By Anna Gover, ENQA Director, and Elena Cirlan, ENQA Senior Policy and Project Coordinator
The Operational Guide for the Joint European Degree Label is now available and the practical work for implementation can start. Many institutions, primarily those that are part of European Universities Alliances, are already adapting their joint programmes to meet the Label criteria. As the criteria were finalised back in May 2025, and tested through pilot projects before that, some consortia are now ready to apply for the Label. There has also been high interest in the funding opportunities provided under Erasmus+ to support institutions in designing and adapting joint programmes to meet the Label criteria. This means that there will be demand for agencies to award the Label. Yet, EQAR-registered agencies based in EU or EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) need to ask themselves if they want to offer Label assessments and, if so, to develop procedures to do this.
The Guide provides detailed information for institutions and agencies about the criteria and processes for awarding of the Label. ENQA has published a briefing note that provides an overview of its key elements. However, several open questions remain for quality assurance agencies when deciding how to integrate the Label into their portfolio of activities. Having contributed to the development of the Guide, we here reflect on some of these questions.
Assessment methodology
The criteria and methodology for Label assessments build directly on those of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (European Approach). Agencies with experience in using this tool will therefore be well placed to offer compliance assessments for the Label and, in doing so, they will need to make two key decisions:
- whether to offer Label assessments as a stand-alone activity. Most Label assessments are expected to take place in combination with the European Approach procedure. However, stand-alone assessments are possible for programmes that are part-way through their European Approach accreditation cycle (internal or external).
- whether and how to provide ex-ante verification to grant self-accrediting institutions the authority to award the Label internally to their own joint programmes.
The Label assessments are considered to be within the scope of the ESG. However, questions arise regarding the ESG compliance of some elements of the Guide’s methodology for the stand-alone procedure, in particular the absence of a site visit. Nevertheless, the ESG requirement for ‘an external assessment normally including a site visit’ allows some flexibility in well justified cases. Furthermore, Labels granted through stand-alone assessments will only be valid until the next cyclical external quality assurance procedures (i.e. with a site visit) thus resolving this issue.
While assessing programmes for the Label builds directly on the European Approach, conducting an ex-ante verification of a self-accrediting institution’s capacity to self-award the Label needs a different approach. It will require a specific check on the institution’s capacity to apply the European Approach standards and the Label criteria to its joint programmes and to follow the internal steps required for awarding the Label in an objective and clearly documented manner. The level of demand from institutions for the ex-ante verification remains to be seen.
Beyond the Label assessment, agencies will also need to ensure processes are in place to deal with complaints, appeals and potential withdrawal. Agencies are given the freedom to determine the conditions and procedures for these.
Resources and capacity
Agencies will also need to reflect on the capacity and resource requirements to launch and sustain Label assessments (including post-assessment activities) and how to fund these. In the next two years, much of this work is likely to be supported through Erasmus+ project funding, helping to cover the initial intense effort required to launch a new activity. But in the long run, the Label should be self-sustaining, with assessments funded either by the institutions directly through fees and/or through the agency’s other income streams, including public funding. The Guide requires agencies to be reasonable, proportionate and transparent in their pricing, recognising that funding models vary considerably between agencies.
The Label is voluntary for institutions and agencies, but current indications suggest a high level of interest. Consequently, ENQA has applied for Erasmus+ project funding to support agencies that plan to offer Label assessment, or are exploring this option. This support is envisaged as a series of workshops to facilitate practice sharing and explore challenges during the first stages of implementation.
Innovation and policy alignment
At the same time as the Label is being piloted, the European Approach is under revision. Many of the expected changes to the European Approach are to bring the standards in line with the parallel revision of the ESG. Beyond this, there is a proposal to move some basic aspects from the standards into a pre-accreditation eligibility check, and to strengthen the elements of ‘jointness’ required for joint programmes. The new version of the European Approach will be tabled for approval by the Bologna Follow-up Group in February 2027, and then by EHEA Ministers in May 2027. After this, agencies will need to integrate the changes into their methodologies, and the European Commission will need to reflect on any implications for the links with the Label criteria.
Innovation and new initiatives are always accompanied by some element of uncertainty. The fact that the Guide leaves flexibility for agencies to address certain aspects in a context-sensitive way is appropriate, given the diversity of the QA landscape. ENQA hopes to facilitate discussion on these elements over the next two years, as well as on other questions that will undoubtably emerge as ideas are put into practice.