CALL FOR ACCREDITATION – EACEA/03/2020

Erasmus Charter for Higher Education 2021-2027

(2020/C 51/09)

Reserve Clause

The 2021-2027 EU Programme for education, training, youth and sport proposed by the European Commission on 30 May 2018 (hereafter the Programme) has not yet been adopted by the European legislators. However this call for accreditation is published to facilitate the application of potential beneficiaries of Union grants as soon as the legal basis is adopted by the European legislators.

This Call for accreditation does not legally bind the European Commission. In case of a substantial modification of the legal basis by the European legislators, the present Call might be modified or cancelled and other Calls for accreditation with different content and appropriate deadlines for reply may be launched.

More generally, any action flowing from this Call for accreditation is subject to the following conditions, whose implementation is beyond the Commission’s control:

The proposed 2021-2027 EU Programme for education, training, youth and sport is based on Articles 165 and 166 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and on the subsidiarity principle.

1.   Objectives and description

The Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) provides the general quality framework for European and international cooperation activities a higher education institution (HEI) undertakes when participating in the Programme. The award of an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education is a pre-requisite for all higher education institutions located in one of the countries mentioned below and wanting to apply and participate in learning mobility, cooperation among organisations and institutions and/or support to policy development projects under the 2021-2027 Programme. For HEIs located in third countries not associated to the Programme, the ECHE is not required, and the quality framework will be established through inter-institutional agreements between HEIs.

The Charter is awarded for the full duration of the Programme. The implementation of the Charter will be monitored by the Erasmus+ National Agencies and the violation of its principles and commitments may lead to its withdrawal by the European Commission.

2.   Eligible applicants

HEIs established in one of the following countries are eligible to apply for an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education:

To be eligible, applicants must be recognised as a higher education institution (2) by the national authorities of the country of the applicant.

3.   Deadline for the submission of applications and indicative date of publishing selection results

The deadline for submitting applications for the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education is 21 April 2020. The indicative date of publishing selection results is 15 October 2020.

4.   Selection procedure

Exceptionally, two separate application procedures will be put in place for this Call.

Prior to the publication of this Call, the European Commission and the Erasmus+ National Agencies will have analysed the activity and past performance of ECHE holders under the 2014-2020 Erasmus+ Programme. The following elements were taken into account:

According to this information, two separate application procedures will be in place:

The Erasmus+ National Agencies have informed all current ECHE Holders (2014-2020) which application procedure they should go through. In case the applicant is not sure of which procedure to go through, it is invited to consult its National Agency according to the contact information found on the following webpage: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/contact/national-agencies_en

An Evaluation Committee composed of officials from EACEA and the European Commission will evaluate the applications against admissibility and eligibility criteria to award the Charter, based on feedback received from independent external experts.

These applications will be put at the disposal of the Erasmus+ National Agencies to perform the monitoring of the Charter principles. Failure to comply with these principles may lead to the withdrawal of the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education and the exclusion of the HEI from participating in the Programme.

5.   Full details

The Commission proposal for a Regulation establishing the 2021-2027 Union programme for education, training, youth and sport can be found at the following webpage: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2018%3A367%3AFIN

Applications must be submitted according to the guidelines provided by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and available at the website: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/funding/erasmus-charter-for-higher-education-2021-2027_en

(1)  Pending adoption of the legal basis. In the Erasmus+ 2014-2020 Programme, this list includes: Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Turkey, North Macedonia and Serbia.

(2)  ‘Higher education institution’ means any institution which, in accordance with national law or practice, offers recognised degrees or other recognised tertiary level qualifications, whatever such establishment may be called as well as any other comparable institution at tertiary level which is considered by the national authorities as eligible to participate in the Programme, in their respective territories.