Last week the European Commission launched a new “indicator of innovation output” which aims to measure the extent to which “ideas from innovative sectors are able to reach the market” and will complement the Commission's Innovation Union Scoreboard and Summary Innovation Index which assess the innovation performance of member states and the EU more widely. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU held a conference on “European Higher Education in the World” and the European Parliament adopted two resolutions in relation to tackling youth unemployment and the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy.
EC launches new Innovation Indicator
The European Commission last week published the "Indicator of Innovation Output" which aims to measure the extent to which “ideas from innovative sectors are able to reach the market, providing better jobs and making Europe more competitive”. The EC noted that the indicator was developed at the request of EU leaders to benchmark national innovation policies, and showed that “significant differences remain between EU countries”. The indicator is designed to complement the Commission's Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) and Summary Innovation Index (SII) which assess the innovation performance of member states and the EU more widely, against a broad set of 24 innovation indicators including inputs, throughputs and outputs. More information and background on the indicator can be viewed here.
EU Presidency conference on European Higher Education in the World
Following the recent EC Communication on the internationalisation of higher education, the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of EU recently (5-6 September) organised in Vilnius an international conference on “European Higher Education in the World”. The event brought together HE stakeholders from the EU and beyond, for discussions on internationalisation processes, and on the future place of Europe in the global higher education landscape. EUA’s Michael Gaebel was invited to present the perspective of European universities on the topic of internationalisation following EUA’s recent membership survey on this topic and also the discussions at the last EUA Annual Conference in Ghent. More information and presentations from this event can be found on the conference website.
European Parliament resolutions on youth unemployment/EU Youth Strategy
Members of the European Parliament last week adopted two resolutions in relation to tackling youth unemployment and the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy. The European Parliament highlighted that the “youth guarantee schemes” alone would not suffice to reduce youth unemployment. It also stressed the need for further measures to make it easier for young people to move to jobs or training. According to the Parliament, youth guarantee schemes, which aim to ensure that young people under 25 years are offered a job, training, or a traineeship within four months of their becoming unemployed, should be extended to include graduates under 30 years. In the debate, MEPs also called for better recognition of skills and aptitudes acquired outside formal education, e.g. through traineeships, volunteering or social work. The Parliament also underlined the need for EU support for “good-quality traineeships and apprenticeships” and called on member states to remove all barriers to cross-border traineeships for young EU citizens.

EUA – together with its partners ENQA, ESU and EURASHE – is pleased to announce that registration is still open for the 8th edition of the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), which 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 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.
Keynote speakers will include Mats Alvesson, a leading European researcher in the field of organisational culture, and Sijbolt Noorda, President of the Academic Cooperation Association. More details on the programme, as well as abstracts of papers and workshops to be presented at the Forum, are now available on the EQAF website. 
EUA invites you to register as soon as possible. The deadline for the early-bird registration fee is 18 October 2013. After this date, late registration fees will apply.

Quality assurance staff from universities in the Western Balkans gathered in Korca, Albania, from 5 to 6 September, to discuss the role of central quality assurance units, as well as the tools they use. The workshop was organised in the framework of the EUA-led “Empowering Universities to fulfil their responsibility for Quality Assurance” (EUREQA) project.
During the second in a series of four workshops, which will bring together quality assurance managers from the Western Balkans and EU countries, 40 participants discussed in detail various models for distributing quality assurance tasks among the central- and faculty-level units. The workshop addressed questions such as: What role should the central QA unit play and how can it co-operate with those working in the faculties? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different divisions of responsibilities? What are the different roles of QA officers?
The EUREQA project will continue promoting capacity building for QA in Western Balkan universities, through study visits, participation in the European Quality Assurance Forum and the translation of EUA’s publications on quality culture into the local languages.
More information on the EUREQA project, including presentations from the second workshop, can be found here.

In the context of the “Framework for the Internationalisation of Doctoral Education” (FRINDOC) project, EUA is launching a call for universities to participate in a pilot group and contribute to the finalisation of an online tool which the project is developing.
The FRINDOC project aims at providing a comprehensive overview of good practices and valuable experiences regarding internationalisation of doctoral education for universities. The online tool will help universities with the planning and implementation of internationalisation strategies for doctoral education and enable universities to attain a united picture of strategic goals, capacity and possibilities to implement the right structures for their particular profile.
The pilot group will be obliged to participate in two working groups where they will engage in discussions about the elements of successful internationalisation of doctoral education and critically evaluate the proposed tool. Based on this consultation process, the tool will be refined and a statement of good practice will accompany the launch of the final version. The first working group is scheduled to take place at the University of Bergen, Norway, from 13 to 14 February 2014. A follow-up evaluation working group is expected to take place in September 2014 at the University of Camerino, Italy.
If you are interested in participating in the FRINDOC pilot group, please consult the full text of the Call for Participation on the project page and return the application form by email to joanne.byrne@eua.be by midday on 11 October.
Further information about the project can be found at www.eua.be/FRINDOC
FRINDOC is coordinated by EUA on behalf of its partners the University of Hong Kong, Stellenbosch University, Imperial College London, the University of Bergen and the University of Camerino. The project is supported by the Erasmus Mundus Programme of the European Commission.