A key goal of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) is to contribute to the common understanding of quality assurance for learning and teaching across borders and among all stakeholders. They have played and will continue to play an important role in the development of national and institutional quality assurance systems across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and cross-border cooperation. Engagement with quality assurance processes, particularly the external ones, allows European higher education systems to demonstrate quality and increase transparency, thus helping to build mutual trust and better recognition of their qualifications, programmes and other provision.

The Convention has been jointly drafted by the Council of Europe and UNESCO. It is designed to streamline the legal framework at European level and to replace in the long run six conventions adopted in this matter by the Council of Europe or UNESCO. The Convention aims to facilitate the recognition of qualifications granted in one Party in another Party. It provides that requests should be assessed in a fair manner and within a reasonable time. The recognition can only be refused if the qualification is substantially different from that of the host country - and the onus is on its educational institution to prove that it is. Each State, the Holy See or the European Union inform either depository of the Convention of the authorities which are competent to make different categories of decisions in recognition cases.

2018 Balkan Barometer is the fourth instalment of the annual public opinion survey commissioned by the Regional Cooperation Council to gather and interpret data spanning a number of thematic areas and topics. The Barometer, as in previous years, examines both the region’s perceptions of today, and its expectations for tomorrow, giving voice to the SEE’s business community as well as its citizens at large.