Report on Training of the micro-credential legal framework in Project partner countries

The Training of the micro-credential legal framework in Project partner countries was organized at the University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain, 30th November – 2nd December 2022.

The meeting was held according to the Agenda, with a total of 11 representatives from Partner Institutions, one from University of Belgrade (UB), two from Qualification Agency of Serbia (QAS), three from Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities (ACEEU), three from the University of Lleida (UDL), and two from per FH Joanneum Gesellschaft MBH (FHJ).

After welcoming speeches by Mr. Sinisa Djurasevic on behalf of the Project coordinator and the host of the meeting Mr. Badia from the University of Lleida, the project team started work on the project issues. First general project activities and its development/ progress were explained and discussed.

A summary of the progress on micro-credentials implementation practice done so far in the different participating countries was done by each partner institution.

Regarding the project management activities and reporting, time sheets and necessary supporting documentation as well as the common platform for sharing the documents, interesting/useful papers on the topic of micro-credentialing in Europe and broader were discussed and some doubts were solved.

Each partner institution prepared a report on the Analysis of the legal framework for micro-credential in the project partner country. The results were presented by the representatives in detail and were discussed after each presentation.

The second day of the meeting was dedicated to discussing the things in common, the differences and particularities of the different legal framework for higher education in partner countries. Following topics were talked about:

• Is there any specific legal framework on micro-credentials? There isn’t any country that has a dedicated framework for developing micro-credentials in any of the partner countries;
• Does higher education legal framework in partner countries mention the possibility of developing micro-credentials? In some cases, like in Spain, there has been some changes in legislation in the las year that mention the possibility of micro-credentials;
• Discussion on the need to establish common guidelines to develop micro-credential legal framework.

The third day was again dedicated to the topic of micro-credential legal framework, where the partners continued to discuss the need of establishing a common accepted definition of micro-credentials before developing any legal framework. The main documents from the EC were revised to focus on the meaning of micro-credentials. It is strongly accepted by the partners that there is the need to establish clearer guidelines from the EC on micro-credentials.

The topic of the requirement for accreditation of the micro-credentials arises. There was an agreement on this but there must be a feasible way to do it.

The project training was concluded with a wrap-up and the plan for the upcoming training in Münster, which will be dedicated to the topic of micro-credential certification and credit evaluation practice in Project Partner countries.