Mobility still a key issue
The issue of researcher mobility and how to make it easier was one of the issues touched on at the Prague higher education summit taking place on 19 May. Ministers attending the event reaffirmed the importance of improving the mobility of researchers, teachers, students and administrative staff in order to create a European higher education research area. Speaking at the event, Swedish minister for education and science, Thomas Östros, said that mobility, quality assurance and joint degrees were all important in helping to make European higher education more competitive. 'For this European education area to become real and vital, we must stimulate mobility in new ways. One concrete way of giving mobile students a visible credit for their added experience and European experience is the proposed introduction of joint degrees and the possibility of a future European masters.' Those attending noted that European Community programmes had been instrumental in offering mobility opportunities to those in education and research, but confirmed that there are still obstacles that need to be removed to make the process easier still. The location of Prague for the conference was made to emphasise that any proposals should include all countries that may be affected, not just the Member States, but also the accession countries.
Countries
Sweden