State Secretary Ivica Šušak participated in the meeting of the Council of education ministers of the EU in Luxembourg on 5 April 2022

In the area of higher education, the ministers adopted two documents that will allow higher education institutions from the EU to develop deeper cooperation established within the Bologna Process. 

The Council conclusions on a European strategy empowering higher education institutions for the future of Europe will contribute to increasing the quality of teaching and learning as well as to greater synergy between higher education, research and innovation. The Council Recommendation on building bridges for effective European higher education cooperation will allow higher education institutions to pool human and physical resources with partner higher education institutions from the EU. 

Furthermore, the ministers adopted the Council conclusions on enhancing teachers' and trainers' mobility, in particular European mobility, during their initial and in-service education and training. 

Teachers and trainers play a key role in reaching education policy goals at both national and European level. 

Since the education systems have overcome the health crisis but had to face rapidly with the crisis caused by the aggression against Ukraine, a discussion took place on the topic of managing crises that have an impact on Members States' education systems, as well as on joint crisis management in the European Education Area. Croatia pointed out the importance of increasing digital maturity of education institutions and higher education institutions as a pre-requisite for addressing the crises and supported a coordinated approach to the integration of pupils and students from afflicted areas into the Member States' education systems. The Ukranian education minister addressed the ministers by video link, informing them about the plight of Ukranian children and severe damage to the education infrastructure. 

At the meeting the ministers exchanged experiences on assessing the investment in education and supported a joint declaration of education ministers on creating a common vision of efficient and equitable investment in education. 

Finally, the ministers exchanged views on the funding of European Universities alliances which require systematic national co-funding alongside the funds from the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes, whereby embedding in performance-based funding is recommended.
 

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