On 28-29 April 2011, the Stakeholders’ Conference on Recognition in the European Higher Education Area took place in Riga, organised by the Latvian authorities with the support of the Council of Europe.

The conference was attended by participants coming from around 30 EHEA countries and representing ENIC /NARIC centres, ministries, higher education institutions, quality assurance agencies, students’ unions, European and international organisations.

The ETS 165 Council of Europe/ UNESCO Lisbon Recognition Convention and several of its complementary documents adopted later provide solid legal basis for the recognition of qualifications in EHEA.  However, as demonstrated in the analysis of the National Action plans on improving recognition, the recognition criteria and procedures vary strongly between the   countries participating in the EHEA.

In 2010 BFUG established a working on recognition whose task is to come up with recommendations for improving recognition which has to be submitted to the ministerial conference in 2012 in Bucharest. The conference in Riga is aimed at gathering views of various groups of stakeholders on the most important aspects that have impact on recognition practices such as national legislation. The views of stakeholders will then be mounted into the recommendations that the BFUG working group will produce.

The Final Report of the Stakeholders' Conference on Recognition, prepared by the general rapporteur, is available on the Conference website.