This group of 11 dedicated actors in the field of Professional Higher Education in Europe believe that while the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has contributed significantly to harmonisation of HE in Europe, the ‘Professional’ Higher Education sector is still in significant flux. Thus, e.g. ‘Fachhochschule’ are increasingly becoming Universities of applied Sciences while traditional universities are increasingly providing professionally orientated programmes. The wide variety of systems which now fall under the umbrella term of ‘Professional’ HE, makes it difficult to transnationally analyse this sector, hinders recognition of qualifications, and limits the ability of soft-policy tools to strengthen its growth.

To address this issue, the HAPHE group intends, to bring together a group of field experts, who, through a wide consultation with stakeholders from education, business and society, will harmonise approaches to professional higher education (predominantly at European Qualifications Framework (EQF) level 6 and above) throughout Europe, by:

• Surveying the different approaches to PHE provision throughout EU-member states;
• Setting out the defining characteristics of a ‘professional’ Higher Education programme;
• Proposing a set of quality criteria which contribute towards the best-case fulfilment of those characteristics;
• Collecting and sharing best practice on how institutions can adopt the criteria;
• Suggesting indicators and quantification methodologies to allow comparison of PHE in the context of overall HE and LLL provision.

The involvement of stakeholders in all stages (research, design, valorisation), will ensure the group’s ability to provide sustainable results by creating a critical mass of consensus, to allow the de-facto adoption of the proposals as a standard.

By strengthening the PHE sector, and improving the transparency of PHE provision, the group wishes to enhance employability of European HE as a whole, to contribute towards a more cohesive Higher Education Area, and to support the modernisation of European HEIs, through encouragement of increasing responsiveness to enterprise and society.

Following are EURASHE news items related to the project:

Following are events related to the project:

Following are documents in EURASHE’s library that are related to the project:

•  Diversity of Professional Higher Education in Europe / HAPHE project outcomes (0.8 MB)
•  HAPHE General Introduction (0.7 MB)
•  HAPHE project context (3.7 MB)
•  Introduction to the theme Professional Higher Education (0.6 MB)
•  Mapping and Characterising PHE in Europe (0.5 MB)
•  Mapping and characterising PHE in Europe - Report (0.3 MB)
•  Perceptions of Professional Higher Education in Europe (0.8 MB)
•  Perceptions of Professional Higher Education in Europe - Report (0.7 MB)
•  PHE Definition and Characteristics Framework (2.2 MB)
•  Professional Higher Education in Europe: Characteristics, Practice examples and National differences (1.2 MB)
•  Professional Higher Education in Europe: Characteristics, Practice examples and National differences (1.2 MB)
•  Professional Higher Education in Europe: state of the art and emerging trends (0.6 MB)
•  Professional Higher Education in Europe: Towards an emerging model?! (1.4 MB)
•  Profiling and Quality Assuring Professional Higher Education (1.6 MB)
•  Profiling and Quality Assuring Professional Higher Education (1.7 MB)
•  Roadmap for succesful harmonisation of professional higher education in Europe - General Conference Report (2.1 MB)

Following are the partners of the project:

 

Following are experts involved in the project: