EURASHE organised a Seminar on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) titled ‘Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): Flexible Ties within Higher Education‘ in Prague (Czech Republic) on 14 December 2012. It is organised by EURASHE, the European RPL Network (ERPLN), the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MŠMT) and the Czech Association of Schools of Professional Higher Education (CASPHE). Underneath are further information on:
(Photograph: CC by-nc-sa by Edgar Barany C)


Day 0 – Thursday 13 December 2012
14.00 – ERPLN meeting
17.00 – Break
18.00 – Welcome Reception
Jiří Nantl, First Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports (Czech Republic)
Raul Ranne, Chair of the European RPL Network (Estonia)
Michal Karpíšek, EURASHE Vice-President (Czech Republic)
Day 1 – Friday 14 December 2012
08.30 – Registration of participants
09.00 – Welcome and Opening Session
Jiří Nantl, First Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports (Czech Republic)
Michal Karpíšek, EURASHE Vice-President (Czech Republic)
09.30 – Plenary Session I: The Mindshift to make RPL a reality in particular drivers and motives of different stakeholders
Overview of RPL’s Role and Position within the EHEA, Raul Ranne, chair of the European RPL Network (Estonia)
10.00 – Panel Discussion and Plenary Discussion
Miroslav Jašurek, ESU (Czech Republic), Frits Schormans, Noord Limburg Police (Netherlands), Michal Kadera, SKODA Auto (Czech Republic), Hans Daale, Leido, EURASHE (Netherlands), Facilitated by Tim Burton, QAA (United Kingdom)
11.00 – Coffee break
11.20 – Parallel Workshops I: RPL Institutional Experience
Workshop 1: Irish Institutional presentation of RPL: Oran Doherty, Work Based Learning (WBL) and RPL Facilitator IT Letterkenny (Ireland), Comments by Frits Schormans, Noord Limburg Police (Netherlands) and Alice Gorissen-Pisters, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)
Workshop 2: RPL in French Universities: Institutional Mindshifts: Stéphane Lauwick, Director Le Havre University Institute of Technology (IUT), ADIUT Member, EURASHE Board Member (France), Comments by Sylvie Bonichon, La Providence Institution (France) and Dorota Piotrowska, Lodz University of Technology (Poland)
12.20 – Reports from the Workshops I
12.30 – Lunch
13.20 – Plenary Session II: How to embed RPL into the QA system and its effectiveness
Key issues in RPL from the QA view, Patrick Leushuis, Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands)
The relevance of UNESCO Guidelines on RVA of the Outcomes of Non-formal and Informal Learning to higher education, Jin Yang, UNESCO Institute for LLLL, Hamburg (Germany)
14.20 – Coffee break
14.40 – Parallel Workshops II: Quality Assurance and RPL
Workshop 3: Kristien Carnel, Leuven University College KHLeuven (Belgium)
Workshop 4: Quality Assurance and RPL: Developing a National HE Framework for Recognising Prior informal Learning in Scotland, Heather Gibson, QAA Scotland, Ruth Whittaker, Glasgow Caledonian University (United Kingdom)
15.40 – Workshop II Findings and Plenary Discussion
16.00 – Seminar Report and Conclusions
Rapporteur: Věra Šťastná, Charles University, BFUG delegate (Czech Republic)
16.30 – End of the Seminar
18.30 – Optional social programme
Brief (about 1hr) Boat tour through Prague’s City Centre with a guide and drinks (extra fee)
Read the Programme here. Download the Portfolio here.
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in Higher Education has been one of the issues within the Bologna Process debates for the last years. The topic received full attention and support within the Ministers’ Communiqué “Making the Most of Our Potential: Consolidating the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)” in Bucharest (Romania) in April 2012. The theme of RPL is invevitably linked to qualifications, combination of knowledge, skilss and competences, lifelong learning. Due to societal and technological developments, both in private and public sectors, Higher Education systems will have to accommodate a growing proportion of adult learners, allow more flexibility in Higher Education provisions, in lifelong learning and in professional programmes.
Therefore the development of modern tools of recognition of any prior knowledge, skills and competences and their mutual acceptance within the EHEA, learning about different approaches and bridging them may be of great importance for further compatibility and transparency of different national systems. An improvement of the RPL-procedures with the purpose to make them first of all payable, trustable and effective is key at this stage.
The overarching thematic of the Seminar was “RPL: Flexible Ties within Higher Education”. This Seminar aimed at providing participants with an overview of general developments as regards RPL, with the opportunity to discuss the current challenges and to learn from the examples of best practices regarding RPL implementation at institutional level, through the 4 different workshops scheduled throughout the Seminar.
Two major areas of discussions dealt with:
- The Mindshift to make RPL a reality in particular drivers and motives of different stakeholders, and
- How to embed RPL into the QA system, and its effectiveness
Conclusions
EURASHE is pleased to present the Report of the Seminar compiled by Věra Šťastná, General Rapporteur of the Seminar and Czech Republic Representative in the BFUG.
It summarises the points of the discussions and debates, as well as provides the conclusions and recommendations of participants to make RPL a reality.
Download the Report of the Seminar here.

















Organisers




- 2012 Seminar RPL: Evaluation summary (0.3 MB)
- 2012 Seminar RPL: Portfolio (1.3 MB)
- 2012 Seminar RPL: Programme (0.4 MB)
- 2012 Seminar RPL: Programme - CZ (0.3 MB)
- 2012 Seminar RPL: Rationale (0.3 MB)
- 2012 Seminar RPL: Report - RPL: flexible ties within higher education (2.8 MB)
- EURASHE Seminar on RPL: Flexible Ties within HE - Conclusions (0.3 MB)
- EURASHE: Supporting European Professional Higher Education (0.7 MB)
- Key Issues in RPL from the QA View (0.4 MB)
- Life Long Learning @ Zuyd (0.6 MB)
- New impulse for RPL? (0.5 MB)
- Overview of RPL’s Role and Position within the EHEA (0.3 MB)
- Quality Assurance and RPL : Developing a National RPL Framework for Higher Education in Scotland (0.8 MB)
- Quality Assurance and RPL at national and institutional levels: an example from Ireland (0.5 MB)
- Quality assurance in the accreditation of prior experienced learning (APEL/RPL) (1.7 MB)
- Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in French Universities: Institutional Mindshifts (0.6 MB)
- Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in French Universities: Reflections and lessons… (0.9 MB)
- RPL at Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) (0.5 MB)
- RPL Cooperation (0.2 MB)
- The French VAE (0.2 MB)
- The relevance of UNESCO Guidelines on RVA of the Outcomes of Non-formal and Informal Learning to higher education (5.6 MB)