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The promise of micro-credentials? The road to recognition
Micro-credentials are gaining momentum in the European area as an innovative way to support skills development, lifelong learning and inclusion within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Union.
In the latest Rome communiqué, the 49 EHEA countries identified micro-credentials as a way to make the EHEA more innovative. Micro-credentials are also essential to various actions of the European Commission. In the ambitious European Education Area micro-credentials are seen as a way to diversify the student population and to make higher education more inclusive by 2025 by supporting lifelong learning and providing more flexible and modular learning opportunities.
Higher education needs to develop better crisis responses
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that no education system is resilient to crisis.
And even if the digital revolution has transformed the higher education system more profoundly than anything else in the past decades, the pandemic has been no less hard-hitting. Its economic impact alone could force up to seven million students to drop out. International students have been stranded. In every country, students are struggling with access to remote learning, social isolation and economic strife.
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified fragilities and inequalities across digital, gender, social and educational lines, especially in regions already affected by conflict.
A milestone for refugee access to higher education
On 19 November a major milestone was reached for the recognition of refugees’ qualifications when ministers of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) concluded the ministerial meeting hosted by Italy by adopting a communiqué welcoming the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees and supporting its use in their systems.
This significant acknowledgement of the results achieved since the Council of Europe project was launched in 2017 is a hopeful move when it comes to refugees and higher education.
The latest UNHCR figures relating to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic show that only 3% of eligible refugees have access to higher education globally, whereas about 63% of all refugee children are enrolled in primary level school and 24% are enrolled at secondary level.