The MicroHE team interviewed fifty or so people in the second half of 2019, from students and spokespeople in higher education to regulators and employers, in order to get a general idea of what they know and what they expect from micro-credentials. The briefing paper on “Challenges and opportunities for micro-credentials in Europa” is a complete yet concise report on the results of this series of interviews, developed by Fondazione Politecnico di Milano with the help of DHBW and all the MicroHE partners. The report sets out the areas where the current European accreditation tools are unable to provide indications on how they can be used for micro-credentials, suggesting tool optimisation measures that can help in the accrediting process.

MicroHE intends to produce analytical support on the impact of modularisation, disaggregation and micro-credentials within European higher education, by:

– Conducting a survey on the state-of-the-art today in the use of micro-credentials within higher education across Europe

– Estimating the impact of continuous modularisation in higher education by applying scanning techniques

– Examining European credit calculation tools to determine whether they are suitable for micro-credentials, especially the ECTS credit system, the Diploma Supplement and the Qualifications Framework

– Proposing a credit supplement to provide detailed information on micro-credentials that is compatible with ECTS credits, Diploma Supplement and the Qualifications Framework

– Proposing metadata standard and develop an online clearinghouse to enable micro-credential recognition, transfer and portability within Europa.

MicroHE has organised a first European survey on micro-credentials in higher education, examining 70 institutions, with the objective of determining the current offer level, the types of micro-credentials and the future trends in their supply. It has also organised a masterclass on micro-credentials as means to examine their potential more closely, using in particular the Delphi method.