Micro-Credentials in a nutshell
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)are being asked to rise to the twin challenges of digitisation and greening the economy, to do it better by improving access and personalisation, and to do it cheaper given the economic imperatives of an aging population. Conventional study programmes are ill-suited to provide for this unprecedented acceleration in demand for specific skill sets and HEI processes the cannot keep up with the increasingly nuanced combinations of rapidly changing expectations posed by their students and the workplace. We believe that these challenges can be addressed by moving from structured degrees and courses to stacks of smaller credentials. Micro-credentials will allow students to assemble portfolios of learning from across institutions, piecing together a range of different competencies and areas of knowledge and skills that make up new forms of qualifications and align with employer requirements.
MicroHE
MicroHE provided the most comprehensive policy analysis then conducted of the impact of modularisation, unbundling and micro-credentialing in European Higher Education by:
- Gathering the state of the art in micro-credentialing in European Higher Education.
- Forecasting the impacts of continued modularisation of Higher Education on HE Institutions.
- Examining the adequacy of European recognition instruments for micro-credentials.
- Proposing a ‘credit supplement’.
- Proposing a meta-data standard and developing an online clearinghouse.
MICROBOL
The MICROBOL project (Micro-credentials linked to the Bologna key commitments) supported ministries and stakeholders in exploring, within the Bologna Process, whether and how the existing Bologna tools can be used and/or adapted to be applicable to micro-credentials. In this project an international consortium:
- Organised various meetings and workshops where governments
- Brought experts and stakeholders together to evaluate the current practices and policies relating to micro-credentials.
- Based on the findings of these meetings, proposed a common European framework for micro-credentials.
MicroCredX
MicroCredX project addresses the needs of the strategic triangle of HEIs, the world of work and students. The key questions the project addresses are:
- How can this cooperation improve the employability rate of university students and raise the profile of HEIs embracing the adoption of study programme unbundling and micro-credential recognition?
- What are the skills and competences the industry requires the most?
- How can curricula adapt to current and emerging labour market needs?
Expected impact of our Micro-Credential projects
In the long-term, our projects will increase the quality and quantity of micro-credentials on offer within the European Higher Education Area, as well as enable recognition of those same credentials by different educational organizations and employers. Strategically, it is believed that in the long-term micro-credentials will become a major pillar of university service, alongside teaching of degrees and research. In quantitative terms, we expect to see a steady linear growth curve in the number of certified micro-credentials, with a shape similar that to the growth in MOOCs.
