step towards a European higher education qualification. It is intended to complement the qualifications that students obtain as part of joint study programmes based on transnational cooperation, for example at ‘European universities’. The label is intended to highlight the skills and learning outcomes of students who have completed a joint study programme involving several higher education institutions in different countries and languages, who have taken part in mobility schemes, and who have benefited from the interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches of such programmes.
The other four projects will enable European higher education alliances to trial new forms of cooperation, for example on the basis of a potential European legal status. The aim of such a legal status would be to give the alliances, on a voluntary basis, the necessary scope to act jointly, take strategic decisions, trial recruitment procedures, design curricula, or pool resources and capacities in the areas of staff, technology, data, education, research and innovation.
The European Higher Education Strategy (Link), presented by the European Commission on 18 January 2022, aims to develop a genuine European dimension in higher education based on shared values. On this basis, in its conclusions adopted on 5 April 2022 on a European strategy to strengthen higher education institutions for the future of Europe (Link), the Council called on the Member States and the Commission to support alliances of higher education institutions such as the ‘European Universities’.
In doing so, common criteria are to be explored which could lead to a potential European quality label for joint programmes, on the basis of which joint degrees can subsequently be designed and offered. Measures tailored to needs and feasible in practice are also to be taken to overcome the obstacles to deeper, long-term and flexible transnational cooperation and the development of institutionalised cooperation instruments.
In line with the recommendation adopted on 5 April 2022 on facilitating effective European cooperation in higher education (Link), the Council advises Member States to encourage and support higher education institutions in offering joint programmes and awarding joint degrees. In line with these recommendations, the European Commission has published an open call for proposals (Link) for experimental strategic initiatives in higher education, with a budget of €2 million.
Higher education institutions from Darmstadt, Hamburg, Kaiserslautern, the Saarland, Tübingen and Trier in Germany are involved in a total of five projects. The projects are due to start in spring 2023.
