The event was organised with the Scottish Government and colleagues in Ireland and the Netherlands in order to present and share practice, and included a series of plenaries and workshops. The RPL process in Scotland involves considering the learner’s prior formal or informal learning in order to gain entry to further study or to gain credit or exemption towards a degree.

In other countries in Europe, RPL can be used as a major route to award a degree. It is a significant area for development within higher education in Europe as part of the Bologna Process.

Dr Frances Morton, Development Officer at QAA Scotland, said: ‘The event was extremely successful and feedback from delegates was very positive. It provided an opportunity not only for higher education specialists, but also government ministers and policy makers from across Europe, to come together to network and learn about different approaches to RPL’.

The main conclusions of the event were around streamlining RPL provision and learning from other countries’ examples, potential areas engaging with workforce development strategies and employers, and different approaches to the quality assurance of RPL. A European RPL network to share practice was also proposed.

The event was chaired by Professor Sue Scott, Pro Vice Chancellor Learning Innovation at Glasgow Caledonian University and the day consisted of three plenary speakers: Ruth Whittaker from Glasgow Caledonian University; Robert Santa from the European Students’ Union; and Lucie te Lintelo, RPL office at Hogeschool van Amsterdam (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences). Three sessions of six workshops were also run with presenters were from Ireland, Scotland, Finland, England, Netherlands, Norway and Lithuania.