ESU has reacted with dismay to the latest developments in EU education policy following a recent Council meeting of Education Ministers. The EU’s recently published updated strategic framework on cooperation in education and training, which sets the policy tone for the next decade, was already lacking in benchmarks, concrete action on mobility and proper public financing commitments. But at the Education Council meeting on 16th February, the consensus among Member States was to water down proposals even further, specifically the one calling for Member States to commit to allocating 2% of GDP to higher education. Although there was talk at the meeting of further ‘bilateral’ negotiations in the next couple of months in order to reach an agreement, the likelihood is that this target will either be removed completely or watered down further when the strategic framework is formally adopted at the Spring Council meeting, the EU’s top decision-making forum.
The ministerial mood was more positive where mobility benchmarks were concerned, but there was still a reluctance to commit to specific figures, despite calls from ESU for a target to have 20% of students mobile by 2020, a target that has the backing of the Commission.
Commenting on the meeting, ESU’s Chairperson, Ligia Deca, said, ‘It’s difficult to see how Ministers can justify attempting to reduce the higher education commitments in the strategic framework even further. It’s like trying to dilute water, because even as it stands, the framework is little more than a fragile set of fine words with little to make it stand up in reality. If the EU’s vision of a high quality, equitable European Higher Education Area that contributes to Europe’s future economic and social development is to be achieved, Ministers must commit to proper public financing and to a clear set of benchmarks to measure the extent to which progress on meeting key objectives is being made. There is simply no other way to do this.’
You can read ESU’s full response to the EU’s updated strategic framework for cooperation on education and training here.
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