Specific tasks

• To cooperate with the Secretariat regarding the development of the Bologna Secretariat Website for a global audience and with EUA regarding the Bologna Handbook where appropriate,
• To cooperate with the Council of Europe, the European Commission and UNESCO as well as the ENIC and NARIC networks to enhance fair assessment of qualifications of other parts of the world on the basis of the LRC and, as appropriate, UNESCO Conventions for other regions,
• To Liaise with the European Commission on EU initiatives and programmes on global promotion and cooperation,
• To look for ways of integrating the "OECD/UNESCO Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-Border Education" into the activities of the working group, especially by closely cooperating with ENQA in the seminar on “Transnational education (TNE) and the OECD/UNESCO-Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education”

Source: BFUG12_6_3 EHEA in global setting - Draft ToR

Overall developments

When adopting the strategy of “The European Higher Education in a Global Setting” in 2007, the Ministers identified five core policy areas where action should be taken: improving information on, and promoting the attractiveness and competitiveness of the EHEA; strengthening cooperation based on partnership; intensifying policy dialogue; and improving recognition. They asked BFUG to report back on overall developments at the European, national and institutional levels, focusing in particular on improving the information available about the EHEA and the recognition procedures for qualifications obtained outside Europe, on the basis of the principles of the Lisbon Recognition Convention. BFUG then set up a working group to take forward work in the five core policy areas of the strategy and to prepare the report on the overall developments.

Strategy for EHEA in a global setting

EHEA in a global context 2009

Improving information about the EHEA

The working group supported the Bologna Secretariat in preparing an update and extension of the existing website (nota: the www.bologna2009benelux.org is now archived). It drew up the first official Bologna information brochure Booklet on Bologna Process and EHEA 2008 - print version. It took stock of the existing sources of information, such as those provided by EUA, ESU, the European Commission’s Bologna Experts website, the Council of Europe Higher Education Series or UNESCO-CEPES’s quarterly review “Higher Education in Europe”.

The group recommended that:

• The Bologna Secretariat should be mandated to provide information on the EHEA that would be specifically targeted at non-EHEA countries;
• Each Bologna country should provide information for international students and researchers in a common format, ideally through a website;
• On-line information on scholarships should be available at the level of the EHEA.

Promoting attractiveness and competitiveness

The group took stock of the promotion activities held by countries themselves, which could take various forms and differ in importance from country to country. At European level, the European Commission has been very active in the field with its Global Promotion Project which runs till the end of 2009. It also financed European Higher Education Fairs and the EU-Asia Higher Education Platform.

The working group recommended that:

• Each EHEA country should designate a contact point for information and promotion activities;
• A European mapping of promotion activities should be carried out,based on a sample of higher education institutions in each country;
• A “road map” should be devised, to identify opportunities and actions for enhancing promotion at European-level.

Strengthening cooperation based on partnership and intensifying policy dialogue

Some countries outside the EHEA have expressed interest in the Bologna Process and are implementing some of its features. The Bologna Process responds to this interest by seeking to intensify policy dialogue and strengthening cooperation with non-EHEA countries for mutual benefit.

In that field, the working group recommended that

• Balanced bilateral and multilateral cooperation based on partnership should be intensified;
• A Bologna Policy Forum should be created for fruitful dialogue between EHEA and non-EHEA countries;
• Stakeholders from non-EHEA countries should be invited to Bologna-related events,including projects and initiatives of the BFUG work programme;
• BFUG should contribute to relevant projects and activities in other regions.

Furthering recognition of qualifications

The ENIC and NARIC networks are the main European platform for the development of recognition policy and practice. As the ENIC network includes several countries that are not members of the Bologna Process, it is also a platform for policy dialogue with other countries. Both networks are keen to develop policy dialogue on concrete issues to facilitate recognition procedures and to make them fair and transparent. At their 2008 meeting in Malta, the ENIC and NARIC Networks therefore decided to make recognition in a global context a focus of their future activities and agreed to set up a specific working group on “Recognition within a Global Setting”, thus opening discussions and cooperation with other UNESCO regions on the issue of recognition of foreign qualifications.

The BFUG working group asked the ENIC and NARIC networks specifically to seek to:

• Establish dialogues on recognition policy with other regions;
• Explore the implications on recognition of the overarching frameworks of qualifications of the EHEA, the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning, and compatible national frameworks as well as the development of qualifications frameworks in a number of countries outside of Europe;
• Improve the publicly available information on recognition in cooperation with other regions;
• Make use of the Council of Europe/UNESCO Recognition Convention and its subsidiary texts as a guide to good practice also in the assessment of qualifications from countries that are not legally bound by the Convention and as a basis for dialogue on recognition policy; and
• Report back to the BFUG on their work in this area and in particular the outcome of the specific working party on “recognition within a global setting”.

The recommendations for further follow-up were to:

• Fully implement the Strategy described in “The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in a Global Context: Report on overall developments at the European, national and institutional levels”, also taking into account its recommendations.
• Include the implementation of the Strategy in any future stocktaking exercises.