Enhancing the quality and relevance of learning and teaching is the primary mission of the EHEA (Yerevan Communiqué, 2015). As such, the Bologna Process established a particular vision of learning and teaching in higher education, spanning from its scope, approaches and paradigms. 

In the Prague Communiqué (2001), the ministers emphasised that the establishment of the key commitments (qualification frameworks, ECTS, learning outcomes) would lead to greater flexibility in learning and teaching and, subsequently, to structural change in curricula and innovative approaches (Bergen Communiqué, 2005).

Apart from the relationship between learning and teaching and key (structural) commitments, in the London Communiqué (2007), the ministers established connections between learning and teaching policies and student-centred learning (as both a teaching paradigm and a meta-concept for student agency), lifelong learning, and recognition of prior learning, each of the latter becoming priority topics in their own right within the EHEA.

Furthermore, the ministers determined specific outcomes to be achieved through adapting learning and teaching policies, with the general expectation to help students develop competencies for the labour market and active and responsible, democratic citizenship. They also identified specific policy actions related to L&T, specifically adequate support and guidance structures for students, curricular reform, flexible learning pathways, engagement of stakeholders in developing curricula, resourceful leaning environments (Leuven Communiqué, 2009), ensuring the adequate connection with research (Yerevan Communiqué, 2015), offering open education and incorporating interdisciplinarity and work-based learning within study programmes (Paris Communiqué, 2018). They also committed to exploiting digital technologies and developing openly licensed materials that can be easily shared among higher education stakeholders (Rome Communiqué, 2020).

Furthermore, ministers committed to supporting staff through adequate and attractive working conditions, recognition of teaching on par with research, professional development opportunities (Yerevan Communiqué, 2015) and stable employment and career opportunities (Rome Communiqué, 2020).

Learning and teaching practices should include innovative approaches, develop soft and research skills, transversal competencies, adaptability, entrepreneurial and critical thinking (Bucharest Communiqué, 2012), creativity and a balance between theoretical and practical components (Yerevan Communiqué, 2015), problem-solving abilities (Rome Communiqué, 2020). Furthermore, the study programmes should prepare students for global challenges with future-proof skills and civic competencies (Tirana  Communiqué, 2024). Students should be involved, as full members of the academic community, in curriculum design and be active drivers of their learning (Yerevan Communiqué, 2015)

Cooperation in innovative learning and teaching practices was added as another hallmark of the EHEA in the Paris Communiqué (2018). In Rome, they emphasised that innovation also includes the mode of delivery and the programme's size, incorporating small units of learning under the Bologna framework (e.g. microcredentials). In Tirana (2024), the ministers added that all learning paths must be flexible, properly delivered, quality assured, and recognised.

At the Rome Ministerial Conference in 2020, the ministers also adopted Recommendations to National Authorities for the Enhancement of Higher Education Learning and Teaching in the EHEA, constituting a stand-alone document focusing on improving learning and teaching across the EHEA. The recommendations are structured around the need for student-centred learning, the enhancement of teaching, and strengthening the higher education institutions’ and systems’ capacity to enhance learning and teaching. The recommendations also underline the crucial importance of reinforcing the Bologna tools, especially ECTS, to indicate achieved learning outcomes, their associated workload, and other key commitments.