Legal provisions of COM(2018)270 - Promoting automatic mutual recognition of higher education and upper secondary education diplomas and the outcomes of learning periods abroad

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10.12.2018   ENOfficial Journal of the European UnionC 444/1



COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION

of 26 November 2018

on promoting automatic mutual recognition of higher education and upper secondary education and training qualifications and the outcomes of learning periods abroad

(2018/C 444/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Articles 165 and 166 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

(1)Learning mobility fosters knowledge, skills, competences and experiences, including personal and social competences and cultural awareness, that are crucial for active participation in society and the labour market, as well as for promoting a European identity.

(2)The European Commission, in its Communication on Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture (1), set out a vision for the creation of a European Education Area by 2025 in which learning, studying and carrying out research will not be hampered by borders, including by removing obstacles to the recognition of qualifications, both at the level of schools and higher education.

(3)The European Council Conclusions of 14 December 2017 called on Member States, the Council and the Commission, in line with their respective competences, to take work forward in ‘promoting cooperation of Member States on mutual recognition of higher education and school-leaving diplomas at secondary education level’ (2).

(4)The 1997 Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (Lisbon Recognition Convention) and its subsidiary texts, developed by the Council of Europe and Unesco, provides a legal framework for the recognition of higher education and upper secondary qualifications that give access to higher education.

(5)Ministers for Education of the European Higher Education Area committed to the long-term goal of automatic recognition of comparable academic degrees in the Bucharest Communiqué of 2012. Progress was made including through the work of the Pathfinder Group on Automatic Recognition, but the goal has not been reached yet.

(6)Ministers responsible for vocational education and training in Member States committed in 2002 to the Copenhagen Process, a process of enhanced cooperation that promotes recognition of qualifications and competences.

(7)Quality assurance in particular has a key role to play in improving transparency, thus helping to build mutual trust. It is therefore important to build on the work already accomplished in the context of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training and referencing to the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning.

(8)To facilitate the recognition of the learning outcomes in national legislation, including in the framework of mobility, the work on the implementation of a European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System and European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training should continue.

(9)The Council Recommendation of 22 May 2017 on a European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (3) set out to improve the transparency, comparability and portability of qualifications, thus facilitating their recognition.

(10)The European Parliament, in its Resolution of 20 April 2012 on Modernising Europe's higher education systems, calls for additional efforts on the part of the EU and its Member States to ensure more effective recognition and greater harmonisation of academic qualifications (4).

(11)In an increasingly globalised context, it is important that students can make the best possible use of all learning opportunities across Europe. For this to happen, a qualification awarded by a competent authority in one Member State should be valid in any other Member State for the purpose of accessing further learning activities. This includes third-country nationals who hold a qualification from one Member State and move to another Member State. However, the lack of this automatic recognition of qualifications and the outcomes of learning periods abroad is hampering mobility. A Union-wide approach to automatic recognition will provide the needed clarity and consistency to overcome remaining barriers.

(12)In higher education, recognition procedures often remain too complicated or too expensive and too many mobile students do not obtain full recognition of successfully achieved learning outcomes. However, several Member States have taken the initiative to make progress towards automatic mutual recognition, including through the signature of regional agreements. These initiatives could serve as models for the creation of a Union-wide system.

(13)At upper secondary education and training level, holders of qualifications giving access to higher education in one Member State often lack certainty about access to higher education in another Member State. In particular, some Member States do not recognise the qualifications that open access to higher education for holders of secondary qualifications in vocational education and training in other Member States. Furthermore, while shorter learning periods abroad do not necessarily create recognition problems, uncertainty remains an important challenge for periods between three months and one year.

(14)A step-by-step approach will support Member States in putting in place the conditions that will make automatic mutual recognition possible. This approach will build on the tools already in place for higher education and vocational education and training, but will improve their use and progressively raise the level of ambition. In upper general secondary education and training, a cooperation process aimed at building the necessary level of trust between Member States' different education and training systems will be launched. This Recommendation provides a complementary approach to Member States' initiatives, and commitments are of a voluntary nature.

(15)This Recommendation is without prejudice to the system for mutual recognition of professional qualifications and harmonised minimum training requirements for several professions pursuant to Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and the Council (5) as amended by Directive 2013/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (6).

HEREBY RECOMMENDS THAT MEMBER STATES:

In accordance with national and Union legislation, available resources and national circumstances, building on the Lisbon Recognition Convention (7) and its subsidiary texts and in close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders:

Key Principle

1.Put in place, by 2025, the steps necessary to
a)achieve automatic mutual recognition (8) for the purpose of further learning without having to go through a separate recognition procedure, so that:

i)a higher education qualification acquired in one Member State is automatically recognised (9) at the same level, for the purpose of accessing further studies, in the others, without prejudicing a higher education institution's or the competent authorities' right to set specific admission criteria for specific programmes or to check the authenticity of documents;

ii)the outcomes from a learning period abroad at higher education level in one Member State are automatically and fully recognised in the others, as agreed beforehand in a learning agreement and confirmed in the Transcript of Records, in line with the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System;

b)make substantial progress towards the automatic mutual recognition for the purpose of further learning, so that:

i)an upper secondary education and training qualification giving access to higher education in the Member State where this qualification was granted is recognised, only for the purpose of giving access to higher education, in the other Member States, without prejudicing a higher education institution's or the competent authorities' right to set specific admission criteria for specific programmes or to check the authenticity of documents;

ii)the outcomes from a learning period of up to one year abroad in another Member State during upper secondary education and training are recognised in any other, with the learner not being required to repeat the programme year or achieved learning outcomes in the country of origin, provided that the learning outcomes are broadly in line with the national curricula in the country of origin.

Higher Education

2.Acknowledging the importance of fostering transparency and building trust in each other's higher education systems to achieve automatic mutual recognition for the purpose of further learning, agree on fulfilling the following conditions, in which:
a)national qualifications frameworks or systems are referenced to the European Qualifications Framework, with the referencing reviewed and updated when relevant, and self-certified to the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area;

b)higher education systems are organised in line with Bologna Process structures and principles, comprising a three-cycle framework and, where applicable to the Member State, a short cycle as defined in the qualification framework of the European Higher Education Area; and

c)external quality assurance is carried out by independent quality assurance agencies registered, or moving towards being registered, with the European Quality Assurance Register and which thus operate in line with both the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area and the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes.

3.In cooperation with National Academic Recognition Information Centres, higher education institutions, quality assurance agencies and other key stakeholders, develop national guidance to support higher education institutions in producing and effectively implementing the following transparency tools, according to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System guidelines, thereby ensuring consistency and reducing administrative burdens for higher education institutions and learners:
a)up-to-date Course Catalogue, with descriptions of degree programmes, single educational units and grade distribution tables;

b)Diploma Supplements for all graduates, issued automatically and free of charge in a widely used language and, where possible, in digital format; and

c)transparent criteria for recognition that are applied throughout each higher education institution.

4.In cooperation with National Academic Recognition Information Centres provide expert support and training to higher education institutions to implement such national guidance, and monitor its implementation.

Upper Secondary Education and Training

5.In order to make substantial progress towards automatic mutual recognition of upper secondary education and training qualifications only for the purpose of further learning, foster transparency and build trust in each other's secondary education and training systems by:
a)ensuring that national qualifications frameworks or systems are referenced to the European Qualifications Framework with the referencing reviewed and updated, when relevant;

b)exchanging information and promoting mutual learning on quality assurance systems in school education, while fully respecting different national approaches in quality assurance; and

c)developing further quality assurance instruments in vocational education and training in line with the European Framework for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training and its further developments.

6.Facilitate mobility and recognition of the outcomes of learning periods abroad during upper secondary education and training by:
a)supporting upper secondary education and training institutions on general principles and tools for recognition, for example through guidance material or training;

b)promoting the use of transparent criteria and tools, such as learning outcomes-based learning agreements between the sending and hosting institutions. In vocational education and training, extending the use of the Union tools (10); and

c)promoting the benefits of mobility among upper secondary education and training institutions and learners and their families.

National Academic Recognition Information Centres

7.Develop the capacity and strengthen the role of National Academic Recognition Information Centres and credential evaluators, in particular with regard to information dissemination, the use of online tools to improve efficiency, transparency and consistency, and the goal of reducing administrative and financial burden for users of their services.

Permeability and mobility

8.Explore good practice with regard to the recognition of prior learning and permeability between education and training sectors, in particular between vocational education and training and higher education.

Evidence Base

9.Improve the evidence base by collecting and disseminating data on the extent and nature of recognition cases for the purpose of this Recommendation.

Reporting and Evaluation

10.Within three years from the adoption of this Recommendation, and regularly thereafter, report through existing frameworks and tools on experiences, good practices, including regional agreements, and progress towards automatic mutual recognition of qualifications and the outcomes of learning periods abroad.

HEREBY WELCOMES THE COMMISSION'S INTENTION TO:

11.Provide targeted support to Member States, including mutual learning, mapping of obstacles experienced in the current practice of recognition of qualifications, exchange of good practices and facilitating cooperation between Member States and with stakeholders, recognition authorities and international organisations, in particular the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. This cooperation shall aim to ensure the full implementation of the Bologna Process instruments for higher education in the Union, the Lisbon Recognition Convention and its subsidiary texts and the Copenhagen Process instruments for vocational education and training.

12.In the field of general upper secondary education, launch a Union level cooperation process under the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training ET 2020 or any successor framework, jointly with Member States, to initiate closer cooperation and exchange of practices among Member States at upper secondary education level to achieve the objectives of this Recommendation to foster transparency and build mutual trust in school education systems across the Union.

13.Establish, in cooperation with Member States, a user-friendly Union level online information service of upper secondary education and training qualifications giving access to higher education in each Member State, by further developing existing online platforms.

14.Explore synergies between Union transparency tools (11) and, where appropriate, develop them further, with the objective of improving cooperation and mobility between education and training sectors.

15.Explore, in cooperation with Member States, the potential of new technologies, such as blockchain technology, to facilitate automatic mutual recognition.

16.Explore, in cooperation with Member States and the National Academic Recognition Information Centres, an extension of their role to encompass other sectors of education and training and how to support them in such an extension.

17.Support the use of European sources of funding, such as Erasmus+ or European Structural and Investment Funds, where appropriate and in line with their financial capacity, legal basis, decision-making procedures and priorities defined for the period 2014-2020, without any prejudice to negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework. Strengthen mobility in secondary education and training within the Erasmus+ Programme and its successor Programme.

18.Report to the Council within four years on the follow-up of the Recommendation through existing frameworks and tools, based on Member States' contributions.