Higher education institutions are key actors in the transition towards carbon neutrality and sustainable societies, as well as in reaching the objectives of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and the European Union’s Green Deal. They address environmental sustainability in their research and education missions and are actively involved in a broad range of forward-thinking activities.

The European Commission plans to explore individual learning accounts as a tool to support up- and reskilling of working age adults. This EUA policy input features the Association’s response to a dedicated consultation. It welcomes the initiative and underlines the interest of the higher education sector in individual learning accounts and, broadly, in a more comprehensive European agenda for lifelong learning.

The present policy input comprises EUA’s key messages for the European Commission’s public consultation on micro-credentials in the summer of 2021. The results of the consultation will feed into the Commission’s proposal for a Council Recommendation on micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability.

This report presents the findings of the 2020-2021 EUA Open Science Survey and provides evidence-based recommendations for institutions, researchers, research funders and policy makers on the transition towards Open Science.

This EUA policy input aims to inform the development of the European Commission’s upcoming “European Strategy for Universities”.

EU policy makers are facing increased urgency to integrate and energise the professional labour market, especially in the context of the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, the push towards the green and digital transitions and the defence of the Single Market following Brexit.

In this EUA response to the European Commission Communication on a Global Approach to Research and Innovation, the Association welcomes the goal to promote global research and innovation cooperation built on rules-based structures and common values.

The Public Funding Observatory report 2020/2021, Part 2 is accompanied by individual country sheets with specific data on the 32 higher education systems covered in the study. The sheets offer an overview of the data collected for each system, including funding, inflation, and student and staff numbers.

This report provides a detailed analysis of long-term funding trends captured over the period from 2008 to 2019. It also offers an overview of the latest public funding developments in 2019 and 2020. Finally, it focuses on the new generation of EU funding programmes (2021-2027) and the new EU Recovery package and explores the stakes for universities.

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis, the final negotiations for the long-term EU budget, and a new momentum for higher education and research in Europe, this Annual Report outlines EUA’s concrete efforts in 2020.