History
EURASHE, the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education, was founded in Patras (Greece) in 1990 as an international association promoting and emphasising professional higher education (PHE).
While EURASHE initially admitted only national organisations (such as councils of directors) as members, it later opened up membership to individual institutions. Nowadays, its members are colleges, polytechnics, university colleges, applied sciences, and universities with their professional training.
Three purposes were at the origin of EURASHE:
- to promote the interests of PHE at a national and European level,
- to cooperate internationally on the development of PHE,
- to promote internationalisation within its member institutions.
The motivation of the founding fathers was to create an instrument to advocate the interests of Europe’s extra-university sector of tertiary education vis-à-vis the European Commission and others.
You can become an EURASHE member
and promote professional higher education

Mission
EURASHE’s mission is to strengthen the impact of innovative, high-quality professional higher education and related user-oriented research in Europe by representing professional higher education institutions and facilitating their multi-stakeholder cooperation and dialogue.

Vision
EURASHE strives to support the development and transformation of European society through professional higher education.

Goals
- to contribute to the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and European Research
Area (ERA) by influencing policy-making at European level on issues about professional higher
education; - to represent the members’ common interests at European level, as well as outside the EHEA;
to promote professional higher education in the EHEA and ERA; - to provide members with a platform for communication, information and exchange of views, with a focus on issues relevant to the future development of higher education;
- to ensure and safeguard the cooperation between the members of the Association;
- to achieve cooperation in higher education by establishing close links with other organisations with similar objectives.

Activities
- membership representation, notably towards European institutions, authorities and stakeholders;
- production of policy papers, analytical studies and other documents;
- organisation of networking activities, learning events, conferences and seminars for the members and partners;
- dissemination of information;
- partnership with stakeholder organisations in higher education;
- involvement in projects.