Please, download the full rationale for the conference here.

The concept of sustainable development, which is fundamental for the European Union, is based on a large holistic approach to a whole range of interlinked global challenges. The Union, represented by the European Commission has been instrumental for the preparation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, adopted by United Nations in 2015. In 2017 Member States reached the new European Consensus on Development “Our world, our future, our dignity” which set up the framework for the EU response to Agenda 2030. The suitable development will be also in the heart of the political agenda for the next European Commission (2019-2024). The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) plot out a route on how to overcome the challenges we face, and to improve our habitat, our economy and our lives. They will shape all EU internal and external policies and steer the implementation of the next seven-year EU budget.

It is amply acknowledged that the achievement of the SDGs will not be possible without education, and not the latest Professional Higher education (hereafter –PHE), significant involvement in the cause. Thus, five years after the setting out of Agenda 2030, it is important to analyse the experience accumulated and to draw the way forward.

The conference will be structured along the five pillars of Agenda 2030: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships.

1. PEOPLE: Global demographic growth and demographic shifts, combined with economic, social and environmental changes, offer opportunities for and pose serious challenges to sustainable development. This includes responding adequately to the educational needs of young people, supporting inclusive lifelong learning and equitable quality education to all, tackling discriminations and inequalities, with special attention to those who are in disadvantaged or vulnerable situations.
2. PLANET: Protecting the environment, managing natural resources and tackling climate change. This includes a transition from a linear to a circular bio-economy; sustainability from farm to fork, making innovative, healthy and environment-friendly food production one of our key European trademarks; future-proof energy, buildings and mobility.
3. PROSPERITY: Creating decent jobs for inclusive and sustainable growth. This includes equipping students with the right set of competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) for the fast-changing labour markets, encouraging entrepreneurship, strengthening interaction with the world of work, turning results of research into new marketable products and services.
4. PEACE: Peaceful and inclusive societies, democracy, effective and accountable institutions, rule of law and human rights for all. This includes the development of civic and democratic competencies, the role of culture as an enabler for social inclusion, civil empowerment and conflict prevention, the promotion of intercultural dialogue, cooperation and cultural diversity.
5. PARTNERSHIP(S): Joining forces for making greater and faster progress: This includes the whole range of relations and interactions of PHE institutions with external stakeholders, public and private, in particular policymakers and businesses (industry and SMEs), at regional, national and international level.

The purpose of the conference is to build up a set of Specific Recommendations and discuss a potential Action Plan for their implementation by professional higher education and its stakeholders over the next years.

Please find below the draft programme of the Conference, which is being updated on a daily basis.

All times are indicated in CEST.

Thursday 20 May 2021 | Professional Higher Education (PHE) and sustainability
10.00-10.10	Welcome and introduction of the day by the moderator
10.10-10.25	Welcome words by Prof. Manuel Heitor, Portuguese Minister for Research and Higher Education
10.25-11.10	Welcoming panel discussion. Future perspectives of Professional Higher Education Stéphane Lauwick, President of EURASHE Pedro Dominguinhos, President of the Portuguese Polytechnics Coordinating Council João Rocha, President of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto Tiago Diniz, President of Federação Nacional de Associações de Estudantes do Ensino Superior Politécnico
11.10-11.20	Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth (video message)
11.20-11.30	Coffee break
11.30-12.15	Keynote speech by Anita Lehikoinen, Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland
12.15-13.15	Networking lunch			Projects’ poster presentations
13.15-14.00	Panel discussion on European Universities initiative Vanessa Debiais-Sainton, Head of the Unit in charge of Higher Education policies and programme, European Commission Jakub Grodecki, Vice-President, European Students’ Union (ESU) Karl Dittrich, President, European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) Nuno Rodrigues, Vice-President for Research, Polytechnic of Leiria and Coordinator of the Regional University Network – European University (RUN-EU)
14.00-15.00	Parallel interactive sessions
	People	Planet	Prosperity	Peace	Partnerships
	Good practice Katalin Szondy St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences Recognition of Prior Learning along SDG 10 @St. Pölten UAS	Good practice Luís Coelho Polytechnic Institute of Setubal The TESSe2b project: producing results to help deliver the European Green Deal	Good practice Luís Miguel Pinho  Polytechnic Institute of Porto Paradigm shift in Collaborative Research and Innovation: the case of PORTIC at P.PORTO	Breakout session TBC	Breakout session Denise Amyot Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) Canada’s SDG story – the potential of higher education at home and abroad
	Good practice Birgitte Woge VIA University College How to implement the 17 SDG in 40 educations	Good practice Lies Verstraete and Tine Ternest VIVES University of Applied Sciences Global Engagement in Higher Education – an inspirational framework	Proposition for a Policy Synthesis Dimitri Corpakis and Richard Tuffs Friends of Smart Specialisation  EU Transformation Frameworks for Recovery and Resilience
15.00-15.45	Cultural programme offered by the Polytechnic Institute of Porto
15:45-17:00	Panel discussion. Maximising PHE potential in European Research and Education area: ambitions for the sustainability driven future Anna Panagopoulou, Acting Director, Research and innovation outreach, DG RTD, European Commission Hilligje van’t Land, Secretary General, International Association of Universi-ties (IAU) Ana Tecilazić, Secretary General, Algebra University College, Croatia TBC The discussion will be moderated by Richard Thorn, Chair, An Bord, National College of Art and Design, President Emeritus, Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland
17.00-17.30	Wrap up of the day and presentation of the Conference’s second day

 

Friday 21 May 2021 | Driving the smart and sustainable economic recovery of regions
10.00-10.10	Welcome and introduction of the day by the moderator
10.10-10.45	Keynote speech by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms
10.45-11.45	Keynote speech by Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Co-President, Club of Rome
11.45-12.00	Coffee break
12.00-13.00	Parallel interactive sessions
	People	Planet	Prosperity	Peace	Partnerships
	Good practice Vahram Soghomonyan and Gohar Avetisyan European University Armenia European University Armenia (EUA) Good Practice of Establishing Knowledge Triangle and Innovation	Breakout session André Francisco Pilon University of São Paulo Creating a Change that Endures: An Ecosystemic Approach to the problems of our time	Breakout session Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and Laura Eigbrecht Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Karlsruhe Reaching the sustainable development goals – a matter of future skills	Breakout session Pedro Dominguinhos, Vera Ferro Lebres, Susana Rodrigues and Ville Kairamo Co-creation innovation Portugal – Preparing the future together for a better society	Good practice Ulla Preeden and Ülle Ernits Tartu Health Care College Professional higher education 2035 (in Estonia)
	Good practice Marek Frankowicz and Stefan Ignar Jagiellonian University Sustainable Networking of Sustainability Related Initiatives: SUSIMPACT Case Study				Good practice Gabriele Permoser and Hannes Raffaseder St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences Collaborative Innovation – Higher Education Institutions as driver for smart regions
13.00-14.00	Networking lunch			Projects’ poster presentations
14:00-15:30	Panel discussion. Professional higher education for smart and sustainable recovery Maria da Graça Carvalho, Member of the European Parliament Jon Altuna, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Mondragon University, Spain Jiří Nantl, Deputy Governor, South Moravia Region, Czech Republic New EURASHE President (to be elected on 19 May 2021) The discussion will be moderated by Joseph Ryan, CEO, Technological Higher Educa-tion Association (THEA), Ireland
15.30-16.00	Cultural programme offered by the Polytechnic Institute of Porto
16.00-16.30	Take away from the Conference
16.30-17.00	Closing the Conference and announcing the Annual Conference 2022

Following are the keynote speakers of the event:

Following are the speakers of the panel discussions:

Following are the speakers of the interactive sessions:

Following are the moderators of the event:

Registration is now open until Friday 14 May 2021! REGISTER HERE.

During these first two weeks, both members and non-members of EURASHE can register for the Annual Conference for free.
Virtual seats for early bird registration are limited and EURASHE reserves the right of closing the early bird registration earlier if all the available spots are taken.

From 5 April or after the available seats have run out, a EUR 50 fee will be applied for non-members of EURASHE.

Please consult the calendar of registration below:

Type of registration	When	EURASHE Members	Non-members of EURASHE
Early bird registration (limited virtual seats)	22 March – 4 April	Free	Free
Normal registration	5 April – 14 May	Free	EUR 50

Confirmation

The receipt of the registration will be confirmed by email (please check your spam folder if the automatic email is not received). However, please note that your registration will only be finalised by a separate email, where further instruction on how to access the virtual event platform will be given.

EURASHE will reserve the rights to decline registrations in order to respect an equal representation of institutions and countries.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Secretariat at annual-conference@eurashe.eu.

Portuguese Polytechnics Coordinating Council (CCISP)

 

 

 

 

Polytechnic Institute of Porto

 

 

 

With the support of Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union

 

 

 

 

The Annual Conference online platform will be online on Thursday 6 May 2021. 

Even in its virtual setting, EURASHE 30th Annual Conference is designed to be a place of sharing, exchange and discussions. This will be made possible by a virtual event platform that offers different networking opportunities for the Conference participants, among them:

• Possibility of creating an “attendee profile”;
• Contact, chat and fix one-on-one private meetings with other attendees within the Conference platform;
• Actively engage during the different sessions through the chat and Q&A tools.

Practical instructions on how to take advantage of all the networking opportunities offered by the virtual event platform will be sent to participants prior to the Conference.

Call for contributions is now closed

Rationale

The concept of sustainable development, which is fundamental for the European Union, is based on a large holistic approach to a whole range of interlinked global challenges. The Union, represented by the European Commission has been instrumental for the preparation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations in 2015. In 2017 Member States reached the new European Consensus on Development “Our world, our future, our dignity” which set up the framework for the EU response to Agenda 2030. The suitable development will be also in the heart of the political agenda for the next European Commission (2019-2024). The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) plot out a route on how to overcome the challenges we face, and to improve our habitat, our economy and our lives. They will shape all EU internal and external policies and steer the implementation of the next seven-year EU budget.

It is amply acknowledged that the achievement of the SDGs will not be possible without education, and not the latest Professional Higher education (hereafter –PHE), significant involvement in the cause. Thus, five years after the setting out of Agenda 2030, it is important to analyse the experience accumulated and to draw the way forward.

The conference will be structured along the five pillars of Agenda 2030: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships.

The purpose of the conference is to build up a set of Specific Recommendations and discuss a potential Action Plan for their implementation by professional higher education and its stakeholders over the next years. The conference will also be the occasion to celebrate EURASHE’s 30th anniversary.

Structure and concept for contribution

We expect contributions from practitioners from higher education institutions and relevant stakeholders from the field, including companies, students, national authorities, civil society organisations, NGOs, quality assurance agencies and other organisations which would correspond to one of the 5 pillars of the Agenda 2030 (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, Partnerships) 

For each one of these pillars, we will look at:

• PHE Institutional policies and culture;
• Teaching, training and learning methods and practices;
• Research and Innovation activities;
• Students’ engagement;
• Serving the community needs.

Even in its virtual setting, EURASHE’s annual conference is an excellent opportunity to present current practice or research and test new ideas, elicit feedback from colleagues and stakeholders, and engage with all participants. 

EURASHE welcomes three types of contributions:

1. Breakout sessions: 

2. Good practice examples:
   

Participants will be free to select which session they decide to attend based on the title and abstract of the submissions. Contributors are encouraged to pay specific attention to the title and abstract of their submission which must be concise, informative and accurate. Titles and abstracts (and biographies) may be edited by the organisers as required.

The following experts nominated by EURASHE will evaluate the submissions:

1. Thomas Berger, EU-Liaison and international relations officer, Hochschule Fulda University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
2. Mariana Ivanova,Vice-Rector for Educational activities and International cooperation, University of Agribusiness and Rural Development (Bulgaria)
3. Themis Kaniklidou, Assistant Director of the PhD program, Hellenic American College (Greece)
4. Hannes Raffaseder, ‎Chief Research and Innovation Officer, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (Austria)
5. Roosa Veijola, European Policy Advisor, SAMOK University of Applied Sciences (Finland)

All submissions will be reviewed separately by two reviewers. When allocating submissions for review, attention is paid to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

Benefits

Presenting at EURASHE’s annual conference allows to reach a wide audience and will give you visibility prior to and during the Conference. In addition, a fee waiver will be provided per contribution.

Evaluation criteria

Each submission will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• The submission corresponds to the theme of the conference;
• The submission is clearly focused and will be of interest to participants;
• The submission strives to involve participants and its organisation is credible/feasible;
• The submission is critical and reflective and allows participants to reflect on successes and challenges (if applicable).