Are we ready to ramp up global mobility post COVID-19?

In April 1999, Norway became one of the first countries to join the Lisbon recognition convention for higher education in Europe. The adoption of the Lisbon Convention two years earlier became the starting point for a new era in European student mobility and the germ of the Bologna process, which has led to stronger cooperation in higher education and recognition in Europe.

Over the 20 years that have passed since Norway’s ratification, another 46 countries have ratified the Lisbon Convention. We are now taking a big leap forward to enhance global education cooperation beyond Europe. The Norwegian government’s approval of UNESCO’s new global recognition convention is an expression of Norway’s enduring commitment to the principles of fair, transparent and non-discriminatory recognition of foreign qualifications.

The main objective of the Global Convention is to give access to evaluation of foreign qualifications for recognition purposes, regardless of where you go.

This will have big consequences for millions of international students and wage earners all over the world. They will get increased legal protection and greater predictability with using their qualifications outside the country where they have studied. The work to achieve this has been important for NOKUT (the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education) and Norway.

The reason we put so much work into global education cooperation is because international exposure and collaboration add valuable perspectives to study programmes and to students, enhancing the quality of their education in the broadest sense. International cooperation and international perspectives are essential for handling global societal challenges related to climate, technology, demography and democracy.

Mobility ambitions

In Norway, we have bold ambitions for student mobility. In the new Government white paper on student mobility published less than a month ago, the objective is to have more than half of all Norwegian students go abroad on exchange programmes. For those going abroad for full degrees, the ambition is to have more studying in Norway’s priority partners countries, and not necessarily in English-speaking countries.

That also means to a greater extent countries outside Europe and, in this sense, Norway is following the global trend towards more mobile students going to countries outside their home region.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, about half of the world’s six million mobile students found themselves outside their home continent. In Norway, this is reflected in more than half of all exchange students going to countries outside Europe, with the United States, Canada and Australia still attractive destination countries among both exchange and full-degree students.

Cooperation on recognition of qualifications

If we are to take seriously the Norwegian government’s ambitions about more students going to non-European countries, we need good mechanisms for recognising qualifications from those countries. In order to be able to grant NOKUT’s recognition when students return with diplomas from distant parts of the world in their suitcases, we are dependent on broad multilateral cooperation on recognition and global structures for sharing information on qualifications and education systems.

This is the reason for Norway being a driving force for the global recognition convention that was adopted by UNESCO’s 193 member states exactly one year ago, on 25 November 2019.

In May this year, Norway became the first country to adhere to the convention, meaning that Norway will be legally bound by its provisions from the day it enters into force when it has been ratified by 20 countries. This makes us better equipped for a future in which student mobility is increasingly global.

Kristin Vinje is chief executive of the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT). Dag Hovdhaugen is director of foreign education in NOKUT, the Norwegian ENIC-NARIC. Andreas Snildal is senior adviser for international relations at NOKUT and former UNESCO higher education specialist.