Position Paper submitted for consideration by the European Commission 

The Groningen Declaration Network (GDN) is pleased to provide a position paper on the European Commission’s broad-based consultative work to establish a definition for micro-credentials. The GDN represents a broad and diverse international community of public, private, and government entities and individuals who are committed to promoting trusted digital transfer of student data as an enabling force to advance social and global mobility. We believe that citizens worldwide should be able to consult and share their authentic educational credentials and data with whomever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want. The GDN strongly believes lifelong learning and establishing a trusted, coherent, and comprehensive credential comparability ecosystem.

The core reason the GDN is interested in microcredentials is that we believe that achieving full access to learning opportunities requires meeting learners in their spaces and places. By its very nature, the focused, customized learning certified through micro-credentials represents a transformative way to usher in learner autonomy, agency, and selfsovereignty. Our goals and principles fit seamlessly with the micro-credential trajectory, which has the potential of being an important equalizer in learner mobility. We applaud the creation of a definition that covers the full spectrum of lifelong learning and that is compatible with the range of educational systems and structures found throughout the globe.