To facilitate student mobility and enable the development of European virtual campuses, universities should harmonise their digital processes, according to the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework Report, which presents a set of technical and organisational references for harmonising digital processes and facilitating the common operation of European university systems, as set out in the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027).
Published on Monday 18 August on the European Union’s publications website and drawn up for the European Commission by a consortium comprising the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the audit and consultancy firm Deloitte, the Dutch digital infrastructure cooperative for higher education and research SURF, the European e-learning network EDEN, the German association for the support of education, science and innovation Stifterverband, and the Knowledge Innovation Centre, the Maltese centre specialising in innovation in higher education, the document presents an analysis of this European framework for interoperability in higher education and a set of recommendations to facilitate implementation.
It recommends standardising data formats, sharing metadata rather than sensitive data, clarifying staff roles and skills, and ensuring compatibility and interoperability between systems.
It also calls for a harmonised description of validated skills and knowledge, for quality assurance procedures to be transparent, and for micro-certifications to be integrated into recognition schemes. Finally, it encourages the university alliances to develop common course catalogues, starting with pilot projects.
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/i63 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)