Formation Continue du Supérieur

The latest edition of EUA’s public funding observatory highlights that in countries where cuts are taking place, funding for infrastructure has been one of the most affected areas and it is likely that this trend continues. Ageing facilities and equipment will necessarily trigger increasing costs for institutions and deteriorate teaching and research environments. It is therefore of crucial importance for the financial sustainability of Europe’s universities that, in addition to national funding schemes, the future European funding programmes, in particular the Horizon 2020 programme currently being negotiated at EU-level in the “trilogue” negotiations, provide funding rules that cover the costs for university research infrastructure in an adequate way. EUA’s Public Funding Observatory can be viewed here.
EUA understands that an important element of the trilogue discussions next week are the proposed “guidelines” circulated by the European Commission on how to cover costs for infrastructure in their proposed flat rate model. Taking account of the costs for infrastructure is indeed an important issue for the financial sustainability and competitiveness of Europe’s universities. Read more...

At the end of last month, the Council of the EU adopted conclusions on: “Enhancing and Focusing EU International Cooperation in Research and Innovation: a Strategic Approach”. Meanwhile, the European Commission has adopted recommendations to EU member states, which aim to provide guidance to governments on how to boost their growth potential, increase competitiveness and create jobs in 2013-2014. Finally, the EC has also announced that Montenegro has joined the Lifelong Learning Programme.
Council Conclusions on 'Enhancing and Focusing EU International Cooperation in Research and Innovation’
At the Council of the EU (Competiveness Council) meeting on 30 May, ministers responsible for research adopted conclusions endorsing the EU strategy for enhancing international cooperation in research and innovation which had been presented by the Commission in 2012. The conclusions call for its implementation by, inter alia, developing strategic roadmaps for cooperation with third countries and regions and incorporating those roadmaps into the implementation of the Horizon 2020 research framework programme. The conclusions can be downloaded here. Read more...

EUA’s Annual Report 2012 is now available on the EUA website. The online publication gives an overview of all EUA’s activities, including policy work, projects and events, together with a breakdown of EUA’s governing bodies, financial statements and membership development in 2012.
The report outlines EUA’s policy and advocacy work on key issues related to the main thematic areas of EUA’s work: learning and teaching; research and innovation; quality management; governance, autonomy and funding; and internationalisation. It also presents an overview of the different EUA projects and thematic events, which provide opportunities for members to exchange experiences and best practices, and of the different areas of EUA’s policy work.
Together with the EUA Council for Doctoral Education and the Institutional Evaluation Programme, these services are designed to enable members to take part in activities that correspond to their own specific interests and needs.
To download the report, click here.

Report from the Fifth European University-Business Forum, Brussels (4-5 June 2013)
Organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture, the fifth edition of the University-Business Forum focused on the theme “University-Business Cooperation: Strategic partnerships for Innovation and Growth; From dialogue to Partnership”. The U-B Forum featured high-level plenary sessions with representatives from business and higher education, DG Education and Culture, policy makers and other stakeholders.
EUA President, Professor Maria Helena Nazaré, represented EUA during the initial round table on 4 June which set the scene for the subsequent discussions. Key benefits of university-business collaboration were highlighted and pro-active attitudes were recommended. All the round table panellists agreed that talent was key for innovation and that universities must be considered by companies as another part of their value chain. Professor Nazaré highlighted that business and society at large should take account of the transformations that many universities are incurring to develop more and better university-business collaboration. Based on evidence gathered by EUA she highlighted that “academic and non-academic leaders involved in long-standing collaborative research initiatives show that universities can make compatible their core missions (i.e. excellence in academic research) and successful long-term collaborative research activities with the adequate institutional leadership, support services and public funding”. Recalling the EUA statement addressed to heads of state and government in November last year she also said that “increased investment in higher education and research to mobilise the potential and capacities of present and next generations of young people is the ‘sine qua non’ for Europe to exit the economic crisis and achieve future prosperity”. Read more...

The Spanish Rectors’ Conference (CRUE) co-organised with the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) an information and debate event in Madrid, 10 June 2013, on “European Programmes: Opportunities for the participation of Spanish Universities”. The event gathered over one hundred rectors, vice-rectors and other high-level representatives from the Spanish university sector and policy makers. In the opening session, the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, Carmen Vela, highlighted the need to valorise both the tangible and intangible added values of Spanish universities in the landscape of research and innovation. Meanwhile, the Secretary of State for Education, Vocational Training and Universities, Montserrat Gomendio, updated participants on the progress of the committee of experts who are currently debating university reforms in close collaboration with CRUE.
The President of CRUE and Rector of the University of Malaga, Adelaida de la Calle, whilst expressing concern about the emigration of some Spanish graduates to some wealthier economies, underlined the high quality of the Spanish university system, which was demonstrated for example by the way Spanish university graduates were welcomed in other parts of Europe and the rest of the world. The current state of play on issues related to the development of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation ‘Horizon 2020’, the Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisations (RIS3) within the Cohesion funds and the strategic positioning of the Spanish Universities were debated during two sessions. Read more...

Ann Priestley’s list of legal MOOCs now enables researchers in the legal community to identify a sizeable number of law-related MOOCs offered by several different providers, and to design studies of them.
It so happens that the Gates Foundation is funding the MOOC Research Initiative, offering grants “in the range of $10,000 – $25,000,” for the study of various aspects of MOOCs.
The application deadline is 7 July 2013.
For more details, please see the complete announcement. Read more...

This post argues that the current discourse around the concept of xMOOCs (primarily based around interaction with content and essentially adopting a behaviourist learning approach), and cMOOCs (which focus on harnessing the power of social media and interaction with peers, adopting a connectivist learning approach), is an inadequate way of describing the variety of MOOCs and the ways in which learners engage with them. It will introduce an alternative means of categorising MOOCs, based on their key characteristics. It will describe how this can be used as part of the 7Cs of Learning Design framework, to design more pedagogically informed MOOCs, which enhances the learner experience and ensure quality assurance. A fundamental aspect of ensuring a good learner experience is the quality of the course. It is important to distinguish between three main aspects of quality: quality audit, quality assurance and quality enhancement.
Gráinne Conole is Professor of learning innovation at the University of Leicester. Her research interests include the use, integration and evaluation of Information and Communication Technologies and e-learning and the impact of technologies on organisational change. She regularly blogs on www.e4innovation.com and is @gconole on Twitter. She has successfully secured funding from the EU, HEFCE, ESRC, JISC and commercial sponsors). She was awarded an HEA National Teaching Fellowship in 2012. She has published and presented over 1000 conference proceedings, workshops and articles, including the use and evaluation of learning technologies. She has recently published a Springer book entitled ‘Designing for learning in an open world.’ She was involved in the OLDS MOOC on Learning Design and is leading a team for a new Masters in Learning Innovation http://www2.le.ac.uk/study/postgrad/distance. Read more...

The MOOCs Quality Project, an initiative of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL), has launched a debate on the quality of MOOCs with blogposts from experts and those involved in MOOOCs, with different world and user perspectives. The evolution of open educational resources to MOOCs can be chartered as follows. First came open access to course content, and then access to free online courses. Accredited institutions are now accepting MOOCs as well as free courses and experiential learning as partial credit toward a degree. The next disruptor will likely mark a tipping point: an entirely free online curriculum leading to a degree from an accredited institution. This project seeks to stimulate a discourse through a series of weekly blog posts on the issue of quality of MOOCs – what is a good quality MOOC? Read more...

By Cherilyn Winkler. Online learning empowers students and offers alternatives to traditional higher education. The rising cost of higher education has sparked a revolution in online learning. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer a learning experience that wouldn’t otherwise be available to many of the students flocking to these free, online-only classrooms. Now, more universities are joining the trend, even though some administrators and educators worry that MOOCs could impact the current higher ed business model. According to a report from EDUCAUSE, the University of Manitoba sponsored the first MOOC in 2008, entitled “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge.” Since then, the online classes have become so ubiquitous that The New York Times dubbed 2012 The Year of the MOOC. Read more...

By S. David Ramirez. The University of Texas System has partnered with edX, a popular Massive Online Open Courses platform, to expand the growing field of MOOCs and study how these non-traditional classes work within current academic frameworks.
A MOOC is a free online course sponsored by a university on a variety of subjects. Current courses include classes on psychology, literature, art, music, statistics and biology. Students can enroll via a platform like Coursera or edX.
“One reason for aligning with edX was to become part of a national and international conversation of what education should look like in the (21st) century,” said Steven Mintz, executive director of the UT Institute for Transformational Learning. Read more...