Latvian delegation participates in the European Higher Education Area Ministerial Conference in Tirana
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On 28-30 May this year, the Latvian delegation participated in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Ministerial Conference in Tirana, Albania, where the EHEA delegations assessed the progress and approved a new agreement for the next three-year period – the Tirana Communique (https://ehea2024tirane.al/2024-tirana-communique/).
The Latvian delegation to the Ministerial Conference included Jānis Paiders, Deputy State Secretary for Human Capital, Science and Innovation Development at the Ministry of Education and Science, Jolanta Silka, Head of the Quality Agency for Higher Education, Baiba Ramiņa, Chairperson of the Board of the Academic Information Centre, Inga Lapiņa, External Advisor to the Minister of Education and Science on Higher Education, Inguna Blese, Member of the Study Quality Commission and Alens Aleksandrs Čerņa, President of the Student Union of Latvia.
The Tirana Ministerial Conference reconfirmed the commitments defined at the 2018 Paris Ministerial Conference, which are still incompletely and unevenly implemented in the EHEA:
- Implementation of a three-cycle system of programmes and degrees based on learning outcomes and the ECTS system and in line with the overall EHEA Qualifications Framework;
- Recognition of qualifications under the Lisbon Recognition Convention, aiming at automatic recognition in the EHEA;
- Promoting a culture of quality in higher education by applying quality assurance processes that are fit for purpose and in line with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG).
At the same time, the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) has been mandated by the Tirana Communique of the EHEA Ministers to revise both the ECTS User Guide and the ESG Standards and guidelines by 2027.
In the Tirana Communique, the EHEA Ministers advocate for an inclusive, innovative, interconnected EHEA to be achieved by 2030.
At the same time, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Bologna Process. The Bologna Process started in 1999 with the Bologna Declaration[1], which defined the basic principles of a single European Higher Education Area – comparable degrees, higher education cycles, a common credit transfer system, mobility, cooperation in quality assurance and the promotion of the European dimension in higher education.
A major review of the implementation of the Bologna Process principles has been published ahead of the Tirana Ministerial Conference for the period 2020-2024 – https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/publications/european-higher-education-area-2024-bologna-process-implementation-report
[1] https://ehea.info/Upload/document/ministerial_declarations/1999_Bologna_Declaration_English_553028.pdf
