The European Commission is calling them a “key milestone” for achieving the European Education Area.

Some six of the projects, originally outlined in the European strategy for universities in 2022, will examine, test and facilitate the delivery of a joint European Degree label.

European Degree label entails a complementary certificate to the qualification of students graduating from joint programmes, delivered in the context of transnational cooperation between several higher education institutions, based on a common set of co-created European criteria,” the European Commission described.

ED-AFFICHE, a joint proposal of six European University Alliances – including Una Europa, 4EU+, CHARM-EU, EC2U, EU-CONEXUS and Unite! – has been selected in the call for proposals for the pilot.

“The project […] means a new level of cooperation between HEIs in Europe”

“The project focused on the European Degree label topic, in which Charles University represents 4EU+, means a new level of cooperation between higher education institutions in Europe,” said Milena Králíčková, rector of Charles University.

“Most of all, it will lead to simplification of accreditation processes and new high-quality joint degrees. I am strongly convinced that this will bring plenty of new benefits for 4EU+ students” Králíčková added.

A major milestone for #EUStrategy4Universities journey!

Glad to launch🤝Minister @valerieglatigny & Rector @LucSels 🔟new @ErasmusEU projects.

✔️Joint🇪🇺Degree Label
✔️🇪🇺Legal Status

For🎓Alliances: common tools, stronger cooperation, greater impact!

🔎https://t.co/wNHt7ORt1k pic.twitter.com/JLd9LAapNe

— Mariya Gabriel (@GabrielMariya) January 31, 2023

The other four projects will allow alliances of higher education institutions to test new forms of cooperation, such as a possible European legal status for them.

The aim, the European Commission said, of such legal status is to give university alliances  -“on a voluntary basis” – the latitude to “act together, make common strategic decisions and experiment joint recruitment.

“[It also allows them] to design joint curricula or pool resources and human, technical, data, education, research and innovation capacities,” the Commission statement added.