Educational Improvement: What Role for the EU?

Christa Rawkins

International and transnational organisations have a growing influence on national education policies.  The EU needs to strengthen its position to avoid being left behind.

Across the world, national education systems face the same key challenge: how to prepare students for an unpredictable, globalised future. The global governance of education therefore plays an increasingly significant role in international discourse. As such, international organisations have more and more influence; indeed, Jakobi (2009) refers to them as “the main drivers of educational change”. 

In this increasingly populated and active educational landscape, what is the role of regional organisations? This post considers the European Union’s direct activity and influence upon the national education policies of community members and offers approaches to consolidating this position.

While education has always been a national responsibility, some European-wide initiatives have been in place since the 1970s.  For many years, ERASMUS was the stand-out programme and the EU’s role in education focused on mobility, exchanges and cooperation at tertiary level.  However, since the 2000s, there has been a significant increase in EU activity across the education and training sectors. 

Timeline of the EU's involvement in Education and Training policy and initiatives in member nations, 1971-2014.

Established with the Lisbon strategy (2000) and formalised in Articles 165 and 166 of the Lisbon Treaty (2007), the guiding principles for contemporary EU approaches to education and training are to “…contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States, through actions such as promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study programmes, establishing networks, exchanging information or teaching languages of the European Union… (and) promoting life-long learning”.

Overview of the EU's involvement in education 

This more explicit commitment to educational support for member nations coincided with the financial crisis which forced a moment of collective self-reflection in Europe.  Education was recognised as key to securing an inclusive and stable economic outlook for the future.  Tibor Navracsics, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, illustrated this in a speech at the launch of the 2017 Education and Training Monitor last year.  The commissioner declared that, “quality education is key in building a Europe that is competitive, resilient, cohesive and fair”.  

As a result, the last 12 years have witnessed a boom in EU activity within the education sector, crowned by the inaugural EU Education Summit, held in January 2018, under the heading “Laying the foundations of the European Education Area: for an innovative, inclusive and values-based education”.  In pursuit of building this common education area, EU activity has worked on 3 axes.

Firstly, a clear overarching strategy guides the action: Education and Training 2020 acts as the framework for cooperation in education and training among member nations.  It proposes 4 target areas (lifelong learning; quality and efficiency; equality social cohesion and active citizenship; creativity and innovation) and has set 7 benchmarks for education to be reached by 2020.  Annual monitoring reports are published per country.  

Next, policy work forms a large part of realising this strategy.  The EU engages in best practice research, exchanges and networking amongst policy professionals and policy collaboration in higher education.  Six working groups with specific mandates and compiled of experts nominated by member countries, drive policy action towards the ET2020 targets.

Finally, numerous initiatives and programmes bring the strategy into the lives of people across the community.  Many are collated under the Erasmus+ umbrella which includes exchange programmes for students, adult learners and teachers.  There are also several new online initiatives such as the virtual networks for schools (School Education Network), teachers (eTwinning) and EPALE (adult education).  These offer professional development opportunities and the chance to share knowledge and experience with peers from across Europe.  

Many practical toolkits have been developed too.  The SELFIE framework allows schools to self-assess their use of digital technologies and the HEInnovate platform supports higher education institutions manage change and innovation more effectively.  Attempts to standardise qualifications and key skills can also be seen in the CEFR framework and the Competency Frameworks.

Clearly, the EU’s involvement in education goes much further than ERASMUS exchanges.  And yet, not many people would identify the EU as being a major player in global education governance.  So, what more could the EU do to strengthen its position?

1. Coherence and Cooperation: the international education landscape is already highly populated and complex.  The EU must ensure that its work is coherent with and complementary to that of other organisations.  Ensuring greater alignment with SDG4 and pursuing more collaboration with the OECD on best practice are essential.

     2. Support focused on EU challenges: a very recent focus on migrant education is an example of targeted education support at an EU level.  More of this would ensure that the EU establishes a clear position for itself, becoming the go-to education support for member countries.

     3. Increase communications efforts: less than 10% of teachers in EU countries have visited the eTwinning network.  A sharper communications campaign is necessary to raise awareness of the opportunities available. 

For more information about the EU’s involvement in education, visit the EU Education website.