The World Education Forum 2015, which is being held from 19 to 22 May 2015 in Incheon, Republic of Korea, assembles 1,700 global leaders in education, including 130 ministers. Policy-makers, experts, teachers and representatives of civil society and the private sector are taking stock of achievements and shortfalls in the implementation of the EFA goals. The forum will conclude with comments on the draft Education 2030 Framework for Action and adoption of the Incheon Declaration.
The provision of lifelong learning opportunities for all is one of the key themes during the forum, next to the right to education, equity in education, inclusive education and quality in education.
Conference website: http://en.unesco.org/world-education-forum-2015/
Live streams: https://en.unesco.org/world-education-forum-2015/livestream. More...

The Heads of University Management and Administration Network Europe (HUMANE) is organising its Annual Conference in Berlin, on 26-27 June.
The theme of the conference is ‘University Professors of the Future – New paths for academic talent development and management’. This event will offer a platform to HEIs to discuss and define their HR strategies and management for the future, and also to address important issues. For more information and to register, please visit the event website. More...

The European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Annual Conference 2015 will take place in Barcelona from 9 to 12 June 2015.
The conference will focus on expanding learning scenarios and will showcase developments in ICT, open and distance learning and education from all over the world.
The conference is being co-organised by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). For more information, please visit the event website. More...

On Friday 15 May, European Education Ministers adopted a new Bologna Communiqué. It acknowledges achievements since their last meeting in Bucharest in 2012, and sets out their commitments for the next phase. Together with representatives of countries from outside the EHEA, they also adopted the Bologna Policy Forum Statement.
While some Ministers may feel that there are more urgent issues than Bologna, university leaders tend to be more positive about the process today than some years ago. This is one of the conclusions from the recently launched EUA Trends 2015 Report.
There was also a strong and unanimous agreement that higher education has a broader and multiple role to play, and that the Bologna Process should include the issue of civic education, and also focus on conditions and factors that can support the quality of education, and of the student experience, including the link between education and research, the role of university staff and digitalisation. In this regard, EUA presented the 2014 study on e-learning and similar results from the Trends 2015 Report during the conference. The report confirms that universities devote increased attention to learning and teaching and that ICT is perceived – next to internationalisation – as one of the key drivers for change and enhancement.
For further information please click here. More...

The EUA Antwerp Declaration – "A strategic agenda for universities: Developing strong institutions to advance the knowledge-based society" – has been endorsed by EUA’s governing bodies. This declaration addresses policy makers, political leaders and decision makers at all levels – regional, national and European – as well as European universities.
The Antwerp Declaration is an outcome of the extensive dialogue in the areas of research and innovation of EUA with its university membership and National Rectors’ Conferences, and the discussions held at the EUA Annual Conference 2015 at the University of Antwerp.
To read the declaration in full, please click here. More...

On 7 May, the EUA Research Policy Working Group (RPWG) met at the British Antarctic Survey headquarters at the University of Cambridge, UK, to discuss EUA activities in the area of research and innovation.
Concerning the implementation of the European Research Area (ERA), RPWG members agreed to move forward with the signature of a Joint Declaration between the European Commission and the ERA Stakeholders Platform (ERA SHOs). This Joint Declaration reinforces EUA’s commitment to encourage its large university membership to continue to carry out the actions set in the Memorandum of Understanding of 2012. The Joint Declaration will be signed by the presidents of the stakeholder organisations and Commissioner Carlos Moedas on the occasion of the ERA Conference on 22-23 June 2015. More...

The four-year project “European Union Support to Higher Education in ASEAN Region (SHARE)” (2015-2018) has been officially launched in Jakarta, Indonesia. EUA is a consortium partner in the project together with the British Council (lead), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), EP-Nuffic, Campus France, and the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).
A project website for SHARE will be launched shortly. For more information click here. More...

On 12 and 13 May the ATHENA Regional Benchmarking Forum was held at Yerevan State University in Armenia.
The event represented a major milestone in the EUA-led ATHENA project fostering university autonomy and financial sustainability in Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine. More than 100 representatives from ATHENA partner universities, National Rectors’ Conferences and ministries in Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as their university partners from Finland, the Netherlands and Portugal came together to take stock of the progress achieved with regard to reforms of university governance and funding throughout the past three years.  The event looked at policy development at system level, as well as the implementation at institutional level. More...

Registrations for the 8th Annual Meeting of the EUA Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) that will take place from 18 to 19 June at the Technische Universität München/TUM Graduate School in Germany will be open until 5 June.
The theme of this year’s event is “The Future of Doctoral Education – where do we go from here?”
The Annual Meeting of the EUA-CDE is open to EUA-CDE members and non-members alike and aims specifically at opening discussions between different stakeholders such as university leaders, researchers, political decision-makers, funding organisations, quality assurance agencies and all others interested in the development of doctoral education. To register, or find out more information, please click here. More...