QualityLink is a publicly-funded European project that is developing open standards and non-commercial tools for publishing and aggregating course data from multiple institutions into a unified, searchable catalogue.

Using QualityLink, European Universities alliances can create joint course catalogues that enable students to discover learning opportunities across the alliance. The joint catalogue is foundational for virtual inter-university campuses and enhanced student mobility. Joint catalogues directly address Use Case 1 “Discover” from the European Higher Education Interoperability Framework (HEIF).

What is QualityLink developing?

• Common language: Standardised format and approaches for publishing data, based on the European Learning Model (ELM)
• Data aggregator: Software that automatically collects course data from multiple institutional sources (see dashboard for institutions)
• Europe-wide portal: Pilot platform showcasing learning opportunities from all participating institutions (see mock-up of the platform)

What are the benefits?

Higher education institutions can use the QualityLink specification and tools to feed public data on courses and micro-credentials into a Europe-wide portal and open dataset, increasing the Europe-wide visibility of their learning opportunities.

• Your institution/alliance already has course data in ELM, OOAPI, Edu-API or OCCAPI: you can expose information on your programmes, courses and micro-credentials to a wider European audience without extra risks or costs – simply by making your data sources accessible to the QualityLink aggregator.
• Your institution/alliance maintains course data in different formats: by mapping your existing data standard to ELM or one of the interoperable APIs, you will improve interoperability with other institutions across Europe. ELM is also the basis for European Digital Credentials for Learning (EDC), so if your data is mapped to ELM you facilitate the issuing of digital degrees and micro-credentials for your courses.
• If you need to renew your institution’s or alliance’s public course catalogue, you can use the hosted QualityLink portal for easy deployment with minimal work required.
• If your institution does not have its course data in a structured database, you may deploy the software currently being developed in the DACEM project

By adopting QualityLink, higher education institutions can be frontrunners in standardisation and interoperability. All QualityLink software is fully open source – you can thus also choose to customise and deploy your own version if needed.

What are the practical steps?

• Phase 1: Planning
  • Define scope: determine which learning opportunities to include (all offerings, pilot selection or courses dedicated for alliance students)
  • Plan technical implementation approach with your IT team(s)
• Phase 2: Preparation
  • Check data readiness: do local systems contain minimum required data based (see application profile compatible with the ELM Learning Opportunities and Qualifications, LOQ, profile), namely:
    • title/name of the course or learning opportunity
    • learning outcomes
    • language(s) of delivery
    • thematic area (ISCED-F 2013 Classification)
  • Review additional requirements, e.g. if you want that the QualityLink platform provides potential learners a direct link to your enrolment or application portal, these links need to be part of your data
• Phase 3: Deployment
  • Publish data in supported formats (ELM, OOAPI, Edu-API or OCCAPI)
  • Ensure that your IT team(s) publish a manifest file to advertise your data source
  • Verify aggregation and data quality in the dashboard for institutions
  • Launch public catalogue with alliance branding
• Phase 4: Optimisation
  • Monitor usage and gather feedback from students and staff
  • Expand coverage to additional learning opportunities and enhance data quality
  • Use joint catalogue for further use cases, e.g. joint enrolment

What are the implementation options?

We recommend using our hosted QualityLink aggregator and portal. This is the easiest option for fast and risk-free deployment, as it requires no own resources. The QualityLink aggregator is run on a non-profit basis and may be used by all European higher education institutions free of charge.

If your institution or alliance has advanced customisation needs, you can also deploy the QualityLink aggregator on your own infrastructure. All QualityLink software is available as open source on GitHub. Your own deployment provides maximum customisation and control, but requires additional resources and IT expertise to manage. You can also mix and match components, e.g. you could use the hosted QualityLink aggregator but develop your own custom portal to display the joint catalogue, e.g. embedded into your regular website.

How will the data be available?

All data made available to the QualityLink aggregator data will be published as single open dataset. The aggregated data can be freely explored using the prototype platform/catalogue (to follow) and be accessed as open data under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International [CC-BY-NC] license.

How to get started?

The QualityLink project has launched the pilot aggregator in November 2025. To have your course data aggregated, please follow the Technical Guide.

The more institutions and their courses will feature in a joint catalogue the more useful it will be. As an early pioneer you can support the community and help us support wider adoption.

Will this remain available when the project ends?

The Knowledge Innovation Centre (KIC) is part of the QualityLink project consortium and hosts the pilot aggregator and platform. As every project, QualityLink has a lifetime, but KIC commits to ensuring that the hosted aggregator and platform remain available for the European higher education community for the time being.

Moreover, all specifications and all software created by the QualityLink project will be open source forever.