Today’s post is by Mi Ah Schoyen of NOVA Norwegian Social Research and Bjorn Hvinden  Professor and Head of Research at NOVA and the University of Tromso, and director of the Nordic Centre of Excellence ‘Reassessing the Nordic Welfare Model’ (REASSESS). It is published in collaboration with Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) Network.
When it comes to balancing the needs of current and future generations, the Nordic welfare states have done fairly well: reforms of the pension system, low child poverty levels and public debt, and work-friendly family policies. Yet, environmental considerations remain neglected – in the Nordic countries and elsewhere in the OECD. More...

Mobility partnerships enable the EU, its Member States, and non-EU countries cooperate more effectively on the issues of migration.
A conference organised by the ETF in Tbilisi on 4 and 5 November, will provide an opportunity to learn from the experience of Armenia, Georgia and Moldova in implementing EU mobility partnerships, especially in the area of skills and migration.
The event will be held under the auspices of the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council and in cooperation with the Targeted Initiative Georgia. The participants will look at the skills dimension of the mobility partnerships as part of the EU framework of the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility.
The recent ETF surveys of migration and skills in Armenia, Georgia and Morocco provided evidence on the skill profiles of migrants and how skills are underutilised abroad and upon return. It also indicated the need for specific policy measures to support migrants for more efficient job and skills-matching process.
Practical information about the conference

• Title of the conference: Skills dimension of the EU’s Global Approach to Migration and Mobility
• Date: 4-5 November 2013
• Place: Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, Rose Revolution Square 1, Tbilisi, Georgia

The IAU organized, during the European Access Network’s (EAN) first World Congress on Access to Postsecondary Education (Montreal, Canada, 7-10 October, 2013), a successful Access and Success Workshop, which brought together representatives of IAU Institutional Members who participated in the project. From the 28 institutions involved, 15 universities from as many countries around the world sent a representative in Montreal.
Coming together after having undertaken a structured self-review, these representatives were invited to analyze the opportunities and challenges they experience at the institutional level and suggest ways to address them through collaboration. The debates that took place revealed the interest of the self-study exercise and, among others, allowed the workshop participants to exchanges ideas, discuss the definition of success and elaborate a list of recommendation for policy makers, HEIs leadership as well as for IAU. A report presenting the project and the results of the workshop will be posted on the IAU website soon.
For more information about this project please contact: Eva Egron-Polak, IAU Secretary-General and/or Élodie Boisfer, IAU Programme Officer.

The projected performance for the higher education sector in England for the period to 2015-16 is sound overall. However, this projection assumes that higher education institutions will achieve their student recruitment targets, and that there will be no further reductions in government funding.
These findings are part of the summary of finances for universities and colleges in a new HEFCE publication, ‘Financial health of the higher education sector: 2012-13 to 2015-16 forecasts’. More...
Download:
Report
Download the Financial health of the higher education sector as PDF (638 KB) | Download the Financial health of the higher education sector as MS Word (827 KB)

Most of the 36 countries involved in implementing the European qualifications framework (EQF) have defined, and largely adopted, level descriptors of learning outcomes, i.e. what an individual possessing a qualification at a particular level is expected to know and be able to do.
The report shows that while the EQF has influenced national level descriptors, countries have also adjusted the learning outcomes approach to their own needs and priorities: these descriptors have mostly been the fruit of extensive discussions between government, social partners, and education and training providers.
The report contributes toward the continuing evaluation of the EQF, to be concluded in a report of the European Commission to the European Parliament and Council later in 2013.
Télécharger Analysis and overview of NQF level descriptors in European countries