IT Standards

1EdTech to Host European Higher Education Interoperability Workgroup

• By Kate Lucariello
• 09/06/23

The 1EdTech Consortium will hold a 1EdTech Europe at a conference Sept. 14-15 at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, where members of the European Commission's Higher Education Interoperability workgroup will launch a 27-country initiative. The first of the three-phase framework, set to be collaborated on through November 2023, will be to draft an infrastructure design for the group, 1EdTech said. Representatives from European Universities alliances will be invited to evaluate and provide feedback on the design.

During the second phase, through June 2024, the group will bring on other representatives from the European Universities alliances to outline and address real-world use issues, challenges, and bottlenecks and collaborate on protocols to create a standardized framework.

In the third phase, set to be completed by February 2025, the group will present its Higher Education Interoperability Framework report, which will contain implementation, maintenance, and governance recommendations for moving forward.

Public and private sectors of European higher education will have a stake in this work, 1EdTech said. A pre-conference Think Tank will be held Sept. 13, prior to the 1EdTech Europe conference, for a workgroup coordination team to meet with 1EdTech and European University Information Systems (EUNIS) members.

"Our students are looking for more mobility," said Evelien Renders, international education advisor for SURF (the national research and education network for the Netherlands). "Creating interoperable systems will make it easier and more secure for students to move between institutions as they take advantage of all the opportunities available to them across Europe."

"We plan to ensure that higher education institutions, learners, and suppliers in Europe benefit from the best that digital technology can offer and remain globally competitive whilst aligning with European public values," said Anthony Camilleri from the group coordination team. "We appreciate 1EdTech's willingness to bring education stakeholders from the public and private sectors together in one place for a truly collaborative effort."

"1EdTech's mission is to promote an open, trusted, and innovative ed tech ecosystem across the globe," said CEO Rob Abel. "1EdTech has experience working with international governments and public bodies to profile open standards while fitting national infrastructure constraints. We are thrilled to bring our experience of realistically scaling interoperability standards to power learner potential to this collaborative initiative."

For more information, visit the conference page.