ED-AFFICHE, a leading higher education consortium piloting the European Degree, is calling on the European Commission to take a proactive role in coordinating collaboration between all major actors to make the European Degree a reality.

The call comes in response to the European Commission’s new Higher Education Package including a blueprint for a European Degree, which was unveiled on 27 March.

ED-AFFICHE is a powerhouse consortium of 51 higher education institutions (HEIs) from six European Universities alliances (Una Europa, 4EU+, CHARM-EU, EC2U, EU-CONEXUS, Unite!). Being a full member of the EU-CONEXUS Alliance, Frederick University is the only academic institution in Cyprus involved in designing and delivering a European Degree, with the aim to achieve meaningful impact for all types of Universities across the European Higher Education Area.

In consultation with higher education ministries, quality assurance agencies, students and employers, the ED-AFFICHE consortium has spent the past year co-developing a vision for the European Degree and identifying concrete steps towards its realisation as an instrument to overcome existing legislative and administrative obstacles to developing transnational joint degrees in Europe. Now, the consortium calls on the European Commission to develop processes to support the continuation and scaling up of the close collaboration initiated under ED-AFFICHE and all European Degree pilot experimentation projects.

The European Commission’s blueprint for a European Degree proposes several actions for supporting Member States and the wider European Higher Education Area (EHEA), including a policy lab ‘to develop detailed guidelines and action plans for the implementation of a European degree’; an annual forum for monitoring progress; and new support from Erasmus+ for Member States and HEIs to work on realising the European Degree. While these steps demonstrate the European Commission’s commitment to facilitating the path towards a European Degree, significant questions remain over how the Commission will take up and support the collaboration and dialogue among key stakeholders already established by pilot experimentation projects like ED-AFFICHE. It is also unclear how the knowledge and expertise gained through these projects will be utilised and implemented moving forward.

Neringa Narbutiene, EU-CONEXUS institutional coordinator at UCV and ED-AFFICHE coordinator, said: “The European Commission’s blueprint on the European Degree offers Member States a distinct chance to examine how they can enhance and streamline the creation of joint programmes and degrees within their borders. We warmly welcome a proposal to continue the dialogue with various national and regional authorities, students and employers for further development of European Degree related policies, procedures and financial incentives, coordinated by the EC. EU-CONEXUS firmly believes that the European Degree will enable the development of new joint EU-CONEXUS study programmes, leveraging the complementary strengths of our universities and providing our students with unique study opportunities.”

ED-AFFICHE and other consortia piloting the European Degree have pooled essential knowledge and expertise, translated into actionable tools to facilitate the Degree’s development and implementation for all key actors. As the European Degree pilot projects end, ED-AFFICHE urges the European Commission to take advantage of the project’s achievements as a basis for scaling up and deepening collaboration between key actors to make the European Degree a reality for Europe’s students.

Next steps for the European Degree

The European Commission blueprint on a European Degree proposes two entry points: a joint European Degree Label; or a European Degree qualification awarded either jointly by several universities from different countries, or by a European legal entity established by such universities.

Kurt Willems said of the proposed entry points: “When one of the aims of the European Degree is to remove obstacles in national or regional legislation for joint degrees, the difference between the pathway towards a label and the pathway towards a degree might be smaller than one thinks. Both require strong coordination by the European Commission. Both require clear guidance on how the national or regional legal framework should be amended to facilitate the label or the degree. Both require Member States’ agreement. That is of course, as long as the European Commission pushes for a more ambitious vision for the Label, making it more than ‘just a label’ without any legal meaning – which is what the ED-AFFICHE consortium strives for.”

To ensure the European Degree has real impact, ED-AFFICHE strongly recommends the European Commission take the following actions:

• Integrate the European Degree with established quality assurance mechanisms already in place through the Bologna Process and European Approach, to ensure the initiative actively supports and enhances existing frameworks and therefore fostering coherence and effectiveness.
• Develop funding mechanisms directly linked to the European Degree, building on the commitment to dedicate Erasmus+ support as included in the blueprint. These mechanisms should prioritise inclusivity, bolster recognition, and promote the advancement of high-quality programmes.
• Establish and continuously update a database of legal obstacles to developing joint programmes within the EU and EHEA, as initiated under ED-AFFICHE.
• Develop a dedicated strategy to enhance the visibility of programmes that receive the label.

ED-AFFICHE strongly encourages the European Commission to take advantage of the project’s achievements as a basis for scaling up and deepening collaboration between key actors – from HEIs to Member States, quality assurance agencies to employers – and together cultivate and consolidate the European Degree into a reality for the benefit of Europe’s students.