This is the working space for the EMREX user group. The short address to this space is www.csc.fi/emrex
The external website can be found here, www.emrex.eu
The EMREX project addresses the EU 2020 target that 20% of higher education students should be mobile during their studies. It also addresses similar national policy goals of the countries participating in the proposal. Furthermore the proposal is put forward because of fiscally strained national public resources that require more effective and efficient education systems and services supporting them. Academic recognition in higher education is seen as a challenge in learner mobility and also as a potential area for the improvement of a more efficient education system in general.
According to a study performed by the Erasmus Student Network 2012 (ESN) involving 25 student unions, the biggest obstacle for student mobility, after financial support, is the lack of recognition. Currently the recognition of previous studies from another country requires a substantial amount of paper work from the student and also from the universities. Since no integrated IT-system for handling the process exists, most of this is manual work. One outcome of this labour intensive process is that in many cases the students do not get recognition for previous studies to the extent they are entitled to.
EMREX's goal is to to make the administration of student mobility easier and thus promoting higher attainment level to student mobility in higher education and also encouraging more effective recognition of prior learning and avoiding overlapping studies. The recognition of external studies is also a measurable function that can be evaluated.
The biggest benefit will be the increased availability, quality and reliability of information about student records of achievement information. This will make student mobility processes easier and faster and more transparent for students. Students will also benefit from the recognition of previous academic studies and degrees because of increased eligibility, when applying for studies in higher education. The universities will benefit from a reduction of manual work. The trial also supports the collection of measurable data on the rate of recognition that can then be analysed and used for improving the national policies on student mobility and rules for recognition of previous studies.
The tangible outcome of EMREX is a federated solution that supports the exchange of student data on achievements. The solution will be highly scalable and can thus easily be implemented in the whole European community. All institutions of higher education would be able to use the information from countries offering the functionality. The existence of this functionality would create an imperative to an institution to offer its own information to be visible also in the Europe-wide information exchange and hence enhance the recognition of external studies.