Meeting in Brussels on Monday 17 May to discuss the development of higher education in the EU, the ministers responsible for education focused mainly on the deployment of the test phase of the ‘European Universities’ project (see EUROPE 12283/19).
This pilot initiative, launched in the summer of 2019 and expanded in the summer of 2020, now involves 41 university alliances - some 280 institutions - that are to become ‘inter-university campuses’. The aim is to promote the mobility of students and teaching staff.
The States confirmed their support for this initiative, which will be implemented during the 2021-2027 funding period.
A large majority also recognised that this initiative would be a “test bed” for better interoperability and cooperation between States in research and education.
European criteria
Some ministers spoke in more detail about the implementation of the project. “The accreditation of the programmes of the participating universities is essential”, stressed the Spanish Minister for Universities, Manuel Castells Oliván, taking care to recall his commitment to the project. “We are one of the leaders in this programme with France. We have 22 public and 8 private universities participating”, he said.
France, for its part, has called for an evaluation to be carried out by 2021 to “achieve the qualification of European universities through criteria set by the Member States and the Commission”. The delegation also called for the creation of a cooperation platform that would bring together Member States, the Commission and the alliances to address potential difficulties that universities might encounter.
Austria, which had already expressed some misgivings on the subject (see EUROPE 12430/7), said that “the direction to be taken” remained unclear. The Austrian Minister, Heinz Fassman, pointed out that two approaches had been discussed so far: one was to develop a network of alliances that was as wide as possible and could extend to third countries, and the other was to implement a limited network of European university flagships. “I think we should think again”, he insisted.
Lastly, a few States have asked that the initiative not be limited to universities. For the Luxembourg Minister, Claude Meisch, “if the European university networks are to act as drivers and precursors in proposing new innovative approaches”, it will be “essential that these approaches be transposable to other higher education institutions”..
Belgium also called for good practices from this pilot phase to be collected so that they can be transferred to the entire higher education community.
European Education Area
Two draft conclusions were adopted at the meeting. One on inclusive education, detailed previously in our columns (see EUROPE 12719/25).
The other, devoted to the university alliances project, which was discussed at length during the debate, calls on the Member States and the Commission to ensure that the initiative will remain a central element in the development of a European Education Area by 2025.
Other tools should, in the future, give substance to this Education Area: a common framework for diplomas and European standards for, in particular, micro-credentials.
These two topics were also discussed at the meeting, with most of the speakers being enthusiastic about them. Several ministers stressed that their national legislation was in the process of being adapted or was already conducive to the implementation of a European approach on these two points.
The main questions were again raised by Austria. Here too, standards should be developed so that “States can have confidence in the high standards of other States”, said Mr Fassman.
This view was shared by France, which also stated that it would be “useful to have a European tool allowing for the readability of each national graduation system”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)