17.07.2024 EUPeace Statement on the European Degree

EUPeace welcomes the promising proposals of the European Commission laying the foundation for a European Degree and is ready to engage in further co-creation to ensure the fitness-for-purpose of the European Degree and the European Degree label.

EUPeace fully supports the goals set out in the Higher Education Package to facilitate cooperation between universities in Europe and to attain automatic recognition for students. 

EUPeace is entirely committed to providing high-quality and innovative joint educational offers to the students of the Alliance – including new and additional joint programmes.

EUPeace welcomes the strong commitment and references to institutional autonomy in the plans of the European Commission as well as the proposed use of existing tools such as the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (EA). EUPeace also positively welcomes the fact that this policy initiative is open to countries outside of the EU. 

EUPeace appreciates the potential of a European Degree to provide high visibility to students and graduates – as well as to the labour market.

EUPeace welcomes the goal of simplifying the quality assurance of joint educational offers and the acknowledgement of the value of tried and tested Bologna tools – especially the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (EA). In this context, a first step should be to ensure that enabling frameworks at national/regional level are in place to support the simple and full use of already agreed upon tools. Momentum and political will at national/regional level remain essential. As a second step, external quality assurance processes and tools at alliance-level will become a distinct added-value. 

EUPeace welcomes the statements regarding the support to be offered to staff in all their missions within higher education and the reminder of the worth of all their missions for Europe and society. EUPeace reminds however that institutional autonomy as well as national funding policies and cultural/historical specificities and approaches remain decisive in this respect. 

EUPeace therefore calls on European institutions to continue the fruitful process of co-creation until the full implementation of the initiative, especially the European Degree (label).

EUPeace calls on national authorities to place their continued trust in universities, their autonomy and their expertise in delivering high-quality joint educational offers – by setting up enabling regulatory conditions and frameworks to attain these goals in an efficient and speedy fashion. 

EUPeace will continue to consider these developments on its own journey towards EUPeace Joint Programmes – starting with the EUPeace European Track. 

  

This statement was endorsed by the Governing Board of EUPeace on 11 June 2024.

Download this statement in English here. 

More information on the European Degree and the Higher Education Package of the European Commission here.