The meeting gathered representatives of Albania, Armenia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Turkey, as well as ICMPD and the Prague Process Secretariat.
Mr. Tomas Urubek welcomed participants on behalf of the Czech Republic, highlighting the significance of the Pilot Project 6 (PP6) in view of the ever growing phenomenon of international student mobility. The envisaged PP6 Handbook should be used in concrete terms for the everyday work of policy makers. Moreover, the current work should transfer into the future activities and especially trainings envisaged within the Prague Process. Ms. Timea Lehoczki on behalf of Hungary underlined that the project is not yet coming to an end at this event as the coming weeks would entail substantial work in order to finalise the PP6 Handbook, a draft version of which is to be discussed during this event. The importance of the development impact of student mobility was also pointed out.
The first session was dedicated to the issue of recognition of foreign credentials and consisted of two presentations. First Mr. Alexander Maleev (PP Secretariat) provided an overview of the inputs so far received from participating states with regards to recognition. Thereafter, Mr. Sebastian Steele from the Swedish Council for Higher Education introduced participants to some good practices on recognition, established in Sweden. The session was rounded off by a tour de table, allowing all participating states to shortly present their national policies on recognition.
During the afternoon session, participants were first introduced to the overall structure and introductory chapter of the envisaged “Prague Process Handbook on Enhancing International Student Mobility”, as well as the section entailing the main findings, before being asked to provide for their feedback.
Throughout the second day, all states were introduced to the national policy examples collected in the Handbook and asked for their immediate comments on the content referring to their respective states. Mr. Agnes Tottos (Hungary) then shortly reintroduced the chapter devoted to the EU legal framework on student mobility. Finally, the background information section of the Handbook was also introduced. During the closing discussion, participants were once more granted the opportunity to provide their immediate reactions to the proposed content.
As a result of the related discussions, the following changes should be introduced to the draft Handbook:
- Introduction of chapter on recognition
- Introduction of chapter on admission procedures
- Introduction of changes submitted by states regarding their national policies
- Introduction of disclaimer regarding the chapter on Germany
A consolidated draft version, including the changes above, shall be disseminated to all participating states by March at latest. The states will then be granted several weeks to submit their final comments in written. The final version of the PP6 Handbook should be concluded by mid-April of 2016.
