Higher education: Advancing the Lisbon Recognition Convention

Last week, UNESCO organized a series of meetings to advance the implementation of the Lisbon Recognition Convention and the European higher education agenda more broadly.

These kicked off with meetings of ENIC-NARIC networks, which bring together 56 national information centres in the European region tasked with recognizing academic qualifications at the national level and facilitating mobility and cooperation across the region. The networks serve as the operational arm of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, with the Council of Europe, European Commission and UNESCO acting as the Secretariats.

On 5 September 2023, the Working Party on Electronic Communication for Recognition (ELCORE), chaired by Nathanaël Poli from the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC), came together to map out ways to enhance information exchange and increase the visibility of the ENIC-NARIC networks both in Europe and abroad.

This was followed by the first meeting of the newly elected ENIC Bureau and NARIC Advisory Board (EB/NAB) on 6 September 2023, presided over by Chiara Finocchietti from the Italian Academic Equivalence Mobility Information Centre (CIMEA), to set the strategic direction of ENIC-NARIC. A workplan was agreed on for the period 2023-2025 with a focus on priority themes related to inter-regional cooperation, refugees, digitalization and flexibilization in education, among others. Preparations for the next annual meeting in Naples in June 2024 were also discussed.

On 7 September 2023, the Bureau of the Lisbon Recognition Convention Committee convened under the presidency of Luca Lantero from Italy. In the leadup to the next session of the Committee in 2025, the Bureau will focus on developing and updating subsidiary texts related to transnational education, digitalization and digital solutions and automatic recognition of qualifications. This follows the recommendations from the second monitoring report on the implementation convention. Cooperation, information exchange and capacity development with other UNESCO regions also remain high on the agenda.

The governing bodies of the ENIC-NARIC networks and Lisbon Recognition Convention will have their next meetings in December 2023 and January 2024, respectively.

More information:

• Monitoring report on the implementation of the Lisbon Recognition Convention
• UNESCO higher education regional conventions
• ENIC-NARIC network