Commission rolls out plans for a European degree

Today we are one step closer to creating a European degree, a new type of voluntary joint programme between universities from different EU countries that will be recognised across the EU. This comes after the Commission presented a package to advance cross-border cooperation between higher education institutions.

A European degree will benefit students by boosting learning mobility and by making graduates more attractive for employers. At the same time, it will help to meet labour market demand, ultimately boosting Europe’s competitiveness.

The package is comprised of three initiatives that tackle the legal and administrative barriers to setting up competitive joint degree programmes at Bachelor, Master or Doctoral levels. Importantly, they do so while fully respecting universities’ autonomy and competence of EU countries and regional governments in the area of higher education.

The first of these initiatives is the blueprint for a European degree, which sets out a concrete cooperation path between EU countries and the higher education sector. Given the diversity of European higher education systems, this will follow a gradual approach with two possible entry points

• a preparatory European label: joint programmes which meet the proposed European criteria would be given a preparatory European label and students would receive a European degree label certificate together with their joint degree
• a European degree: a new type of qualification anchored in national legislation, awarded jointly by several universities or a common legal entity established by such universities, and automatically recognised

To support this and to support the higher education sector more generally, there are two other initiatives in the package. One looks at ways to improve quality assurance processes and automatic recognition of qualifications in higher education, and the other at how to make academic careers more attractive and sustainable.

Find more information

Dedicated website on the Higher Education Package

Factsheet on a European degree

Erasmus +

Press release: Commission rolls out plans for a European degree