Automatic Recognition, Flexible Learning Pathways and Mobility Windows.

For the first time, the International Week at Algebra University is organized in partnership with the EURASHE Quality Assurance Community of Practice. This event, will include both a Core Group and a Wider Community Meeting of the QA CoP on 18-19 March.

With the European University Alliances initiative, an avalanche of new forms of cooperation in higher education and research has shaken up the European higher education landscape. According to the Commission’s January 2024 Call for Evidence, around 160 new “joint degree programmes” at Bachelor’s and Master’s level have been developed among the first 40 European Higher Education Alliances in the initial pilot phase. However, more than 50% of the members of the alliances cannot participate in the joint degree programmes due to incompatible national administrative regulations or laws. Despite the adoption of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (2015) by European higher education ministers, the same obstacles in the higher education system and in the QA legal framework still exist as they did 15 years ago.

The Commission sees a possible solution to these problems in setting up a common set of co-created European criteria that embody the transnational and innovative features of “joint degree programmes” that would serve as a basis to award joint European degrees on top on the national ones. The publication of a Commission Communication was announced presenting the objectives and possible avenues for setting-up a joint European degree as well as a proposal for the Council Recommendation on a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System in higher education that would open a path towards building a common framework at European level for the design, delivery of “joint degree programmes”. A possible solution is searched in shifting towards multi-institutional external quality assurance and improved links between recognition and quality assurance.

Existing European University alliances have experimented with creating a better link between recognition and quality assurance, and some possible solutions may emerge from such experiments that can be inspirational for others. Since the EURASHE communities of practice are tasked, among other things, to facilitate the exchange of experience, to encourage peer-to-peer dialogue and stimulate new practical solutions to existing obstacles to transnational cooperation, we would like to discuss challenges and possible solutions in relation to flexible quality assurance fostering transnational interinstitutional cooperation.

Flexibility seems to be another European buzzword with a wide range of meanings, especially when it comes to practical application in different areas. Therefore, at the upcoming meeting of a wider QA Community of Practice we would like to question the concept of flexibility in the context of transnational recognition of study periods abroad and cross-border quality assurance supporting large scale mobilities.