The next Future Directions theme for the Welsh higher education sector will be Global Graduates: Enabling Flexible Learning.
The three work strands within the new theme are: Distinctive Graduates, Inspiring Teaching, and Learner Journeys. Areas of focus will include internationalisation, employability, curriculum design and the recognition and promotion of teaching.
Professor Clive Mullholland, Chair of the Higher Education Wales Pro Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching Advisory Group, and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of South Wales, said: “We feel that the new theme of Global Graduates: Enabling Flexible Learning is a very timely one as the higher education sector in Wales is already making huge strides in the flexible learning agenda, ensuring Wales is a key player on the global stage.
"Our universities are already working towards a ‘one nation’ response to Open Educational Resources and Practice, with the aim of Wales becoming the world’s first open higher education nation. The flexible learning agenda is a pertinent one, and the sector will embrace the theme to ensure Wales offers the best possible student learning experience – to all of its students.”
Dr Helena Lim, Assistant Director, Wales and Northern Ireland at the HEA, said: “The new Global Graduates: Enabling Flexible Learning enhancement theme is exciting, timely and relevant. It has been identified by the Future Directions Steering Group after discussion with key sector colleagues and groups and reflects the ambitions not only of Welsh institutions but also those in the Welsh Government’s new Policy Statement for Higher Education.
“The theme and the three new work strands will give the sector a strong focus for collaboration and build on the early achievements of the current theme – Graduates for our Future.”
Global Graduates: Enabling Flexible Learning and the three new work strands will be launched in autumn 2013 and run concurrently with Graduates for our Future, which will continue until the next Future Directions conference in spring 2014.
Future Directions is a collaborative approach - between sector agencies, students and institutions within Wales - to enhance specific areas of the learning experience.
The HEA’s work in this area, through the Future Directions programme has been acknowledged within the Government’s new policy statement for Higher Education.
The document, which replaces the previous Higher Education Strategy – For our Future, sets priorities, for the period up to 2020, which include joint working across the sector to provide progression for learners and maximum value for money.
Further information about Future Directions can be found on the HEA website.

In recent years, both the award of joint degrees and the recognition of these degrees have caused considerable discussions and difficulties. The Guidelines for Good Practice for Awarding Joint Degrees published earlier this year and the newly published Framework for Fair Recognition of Joint Degrees aims to provide more consistency and substantiation in awarding and recognising joint degrees.
The main problem addressed by the Framework for Fair Recognition of Joint Degrees was the finding that national information centres on recognition (ENIC-NARICs) dealt very differently with joint degrees and other degrees awarded for joint programmes. The same problem was found even more clearly among credential evaluators at higher education institutions.
In order to facilitate the fair and flexible recognition of joint degrees, the European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA) and ENIC-NARICs have established a long-term cooperation. One of the results of this cooperation has been the publication of Guidelines for Good Practice for Awarding Joint Degrees. That publication is aimed at higher education institutions and their joint programmes. The other side of the same coin is the Framework for Fair Recognition of Joint Degrees. This publication is aimed at credential evaluators, those who will need to recognise the joint degree or give advice on it.
About the publication
The elements that play a role when evaluating a degree (such as the status of the institutions, the awarding of the degree, the quality, etc.) are of course the same for both regular and joint degrees. The context of these elements is however quite different. This makes the recognition of joint degrees not always as straightforward as the recognition of regular degrees. The Framework for Fair Recognition of Joint Degrees presents a substantiation of the elements that might influence how credential evaluators look at an awarded joint degree. All these issues are then dealt with separately through examples. Each issue or example presents a conclusion for recognising the joint degree discussed.
Download the Framework for Fair Recognition of Joint Degrees. Read more about the Guidelines for Good Practice for Awarding Joint Degrees. Download the Guidelines for Good Practice for Awarding Joint Degrees.

On 10 July 2013, the Parliament of Flanders (Belgium) amended legislation allowing the government of Flanders wide competences to regulate the recognition of foreign degrees. The government can now draw up regulations to declare either the level of a foreign degree equivalent to the Flemish degrees (Associate, Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Degree) or to fully recognise the foreign degree.
Level equivalency
Level equivalency refers to for example the fact that a foreign Bachelor degree is equivalent to a Flemish Bachelor degree, thus without referring to the subject or discipline. The preconditions for level equivalency are:
* A quality assurance system in line with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. This quality assurance system needs to demonstrate in a verifiable way that the learning outcomes are achieved; and
* A higher education degree structure in line with that of the European Higher Education Area and integrated in a (sub)national qualifications framework.
This qualifications framework needs to be (1) in line with the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area adopted at the Bergen meeting of ministers responsible for higher education in May 2005 and (2) is required to have been internationally reviewed as compatible. The list of these self-certified qualifications frameworks is published on the former Bologna Secretariat website and on the ENIC-NARIC website.
Full recognition
Full recognition on the other hand covers both the level and the subject, e.g. Master of Science in Engineering. In addition to the preconditions above, an additional precondition for full recognition of the degree is:
* A comparison of the learning outcomes that lead to the award of the degree.
The elements above are in line with the principles ECA members and ENIC-NARICs agreed upon in 2005 when they jointly signed the Joint Declaration regarding the Automatic Recognition of Degrees (aka. Vienna Sententia). Download The Original Amendment as adopted by the Parliament of the Flemish Community (in Dutch). Read more...

The 25th Annual Conference of the European Association for International Education (EAIE) will take place from 10–13 September 2013 at the bridge between continents, in Istanbul.
The 25th Annual Conference of the European Association for International Education (EAIE) will take place from 10–13 September 2013 at the bridge between continents, in Istanbul. This year's theme is 'Weaving the future of global partnerships'. Join more than 4500 higher education professionals from over 80 countries to celebrate this milestone event, expand your professional circle and explore the new developments in international higher education. The event will feature more than 240 inspiring activities and will have as keynote speakers one of Turkey’s most acclaimed female writers,Elif Shafak, and global futurist, Jack Uldrich. Register by 21 August and be part of Europe’s largest international education conference!

New subsidiarity text on “The use of Qualifications Framework in the recognition of foreign qualifications”
During its sixth meeting held in Split on the 19 June, the Lisbon recognition convention Committee adopted a new subsidiarity text on “The use of Qualifications Framework in the recognition of foreign qualifications”. The development of national qualifications frameworks provides a new tool for transparency and comparability for the recognition of qualifications. This new text takes notes of this situation and indicates general guidelines for their use.

By Joris Ranchin and Cuauhtemoc Rebolledo-Gómez  Staticians, Innovation and Measuring Progress Division. International students are one of the fastest growing parts of the global education system. In just 20 years their numbers have more than doubled, and there are now over 4 million young people currently studying abroad to get their degree. Driven as much by a rise in tertiary education as by an increasingly globalised world, they are taking advantage of cheaper travel and communication costs to improve their language skills, get high-status qualifications – and give themselves a leg up in a competitive job market. But they’re not the only ones benefiting. The countries they are flocking to are cashing in while countries like China encourage their young people to travel abroad to study in order to bring their new skills home.
So who are these new students and where do they go? The latest edition of Education Indicators in Focus suggests that the global market in education is changing and that there’s increasing competition for these globetrotting young people. Read more...