6.1 workshop: AI & Education Fraud: Opportunities and Threats

1.    Overview and context of the workshop

This workshop addresses the growing impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on education fraud, with a specific focus on credential creation, manipulation, and verification. As AI increasingly reshapes digital credential ecosystems, it presents both significant risks—such as the generation of forged diplomas, synthetic identities, and sophisticated fraudulent narratives—and new opportunities to strengthen fraud detection and verification processes.

The goal of the workshop is to explore the dual role of AI in education fraud: how it can be misused to commit fraud, and how it can be responsibly leveraged to prevent, detect, and manage fraudulent credentials within recognition workflows. The workshop also focuses on the role of international co-operation in strengthening the capacity of ENIC-NARIC centres to integrate AI into recognition practices and the verification of authenticity. In particular, experiences gained through international initiatives, such as the Centre for Preventing and Countering Education Fraud, will be presented, along with examples of studies and practical applications of AI for verifying the authenticity of qualifications (the Fraud-Act and Verif-AI projects).

The workshop is structured as an expert panel with three thematic interventions:

• a)AI Enabling New Fraud Methods – emerging AI-driven techniques used to create and scale education fraud.
• b)AI for Detection and Verification – practical applications of AI for anomaly detection, metadata analysis, and risk-based verification.
• c) Governance, Policy, and Ethics and International Co-operation – implications for standards, transparency, data protection, accountability, and integration into digital credential systems.

2.    Panel

Chair: Council of Europe, Education Department

Speaker 1: Prof. Phil Newton, Swansea University

Speaker 2: Elisa Petrucci, ENIC-NARIC Italy

Speaker 3: Francisco Contreras, ENIC-NARIC Sweden

3.    Keywords

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Education Fraud, Credential Verification, Digital Credentials, Diploma Mills, Ethics, Transparency, Integrity.

6.2 workshop: Education as a Migration Pathway: Crises, Policies, and Recognition Challenges in International Student Mobility

1.    Overview and context of the workshop

In the current global landscape, international student mobility is shaped by a mix of political, social, and policy factors, as well as unforeseen crises such as conflicts and sudden regulatory changes. These forces influence mobility patterns, recognition practices, and the governance of study residence, including permits and oversight. Growing student inflows in many host countries have created migration-related pressures, as education increasingly functions as one pathway to migration alongside traditional study purposes.

This workshop intends to explore how crises, policies, and recognition challenges affect student mobility and the governance of study residence. Central to this exploration are case studies from Georgia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Italy, which highlight diverse experiences, including crisis-driven mobility, policy responses, and recognition practices in high-pressure contexts. These examples provide insights into how countries navigate governance, recognition, and policy challenges, revealing patterns and strategies that shape international student mobility in both routine and crisis-driven situations.

2.    Panel

Chair: Mariami Kurtanidze, ENIC Georgia

Speaker 1: Mariami Kurtanidze, ENIC Georgia

Speaker 2: Chris Lyons, ENIC United Kingdom

Speaker 3: Tetiana Vahina, ENIC Ukraine

Speaker 4: Luca Ferranti, ENIC-NARIC Italy

3.    Keywords

Quality Culture; Recognition Practices; International Student Mobility; Study Residence Governance; Crisis-driven Mobility; Policy Context.

6.3 workshop: Making progress on (automatic) recognition in school education and VET

1.    Overview and context of the workshop

Over the last decades, the ENIC-NARIC networks have built a wealth of expertise and knowledge in the recognition of foreign qualifications. In the past years, policy initiatives such as the creation of the EEA, have given a push to strengthen recognition also in levels beyond academic recognition.

Multiple projects have addressed this issue and come up with recommendations for ENIC-NARICs and the wider recognition community to answer the questions, how progress can be made on the (automatic) recognition of qualifications to access higher education and of outcomes of learning periods abroad. Now, follow-on projects have started to deep the work, broaden the involvement with more ENIC-NARICs, and develop tools and guidance to users and institutions.

Goal

The workshop serves the purpose of continuing the debate on recognition in school education and VET and debrief and discuss on recent developments. This will be done on the basis of two NARIC projects, which have started in 2025 and will reach their halfway point around the time of the ENIC-NARIC Joint Meeting.

Specifically, the goals of the session are:

• to provide the ENIC-NARIC networks with an update on the work of two projects, in order to include other ENIC-NARICs in the debate and to collect feedback from the Networks:
• BRAVO II– Strengthening Cooperation on Recognition of Vocational Qualifications | HK-dir (dealing with cooperation on recognition of vocational qualifications, as well as developing a toolkit for recognition of qualifications and outcomes of learning periods abroad in general secondary education, vocational education and training and post-secondary vocational education)
• ARAQUA 2, automatic recognition, access qualifications (aic.lv)(dealing with automatic recognition of HE access qualifications)
• discuss how centres can collaborate to support each other when expanding their remits and on information provision beyond higher education;
• discuss, how centres can provide more and targeted guidance and support to schools and VET institutions, including using the newly developed toolkit, to facilitate their recognition practices of outcomes of learning periods abroad.

2.    Panel

Chair: Christian Kiefer, European Commission

Speaker 1: Baiba Ramina, ENIC-NARIC Latvia

Speaker 2: Andreas Snildal, ENIC-NARIC Norway

Speaker 3: Marijn van Grunsven, Nuffic, ENIC-NARIC Netherlands

3.    Keywords

Automatic recognition, upper secondary education, school education, qualifications.

6.4 workshop: Sharing is caring. Information exchange as catalyst for quality recognition?

1.    Overview and context of the workshop

This workshop will engage with participants about the preliminary outcomes of the Erasmus+ KA3 NARIC “AR2030” project. This project, conducted by a large consortium of ENIC-NARICs and the European University Association, focuses on various topics, all related to automatic recognition. Therefore, this workshop aims to discuss the preliminary work of three work packages, each lying at the intersection of information exchange in relation to ENIC-NARICs.

• The first angle is the role of national admissions officers networks -and their cooperation with ENIC-NARICs centres- to implement the LRC in the national context. AR2030 is for the first time structurally mapping these networks within the ENIC-NARIC Network countries, as well as their (potential) role in implementing the LRC.
• The second angle is about information sharing between ENIC-NARIC centres. Every centre collects information and the AR2030 project explores if it is possible to join efforts in this area. It analyses what type of information is being collected by ENIC-NARICs and under which conditions it would be possible to share this information.
• The third angle is to focus on the operations of national information centres worldwide and identify best practices for running an information centre.

Structure:

‘0 – ’10 Welcome setting the stage (chair).

’10 – ’35 Angle 1: Admission offices networks.

During this segment we aim to reflect on the preliminary outcomes of the mapping of admissions offices networks; their meaning for our centres’ task to implement the LRC in the national framework and ways forward. Precise questions to be determined based on the mapping result.

’35 – ’60. Angle 2: Information sharing.

We aim to seek feedback on the preliminary mapping results – to what extent are the findings applicable to centres outside the consortium? What is needed by the centres in the ENIC-NARIC networks to share information, and what type(s) of information are interesting to share?

’60 – ’85. Angle 3: How to establish and run a successful NIC?

We will share the results of the mapping showing the different legal and practical guidance for establishing NICs under the various conventions, as well as the framework of the future publication. The aim of the publication is for centres to seek inspiration how to run an information centre -inspirational practices- as well as provide transparency and in doing so build trust amongst regions and the worldwide recognition ecosystem.

’85 – ‘90 Wrap up.

The interaction is built in, meaning we aim to share the preliminary outcomes to set the stage for the discussion, to which most of the time will be dedicated. After each presentation we will engage with the participants focusing on targeted question. We do aim to have a dialogue and open exchange of views on the different topics.

2.    Panel

Chair: Allan Bruun Pedersen, ENIC-NARIC Denmark

Speaker 1: Helene Peterbauer, European University Association

Speaker 2: Marijn van Grunsven, ENIC-NARIC Netherlands

Speaker 3: Jenneke Lokhoff, ENIC-NARIC Netherlands

3.    Keywords

Automatic recognition