Following are EURASHE news items related to the event:

Following is the programme of the event:

Day 1 – Thursday 9 May 2013

10.00 – Opening session

Welcome

Opening address by Andreas G. Orphanides, President of EURASHE, Rector of European University Cyprus (EUC) (Cyprus)

Welcome address by Slavica Ćosović Bajić, President of the Croatian Council of Universities and University Colleges of Applied Science (VVIVŠ) (Croatia)

Welcome address by Tim Creedon, Chair of Universities of Applied Sciences Network (UASnet), President Emeritus of Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT Dublin) (Ireland)

Welcome address by Ružica Beljo Lučić, Deputy Minister of Science, Education and Sports (Croatia)

Welcome address by Jasmina Havranek, Director of the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) (Croatia)

Keynote speeches

Public engagement as integral part of the innovation ecosystem, Vladimír Šucha, Deputy Director General of European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Croatian perspective of the Knowledge Triangle, Sanja Crnković-Pozaić, Advisor to the Minister of Labour and Pension system (Croatia)

MEPs video message on the importance of the Knowledge Triangle and linked European Union initiatives and policies in current times

Doris Pack, Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education (Germany, EPP)

Mary Honeyball, Committee on Culture and Education (United Kingdom, S&D)

Philippe De Backer, Committee on Transport and Tourism (Belgium, ALDE)

Maria Da Graca Carvalho, Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Portugal, EPP)

13.30 – Track I: Education – Mission and Profile of Professional Higher Education

Keynote speeches

Profiles and differentiation of the higher education landscape and the role of U-Multirank, Frank Ziegele, Director of CHE Centre for Higher Education (Germany)

Professional Higher Education in Europe, Towards an emerging model !?!, Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Vice-President quality and academic affairs of Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) (Germany)

Working sessions I

Mapping and characterising PHE in Europe, Marek Frankowicz, Professor at State Higher Vocational School in Tarnow (PWSZ TAR), Vice-Head Centre for Research on Higher Education of Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland), Anthony F. Camilleri, Policy Consultant and Project Manager at KIC-Malta (Malta), report by chair of the session, Armando Pires, President of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (Portugal), written input by Stefan Delplace, Secretary General of EURASHE (Belgium)

Perceptions of Professional Higher Education in Europe, Raimund Hudak, Professor at Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Mosbach (DHBW), CEO of Synesis GmbH (Germany), Nicole Graf, Head of the Heilbronn Campus and Vice-President of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Mosbach (Germany), report by chair of the session, Iva Voldánová, Project Manager & Coordinator at EURASHE (Belgium)

Implications of employers improves the attractiveness of the trainings and the career success of the students, Sandrine Javelaud, Head of mission on higher education and employability at Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF) (France)

Interdisciplinary doctoral study/Professional doctorates, Mladen Mauher, Professor at Polytechnic of Zagreb (TVZ) (Croatia), Nicolae Dură, former Vice-Rector of the ‘Ovidius’ University of Constanta (Romania)

Download the conference portfolio here.

 

Day 2 – Friday 10 May 2013

09.30 – Track II: Innovation – Higher Education and Innovation

Keynote speech

Making an Impact: Higher Education and/in the Knowledge Society, Ellen Hazelkorn, Vice-President for Research and Enterprise, Dean of the Graduate Research School of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) (Ireland)

Working sessions II

Benefits (?) of undergraduate student involvement in RDI projects and some selected highlights as examples, Mikael Paronen, Head of Department of Energy and Materials Technology at ARCADA University of Applied Sciences (Finland)

Indicators of valorization, Frank Ziegele, Director of CHE Centre for Higher Education (Germany)

The Synergy System – Building the Value Chain from Innovation to Enterprise Development, Pat Coman, Head of Research and Development at Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT Dublin) (Ireland)

Merging education and innovation – Croatian perspective, Mile Dželalija, Professor at the University of Split, Head of the team creating the Croatian Qualifications Framework (Croatia)

14.00 – Track III: Employability – Higher Education and Employability

Keynote speeches

Employability of Higher Education Graduates in Europe: Projects, Studies and Institutional Practice, Samo Pavlin, Assistant Professor at University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); and the Keynote Paper prepared by Samo Pavlin

Professionally-oriented Programmes in Canada – The Knowledge Triangle, Why and How it Works, Hervé Pilon, President of Cégep International, General Director of the Cégep André-Laurendeau (Canada)

Working sessions III

How can employability be ensured through continuous education and LLL activities – Quebec Case study, Hervé Pilon, President of Cégep International, General Director of the Cégep André-Laurendeau (Canada)

Co-operation between industry and higher education – an engine for improved employability and competitiveness, presentation by Mervi Karikorpi, Director at the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries in charge of science and education policy (Finland), presentation by Mislav Balković, President of SSC for ICT and electrical engineering (Croatia)

Integrating Key Competences into Post-Graduate Courses – achieving reform, Nigel Lloyd, Principal of Cambridge Professional Development Ltd (United Kingdom)

International students’ perspectives on employability in Europe, Norbert Šabić, Erasmus Mundus and OCEANS Alumni Association (Serbia)

17.15 – Final session

Final perspective from the Croatian viewpoint, Neven Budak, University of Zagreb (Croatia)

Closing observations by Richard Thorn, Senior Higher Education Policy Expert (Ireland)

Closing address by Andreas G. Orphanides, President of EURASHE, Rector of European University Cyprus (EUC) (Cyprus)

Download the conference portfolio here.

Higher Education – Making the Knowledge Triangle Work

The 23rd Annual Conference of EURASHE in 2013 comes at a moment when we are in a process of re-formulating our priorities, on the basis of our overarching policy paper ‘Towards a Diversified, Responsive and Competitive European Higher Education’, which was communicated to the Ministers of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) on the occasion of the Ministerial Conference in April 2012 in Bucharest (Romania). This comprehensive document outlines our position on priority areas which we are now in a position to help implement on the level of the individual institutions, members of EURASHE and other higher education institutions (HEIs) with professionally-oriented programmes.

In this Conference we focus on what we have identified as key features of the Knowledge Triangle, and what this entails for HEIs engaged in applied research and experimental developments. The 2012 Bucharest Ministerial Communiqué, which sets out the priorities in the countries of the EHEA for 2012-2015, under the impulse of EURASHE put forward as an action line on the institutional level to “encourage knowledge-based alliances in the EHEA, focusing on research and technology”.

EURASHE as the voice of professional higher education in the Bologna Process endeavours to carry out this action line, by linking EDUCATION, INNOVATION and EMPLOYABILITY in a KNOWLEDGE TRIANGLE in which professionally-oriented programmes play an important role. The Conference opens with a look at the above links of the KNOWLEDGE TRIANGLE on a systemic level, through the eyes of the hosting country Croatia, while taking into account the European Commission’s view on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), and we will be inspired by major political voices on the national and European levels. We will then go in details into each of the key features of the Knowledge Triangle. The three subsequent Conference tracks (with interactive workshops, roundtable sessions and panel discussions) will develop the three major themes, namely identifying professional higher education in the EHEA, creating knowledge in the institutions in close cooperation with stakeholders, and finally how to make this Knowledge Triangle work, for the benefit of institutions, students and graduates.

During the first track on day one in the plenary meetings we look at how different countries shape their EDUCATION policies and we are presented with issues like the comparison of European HE systems (with a specific input from the on-going HAPHE initiative on the mission and profile of professionally-oriented HEIs); the strategic frameworks for the development of professional higher education; and the professional and academic education in the binary system of higher education. On the second Conference day, the track on research and INNOVATION takes this forward on the institutional level, and examines with examples of good practice the implications for Universities of Applied Sciences of novel themes like entrepreneurship as a generic skill, experimental developments as a result of research, open access to research results and research data , knowledge transfer and student involvement in research and innovation, valorisation of multi-rank outputs, etc. Finally, the track on EMPLOYABILITY will explore the routes proposed in the European Commission’s communication ‘Rethinking Education’ on issues like employability in a lifelong learning context, recognition of prior learning, dual and work-based learning opportunities, employability of bachelors, development and roles of Career Centres.

The conference will, with the above themes, contribute to the discussions in the countries and stakeholder organisations on the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 policies. Horizon 2020 focuses on turning scientific breakthroughs into innovative products that provide opportunities for business and also for the wider society. The rationale behind this is that “Europe’s future economic growth and the employment of its citizens will depend on innovation in products, services and business models”. In Europe SMEs are still the major creators of jobs and therefore the existing gap between academia and the market must be bridged, thus stimulating the transfer of technology to SMEs. The rules of participation in Horizon 2020 rightly focus on three indicators: excellence, impact and implementation. If we want to realise the major goals of Horizon 2020, namely to foster innovation by transferring knowledge to the market and the wider community in the most efficient and useful way, impact and dissemination of results become equally important criteria as excellence.

It is however true that innovation needs a wider interpretation than to be seen as the logical step to commercial application. The whole spectrum of sciences (from engineering and technical sciences, medical and life sciences to the social sciences and arts and humanities) contribute to an innovative society. Only in this way can the ‘societal grand challenges’ be tackled. It is especially from the interdisciplinary perspective that the social sciences and humanities play an invaluable role in the innovation strategy. In the on-going reform processes of higher education society is best served through the involvement of broad groups of stakeholders, as EURASHE clearly stated in its message to the Bologna Ministers’ Conference in Bucharest (April 2012): “progress in each domain [the Bologna priorities] very much depended on the willingness of governments and stakeholders to reform higher education”.

Download the rationale here.

Conclusions and report

The Report of the Conference authored by Richard Thorn, Emeritus President of the Institute of Technology Sligo (Ireland) has now been published. It includes the summary of the various work sessions in the three different tracks and links education – innovation – employability into a knowledge triangle. You can also view the closing observations of Richard Thorn delivered at the end of the conference here.

View the Report here.

Four MEPs addressed a video message on the importance of the Knowledge Triangle and linked European Union initiatives and policies in current times.

Click here if the video is not appearing.

Following are the speakers of the event:

Following are the practicalities of the event:

Travel information

For more information on travel from and to Split airport and within Split, see our travel information sheet here. It also includes information on the location of the various meetings points for the social programme, and the relative location of the proposed hotels in Split.

 

Conference map

View EURASHE 23rd Annual Conference in Split (Croatia) in Google Maps here.

 

Conference location

The Venue of the Conference is the University of Split, Faculty of Medicine, Šoltanska 2. It is shown (in yellow) on the map above.

 

Suggested hotels

A selection of hotels in Split, for which participants, when booking their accommodation by mentioning EURASHE, will enjoy a reduced rate is shown (in red) on the map above. In blue are bus stops.

 

Organisers

Following is the material of the event:

•  2013 23rd Annual Conference: Evaluation summary (0.5 MB)
•  2013 23rd Annual Conference: Portfolio (1.8 MB)
•  2013 23rd Annual Conference: Programme (0.6 MB)
•  2013 23rd Annual Conference: Rationale (0.5 MB)
•  2013 23rd Annual Conference: Report - Higher Education - Making the Knowledge Triangle Work (10.6 MB)
•  Closing Address (0.4 MB)
•  Co-operation between industry and higher education – an engine for improved employability and competitiveness (6.0 MB)
•  Co-operation between industry and higher education – an engine for improved employability and competitiveness (2) (1.7 MB)
•  Croatia perspective of the Knowledge Triangle (0.5 MB)
•  Employability of Higher Education Graduates in Europe: Projects, Studies and Institutional Practice (1.4 MB)
•  Employability of Higher Education Graduates in Europe: Projects, Studies and Institutional Practice - Keynote Paper (0.1 MB)
•  Higher education in Croatia – new challenges (0.8 MB)
•  Higher Education Making the Knowledge Triangle Work - Closing Observations (1.1 MB)
•  Implication of employers improves the attractiveness of the trainings and the career success of the students (0.4 MB)
•  Indicators of valorisation (0.6 MB)
•  Integrating Key Competences into Post-Graduate Courses – achieving reform - PROPOUND Project (0.6 MB)
•  International students’ perspectives on employability in Europe (1.8 MB)
•  Introduction to the theme Professional Higher Education (0.6 MB)
•  Making an Impact: Higher Education and/in the Knowledge Society (1.4 MB)
•  Mapping and Characterising PHE in Europe (0.5 MB)
•  Mapping and characterising PHE in Europe - Report (0.3 MB)
•  Merging education and innovation – Croatian perspective (0.4 MB)
•  Opening Address (0.4 MB)
•  Perceptions of Professional Higher Education in Europe (0.8 MB)
•  Perceptions of Professional Higher Education in Europe - Report (0.7 MB)
•  Professional Higher Education in Europe: Towards an emerging model?! (1.4 MB)
•  Professionnaly-oriented Programmes in Canada The Knowledge Triangle, Why and How it Works (3.9 MB)
•  Profiles and differentiation of the higher education landscape and the role of U-Multirank (2.1 MB)
•  Public engagement as integral part of the innovation ecosystem (2.9 MB)
•  The Concept and The Initiative for E-Government Doctoral Study (2.0 MB)
•  The Synergy System – Building the Value Chain from Innovation to Enterprise Development (5.2 MB)

Following are the photographs of the event: