The informal meeting of EU ministers responsible for higher education came to a close in Brussels on Friday 1 March, at the end of 2 days of dialogue on student mobility across Europe. The discussions underlined the importance attached by the European Union to integration through education, an issue that has become central in the context of globalisation and contemporary societal challenges.
One of the highlights of the meeting was the announcement that the Netherlands had ratified the Treaty on the Automatic Mutual Recognition of Higher Education Diplomas, recently joining the list of nations that have incorporated this measure into their national legislative framework. This completes the commitment made by Belgium and its Benelux partners since 2015, and by the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) in 2019.
The treaty, which aims to facilitate academic and professional mobility in Europe, will come fully into force on 1 May and promises to greatly facilitate the mobility of students and professionals across Europe. As Françoise Bertieaux, Minister for Higher Education of the Wallonia-Brussels Region, who chaired the debates, explained: “This is a completely innovative treaty in this area, which will mean that students will no longer have to go through the administrative procedures to have their degree recognised”.
In addition, according to Ms Bertieaux, this exchange made it possible to address “several possible solutions”, including “deepening and perpetuating European alliances in order to strengthen the attractiveness of the EU on the international scene”. In addition, “the EU ministers expressed their wish to continue discussions on asymmetric mobility in order to ensure sustainable and balanced mobility”, concluded the chair of the informal meeting.
Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen, the European Commission’s Director-General for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport, also highlighted the importance of mobility on the Member States’ agendas, saying that “studying abroad should be a standard and accessible option for all Europeans, whatever their age, level of education or financial situation”. This vision is part of a wider objective of inclusiveness and democratisation of access to higher education in Europe.
And with good reason: as Ms Ahrenkilde-Hansen pointed out, current figures show that only around 15% of higher education graduates in Europe benefit from study experience abroad.
In view of this, last November the European Commission adopted the proposal for an EU Council Recommendation ‘Europe on the Move’, as part of the ‘Talent Mobility’ package, aimed at increasing this percentage to at least 25% by 2030. This ambition reflects the desire to enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of European higher education on the international stage.
During this meeting, the EU ministers reaffirmed that, in addition to fostering European integration, mobility leading to qualifications was a strategic lever for meeting the challenges of competitiveness and innovation.
Finally, the discussions in Brussels also reiterated the importance of cooperation between universities and between Member States in order to remove unnecessary obstacles to the establishment of joint degree programmes and foster high-quality mobility. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)