Joint European Degree Label
Endorsed by EU Member States in a Council Recommendation in May 2025, the Joint European Degree Label will begin rolling out across the European Higher Education Area from mid-2026. The Joint European Degree Label is a voluntary European quality label awarded to eligible joint degree programmes delivered collaboratively by institutions in different EU Member States. It aims to increase the visibility and recognition of high-quality joint programmes while supporting structured, sustainable transnational cooperation.
The Label is not a new qualification and does not replace national degrees. It is an additional quality mark or label attached to existing joint Bachelor’s, Master’s or doctoral programmes that meet agreed European criteria. These criteria, which are detailed in the European Commission’s Operational Guide for the Joint European Degree Label, focus on joint delivery and organisation. In addition, it highlights the programme’s European dimension, including integrated mobility, joint governance, and features such as interdisciplinarity, multilingualism and inclusive learning.
The Label is awarded through a labelling (rather than accreditation) process, building on existing quality assurance arrangements such as the European Approach for the Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes. There are two pathways to the Label. The first pathway is where all institutions in a consortium are self-accrediting, one institution may award the Label on behalf of the group. The second pathway is where consortia include both self-accrediting and non-self-accrediting institutions, an EQAR-registered QA agency awards the Label following a compliance assessment.
QQI is actively engaged in developing procedures to implement the Label and plans to pilot adoption of the Label with select institutions to test feasibility ahead of wider rollout.
As part of this work, QQI will host a European Commission-supported Technical Workshop on Wednesday, 8 July 2026, at the IADT Carnegie Library in Dún Laoghaire.
The workshop will address practical implementation issues, including criteria, assessment processes, implications for programme design and quality assurance, and opportunities for shared learning.
Providers interested in learning more about the Joint European Degree Label are invited to register for the workshop.
Further updates will follow as QQI’s national procedures are finalised.
