Council approves HE internationalisation policy

A detailed policy declaration from the European Union Council of Ministers has called on member states to make more effort to internationalise their higher education sectors.

The call came at a meeting of EU education ministers in Brussels on 25 November.

It invited member states to draft comprehensive programmes to make universities and colleges more international as regards student and staff mobility; curricula development and digital learning; and strategic cooperation, partnerships and capacity-building.

The policy declaration, developed over the course of several earlier meetings, called on EU member states to promote two-way international degree and credit mobility systems for students, and to create guidance and counselling services helping academics work abroad.

It said EU governments should support “the recognition of credits, degrees, qualifications and competences gained abroad by internationally mobile students, researchers and staff…”

And the statement said states should back the ‘European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System’, the ‘Diploma Supplement’ and the ‘European Qualifications Framework’ systems, while backing reforms to EU directives helping non-EU nationals enter member states for research and studies.

Another practical initiative highlighted by the council was enhancing the EU’s Erasmus Charter for Higher Education on cross-border academic cooperation by incorporating guidelines for universities and colleges on self-assessment and monitoring.

It also backed the use of the EU’s U-Multirank global university ranking system.

And it called for more cooperation between member states, EU higher education agencies and alumni associations “by sharing information, launching and coordinating joint actions…to market Europe as a high quality study and research destination”, for instance at student fairs, and joint promotion tools.

The policy statement said that the ministers’ declaration had been partly inspired by the conference on European Higher Education in the World held in Vilnius in September by the Lithuanian government, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

Under EU treaties, higher education is a clear responsibility of EU member states, but the European Commission and the Council of Ministers work to promote voluntary cooperation through such institutions as the Bologna process.

The policy statement noted that EU graduate skills can fail to “match the evolving needs of the labour market and society, and public and private employers report mismatches and difficulties in finding suitable candidates to meet the needs of a knowledge-based economy”.

Other matters

The European education ministers also discussed open educational resources and digital learning, social inclusion of youth and a prospective EU youth work plan.

According to a press statement, it was “the first time that EU ministers had shared ideas on new learning resources and how to make the best use of them on the national and EU level”.

Lithuanian Education Minister Dainius Pavalkis, who chaired the discussion, said that at a time when world-class universities elsewhere were offering massive open online courses to anyone, anywhere in the world, there was a need to look at the direction in which European education should develop.

The ministers stressed the need to encourage “coordinated action and strategic partnerships” among European universities – including through the new Erasmus+ programme – in order to ensure the competitiveness of European higher education institutions in the digital race.

They also adopted council conclusions on effective leadership in education, and on better social inclusion for young people not in employment, education or training.