Lisbon Recognition Convention (LRC) Self-Assessment tool webinar
On Thursday, 11 July, colleagues from two divisions in QQI’s Development Directorate – International Mobility & Prior Learning and International Education – collaborated and hosted a webinar with 36 attendees from 15 HEIs.
As part of the Erasmus+ AR25 project and aimed at those currently working in admissions and/or QA within their institution, the webinar provided a refresher on the Lisbon Recognition Convention (LRC), an introduction to the Spotlight Self-Assessment tool and how it relates to the International Education Mark (IEM).
The Lisbon Recognition Convention (LRC) which was developed by the Council of Europe and UNESCO, was ratified by Ireland in 2004 . The LRC aims to ensure that holders of a qualification from a signatory country can have adequate access to an assessment of the qualification in another country in a fair, flexible, and transparent way.
Section 5.2 of QQI’s Code of Practice for Provision of Programmes of Higher Education to International Learners clearly sets out the expectation that “HE providers operate fair, transparent and consistent admission policies that support the successful participation of international learners in their chosen programmes”.
The European University Association recently developed the “Spotlight” tool, which allows HEIs to use a European instrument for the first time to assess the compliance of their recognition procedures with the LRC.
The AR25 project aims to further support the use of the tool, by organising a virtual conference open to HEIs, i.e. the webinar hosted by QQI on 11 July, and then offering HEIs the opportunity to complete the tool together with peers under the guidance of the creators of the tool and ENIC-NARIC centres. Interest in using the Spotlight tool – and sharing their findings from it in the form of a short report – has already been expressed by some of the HEIs in attendance.
