EHEA Membership and Criteria
The European Higher Education Area currently has three membership categories: members, consultative members and EHEA partners.
Members
States party to the European Cultural Convention are eligible for membership of the EHEA provided that they at the same time declare their willingness to pursue and implement the objectives and commitments of the Bologna Process in their own systems of higher education.
Currently there are 49 members of the EHEA, out of which two (the Russian Federation and Belarus) are suspended based on the decision of the Bologna Follow-Up Group, confirmed and extended by the ministers in charge of higher education at the 2024 Tirana Ministerial Conference. The European Commission is equally a member of the EHEA.
The EHEA members are represented in the Ministerial Conference, as well as in the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG), which meets at least every six months and oversees and directs the development and implementation of the EHEA between the Ministerial Conferences.
Ministers have the exclusive competence to accept new members and consultative members of the EHEA, usually at the regular Ministerial Conference. Applications are to be submitted to and supported by the BFUG and will be examined in accordance with the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the BFUG.
Applicant countries are requested to confirm their adherence to the following principles and objectives:
International mobility of students and staff
Autonomous higher education institutions
Academic freedom and integrity
Student participation in the governance of higher education
Public responsibility for higher education
The social dimension of higher education
The application has to be complemented by a report, detailing the higher education policies of the country in the light of the Bologna Process and outlining how the principles and objectives of the Bologna Process have been and/or will be implemented.
Additional information can be found in the EHEA & BFUG Rules of Procedure.
Consultative Members
European level representative organisations with a legitimate interest in and commitment to, higher education, and intergovernmental organisations representative of public authorities with competence in higher education policy at European level, are eligible for consultative membership of the EHEA.
The four main criteria for being granted consultative membership status, as described in the Rules of Procedure, are:
Added value to the Bologna Process
Relevance of the stakeholder group
Representativeness
Representativeness
The current eight EHEA consultative members are: Council of Europe (CoE), UNESCO, European University Association (EUA), European Association of Institutions of Hig her Education (EURASHE), European Students’ Union (ESU), European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), Education International (EI) and BUSINESS EUROPE.
The European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) has a similar status to the consultative members (non-voting member of BFUG), without being designated as a consultative member as such. Organisations wishing to become a consultative member need to send an application to the EHEA Secretariat. Decisions on consultative membership are taken by the Ministerial Conference, based on the assessment and the resulting advice of the BFUG.
Partners
EHEA partners are organisations that wish to be associated with the Bologna Process but are not included in the Consultative member category. The designation of EHEA partners is granted by the BFUG, based on the same criteria as for consultative members, yet with a more flexible interpretation. EHEA partners are invited to Ministerial Conferences and can be invited to the BFUG meetings and the meetings of the BFUG working structures as determined by the RoP-BFUG.
At present, the following five organisations are EHEA partners: the Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC), the European Association for International Education (EAIE), the Council of European professional and managerial staff (Eurocadres), Eurodoc, the European Association for Promotion of Science and Technology (Euroscience).
Further technical experts, such as Eurostat, Eurostudent or Eurydice may be associated to the BFUG and invited to events upon specific request.
Organisations wishing to become EHEA partners need to send an application to the EHEA Secretariat. Decisions on whether or not to accept an organisation as EHEA partner are taken by the BFUG.