The Lithuanian Parliament has ratified the Global Recognition Convention and the President has signed the relevant law No. XIV-593 on 4 November 2021. This way, Lithuania is in the group of the very first countries which acceeded to the Convention.
The UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications for Higher Education was adopted at the 40th Session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 25 November 2019. This is an important step towards increasing student mobility worldwide and facilitating the recognition of higher education qualifications.
The Global Convention is the first universally binding United Nations agreement in the field of higher education. It facilitates academic mobility between regions of the world and sets out universal principles for improving the recognition of qualifications. The Global Convention will complement the five existing UNESCO regional conventions on the recognition of higher education qualifications and provide a framework for the fair, transparent and non-discriminatory recognition of higher education qualifications worldwide. Lithuania is party to the regional European agreement – the so-called Lisbon Recognition Convention – adopted in 1997.
The idea of a global convention was raised by UNESCO in 2011. The draft text of the Convention was prepared in 2017 and discussed through 2019. More than 260 experts from 150 UNESCO member countries and associate members completed discussions on the project and submitted the final agreed text to the UNESCO General Conference for approval in 2019. In the preparation and discussions of the draft Convention Lithuania was represented by SKVC.
With a significant increase in academic mobility, the new global convention is expected to make it easier for students, teachers and researchers to study and work outside their home country, anywhere in the world. The five regional conventions currently in force have so far failed to complete this mission. The Lisbon Recognition Convention, to which Lithuania is a signatory, is considered to be the most successful regional convention to date.
The Global Convention will enter into force upon accession by at least twenty States, to date seven countries have ratified the Global Convention – Norway, Nicaragua, Estonia, France, Romania, Tunisia and Lithuania.
