Publications

The UASiMAP project has developed a framework for self-assessment and benchmarking that is presented in a Flagship Report.

EURASHE 32nd Annual Conference Additional Information

European higher education institutions need to modernise their governance and train their leaders
to operate in increasingly complex sets of interactions at the institutional, regional, national and
European level. European policies call for universities to play a strong role in the Lisbon Agenda and
in making Europe a strong knowledge-based economy. Although the need to train university leaders
is so obvious, the supply of management support to higher education institutions, their leaders and
managers is highly fragmented in Europe.

Quality assurance in higher education was until relativelyrecently an
implicit activity. measured but could be recognized by academics when
andwhere it existed were prevalent. However, over the last two decades, a
number of factors have combined to challenge traditional views about
quality in higher education and how it is assured. These factors have
been elaborated by many commentators – individuals and organizations
such as UNESCO and the World Bank – and have led to the making of
quality assurance in higher education “a central objective of
governmental policies and an important steering mechanism in higher
education systems worldwide”

Quality assurance is so omnipresent and its vocabulary so pervasive nowadays in higher education policy
and discourse that one forgets how relatively recent the enthronement of the term “quality” actually is.
Hence, before embarking on an attempt to trace the key paths and challenges which quality assurance will
be facing in the years to come, it may be helpful to put the concern with assuring quality in higher
education into context. This should not just be a historical exercise, of course, but should also serve to
emphasise that quality development in higher education is a great deal more than the formal quality
assurance processes that policymakers like to focus upon when they speak about quality in higher education.
Clearly, quality enhancement is the sum of many methods of institutional development, ranging from
competitive hiring procedures, creating appropriate funding opportunities, to facilitating communication
between disciplines and supporting innovative initiatives through institutional incentives.

The VALERA project (VALERA = Value of ERASMUS Mobility) aims to establish
the impact of mobility within the ERASMUS sub-programme of SOCRATES on the
mobile students’ and teachers’ careers. For this purpose, representative surveys were
undertaken of formerly mobile ERASMUS students and formerly mobile ERASMUS
teachers. In addition, university leaders were asked to assess the role of student and
teacher mobility at their institution, and employers were requested to report about the
experience with formerly mobile students. Moreover, a broad range of actors and
experts stated their perceptions of the impact of ERASMUS mobility in an expert
survey and in discussions during general and field-specific seminars.

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a tool of the
European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for making studies and courses more
transparent and thus helping to enhance the quality of higher education.

With pleasure we present an overview of recent publications by professor (lector) in
internationalisation of education, Hans de Wit, from the School of Economics and Management of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences. This overview includes his complete Public Lecture, titled: Law of the Stimulative Arrears? Internationalisation of the Universities of Applied Sciences, Challenges and Misconceptions,
held on April 6, 2011.
This selection of articles published in recent years by Hans de Wit, both as author
and co-author, in international books and journals provides an overview of conceptual
thinking and trends, challenges and misconceptions with respect to internationalisation
of higher education, all main topics expressed in Hans de Wit’s Public Lecture. This
publication, together with the school’s research programme and the international symposium (including the proceedings) organised by Hans de Wit’s research group on the
occasion of the public lecture, illustrate how the School of Economics and Management
and its Research Centre, the Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management
(CAREM), implement internationalisation as a key strategic dimension both in teaching
and in research.

The Caribbean Region is commonly defined as an area of 24 island countries plus 4 mainland countries
maintaining close ties with the Caribbean islands (Guyana, Belize, Surinam and French Guyanne). The 28
countries represent a total population of 40 million, covering a total area of 727,000 km2 and share a
common geographic and climatic area as well as a complex cultural background where commonalities
and specificities are equally important.

A controversial topic in higher education today revolves around the enormous
growth of distance education (Novak, 2002; Meyer, 2002). According to Mehrotra,
Hollister, and McGahey (2001), “distance learning, or distance education, is not a future
possibility for which higher education must prepare, it is a current reality creating
opportunities and challenges for educational institutions; a reality offering students
expanded choices in where, when, how, and from whom they learn; a reality making
education accessible to ever larger numbers of persons” (p. ix).
Interest in the concept of distance education has grabbed the attention of
university and college administrators, faculty, and other professionals all over the world
(Willis, 1994; Birnbaum, 2001; Moore, 2003). A myriad of questions, concerns, and
opinions from professionals in these university and college settings regarding the topic of
distance education has bombarded the literature base. What is distance education?
Where is it going? What types of technology should be used? What is the market? What
type of support does distance education need from administration/faculty? What types of
incentives are needed for faculty to be interested? What are the differences in traditional,
on-campus courses versus coursed delivered via distance education?

Increasing globalisation imposes a constant necessity to change, to evolve and to adapt. Higher education
(HE) in this process, demonstrably at the apex of technological progress and the development of new ideas,
is a key contributor. In being open towards universal values and in building transnational HE communities
which encompass people from various cultural backgrounds, is indispensable for the building of a creative
and responsive society. Adaptability is key to the new “Conceptual Age”, an age of creativity and innovation,
acknowledged by David Pink (“A Whole New Mind”), which demands a new reaction in HE towards sharpening
its effectiveness and in the preparation of societies to participate in an increasingly diverse world, in which
flexibility is becoming a pre-eminent skill.

Europe is facing various socio-economic challenges. The solutions lie in the promotion of a wider concept of employability, in flexibility, relevance and openness of education systems.

Many of the VET policy initiatives have 2020 as a policy horizon. The European Commission is forward looking in developing both an evaluation and a new direction for VET policy at the European level. As VET providers’ associations cooperating in VET4EU2 we outline our contribution to this policy development process.

Europe needs more and stronger involvement of the universities of applied sciences (UAS) in applied research and innovation. This conclusion is unavoidable if we look at the European objectives in the area of innovation and growth. The impact of the European challenge-based approach to research must be increased. The potential impact of UAS at the European level has not been fully utilised. In this position paper we will argue that Europe as a whole will benefit from realising this potential further and by focusing on the role of UAS as connectors, that is, connectors linking citizens, companies (especially SMEs) and public institutions.

Pre-eminently, the development of a European knowledge area is crucial in our wish to sustain, and further develop, the welfare and prosperity of European citizens. The development of new economic powers (BRICcountries and others) in the face of diminishing natural resources, drives Europe towards its most powerful resources, which are knowledge, and the power to innovate. As the systems of production and processing of goods are moving towards other parts of the world, Europe is seeking for a new and intensified role as a technical innovator at various levels of input, performance and outcome.

During the 1990s, following the rise of international markets and informatics in the preceding decade, fundamental world-wide economic shifts occurred. These changes can be summarised in terms of globalisation, individualisation, digitalisation and the information boom. The economic and financial crisis of the 2000s has not only deepened and hastened these changes, but also set new challenges to the world, in terms of restructuring the knowledge society through creativity and innovation and specifically the formulating of new responses to climate change, issues concerning immigration as well as attempts to address the widening gap between rich and poor.

The Bologna process embodies QA both as a means to ensure/measure and to improve the quality of European higher education.
EURASHE firmly believes in the necessity of QA, comprising internal & external QA, and accreditation, as interlinked processes.
There is an intensified European discussion on QA, which is justly placed within the Bologna process, since it is a declaration to affirm the
quality of EHEA.

ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE and EQAR were part of the stakeholder group drafting the Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG).

The degree of implementation of both the European Qualifications Framework and the National Qualifications Framework varies from one country to another, ranging from total lack of implementation to partial or full implementation.

The European Commission organised a consultation on the Modernisation Agenda for Higher Education in Europe. EURASHE, as one of the main stakeholders in higher education at the European level, took part in the consultation through its membership. Our position paper reports on the consultation exercise. It focuses on cross-validating the guiding principles for policy and action within the ET 2020 Agenda.

The present study represents a follow-up of the report published by EURASHE in January 2009, entitled “Lifelong Learning: Impediments and examples of good practice”. This previous research study focused in detail on a number of general aspects concerning the implementation of lifelong learning at European level: the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), Employability and Lifelong Learning Strategies. While the present study is based on these previous findings, it adopts, however, a new approach. It will focus less on the development of lifelong learning at policy-making level, being instead, orientated towards its implementation within professional higher education institutions.

Chapter 1 starts out with a short historical view on “academisation” and “professionalisation,” illustrating how much professional higher education (PHE) in Europe has been in flux in the past years. With examples from France and Ireland, the chapter argues how a new spectrum of missions, differences in national organisation of PHE and a variety of denominations for PHE providers and programmes has slowed down a shared understanding of what PHE commonly characterises.

 Microcredentials may provide opportunities for reaching better the existing target groups, attract learners from less traditional cohorts and strengthen links to alumni.

UAS4EUROPE believes it is essential to invest in the mobility, training and career development of researchers.

This document lays down the views of UAS4EUROPE on the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. UAS4EUROPE is a networking platform launched on 31 May 2016 to act as the voice of Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the field of applied research and innovation. Our ideas for cooperation with the European Commission were identified in our first position paper on ‘Smart Partnerships for Regional Impact’1 . UAS4EUROPE represents UAS which have been strongly involved in European research and innovation programmes since FP7. UAS4EUROPE would like to take the opportunity to share our opinion re

To ensure that European Universities Networks do not become silos or closed clubs, UAS4EUROPE encourages the European Commission (EC) to foster the creation of networks composed of institutions with different profiles, covering all three areas of education, research and innovation.

In my capacity of President of EURASHE, it is my pleasure to share with you the diverse activities and initiatives of the European Association of Institutions of Higher Education which took place in 2011. For those who are familiar with EURASHE, they know how we are evolving from a stakeholders organisation for professional higher education mainly active in the implementation of the Bologna Process into a truly members’ association. As such we are expanding continually our field with more direct services to members, which are individual higher education institutions with profiles that are growing more and more diverse. The areas in which we have offered such support were so far limited to the hands-on seminars on development in lifelong learning and projects on the same theme, in which we also took due care to involve some national associations which are members of EURASHE.

2013 was for the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE) a year of both consolidation and expansion of our
association. In line with our policy of opening up our network to individual membership of institutions of higher education, we accepted as full or associate members 14 institutions and organisations, spanning the whole European Higher Education Area, of which 10 are individual institutions of higher education, ranging from research universities (with professionally oriented programmes) to specialised colleges, all offering professionoriented higher education from Bachelor’s level onwards.

2014 was for the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE) a year of both consolidation and expansion of our association. In line with our policy of opening up our network to individual membership of institutions of higher education, we accepted as full or associate members 6 institutions and organisations, spanning the whole European Higher Education Area (EHEA), ranging from research universities (with professionallyorientated programmes) to specialised colleges, all offering profession-orientated higher education from Bachelor’s level onwards.”

Our forebears and we have ceaselessly put forward our belief that our brand of higher education carried strength and potential. Over the years, we have gradually been recognised as major players in higher education. We have taken the lead in quality assurance initiatives, we have contributed
to excellence in teaching and learning and in the last few months, UAS4EUROPE, our consortium for information and advocacy, has been able to federate action in applied research.”

We are developing innovative and hands-on projects in line to our priorities and in response to the challenges facing European higher education. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines (applied) research and policy development with concrete initiatives. EURASHE also
contributes to projects through consultative, advisory and stakeholder boards.

The 2012 Annual Report of the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE), which I am sharing with you, is again a document that bears witness of an organisation that is continually developing as a stakeholders’ organisation with a broad range of higher education institutions and programmes of study that profess themselves as professionally oriented.

“We are developing innovative and hands-on projects in line with our strategy and in response to the challenges facing European higher education. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines (applied) research and policy development with concrete initiatives. EURASHE also contributes to projects through consultative, advisory and stakeholder boards.”

At EURASHE we care about our members’ opinion and engagement in all our activities, that’s why in 2019 we did a survey with the aim of learning more about their preferences and needs, to be able to offer them inspiring events and activities and up-to-date information on project opportunities and on policy development at the European level.