Seeking Experts to set the Agenda for Higher Education Interoperability in Europe
The European Digital Education Hub has set up a new workgroup with the focus on designing and developing the higher education interoperability framework. Registration to join is now open.
About the workgroup
This new workgroup is a continuation of the squad on interoperability of the Digital Education Hub. The aim is to provide European Higher Education Institutions with a practical framework to ensure interoperable virtual learning environments and virtual campuses.
The workgroup will provide a forum to:
- identify needs and requirements for interoperability in higher education, especially linked to the European Universities Initiative
- map use cases which should be facilitated through policy action on interoperability
- conduct technological analysis of enabling factors required to implement these use cases
- validate a reference architecture for a European Interoperability Framework
Desired profiles
The European Higher Education Interoperability Workgroup is seeking expert members with the following qualifications or similar:
- professionals with expertise in educational standards from the higher education and policy-making sectors, as well as the edtech sector (education providers) and standards organisations
- IT architects who operate at the national level within the field of educational IT
- stakeholders currently involved in projects related to higher education interoperability
- representatives from university alliances that possess robust interoperability work packages in various roles including, but not limited to, university leadership, educators, IT support staff, work package leaders (digitalisation, enterprise architecture, interoperability programmes) and students (with an affinity for system thinking, system design and/or user experience)
The workgroup will be active from September 2023 until February 2025. During this period, there will be regular information and update sessions, online consultations, virtual presentations, design thinking workshops, and requirement gathering sessions.
It is important to note that the work carried out by members of the workgroup is voluntary and unpaid.
Policy background
With the European Interoperability Framework, there is a methodological basis for achieving interoperability, emphasising the need to address legal, organisational, semantic, and technical issues besides bringing about system-level change.
In terms of policy focus, legal and organisational interoperability aspects have often been ignored, or deprioritised equally important topics of semantic and technical interoperability.
This has led to a situation where digitisation has sometimes hindered rather than promoted interoperability, with the creation of organisational systems that do not have the tools to realize their objectives.
Achieving Higher Education Interoperability
The European Commission runs several initiatives to help improve coordination and harmonisation of systems including:
- the European Student Card Initiative provides a full software stack for managing Erasmus mobilities
- the European Learning Model provides a set of semantic standards for describing qualifications, learning opportunities, credentials, and accreditation information