Launch of the "Tour de France of automatic recognition"
In an increasingly globalised world of education, employment and mobility, on 26 November 2018 , the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation in favour of the automatic mutual recognition of higher and secondary qualifications, as well as acquired knowledge from studying abroad.
The aim of this recommendation is to guarantee Member States graduates access to higher education under equivalent conditions to national graduates starting from 2025, without the need for separate procedures. During the November 2020 Ministerial Conference in Rome, the objective was extended to the European Higher Education Area.
Implementing transparent, coherent, and reliable procedures is a challenge that national stakeholders, including higher education institutions, have to deal with. The ENIC-NARIC centres play a leading role in the promotion and implementation of automatic recognition of academic qualifications in Europe.
The Department of Qualification Recognition - ENIC-NARIC France Centre aims to inform and raise awareness among key stakeholders, to promote automatic recognition and to create an environment conductive to its development. It plays an active part in this process through a series of projects: the Erasmus+ scheme, the MAReN project (led by CIMEA, the ENIC-NARIC centre in Italy) and the AR25 project (led by NUFFIC, the ENIC-NARIC centre in the Netherlands); the organisation of webinars: 9 March 2023 as part of the I-AR project which is now completed, then 26 March 2024 as part of the AR25 project as well as a third one planned in 2025.
In keeping with, and with the support of the Delegation for European and International Affairs (DAEI) of the Ministry for Higher Education and Research (MESR), the DRD - ENIC-NARIC France centre is offering a “Tour de France of automatic recognition” in 2024 and 2025 by meeting representatives of higher education institutions from all French academic regions.
These visits will be an opportunity to reiterate the principles of automatic recognition, to share good practices and latest available tools, to enhance capacity building, but also to discuss the challenges encountered during its implementation through testimonies and debates. This approach aims to promote dialogue between different stakeholders in automatic recognition and to facilitate its implementation by visiting institutions and organisations involved, while supporting the development of tools adapted to the needs of admissions officers.
This Tour de France began in April with the first interventions being in the Grand Est region which were much appreciated.