Framework for Fair Recognition of Joint Degrees

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.