CONCLUSIONS OF THE COUNCIL AND OF THE MINISTERS FOR EDUCATION MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL of 11 June 1993 on furthering an open European space for cooperation within higher education

(93/C 186/01)

After the establishment of the internal market and in view of the present difficult employment and growth prospects in Europe, the Council and the Ministers for Education meeting within the Council reaffirm the need for dialogue and cooperation between the Member States on how to achieve a Europe with employment and quality education and training for all, based on democratic values. The memoranda on vocational training in the 1990s, on open and distance learning, and on higher education, which the Commission has submitted for debate in the Member States, constitute a valuable contribution to this dialogue.

With the establishment of the internal market from 1 January 1993, the barriers to the free movement of goods, services, capital and persons between the countries in the Community have largely been removed. The labour markets will in the years to come be subject to constant changes and more closely linked.

The citizens of Europe will thus be living and working in labour markets characterized by specific and distinct cultures but with much more mobility between them than today. This will make more and heavier demands on educational policy than ever before.

A way of facing these challenges to the national educational policies could be to develop an open European space for cooperation within higher education. In this open space citizens should as a long-term aim have the opportunity to choose a place of study in any of the Member States; the necessary European dimension in education should be combined with a respect for the richness and diversity of the national and regional education and training systems.

The Member States and the Community should therefore continue to work with determination in order to remove the remaining barriers to this open space, taking special account of the value of European cultural and linguistic diversity and of the financial problems experienced by individual Member States in relation to imbalances in student flows. Attention should be paid to strengthening higher education systems in less developed regions and contributing in this way to social and economic cohesion.

These conclusions concern three specific areas which are important for furthering an open European space for cooperation within higher education.

Access

1. From a European perspective, the objective is that through cooperation between national systems and institutions of higher education, young people should be able to pursue part or all of their studies in the higher educational institutions of other Member States in ways which best match their needs.

2. The Commission is invited to institute, together with the Member States in accordance with their respective competences, a review of obstacles to the attainment of this objective, in particular concerning:

- different forms of admission regulations and requirements, as well as any remaining problems of nationality,

- arrangements for financing higher education within individual Member States, which may inhibit balanced student flows.

The review could be undertaken in cooperation with relevant organizations representing educational institutions and using the knowledge already available in the Commission as well as that gathered by international organizations which are working on the same issues.

3. The Member States could - subject to and in accordance with national education policies and priorities - work to apply the principle that young people enrolled in higher education should be able to take with them for studies in another Member State national student grants or loans intended for living expenses.

4. The Commission is further invited to investigate ways of establishing measures concerning access and financing which will improve the opportunities for students disadvantaged by personal or regional circumstances to undertake study periods in another Member State.

Quality

5. The Member States and the Commission could continue to support the establishment and/or expansion of networks between higher education institutions. Such cooperation could build on the principles and experience which have been established within the Erasmus, Lingua and Comett programmes, for instance beginning with a few fields of study at the postgraduate level.

The aim should be to develop top quality in the networks through cooperation and division of responsibility. The networks could operate a variety of model projects, e.g. experiments with a joint intake of students. Experiments could also be made with new forms of financing cooperation between institutions in the network.

6. The Commission is invited to examine the possibilities of increasing long term as well as short term mobility of staff as well as information exchange between educational institutions in the Community, with a view to strengthening the European dimension and improving quality in higher education, in accordance with the ministerial conclusions of 27 November 1992.

7. The Commission is invited to present as quickly as possible the report of the working party established by virtue of the conclusions on quality assessment of 25 November 1991. In the light of this report, and following Council consideration thereof, it could initiate pilot projects on quality assessment including elements of both internal and external evaluation, in cooperation with interested Member States and after consultation with relevant organizations active in the field.

Such pilot projects should reflect the increasing importance attached in the Member States to the transparency of arrangements to secure and maintain quality.

8. The Commission is invited to present as soon as possible the report on the extension of credit transfer possibilities between study programmes in the Member States, as requested in the conclusions of the Council and Ministers of 25 November 1991 and 27 November 1992.

Relevance of studies

9. The Member States - and the institutions within them - may need to further diversify their educational instruments and the content of higher education in order to meet in a balanced way the widening educational needs of students, the labour market and society as such.

The Member States and the Commission could support and promote this activity by furthering exchanges of valuable experience and know-how from countries with a wide range of options in higher education to countries with more restricted options for the citizens.

10. The Council and the Ministers for Education meeting within the Council agree to study during their forthcoming meetings the reports and studies on the abovementioned points; they moreover take note of the Commission general guidelines for Community action in the field of education and training, and its plans for the extension of European cooperation in higher education, taking into account the experiences gained in the higher education programmes Erasmus, Lingua and Comett as well as the results of their evaluation and the discussions in the Member States concerning the memorandum on 'Higher education in the European Community'.