A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
The programme of political directives set out by the new 2024-2029 European Commission includes a commitment to continue working towards the European degree and further facilitate the recognition between countries of the training received by students.
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The last year has seen significant progress towards the establishment of the European degree. The Forum of European University Alliances was held in Barcelona in September 2023. On 27 March 2024, the European Commission published the Council Recommendation on a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System in Higher Education. In April of the same year, a conference was held in Brussels to discuss the document Blueprint for a European Degree and present the results of the Erasmus+ pilot projects relating to the European degree, along with the potential legal frameworks that could support the alliances of higher education institutions promoting them. These three events were then followed in May by the Ministerial Conference of the European Higher Education Area in Tirana. Once of the commitments adopted by the countries was the "Vision for an inclusive, innovative and interconnected EHEA by 2030".
It appears 2030 is the year that has been chosen to deploy the European degree, and following Ursula von der Leyen's re-election as president of the European Commission, the joint European degree remains firmly on the political agenda. In fact, the programme of political directives set out by the new 2024-2029 European Commission includes a commitment to continue working towards the European degree and further facilitate the recognition between countries of the training received by students, a decision undoubtedly linked to the importance of strengthening European university alliances. Although we now have the necessary mechanisms to roll out joint degrees, the challenge lies in moving towards European degrees that simplify the process and are not conditioned or cornered by the national legislation of individual member states.
The European Commission has indicated that the process will begin with the introduction of the European seal between 2025 and 2027. This initial step will then be followed by a proposal for a European qualification, which is expected to be finalised within the 2028-2030 timeframe. In addition, the process will be accompanied by different support actions.
For quality assurance agencies, the Recommendation of 27 March 2024 proposes that the criteria for the European seal and degree qualification should be organised in three blocks: a) organisation and management of transnational programs, b) learning experience and c) European values. The first block covers quality assurance mechanisms and upholds the principle that assessment will be carried out in accordance with the existing European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes, a methodology that has generated problems due to difficulties in adapting it to the regulations of the different countries, but which in Spain fits well with Royal Decree 822/2021 and frankly has been very effective. It remains to be seen how this assessment, which adds a broad set of criteria to the aforementioned European Approach to reinforce the European dimension of the degree, will be managed.
While it's clear that these types of initiatives will not initially be widely implemented, it would certainly be advisable to follow their progress. At the end of the process, for many different reasons, a large majority of universities will seek to participate in some form of European alliance initiative and will want to offer some form of European degree.
The European university alliances —Catalonia participates in seven (out of a total of 51)— have played a key role in paving the way for the establishment of a European degree. Last May, the Inter-University Council of Catalonia organised a workshop on the management of Erasmus Mundus master's degrees and the accreditation of international university degrees, which provided an opportunity to evaluate the current state of the issue within our university system, drawing on our experiences of Erasmus Mundus and European alliances. From my perspective, the workshop showed that our university system has a remarkable level of expertise in this area. An expertise that should serve us well in terms of participating in future European degrees, positioning us with high probability of successfully achieving the 2030 vision.