Council adopts recommendation on attractive and sustainable careers in higher education
The Council has adopted a recommendation encouraging EU countries to make careers in higher education more attractive and sustainable.
The recommendation stresses the need to acknowledge the diversity of academic career paths, and highlights the importance of valuing teaching as well as research. It also includes measures to incentivise higher education professionals to take part in a broader range of career-related activities, including cross-border educational activities.
The EU’s higher education institutions nurture future generations and produce the highly skilled workforce that our economies need. Today’s recommendation highlights the importance of valuing teaching on a par with research, and calls for greater recognition of the full range of career paths and activities available to academic and professional staff.
Balázs Hankó, Hungarian Minister for Culture and Innovation
Although academic staff in higher education are expected to fulfil various roles, ranging from traditional education and research to innovation, leadership, mentoring, administration and management, these roles are unevenly recognised. This can lead to bias in terms of career structures, as well as in the overall social recognition of research at the expense of teaching and other non-research academic activities.
The Council’s recommendation highlights supportive action that higher education institutions could take to make careers in the sector more attractive, including better working conditions, continuous professional development, gender equality, work-life balance, and inclusiveness. It also encourages employers to recognise and support the diverse range of academic career paths available to people in the higher education sector.
In particular, the Council calls for greaterrecognition of the full range of roles and tasks performed by academic and professional staff in addition to research activities. These include teaching, innovation, mentoring, cross-border cooperation, and institutional governance.
Today’s recommendation marks the adoption of the first file in the higher education package, which was proposed by the European Commission. The package also contains a proposal for a European degree that could be recognised automatically throughout the EU. Under this voluntary initiative, students would be able to study for a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree at two or more EU universities and obtain a joint qualification.
Background
On 27 March 2024, the European Commission presented a package of initiatives aiming to encourage greater transnational cooperation between higher education institutions in the EU, leading to the creation of a European degree. The aim of the European degree is to encourage learning mobility within the EU, making graduates more attractive to future employers, while also helping to meet labour demand and boosting European competitiveness. The package addresses the legal and administrative barriers that prevent or disincentivise partner universities from setting up joint degree programmes.
The elements of the package include:
a Commission communication on a blueprint for a European degree
a Council recommendation on a European quality assurance and recognition system in higher education
a Council recommendation on attractive and sustainable careers in higher education