New report highlights uneven implementation of reforms towards deeper and more effective transnational cooperation

In April 2022, the Council of the European Union invited member states to set incentives for effective European cooperation in higher education. In the context of the then newly adopted European Strategy for Universities and the growth of European Universities alliances, the Council Recommendation on ‘building bridges’ aimed at enabling deeper and more effective transnational cooperation.

Taking the perspective that enhancing transnational cooperation requires action at both national and EU level, the Council Recommendation set a framework to connect various policy initiatives. It notably considers the full implementation of existing Bologna Process tools such as the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes or the use of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).  

Having collected responses from national authorities in all EU member states, the report provides a wealth of information on various aspects of transnational cooperation. These include the national contexts for joint programmes, joint degrees and the potential implementation of a European degree; external quality assurance provision; a legal status for European Universities alliances; barriers to learning mobility in a joint degree context; academic careers in transnational cooperation contexts; funding and institutional autonomy in transnational cooperation. Moreover, the survey covered aspects related to learning and teaching, such as flexible learning possibilities and virtual collaborative learning.

While acknowledging the diversity of the European higher education landscape, the report highlights an uneven state of play in addressing transnational cooperation through concrete measures. For instance, it records varying levels of financial support offered to institutions taking part in alliances. Interestingly, member states reported different perspectives compared to higher education stakeholders, in areas such as institutional autonomy, or in what is required to enable the awarding of joint degrees.

While member states fully recognise the importance of institutional autonomy for successful transnational cooperation, the report shows that few of them believed further action was needed to promote and protect autonomy in their system. The Commission therefore included a comparison of responses with EUA’s Autonomy Scorecard to refine its approach and identify possible priorities for action, underlining the continued impact of the Scorecard in European higher education policy making.

According to the report, member states are also generally aware that measures are needed to support European Universities alliances: several national reforms are guided by the needs of the alliances. Overall, the report notes that EU countries are committed to transnational cooperation in higher education, although they use diverse approaches to address it.

The Commission also recently released a report on ‘Outcomes and transformational potential of the European Universities initiative’, accompanied by an interactive tool, which is based on data collected from the alliances themselves.