A JRC report (released in the spring of 2019) is steering towards open degrees and highlights the increasing importance of the recognition dimension. However, the recognition of foreign degrees, not to mention sub-degree credentials, is still not common practice and there are no widely approved guidelines or mechanisms that would aid this recognition process. The reasons are complex: while European HEIs use the same currency, i.e. ECTS credits, terminologies, awarding methods and local credit transfer practices differ and despite a few convincing good institutional collaboration practices (e.g. see some EADTU members’ cooperations) there is often a lack of trust in unfamiliar HEIs’ reputations.

The Model Credit Recognition Agreement (MCRA), resulted from the work of the project, will tackle this trust issue with a sharp focus and work with the legal departments of the participating universities to draft a MCRA that HEIs from all over Europe will be able to tailor for their own specific needs and legal requirements. EADTU has fostered the creation of fully facilitated Virtual Mobility schemes including the development of templates for bilateral agreements between universities under the project E-MOVE, EPICS (European Portal for International Courses and Services), and Open Virtual Mobility, and will bring their expertise, templates, guides, showcases and good practices in Virtual Mobility, including Virtual Internships to the work of the ECCOE MCRA.

To specify an MCRA an analysis of existing processes has been undertaken of the partner HEIs that are collaborating in this project, specifically on the ways prior learning is already recognised or validated. An interactive template for the MCRA has been developed, to facilitate the generation of these agreements. The results of this work will be published.

To find out more about the design and usage of the ECCOE MCRA, see:

Read, T., & Arnold, D. (2020). ECCOE: toward a robust solution for the cross-institutional recognition and validation of prior learning. Human and Artificial Intelligence for the Society of the Future European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Proceedings 2020 Annual Conference. https://doi.org/10.38069/edenconf-2020-ac0002