The Studying Abroad pilot implements three cross-border higher education procedures:

Application to higher education

The first use case focuses on the process of applying for admission to higher education institutions in another country, specifically for bachelor (1st Bologna degree) and master studies (2nd Bologna degree). All candidates wishing to enrol in a foreign university must apply online through a procedure portal provided by the university or the respective Ministry of education. Today, candidates have to manually enter the required data in the application form on the portal and provide the required supporting evidence themselves, such as identity details and diplomas.

The DE4A project helps applicants by providing an infrastructure that enables the direct exchange of evidence between competent authorities in EU Member States. Through this infrastructure, applicants can request that their evidence (e.g. the diploma for the 1st Bologna degree) is automatically sent to the procedure portal from a trusted source in their home country or countries where they previously studied. Students retain full control over which evidence is sent across borders and which is not, by explicitly agreeing to each transfer of evidence.

Currently, the following application services are available for piloting:

• University Jaume I, Spain
• INESC-ID, Portugal
• Ministry of education, science and sport, Slovenia

Applying for a study grant

The second use case focuses on the process of applying for a study grant abroad. Today, students wishing to apply for a study grant at the foreign university, Ministry of education or other institutions have to manually fill out an online application form in the procedure portal and provide the required supporting evidence themselves, such as identity details, university diplomas or proofs of their financial status.

The DE4A project helps the applicants by providing an infrastructure that enables the direct exchange of evidence between competent authorities in EU Member States. Through this infrastructure, the applicants can request that their evidence (e.g. university diploma), large family evidence, or disability evidence is automatically sent to the procedure portal from a trusted source in their home country. Students retain full control over which evidence is sent across borders and which is not, by explicitly agreeing to each transfer of evidence.

 Grant application scenario was piloted by the Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.

Diploma recognition

The third use case focuses on the diploma recognition in another country to facilitate the use of such information by government and other sectors. This use case involves the self-sovereign identity approach. Students can transfer their diplomas in the form of verifiable credentials from trusted data sources, such as universities where they have previously studied or ministries of education, and store them in digital wallets on their mobile phones.

Students can get their diplomas at the following competent authorities:

• INESC-ID, Portugal:
• SGAD, Spain:

In another Member State, they can then present these credentials in the form of a verifiable presentation to a competent authority and request their diplomas to be recognized in that State.

Timeline

The pilot was operational until April 2023. 

Audience

The pilot was open to students from University Jaume I in Spain, University of Lisbon in Portugal, and any higher education institution in Slovenia. These are the students whose diplomas are stored at one of the competent authorities involved in DE4A and can be made available in an electronic format through the DE4A evidence exchange system. The participating students should have valid eIDs.

More information

You can find more general information about the Digital Europe for All program here.

Participating Guidelines

Application to higher education

​Here, the main steps of the process are briefly summarised:

• ​​A student accesses an eProcedure portal to apply for higher education studies.
• The student is asked to authenticate using a legally recognised electronic identity (eIDAS identity).
• After successful authentication, the student is presented with a list of study programmes. The student selects the desired programme.
• The student is asked to provide evidence (higher education diploma or secondary education diploma), which is mandatory for the application.
• The student explicitly requests that the DE4A Once-only Principle Technical System is used to retrieve the diploma from an authentic source in his/her home country.
• The student is directed to the Evidence portal.
• The student authenticates using a legally recognised electronic identity.
• The student previews a diploma and gives consent for sending it across border to the application service.
• The student is redirected back to the eProcedure portal.
• The student enters missing information in the form, e.g. email address, contact phone number, and address for notice, and submits the application.
• The application is validated and the acknowledgment receipt provided.

​

Here, the main steps of the process are briefly summarised:

• ​A student accesses an eProcedure portal to apply for study grant.
• The student is asked to authenticate using a legally recognized electronic identity (eIDAS identity).
• The student is asked to provide evidence (higher education diploma, large family evidence, or disability evidence),  which is mandatory for the application.
• The student explicitly requests that the DE4A Once-only Principle Technical System is used to retrieve the evidence from an authentic source in his/her home country.
• The student is directed to the Evidence portal.
• The student authenticates again using a legally recognized electronic identity.
• The student previews the evidence and gives consent for sending it across border to the application service.
• The student is redirected back to the eProcedure portal.
• The student enters missing information in the form, e.g. email address and contact phone number, and submits the grant application.
• The application is validated and the application and acknowledgment receipt provided.

​

Here, the main steps of the procedure are briefly summarized.

Obtaining diploma evidence in the form of a verifiable credential

• A student accesses an Evidence portal to request diploma evidence in the form of a verifiable credential.
• The student is asked to authenticate using a legally recognized electronic identity (eIDAS identity).
• After successful authentication the student requests a diploma evidence.
• If the student's mobile wallet is not yet connected with the Evidence portal the student requests a new QR code to be generated.
• The student scans the displayed QR code by a mobile phone and accepts a connection invitation.
• Once the connection is established, the student requests the portal to send the diploma evidence as a verifiable credential to the mobile wallet.
• The student previews the credential and accepts its offer.
• The student accepts the received credential and stores it in the mobile wallet for future use.

Service guidelines:

• Guidelines for obtaining diploma evidence at INESC-ID
• Guidelines for obtaining diploma evidence at SGAD

Presenting diploma evidence in the form of a verifiable presentation

• A student accesses an eProcedure portal to request diploma recognition.
• The student is asked to authenticate using a legally recognized electronic identity (eIDAS identity).
• After successful authentication the student requests to submit diploma evidence in the form of a verifiable presentation (VP).
• If the student's mobile wallet is not yet connected with the eProcedure portal the student requests a new QR code to be generated.
• The student scans the displayed QR code by a mobile phone and accepts a connection invitation.
• Once the connection is established, the student requests the portal to send a request for a VP submission.
• The student accepts the received request on a mobile phone by selecting the requested VP conforming to the request format and submitting it as a response to the portal.
• Validity information of the submitted VP is displayed to the student.

Service guidelines:

• Guidelines for requesting diploma recognition at INESC-ID
• Guidelines for requesting diploma recognition at the Ministry of education, science and sport, Slovenia