ETUCE’s Position on a European Degree and Academic Career Framework
Education trade unions remind the EU institutions about the fundamental role of teachers in quality education. In her Political Guidelines for the European Commission 2024-2029, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pointed out that “Europe needs a radical step change in ambition and action – for all skill levels and for all types of training and education”. To make this ambition a reality, Europe also needs a step change in raising the standards of academic freedom and the security of employment. There should be no higher education institution without protection of academic freedom and tenure in the EU.
The Communication underlines that the initiative is voluntary to the EU countries to implement, especially on altering quality assurance regulations, while EU funding may link to this. We remind that higher education institutions need to be supported by appropriate resources, in particularly by sustainable public investment, in order to effectively implement the initiatives, and as quality assurance clearly links to staff workload. The EU Member States should involve trade unions representing academics in decision making on resource allocation on quality assurance systems.
Higher education and research staff have been suffering from increased precarity due to short-term project-based contracts which is a result of reduced or unstable public investment to higher education institutions. ETUCE welcomes that the initiative acknowledges that right to collective bargaining, effective social dialogue with education trade unions, academic freedom, inclusiveness and gender equality in work, job security and decent working conditions need to guaranteed in order to support academics’ work for quality teaching and research. Paid educational and sabbatical leave must also be guaranteed in order to support academics’ work for quality teaching and research. We also suggest more joint work between European Commission’s DG EAC and DG Research to find additional synergies in the implementation of the European Career framework for higher education and the European Career framework for researchers, as in many HEIs teaching and research work cannot be separated.
ETUCE is looking forward to further work on this initiative with the European Commission and within the European Sectoral Social Dialogue for Education.
