Background

The European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA, http://www.ecaconsortium.net) has been established as a project organisation in 2003. ECA was set up to help realise the European Higher Education Area by means of mutual recognition of accreditation decisions among its members before the end of 2007. Mutual recognition of accreditation decisions will contribute to the recognition of qualifications and prevent the necessity of multiple accreditations for institutions and programmes operating across borders. ECA has fifteen members from ten countries: Austria, Belgium (Flanders), France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.

The project builds on the recommendation by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. They recommended the member states to “promote cooperation between agencies in order to build up mutual trust and the recognition of quality assurance and accreditation assessments, thus contributing to the recognition of qualifications for the purpose of study or work in another country”. In addition, the implementation of the Information Tool will help to “ensure public access to the assessments made by the quality assurance or accreditation agencies listed in the European Register”.

The European ministers responsible for higher education stated in their Berlin Communiqué of 19 September 2003 that the quality of higher education has proven to be at the heart of the setting up of a European Higher Education Area. The ENIC and NARIC Networks stated in their Strasbourg Statement of 8 June 2004 that the improved recognition of European qualifications is intimately linked to improved and transparent quality assurance and this through cooperation between national systems based on a common understanding of goals, procedures and methods.

Furthermore, in their Bergen Communiqué of 20 May 2005, the European ministers responsible for higher education underlined the importance of cooperation between nationally recognised agencies with a view to enhancing the mutual recognition of accreditation or quality assurance decisions.

On 8 December 2005, ECA members and ENIC/NARICs signed the Joint declaration concerning the automatic recognition of qualifications. To achieve the aim of this declaration, certain preconditions and actions have been identified. The following identified actions are relevant for this project:

• ECA members will enter into mutual recognition agreements of accreditation results or decisions before the end of 2007 and
• a transparent information tool will be developed, which provides information on the accreditation organisations, systems and decisions as well as information on the qualifications of accredited higher education programmes and institutions.