University Co-operation and Academic Recognition in Europe: The Council of Europe and the Communities

Abstract

The unwary reader, confronted with this text, might make the forgivable mistake of thinking that this quote was lifted from some policy document orginating in one branch or another of the European Communities. That conclusion would probably be forgone if the reader's glance were next caught by a passage referring to 'The planned introduction in university courses of a European credit transfer system ...'. Wasn't there something on a European credit transfer system in the so far ill-starred proposal for the EC ERASMUS scheme for increasing student mobility? So there was. However, as every knowledgeable reader of the European ournal of Education will have surmised, these quotations do not originate in the European Communities but can in fact be found in the Activities Programme of the Council of Europe for the year 1986. The purpose of the present article is an attempt to present an overview of the means employed by the EC and by the Council of Europe in the field of academic mobility and recognition of qualifications and diplomas intended to achieve the goals as defined in the Activities Programme. Juxtaposing developments and initiatives supported by the EC and the Council of Europe may illustrate a seemingly increasing divergence between the opportunities available to institutions, staff and students in higher education in the countries within and without the European Communities. If developments occur in the direction of a growing disparity in the degree of involvement of European countries in their efforts towards international academic cooperation, undesirable effects on the pattern of European student and staff mobility could result. A somewhat Cassandra-like statement like this may give the impression that the author is privy to information on a number of hard facts supporting his warning. This is not the case. The statement also seems to imply that there exists a normative standard which should be achieved by the pattern of European academic mobility. This too is obviously not the case. It is, however, interesting to note that the goals set out in the proposals for the ERASMUS student mobility scheme, aiming eventually at 10% mobility within the Communities, are already turning up in national draft policy documents of at least one of the Member States of the EC. Apparently the simple fact of indicating a specific requirement that mobility has to meet is in itself sufficiently