On 12 May 2025, The Council of the European Union passed a Recommendation on a European quality assurance and recognition system in higher education. This step has been a long time in the making – the proposal was first published back in March 2024, and ENQA has been following the developments and contributing to the consultation throughout the negotiation process.
Following the approval of the Recommendation, ENQA published a briefing note to inform quality assurance agencies of the main elements and reflect on the potential implications for their work. Many aspects of the Recommendation are welcomed by ENQA, including the recognition of the importance of quality assurance as a key factor in facilitating internationalisation, the emphasis on implementing existing tools of the European Higher Education Area, support for enhancement-led quality assurance, and efforts to remove bureaucracy and legislative barriers for both cross-border quality assurance and automatic recognition. These are priorities that ENQA, and other stakeholder organisations, have repeatedly raised in dialogue with both the European Commission and through the Bologna Process and that still need attention from national authorities.
The final text of the Recommendation, as well as the accompanying Resolution, also set out a gradual approach for the European Union’s flagship initiatives, namely the joint European degree label and an external quality assurance framework for alliances of higher education institutions. This reflects the caution raised by some Member States and stakeholder bodies regarding the need to properly reflect on and monitor the demand, development and implementation of new activities. The European Commission will now work to establish a Policy Lab under the existing European Education Area working group on higher education to prepare for the rollout of the joint European degree label in 2026-27 and then explore options for a full joint European degree beyond 2029.
Where relevant, ENQA members in EU countries are strongly encouraged to have a dialogue with their respective national authorities to ensure that they are fully engaged in the next steps and that new activities are designed in a way that makes use of synergies with existing processes. ENQA is also committed to exploring further with the European Commission how to support the development of the quality assurance eco-systems needed for the new initiatives.