The aim of RecoLATIN project is to favour and to increase the quality of vertical and horizontal student mobility within Latin America and European higher education systems. Partners intend to improve competencies and skills of credential evaluators by defining common practices and realising common tools among European and Latin America national bodies and HE institutions, starting from the experience of European HE institutions in relation with the Bologna Process and practices adopted by NARIC centres. Recognition procedures and practices are not only related to technical issues, but are influenced by the structure of each HE system and their cultural approach. The theme of recognition takes into account all the aspects of a HE system (i.e. QA; accreditation/recognition of institutions and programmes; access to courses; etc.): in order to evaluate a foreign qualification we need to know different elements and to consider the purpose of this evaluation procedure (i.e. academic or professional recognition). The activities of the project are placed both at national (official bodies) and institutional level (HEIs). The Latin America countries signed the UNESCO Recognition Convention in 1974 and their recognition practices are based on previous concepts not influenced by the Lisbon Recognition Convention criteria. For that reason we intend to create operational national recognition centres and to provide training activities on recognition practices for their staff. We will draft National Reports of each partner country involved in the project in order to present their HE systems in the view of recognition purposes. We will focus our attention on controversial recognition cases and sectors as TNE and international institutions, distant learning qualifications and non-traditional degrees. Each result of the project will be disseminated through two final seminars organised in the two respective areas as an impulse for both other countries and their HE institutions.

"During the last EU-South Med Seminar on Recognition of credits and qualifications, organized by the European Commission (Brussels 1st - 2nd June 2015), the need for the revitalization of the MERIC network, as a means for a stronger cooperation between the European region and the Mediterranean one, was mentioned extensively. The EC encouraged France and Italy to submit an Erasmus+ project to implement capacity-building activities to reactivate the network, thus fostering the dialogue in the region and between the two regions.In recent years, reforms in higher education in the south Med countries aiming at the harmonization of the higher education systems, based on the Bologna structure of degrees implemented in the ""European Higher Education Area-EHEA”, have generated some issues linked to recognition. In fact, an increasing number of students are going to study abroad. This makes recognition of credits and qualifications an important and urgent issue.Moreover, the current refugee crisis is high in the agenda in Europe and the South Med countries. The MERIC-Net project will address the recognition of refugees’ qualifications and the practical challenges related to it. The European experience will contribute to the sharing and developing of a common methodology in the Southern Mediterranean countries, in order to facilitate the integration of refugees and displaced people.The reactivation of the MERIC network would be a first step towards an enhanced cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean, and on a larger scale with the European Union. The existence of national recognition centres in the region would represent an asset in a contest of great mobility. In fact, the MERIC-Net project would achieve the aim of shared information, building of mutual trust, facilitating thus smooth recognition. The reactivation of the MERIC network will allow all partners to share their experiences, official information and to build direct and permanent contacts."