On 24 March, ACA Director Irina Ferencz participated as an expert in the second session of the European Citizens' Learning Mobility Panel. The citizens’ panel is part of a broader consultation strategy, which aims at gathering feedback from all interested parties and stakeholders as part of the public consultation currently underway until 3 May 2023 (for more details, see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, February 2023).

Building on the shared vision, target groups and emerging trends identified at the preceding stage, the second session focused on main obstacles and challenges facing different groups of European citizens when it comes to learning mobility. From ACA’s perspective, three common dilemmas were debated with the participating European citizens:

• How can higher education institutions collect data on students in order to better understand their barriers and limitations?
• How to adapt communication that speaks directly to students without any stigmatisation or labelling?
• Whom to prioritize for mobility support in the context of limited resources that tend to constraint tailor made approaches?

Possible solutions to these issues include institutional reforms that focus on two types of changes: structural improvements related to the operations and interaction of different offices at higher education institutions and format improvements, including possible adaptation of the mobility length and types of delivery embedding online options. Further recommendations will be presented as part of ACA’s response to the open call.