Promoting automatic mutual recognition of higher education and upper secondary education and training qualifications and the outcomes of learning periods abroad - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 444/1

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...