Par Christina Gierse. La VAP (Validation des acquis professionnels) est un « laisser passer » pour intégrer une formation de niveau supérieur à son niveau d’étude initial. Une autorisation d’inscription par dispense de titre requis dans le cadre d’une poursuite ou d’une reprise d’études, en quelques sortes. Le point en 9 questions.
VAE, VAP, quelle différence?
La VAP (validation des acquis professionnels), également appelée VAP 85 du nom de l’année de naissance de ce dispositif, permet de poursuivre des études dans l’enseignement supérieur sans avoir les titres ou diplômes requis. Elle a été élargie en 2002 avec la VAE (validation des acquis de l’expérience), qui permet d’obtenir un diplôme, un titre ou une certification sans reprendre d’études. Même si officiellement il n’existe aujourd’hui que la VAE, dans les faits de nombreuses écoles et universités continuent de distinguer les deux et utilisent le terme VAP pour distinguer deux démarches: celle de la personne qui vient valider un diplôme entier et celle qui a envie de reprendre des études. Pour résumer: la VAP permet de reprendre des études. La VAE permet d’obtenir un diplôme sans reprendre d’études. Le diplôme obtenu par VAP est exactement le même que celui obtenu en formation initiale. Suite de l'article...

Le Livre blanc sur la défense et la sécurité nationale a été rendu public par le président de la République le lundi 29 avril 2013. Ce document fixe les orientations stratégiques des quinze prochaines années et servira de socle à la future loi de programmation militaire (2014-2019).
Le renseignement est une priorité du Livre blanc, soulignée à plusieurs reprises par le président de la République, notamment lors du lancement des travaux du Livre blanc le 13 juillet 2012: « ce qui est ici en cause, c’est la faculté de notre pays de conserver sa liberté d’appréciation et de décision ».
Les six services de renseignement ont été constitués depuis 2008 en communauté du renseignement dont la gouvernance est organisée autour du Coordonnateur national du renseignement (CNR). L’académie du renseignement, créée en 2010, a véritablement contribué à l’émergence d’une culture partagée au sein de la communauté française du renseignement.
Le Livre blanc confirme le rôle central du renseignement dans la stratégie de défense et de sécurité nationale et préconise:
-         le principe de mutualisation des moyens pour le renseignement;
-         le renforcement de la gouvernance du renseignement;
-         un effort particulier en faveur du renseignement intérieur;
-         un effort d’investissement majeur dans tous les domaines du renseignement.
LIVRE BLANC DEFENSE ET SECURITE NATIONALE 2013
Extrait
CHAPITRE 6 : LA MISE EN ŒUVRE DE LA STRATEGIE
A. La connaissance et l’anticipation
La fonction connaissance et anticipation a une importance particulière parce qu’une capacité d’appréciation autonome des situations est la condition  de décisions libres et souveraines. Cette fonction recouvre notamment le  renseignement et la prospective. Elle permet l’anticipation stratégique qui  éclaire l’action. Elle est également une condition de l’efficacité opérationnelle des forces et contribue à l’économie des moyens que celles-ci utilisent pour remplir leurs missions.Le Livre Blanc 2013 et le renseignement - pages 70-75.

The “Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities” conference will take place at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania from 23 to 24 September 2013.
Organised during the Lithuanian EU Presidency, the conference organisers note that the conference “will elaborate the potential that SSH can bring to European societies”, the “potential that SSH can bring to the goals defined in Horizon 2020”, and how “best to integrate the knowledge, methods and experience the SSH have to offer over a wide range of phenomena and problem spaces”.
Registration is open until 1 September 2013. For more information on the programme, please visit the website.
Mykolas Romeris University is also holding an international academic conference on “Social Innovations 2013: Theoretical and Practical Insights” in Vilnius, Lithuania from 10 to 11 October 2013.
For more information on how to register, please visit the website.

The 8th European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) will take place at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, from 21 to 23 November 2013.
Through a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, the 2013 EQAF, entitled “Working together to take quality forward”, will combine practice-oriented or research-based discussions that will take place in the paper sessions and workshops with presentations of current developments in quality assurance. This year the Forum will specifically explore how both individuals and organisations can better understand the role that quality assurance can play in their daily lives, get engaged and work together to take quality forward.
The Forum organisers, ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE, have published a call for contributions from QA practitioners in higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies, students, institutional leaders and researchers in the field. Two types of contributions are sought: papers and workshops.
The deadline to submit contributions is 2 August 2013.
The call for contributions and proposal submission forms are available here.

EUA’s Secretary General Lesley Wilson took part in the 5th Global meeting of Associations that was organised by the International Association of Universities (IAU) in Salford, UK at the end of last month, and was hosted by EUA member the University of Salford and the Northern Consortium (NCUK). Professor Ellen Hazelkorn from the Dublin Institute of Technology introduced this year’s topic of diversity, taking a broad view and opening up the discussion on what we mean by diversity in the 21st century, and how it can be valued, rewarded and strengthened, a key theme for EUA and its members, that was addressed in the 2009 EUA report: “Institutional Diversity in European Higher Education: tensions and challenges for policymakers and institutional leaders”. The EUA Secretary General along with her counterpart from the Association of African Universities (AAU), Professor Etienne Ehouan Ehile, moderated the first plenary discussion which focused on the extent to which international competition and global rankings are driving a single idea of excellence, thus taking forward questions addressed in EUA’s Annual Conference last month in Ghent. For example, just last month EUA co-organised an EU-China University-President’s dialogue, and is supporting the first Arab-Euro University Conference on HE taking place at the end of this month at the University of Barcelona. As part of the ALFA PUENTES project involving over 20 university associations from Europe and Latin America, EUA will also be organising a second Bi-regional conference in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in December. Read more...

EUPRIO (European Universities Public Relations and Information Officers Association) will hold its annual conference titled “Students, alumni and staff: the best university ambassadors” at the University of Kent’s campus in Canterbury, UK from 27 to 29 June 2013.
The annual event brings together public relations and communications experts from universities across Europe and includes master classes, lectures and workshops. For more information on the programme or how to register, please visit the website.

On 2 and 3 May in Quito, Ecuador, EUA joined representatives of rectors’ conferences and QA agencies from Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador at a focus group aimed at assessing the outcomes of a pilot project for joint programme evaluation in the region. The initiative, launched by CONSUAN (the Andean regional rectors’ council) and supported by ALFA PUENTES, an EUA-coordinated European Commission co-funded project, aimed at stimulating dialogue on quality assurance approaches in the region and providing a platform for agencies and associations to work together around the issues of degree recognition and higher education quality enhancement.
Modelled after an existing joint programme accreditation process in the Mercosur region (Arcu-Sur), the pilot project focuses on two disciplines – agronomy and medicine – and evaluated courses in these respective disciplines at six universities in the region (two each in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia). A pool of peer “evaluators” was nominated by the QA agencies of the four participating countries and joint evaluation guidelines were drafted and agreed. The focus group in Quito was hosted by the Ecuadorian quality assurance agency (CEAACES), which has expanded rapidly in the past two years to meet the Ecuadorian governments’ requirements that all institutions and programmes should be accredited.
One guiding force in the pilot project has been the support from relevant European partners and experts, such as EUA, which has been one of the critical stakeholders in the Bologna Process quality assurance developments. The EUA quality management unit has followed the Andean pilot in an advisory fashion, as has CRUE – the Spanish rectors’ conference (and ALFA PUENTES partner), as well as ANECA, the Spanish quality assurance agency which also participated in the focus group and shared their experiences with a similar European joint-programme evaluation pilot that had been undertaken recently.
In addition, experts from Mercosur and Central America have participated in various meetings of the Andean pilot project, to share their own regional experience: Central America has a joint Accreditation Council (CCA) which essentially certifies and ultimately supports national QA agencies in the region, and Mercosur has an ongoing joint-programme accreditation process supported and funded by governments of the region, under “Mercosur Educativo”. Learning has indeed been mutual, which is one of the goals of the ALFA PUENTES project: while European and other South American experts have provided insight on QA collaboration to the Andean Community, important lessons and insights have also been brought back to Europe from other LA regions.
The Andean Community partners will continue to discuss the pilot project outcomes with political authorities of the region and decide whether the programme should be scaled up. An immediate consequence has also been the formalisation of a QA Agency network in the region.
For more information on ALFA PUENTES: http://alfapuentes.org/portal.