Parliament calls on Commission to 'quality label' for higher education
The European Parliament's culture committee is calling on the European Commission to introduce a 'quality label' to be awarded by a group of international experts to high quality EU higher education institutions. Believing that the EU needs to provide high quality education to boost its competitiveness in the international education market, the European Parliament's culture committee has adopted a non-legislative report by French MEP Marielle de Sarnez on strengthening cooperation with third countries in higher education. The USA admits more foreign students than all of the EU Member States together, and within the EU, three quarters of foreign students choose to study in the UK, France or Germany. The culture committee would like to see equal quality of education and reception facilities through the EU's higher education systems. In addition to student mobility, the report recommends exchanges of teaching staff, the creation of joint study programmes and the development of systems for the mutual recognition of study courses and qualifications. The committee is also calling on the EU to promote joint study courses between Member State universities, leading to the award of joint qualifications and to continue improving and promoting the European credit transfer system (ECTS). The report is scheduled for debate at the Parliament's April plenary session.