Enhancing Professional Development for Higher Education Staff through Micro-Credentials (MicroHEI) is designed to address the long-standing gap in the recognition of professional development for higher education staff, proposing the first standardised framework of micro-credentials awarded specifically to higher education staff.
Started: 2025
Funding: Erasmus+ Key Action 2 – Cooperation Partnerships in Higher Education
Project budget: 400.000,00 €
Length: 3 years
Partners: 6
At a time when higher education institutions are expected to respond quickly to digital transformation, green policies and inclusion agendas, staff skills must evolve just as fast. MicroHEI explores how micro-credentials can become a practical, credible and recognised way to support this evolution across Europe.
Micro-credentials are increasingly valued because they offer focused, flexible and practice-oriented learning aligned with real professional needs and are delivered in short, often online formats that support efficient upskilling and lifelong learning. Yet recognition for higher education staff remains fragmented, particularly for international or non-traditional learning. MicroHEI responds by laying the foundations for a standardised, quality-assured European framework tailored to university academic and administrative staff.
The project focuses on three tightly connected pillars:
- A common framework for micro-credentials: A shared system that sets clear standards for micro-credentials, making it easier for skills and knowledge to be recognised across universities and countries.
- Pilot micro-credentials for staff: The framework is tested through a piloting phase in which 12 short, online courses are run for academic and administrative staff. These courses focus on European priorities and lead to the award of micro-credentials developed within the project.
- A European label and an online observatory: To support long-term recognition, MicroHEI introduces a university micro-credential label, linked to the Europass framework, alongside an online micro-credentials observatory. The latter monitors developments, practices and recognition models across partner countries.
Together, these efforts support the transferability of micro-credentials across institutions, strengthen internationalisation activities and create opportunities for career growth. This is particularly relevant in a context where staff turnover can weaken institutional memory, making structured recognition of staff development a strategic necessity for universities.
Project Partners: University of Vigo (Coordinator), University of Latvia, University of Maribor, University of Porto, University of Zilina, and European University Foundation.