Recognition and the Learning Agreement – Same, Same but Different?! Recognition in Student Mobility in the Context of Regulatory Requirements for Digitalization

• Inga Christine Gerling, University of Hohenheim

Abstract

On the one hand, both the Single Digital Gateway (SDG) Regulation on the European level and the Online Access Act (OZG) on the national level in Germany require the digitalization of the recognition of academic achievements, but without specifying the details.  On the other hand, the Erasmus+ program prescribes in detail how the data exchange and the data set of a digital learning agreement (DLA) has to look like.

In this context of regulatory requirements for digitalization, what does a meaningful university-wide digital recognition process of academic achievements made in the context of an Erasmus+ mobility look like?

The implementation of such regulatory requirements - especially regarding digitalization - should not be approached in a silo thinking manner in the individual departments with their specific responsibilities. This often only encourages the emergence of unsustainable "shadow IT" or silo solutions and ultimately impedes the actual sustainable digital transformation of university administrations. Strategic cross-departmental approaches that view the system as a whole and question existing concepts are more goal-oriented. In a systemic understanding of process digitalization, processes should not only be attempted to be optimized, but not least, new opportunities that arise through digitization should also be explored.

Thus, we will also take a closer look at the thesis of whether the EU, with the Learning Agreement (LA) in the Erasmus+ program, is primarily pursuing - in addition to recognition per se - the systemic goal of rearranging sub-process steps in the "traditional" recognition process. What does this mean for a future concept of the (D)LA in the Erasmus+ program?

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