Meeting of the UfM National Focal Points of Higher Education

8-9 April 2025, Barcelona, Spain. A coordinated higher education framework is essential to enhance mobility, foster cross-border cooperation, and support a renewed push for regional integration. This meeting will bring together national focal points for higher education from UfM Member States, key regional stakeholders, and international organisations to drive progress towards a more integrated and dynamic higher education landscape.

Stakeholders will work towards turning higher education into a priority for regional cooperation, guided by the following key priorities:

• Policy coordination – Establishing a platform for regular dialogue and concrete strategies to advance the 2007 ministerial mandate.
• Bridging the skills gap – Aligning education with emerging industries and sustainable development goals.
• Enhancing mobility & collaboration – Strengthening student and academic mobility, mutual recognition of qualifications, and joint research initiatives.

Objectives of the meeting:

• Establish a working group of UfM national focal points for higher education and key regional stakeholders.
• Resume the regional policy dialogue on higher education, setting the groundwork for a future ministerial meeting.
• Collect experiences and recommendations on the regional dimension of Erasmus+ to inform its next programming phase.

Thirty years after the launch of the Barcelona Process, higher education remains an overlooked pillar of regional cooperation. Despite its transformative potential for integration, stability, and prosperity, only one ministerial meeting on higher education has been held – in Cairo in 2007. That meeting called for the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Higher Education Area, yet meaningful policy coordination has since stalled, and a dedicated regional platform to implement this vision is still lacking.

The need for action is urgent. A widening skills gap threatens the region’s ability to tackle critical challenges such as youth unemployment, climate change, and digital transformation. Without equipping citizens with the right knowledge and skills, broader regional objectives are at risk.