By Marielk. In this guest entry, Jeremy K. Knox from University of Edinburgh examines the current open education resources (OER) and MOOC trends and some of the competing assumptions behind these developments. Furthermore, he highlights two important considerations this can have for educational research in the future. Jeremy K. Knox is currently working towards his doctoral degree at University of Edinburgh at the Moray House School of Education. His research interests are focused on critical posthumanism, and the relationship between current educational epistemologies and methodologies of educational research and digital culture. Check also his personal blog where he writes about technology, culture and learning. 
‘Open education’ has emerged as a loosely defined, but influential theme in higher education, shaping institutional strategies and prompting major international policy. Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have surfaced at the vanguard of a movement that appears to be establishing itself around a call for widespread institutional transformation, driven by new digital technologies and premised on the idea that higher education is in ‘crisis’.
However, while gaining considerable influence, the idea of ‘open education’ remains significantly under-theorised, and themes of economic benefit, teaching efficiency and learner emancipation are tending to dominate the discussion. While important, these interpretations overshadow considerations of the ways that OERs and MOOCs are involved in shaping the learning subject. In other words, how is the practicing of open education implicated in the formulation of particular ideas about what it is to be human, and what does this mean for the project of education? Read more...

By Marielk. The EU has for some time through various policy instruments getting increasingly involved in higher education across Europe. Initial progress through the Bologna Process has been followed up with activities such as the new multidimensional ranking – U-Multirank as well as an European Qualifications Framework. Amongst else this resulted in September 2012 in the creation of a high level group on modernisation of higher education that had a specific focus on quality and excellence in teaching, in accordance with the general Modernisation Agenda for Higher Education the Commission has been promoting. Read more...

By Marielk. This week, the European University Association (EUA) published a new report on the issue of funding of higher education in Europe in the context of crisis, following up on the previous report from June 2012 that identified that the countries which had suffered most from cuts in public funding were to a large extent located in Eastern and Southern Europe. The news release from the 2013 report highlights that out of the 17 countries that had reported data on funding developments the changes in the last year show that in a number of countries the public budgets are now on the increase. Read more...

By Marielk. We are pleased to share yet another session from the HEIK academic seminar series in the field of higher education, with both invited international speakers and members of the research group HEIK (Higher Education: Institutional dynamics and Knowledge cultures) here at the University of Oslo.
The Bologna Process is the central political initiative in the context of Europeanisation of higher education and perhaps the most influential pan-European policy initiative addressing higher education and affecting the national-level policies. The paper is dedicated to the ideational background of the Bologna Process. The author examines and contextualises various, often opposing ideas and concepts appearing in the discourse of the Bologna Process and sheds light on the role of involved actors in generating, coordinating, legitimising and communicating discourses and ideas. Read more...

By Marielk. This guest commentary takes the MOOCs trend as a comparison point in providing a commentary to current developments in higher education management in the US. The post is written by Professor Benjamin Ginsberg who is a David Bernstein Professor and Director of the Washington Center for the Study of American Government at the Johns Hopkins University. The entry was originally posted in the “Minding the Campus” Essay collection ans has been republished with permission. Minding the Campus is a site with its main aim to facilitate critical debate about American higher education.
As colleges begin using massive open online courses (MOOC) to reduce faculty costs, a Johns Hopkins University professor has announced plans for MOOA (massive open online administrations). Dr. Benjamin Ginsberg, author of The Fall of the Faculty, says that many colleges and universities face the same administrative issues every day. By having one experienced group of administrators make decisions for hundreds of campuses simultaneously, MOOA would help address these problems expeditiously and economically. Since MOOA would allow colleges to dispense with most of their own administrators, it would generate substantial cost savings in higher education. Read more...

By Marielk. OECD has recently published Education at a Glance 2013, compiling information about educational systems. This includes information about participation rates, funding rates and the outcomes of the systems both in terms of performance in subject areas to lifetime earnings and employability.
The context for the 2013 edition is the persisting economic crisis and wide scale unemployment rates, especially amongst young people. There are countries where up to one third of the age cohort 25-29 is out of education and employment. In this context, the role of education has become central and the indicators show across the board that education matters – both for employment rates, for earnings, and in fact – with tertiary education you are likely to be less obese and not smoke. Read more...

• Final report
• Annexes

Study to examine the impact of the National Teams of Bologna Experts on the implementation of the Bologna Process

• Final report
• Executive summary
• Case studies
• Annexes

Study of the feasibility of a long-term school education staff mobility action

• Final report
• Executive summary

Study of the impact of Comenius centralised actions

• Final report
• Executive summary
• Searchable online inventory with descriptions and outcomes of 145 projects

Prison education and training in Europe – current state-of-play and challenges

• Final report

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) in promoting educational attainment including social development of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and in fostering social inclusion

• Final report
• Annex I - Literature review
• Annex II - Case studies
• Policy brief

Study on educational support for newly arrived migrant children

• Final report
• Executive summary
• Annex 1: Literature review
• Annex 2: Policy framework for the education of migrant children
• Case study report
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Cyprus
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • Sweden

Study of the impact of eTwinning on participating pupils, teachers and schools

• Final report [2 MB]
• Final report annex [2 MB]

The system is a support mechanism for both the Education and Training 2010 work programme and its successor, the Strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training.
The website offers relevant, up-to-date, easily accessible and comparable information on national policy initiatives and practices in prioritised areas in the field of Education and Training for the development of lifelong learning.
It mainly builds on the work of Peer Learning Clusters and other working groups.
Using it will allow you to easily access and/or identify examples of policies and practices and to review past events within the peer learning clusters and other working groups.

• A review and analysis of existing and emerging types and models for realising the entrepreneurial potential of higher education in curricular and extracurricular activities and on an institutional level;
• Development of a practical set of interrelationships and dependencies of curricular, extracurricular, and institutional factors enabling the development of entrepreneurial potential of higher education in the form of a framework of recommendations;
• Development of 20 in depth case studies.

The study should look at various participants involved in higher education and entrepreneurship: higher education institutions, students, lectures and staff, entrepreneurs, incubators, companies and businesses of all types, public bodies, governments, charities and any other relevant stakeholder involved.
The tender documents are available in English, French and German. Any other official language can be obtained upon request, within 6 calendar days of the request.
Documents