The “Spotlight on recognition” project aimed to support staff at higher education institutions who are responsible for recognition processes and decisions by enhancing their capacities in terms of recognition procedures in compliance with the Lisbon Recognition Convention.
The project ran from July 2020 until June 2022.
For more information, please contact EUA Policy & Project Officer Helene Peterbauer (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). For updates on the “Spotlight on recognition” project and EUA’s other activities in the field of academic recognition join the Academic recognition in the European Higher Education Area LinkedIn group.
The content of this webpage represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
In addition to the multiple benefits associated with student mobility, such as European integration and exchange of knowledge, experiences and intellectual capital, the free movement of people to study within Europe is a founding principle and long-term objective of the European Higher Education Area. A crucial precondition for student (alongside staff and researcher) mobility is well-functioning, fair and transparent recognition of foreign qualifications and study periods abroad. This is achieved through recognition procedures in compliance with the Lisbon Recognition Convention, whereby recognition of a foreign qualification can only be refused if the recognition authority in the receiving country can prove that it is substantially different from that of the receiving country.
According to the 2018 Bologna Process Implementation Report, decisions on recognising foreign qualifications for academic purposes are overwhelmingly in the remit of higher education institutions, as opposed to the members of the European Network of Information Centres in the European Region and the National Academic Recognition Information Centres in the European Union (ENIC-NARIC) or governments. At the same time, and despite the abundance of available tools, frameworks, documents and networks created to facilitate and support fair and transparent recognition procedures (such as the European Recognition Manual for Higher Education Institutions (EAR-HEI Manual), the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) and the ENIC-NARIC networks), many reports conclude that current recognition practices fall short of expectations. Besides the 2018 Bologna Process Implementation Report, these reports include the European Students’ Union (ESU) 2018 Bologna with Student Eyes report, the recommendations of the Erasmus+ co-funded LIREQA (Linking Academic Recognition and Quality Assurance) project, and the report of the Erasmus+ co-funded FAIR (Focus on Automatic Institutional Recognition) project.
These reports also indicate a lack of awareness among university staff responsible for recognition-related processes and decisions on the documents and tools developed to establish a common European approach to academic recognition. Against this background, it can be concluded that provision of clear information to and training of staff responsible for academic recognition is needed. They form a basic prerequisite for making recognition procedures in compliance with the Lisbon Recognition Convention across the European Higher Education Area a reality.
The project adopted a transnational peer-learning approach through which university staff involved in recognition processes and decisions receive information, training and support in self-assessing and enhancing their recognition practices’ compliance with the Lisbon Recognition Convention.
The following activities took place in the context of the project:
These activities were conducted with a view to support the establishment of a recognition community-of-practice open to university staff in charge of academic recognition, but also to other professionals involved in this topic.
The SPOT project was coordinated by EUA, in cooperation with the following consortium partners:
MODUS project (HRK) is organising a webinar to present the self-assessment tool developed in the fra...
Read moreThis self-assessment tool was developed by the European University Association (EUA) in partnership ...
Read moreNuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, published the outcome report f...
Read moreNuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, published three final outcomes...
Read moreThe UNESCO General Conference has adopted the Global Convention on the Recognition of Higher Educati...
Read moreNuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education, released two new publications ...
Read moreThe Lisbon Declaration results from the discussions that took place during the fourth EUA Conve...
Read moreDecades of globalisation and widened participation have seen the recognition of academic qualifications emerge as a headline issue. But its familiarity to policy makers has not softened the harsh real...
Read moreInternational student mobility and, as a consequence, the recognition of their studies in one country by an institution in another country has been a constant concern within higher education throughou...
Read moreIf you look at the social and professional environment German higher education graduates are preparing themselves for and the expectations and demands it places on them, you will quickly come to the c...
Read moreThe recent EHEA Rome Communiqué calls for strengthening the implementation of the Lisbon Recognition Convention in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Higher education institutions play a cent...
Read moreThe national signing and ratification of recognition conventions is not only a matter for central government authorities or national agencies dealing with recognition of foreign qualifications, most n...
Read moreThe education ministers of EU member states adopted a Council recommendation on 26 November 2018 to facilitate recognition of diplomas. This recommendation underlines how education is key to the EU’...
Read more