Conference Paper

The gap between standards promoting equity “by increasing the availability of knowledge” is nowhere greater than between the best Western universities and their counterparts in Eastern Europe. The European Citizens Initiative (EUCIS‐LLL), recognizes sad inequities in European higher education. They do not provide “equal access” for all European undergraduate citizens to best practices. This recognizes the failure of European Commission policy makers to set appropriate standards of accreditation for universities in Europe. Progress towards a European Union Higher Education Accreditation Council similar to the US Council for Higher Education (CHEA) needs to be put in place. The Bologna process and the Lisbon process are seen to be making little progress towards such European Union accreditation standards. This chapter proposes five European‐wide accreditation standards. The need is comparability “with the standards and quality of higher education qualifications,” so that the value of university education can be evaluated. This review is important. There is an urgent need for unified European accreditation standards to provide a foundation for the future employment prospects of young Europeans in the global economy.