WRITTEN QUESTION E-0530/00

by Brigitte Langenhagen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 February 2000)

Subject: Implementation of the Socrates education programme

My researches reveal that during the implementation of the Socrates student exchange programme problems with the recognition of certificates at partner universities have been caused by differences in academic systems. This appears to be especially true of exchanges between German and French universities. If the certificates awarded for such post-graduate courses were recognised, it would be easier to motivate young students to take part. As it is, they have the impression that the participants in exchanges fall behind in the achievement of their academic objectives and do not develop any interest in an exchange in the future.

Can the Commission answer the following:

1. To what extent were the differences between the Member States' academic systems taken into account when the Socrates programme was being established?

2. How does the Commission intend to increase the willingness of universities to recognise each other's certificates or to change the practical aspects of recognition so that interested students may take part without losing time at their home universities?

3. What measures does the Commission intend to take to approximate university education systems throughout Europe?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(3 April 2000)

The academic recognition of diplomas falls within the competence of the Member States. At present there are no Community provisions which cover this type of recognition. Under Article 149 of the EC Treaty, each Member State is solely responsible for the content of its teaching and the organisation of its own educational system and any harmonisation in this respect is excluded. The authorities are entitled to subordinate enrolment in a course of education to the requirement of previous academic recognition of qualifications acquired in another Member State. They are also free to determine the rules governing that type of procedure, since there are no Community regulations laying down that a Member State is required to recognise, for academic purposes, diplomas obtained in another Member State.

The Commission encourages mutual recognition for academic purposes between the various education systems in Europe through the Socrates programme, in particular the Erasmus action. A tangible result of the effort to promote understanding of the academic recognition of qualifications is the network of national information centres for the recognition of diplomas (NARIC). These centres provide information on national academic recognition procedures. This network, created in 1984, aims to assist in promoting the mobility of students, teachers and researchers by providing authoritative advice and information concerning the academic recognition of diplomas. The main users of these services are higher education institutions, students and their advisers, parents, teachers and prospective employers.

The Commission also encourages and supports ECTS (the European credit transfer system), which provides an instrument to create transparency, to build bridges between institutions and to widen the choices available to students. The system makes it easier for institutions to recognise learning achievements of students through the use of commonly understood measurements credits and grades and provides a means to interpret national systems of higher education. The ECTS system is based on three core elements: information (on study programmes and student achievement), mutual agreement (between the partner institutions and the student) and the use of ECTS credits (to indicate student workload). The ECTS system is currently used in about 1 300 institutions in the Community, the EEA-states and the associated countries. The system has gained wide acceptance by national authorities, universities and students.

Following the debate on the possible synergies between academic and professional recognition, initiated in 1994, the Council invited the Commission, in conclusions of 6 May 1996, to examine the possibilities for the introduction, on a voluntary basis, of a European administrative annex to academic diplomas. The work on this diploma supplement is entrusted to a working party, which was established in December 1996 as a joint initiative of the Commission, the Council of Europe and Unesco/CEPES. Since then, a model for a diploma supplement has been developed. It provides a description of the nature and the contents of academic programmes, the level of the qualification obtained and information on the higher education system in which the qualification has been obtained.