ED-AFFICHE at the EUF workshop on pilot projects
ED-AFFICHE at the European University Foundation workshop on Joint European Degree label and legal status for European University alliances pilots.
On 31 January, 2023, the European Commission announced 10 pilot projects to explore a Joint European Degree label and a legal status for European University alliances. These pilots will be particularly important to facilitate the deployment of the now 50 European University initiatives, which aim to create deeper cooperation and pave the way for transnational campuses.
The European University Foundation (EUF) aims to accelerate the modernisation of the European Higher Education Area. On 3 July, the EUF organised a workshop on the pilots in which its member universities are (in)directly involved.
As ED-AFFICHE is one of the pilots working to make a Joint European Degree label a reality, ED-AFFICHE members were invited, and the project was presented by Josef Matousek (Charles University) and Meritxell Chaves Sanchez (University of Barcelona). Another European Degree label pilot was also invited, EDLab and was presented by Andries Verspeeten (Ghent University). Regarding the legal status for European University alliances, the pilot ESEU was presented by Meritxell Chaves Sanchez (University of Barcelona).
The European Degree label pilots focus their work on testing solutions for the implementation of a joint European Degree label. While the projects seek to identify the challenges in national legislations and regulations, they also seek to define the criteria for joint programmes and the benefits and functioning of such a new label.
The ESEU initiative assesses the use cases that would benefit from the use a European legal status to facilitate the cooperation between European university alliances and identifies existing legal solutions and their advantages and shortcomings in light of the identified use cases.
These projects have a twofold objective: first, they seek to complement existing solutions, and secondly, they aim to make recommendations on how to enhance the current legal and regulatory frameworks.
These initiatives act as pilots, strategically supporting the European Commission's flagship projects, in particular the European Strategy for Universities from the European Education Area, while significantly enhancing the European dimension of education.