Proposal for a Council Recommendation on attractive and sustainable careers in higher education
Date: 2024-01-09
Institutions: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission
Subjects: education policy



PART-2023-1028062V1.docx












CALL FOR EVIDENCE


FOR AN INITIATIVE  (without an impact assessment)











Title of the initiative




A blueprint for a future joint European degree, accompanied by recommendations on quality assurance and on attractive academic careers in higher education. 






Lead DG – responsible unit 




Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Higher Education Unit (EAC B.1)






Likely Type of initiative




Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, accompanied by two proposals for Council recommendations.






Indicative Timing




Q1 2024






Additional Information




Higher education initiatives | European Education Area (europa.eu)






This document is for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by this document, including its timing, are subject to change.









A. Political context, problem definition and subsidiarity check






Political context 






In her State of the Union 2023 letter of intent, President von der Leyen highlights the joint European degree as a key priority for 2024. It is also included in the Commission’s Work Programme for 2024.


This initiative will contribute to achieving a European Education Area. It is a key flagship of the European strategy for universities and of the Council Recommendation on building bridges for effective European higher education cooperation, both adopted in 2022. 


The Commission will adopt a Communication on a blueprint for a joint European Degree that will present the objectives and possible avenues for setting-up a joint European degree. It will be accompanied by two key building blocks, a proposal for a Council recommendation on a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System in higher education and a proposal for a Council recommendation on attractive and sustainable careers in higher education. This call for evidence addresses these three initiatives. 






Problem the initiative aims to tackle 






The initiative seeks to tackle the lack of a common framework at European level for the design, delivery and award of joint degree programmes. While more and more joint programmes are developed by universities to combine complementary strengths not available at any single institution, only a minority leads to a joint degree.  The study ‘Implementing joint degrees in the Erasmus Mundus action of the Erasmus+ programme’ (2020) shows that only a third of Erasmus Mundus Joint Master programmes manage to deliver joint degrees. This is linked to the difficulties and huge administration linked to it, notably due to the lack of coherence between national legislations. The more countries are involved, the more complicated the process gets. Among the 40 first European Universities alliances supported by the Erasmus+ programme, about 160 new joint degree programmes have been developed at Bachelor and Master levels in the first piloting phase. However, not all the members of alliances can take part because of incompatible national administrative rules or legislation (be it linked to the number of ECTS that can be awarded, limitations in terms of multilingualism, online learning, interdisciplinary approaches, or different accreditation requirements). On average, in an alliance of 9 partners, 5 of them cannot participate in the joint programme and therefore cannot deliver a joint degree either, because of the above limitations.


 Such problems could be overcome by setting up   a common set of co-created European criteria that embody the transnational and innovative features of joint degree programmes. Member States and their higher education institutions would have the possibility, on a voluntary basis, to award such a joint European degree based on these European criteria, alongside their national degrees. In addition to cutting red tape, the process of co-creating such a framework could be used as a vehicle to strive for innovation, which is an essential feature of modernising higher education and the European Education Area.


The initiative not only responds to a call from higher education institutions, but also from students and employers to give more visibility to and acknowledge the high-level skills and competences acquired through high-quality joint degree programmes, as well as enable easier mobility for learning and professional purposes. 


The work on the joint European degree is linked with two specific questions in the area of quality assurance and in respect of the attractiveness of academic careers: 


The way quality assurance is regulated in many Member States hinders deep transnational cooperation to develop joint degree programmes and other joint educational activities. In addition, one of the main reason of higher education institutions not recognising qualification and learning periods abroad automatically  is the lack of trust in the quality assurance processes of other institutions, as presented by the 2023 Report on Implementation of automatic recognition. 


High-quality academic staff are indispensable for thriving European higher education institutions and deeper transnational cooperation. Building joint educational offers such as joint degree programmes or innovative teaching and learning methods requires a lot of efforts and dedication from academics. However, these efforts are still not properly valued and recognised in their career development and promotion. Parity of esteem for teaching and other activities such as civic engagement as compared to research activities is still not operationalised. This constitutes an important barrier to the development of joint innovation educational activities, including joint European degree programmes. 


With no new EU action, deep higher education cooperation will continue to be limited, hampering the achievement of a European Education Area and the success of initiatives such as European Universities alliances. This will decrease the EU’s higher education sector competitiveness and attractiveness on the global scale. 






Basis for EU action (legal basis and subsidiarity check) 






Legal basis






This initiative is based on articles 165 and 166 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 






Practical need for EU action






This initiative will encourage, support and complement Member States' activities by fostering and facilitating transnational cooperation in the field of higher education, while respecting Member States’ overall responsibility for their educational systems. This is in line with the subsidiarity principle and the EU’s role in education policy under the Treaty. Member States face common challenges with the setting up of joint transnational educational programmes, quality assurance and recognition processes and creating attractive and flexible career pathways in higher education. As this concerns transnational cooperation, the action of the EU is necessary and cannot be solved by the Member States acting alone. The added value of action at EU level lies in its ability to encourage deeper transnational cooperation between higher education institutions across the EU.







B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how 






The joint European degree_ package aims at making it easier for higher education institutions to design and provide together joint transnational educational offers of enhanced quality, such as joint degrees. These proposals seek to benefit the widely diverse higher education institutions across the EU to become more involved in transnational cooperation, and especially those higher education institutions seeking to raise their international profile on the global stage. The aim is to support higher education institutions to adapt to changing conditions, to thrive and to equip the next generation of Europeans with future-proof knowledge and skills through deeper transnational cooperation.


A joint European degree would not only offer embedded and seamless mobility opportunities but also empower students to choose what and where to study, responding to labour market needs and promoting brain circulation across Europe. It will also raise the profile of all European education systems for attracting talent from third countries. 


A fit-for-purpose European Quality Assurance and Recognition System would allow for quicker delivery of high-quality learning provisions, reliable and transparent learning assessments, enabling and valorising innovative pedagogical offers and facilitating deeper transnational cooperation, It aims to ensure that higher education institutions can be more quickly responsive to the needs of the labour market and society, by adapting or creating new transnational educational activities, with quality assurance and that are automatically recognised across the EU. This could be done for instance by enabling a shift towards multi-institutional external quality assurance and improved links between recognition and quality assurance.  


Better valorisation and recognition in career development and promotion of academic staff engaged in deep transnational educational cooperation will strengthen the European dimension of higher education and take transnational cooperation to the next level, for instance by creating joint transnational programmes leading to a joint European degree - including in the context of European Universities alliances. The initiative is complementary to the research careers framework in supporting academic staff, and promoting diverse, attractive and sustainable careers.






Likely impacts






The initiative will support higher education institutions to adapt to changing conditions, to thrive and to equip the next generation of Europeans with future-proof knowledge and skills through deeper transnational cooperation. Working towards a joint European degree will facilitate the implementation of innovative, student-centred and challengebased approaches, the connection with the labour market, and prepare students for the green and digital transitions. The impact of the initiative is expected to be positive for students, graduates, employers, higher education institutions and national/regional systems across Europe. Through the development of innovative pedagogies and strong collaborations with industry and civil society, the envisaged actions will also help the EU building a highly skilled and internationally minded workforce through transnational education that enables growth, innovation and entrepreneurship while building a strong sense of European belonging. 


Deep transnational cooperation requires flexible and compatible quality assurance systems that allow higher education institutions from several member states to join forces. An enabling environment with agile quality assurance and recognition arrangements building on the Bologna process tools will be a key instrument for universities to raise their international profile and use internationalisation as one of their strategic advantages on the global scene. 


The work towards attractive and sustainable careers in higher education will contribute to thriving European higher education institutions. The initiative will have a positive impact on empowering academic staff to engage in deeper transnational educational cooperation while protecting academic freedom and fundamental academic values.






Future monitoring






Future cooperation with Member States and stakeholders in the framework of the European Education Area Strategic Framework will give the opportunity to further track progress, including through future reporting on the European Education Area. 






C. Better regulation






Impact assessment 






This package comprises a Commission Communication and two Commission proposals for Council recommendations. As these are not legislative proposals, leaving Member States autonomy and flexibility for any follow-up, no impact assessment will be performed. 






Consultation strategy 






The Commission invites stakeholders to provide their views on the upcoming Communication and recommendations via this call for evidence. The aim is to gather relevant evidence on the way forward towards a joint European degree, fit for purpose quality assurance and recognition systems and attractive and sustainable careers in higher education from all interested parties, from the higher education sector to their eco-system partners, trade unions and employers’ organisations, businesses, and SMEs, research and innovation organisations, civil society, citizens, and Member States (public authorities at local, regional and national level).


The initiative will also be informed by numerous targeted consultations carried out over the past year with Member States, universities and students’ associations, European Universities alliances and other higher education stakeholders’ organisations and the available outcomes of the policy experimentations on a joint European degree label and legal status for alliances of higher education institutions. 


The Commission will include the results of all consultation activities in the Staff Working Document that will accompany the Higher Education package.






Why we are consulting?






The aim of the consultation is to collect information, expertise and views from all interested parties in order to get a strong evidence based for the development of the three initiatives. The Commission will analyse and build on the views, positions and ideas of stakeholders on the way forward towards a joint European degree, attractive and sustainable careers in higher education, and a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System.







Target audience






The aim is to gather relevant feedback from all interested parties, from the wide higher education sector, including academics and students, to their  partners, trade unions and employers’ organisations, businesses and SMEs, research and innovation organisations, civil society, citizens, and Member States (public authorities at local, regional and national level).