ASEM seminar on Quality Assurance in Higher Education took place on 11-12 October 2012 in Sevres (France). During the seminar the importance of the quality assurance as one of the priority areas for education cooperation between Asia and Europewas stressed. Within the ASEM framework, the need for flexibility in developing instruments for cooperation and international dialogue was discussed, which aimed to facilitate the mobility of students and graduates.
Possibilities to further enhance cooperation concerning quality assurance in higher education were discussed and proposals were developed to be presented to the 4th Asia Europe Meeting of Ministers for Education (ASEMME 4) to be held in Kuala Lumpur in May 2013.
For more information click here.
 ASEM Seminar on Quality Assurance
Since the first Asia-Europe Meeting of Ministers for Education in Berlin 2008 (ASEMME1), leaders acknowledged the importance of quality assurance in higher education in order to ensure sustainable growth of today’s society. In the course of the second and third Ministerial Meetings (ASEMME2 and ASEMME3), the Ministers for Education welcomed different country initiatives to strengthen cooperation between Asian and European stakeholders in quality assurance.
According to the Chair’s Conclusions from ASEMME3 In Copenhagen 2011, Ministers "laid emphasis on strengthening interregional cooperation in the field of external quality assurance between quality assurance agencies and networks in Asia and Europe by organising joint meetings, with a view to develop common principles of quality assurance across the ASEM education area. Germany offers to host a first expert seminar in 2011. In order to ensure the continuity of the dialogue on quality assurance a seminar will be held in France in 2012. Progress and results will be presented for ASEMME4.

By Marielk. OECD recently published the first volume of AHELO feasibility study report, focused on design and implementation. AHELO stands for Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes and is in essence an attempt to conduct cross-national comparisons of learning outcomes independent of different cultures, languags and institutions. The aims are similar to the PISA test that measures student learning in schools in a cross-national perspective – with an important difference – the comparisons will not be on national, but institutional level. In addition, the study will not provide a ranking. The feasibility study took 5 years to conduct, and this volume marks the first of three that will be published in upcoming months. The first volume focuses on design and implementation, second on data analysis and national experiences, and third will give further insights and conference proceedings.
Currently, the AHELO project has gone through a feasibility study in two discipline specific areas – economics and engineering, in addition to a measurement of generic skills.  The feasibility study tested 23 000 students in 248 institutions in 17 countries on a voluntary basis. One of the countries particiapting in the generic skills evaluation was Norway, J. Levy who is a member of the permanent Norwegian delegation to OECD explained that “If successful, it will increase our knowledge of higher education institutions, and thus give additional tools for quality development.” Furthermore, he argued that AHELO can provide “new information, supplementing existing information from rankings mainly based on data on research activities“. Similar arguments about more information and data about learning were also emphasized by the Mexican and Australian representatives. Read more...

By Marielk. Episode 37 of our podcast series features dr. Don F. Westerheijden who reflects on recent developments in quality assurance in the Netherlands, after a large scale public scandal highlighting doubts over quality in a number of Dutch higher education institutions.
Dr. Don F. Westerheijden is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) in University of Twente in Netherlands. He obtained his PhD from University of Twente and is now working as a co-ordinator of research related to quality management. Read more...

By Pusa Nastase, Senior Program Manager, Center for Higher Education Policy, School of Public Policy, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Are you a university administrator who has repeatedly been told that the days of funding certainty are now over and that you need to look elsewhere for funds? Have you already had discussions about looking abroad because the state sector has no money and local sources of funding (national research agencies, foundations, corporations, etc) cannot be relied upon? Have you wondered how you should begin fundraising from international sources while having no prior exposure in this world?
If your answer was positive to at least one of the questions above, read on: this blog post is designed to provide you with some useful ideas to improve your fundraising ability. Read more...

By Lorraine Gallagher, Information & Training Officer, Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD), Ireland.Every year thousands of students criss-cross the globe as part of international exchange programmes, but only a tiny percentage of them are students with disabilities. Within the Irish context, less than 1% of students with disabilities engage in student exchange programmes. Why is this? As part of my job at AHEAD, I have engaged with lots of students with disabilities on this issue and the overriding factor is fear, fuelled by a lack of information. “If I study abroad what support will I get? What if things go wrong?”
The reality is, many students with disabilities have additional support needs which they fear won’t be met in the host institution or country, so in the end, the majority are afraid to take the risk to participate in international study programmes. While international officers are open and committed to this cohort of students, a study carried out by Adele Browne, of the EAIE Special Interest Group, Access & Inclusion (ACCESS) indicated that 75% of international officers in the UK had little or no experience of working with students with disabilities. With so few students with disabilities travelling, it stands to reason that people don’t know what to do when it comes to supporting them. Read more...

The HEA has opened the call for staff across Scotland’s higher education community to apply for funding through an innovative new scholarship scheme.
The scheme will provide successful applicants with the opportunity to experience Scotland’s new education system for pupils aged three to 18, Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), first hand. They will receive £750 funding to help support a local secondary school visit, engage with teachers and pupils and consider the impact of CfE on future higher education content and delivery within their respective discipline when these students enter higher education from 2015.
Announcing the project, Dr Alastair Robertson, Assistant Director for Scotland, and Head of UK Research and Policy, said: “I am very pleased to announce this innovative project which is aimed at strengthening partnerships between schools and universities, creating a greater shared understanding between the sectors and extending the network of higher education academics well versed in Curriculum for Excellence. Read more...

The European Union has 23 official and working languages. They are: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
The first Community Regulation determining official languages was passed in 1958. It specified Dutch, French, German and Italian as the first official and working languages of the EU, these being the languages of the Member States at that time. Since then, as more countries have become part of the EU, the number of official and working languages has increased. However, there are fewer official languages than Member States, as some share common languages. In Belgium, for example, the official languages are Dutch, French and German, whilst in Cyprus the majority of the population speaks Greek, which has official status.
There are two main entitlements for languages with “official and working” status:
- documents may be sent to EU institutions and a reply received in any of these languages
- EU regulations and other legislative documents are published in the official and working languages, as is the Official Journal
Due to time and budgetary constraints, relatively few working documents are translated into all languages. The European Commission employs English, French and German in general as procedural languages, whereas the European Parliament provides translation into different languages according to the needs of its Members. More info: Official languages and other facts about European countries.

Le renouvellement du programme d'éducation et de formation tout au long de la vie est en cours de discussion au Parlement européen. Un nouveau programme Erasmus pour tous, plus ambitieux, plus démocratique élargira le programme Erasmus à tous les publics avec des allocations de mobilité plus importantes. Suivez la préparation du nouveau programme.
Erasmus pour tous: cinq millions de bénéficiaires potentiels
Jusqu'à cinq millions de personnes (soit presque deux fois plus qu'actuellement) pourraient bientôt avoir la chance d'aller étudier ou suivre une formation à l'étranger grâce à une bourse d'Erasmus pour tous, le nouveau programme de l'UE pour l'éducation, la formation, la jeunesse et le sport proposé par la Commission européenne dès le 23 novembre 2011. Quelques 3 millions d'entre elles seraient des étudiants de l'enseignement supérieur et de l'enseignement professionnel. Les étudiants de master bénéficieraient également d'un nouveau mécanisme de garantie de prêts créé en partenariat avec le groupe de la Banque européenne d'investissement. Ce programme Erasmus pour tous, d'une durée de sept ans prévoit une augmentation significative du budget pour le porter à 19 milliards d'euros, pour la période 2014-2020.
Prochaines étapes:

• adoption du programme courant 2013 sous présidence de l'Union européenne irlandaise (1er semestre 2013)

• d'un point de vue opérationnel, pour les établissements d'enseignement supérieur: lancement de l'appel d'offres pour les chartes Erasmus en février 2013 (sous réserve)

Suivez l'actualité sur le site de la Commission européenne. Sur Penelope: informations pratiques sur le programme 2014 - 2020.

Following the successful involvement of UK universities and colleges in the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, HEFCE has commissioned Podium, the Further and Higher Education Unit for the Olympic Games to help universities and colleges build on their 2012 experience by making their expertise available to other major events.
The contribution of higher education institutions (HEIs) to the Games was recognised as important and wide-reaching, with 94 per cent of the higher education sector involved in at least one Olympic-related project. These included providing student volunteers, playing host to national teams, undertaking groundbreaking research, and continuing programmes of investment towards London 2012’s legacy of sport and community engagement. More about Podium.