The willingness of Ofqual, the exam regulator, to engage with the modern foreign languages community is most welcome, and it is to be hoped that other institutions concerned with language provision in the UK will follow suit. Andrew Smith, the Labour MP for Oxford East, has put down parliamentary questions for 14 October, pressing the government to strengthen modern language provision and uptake at secondary and tertiary level, and asking how it will ensure that any gains in modern language learning in primary schools translate into enhanced uptake in secondaries. Schoolteachers and university teachers of modern languages are invited to get involved in the initiative, Joining up MFL Teaching in the UK, by sending an email to the following address: mfl@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
Professor Katrin Kohl
Vice-chair, modern languages, University of Oxford

Ethiopia will strengthen cooperation with foreign universities as part of efforts to to build the country's human resource, says Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Tedros Adhanom.
At a meeting here Thursday with a visiting delegation of university officials from the U.S., he said such cooperation could contribute to the efforts of the country towards human resource development.
The government is striving to produce skilled human resources with a view to attain the goals set out in the country's Growth and Transformation Plan, he said.
Dr. Tedros added that it was important for Ethiopia to establish a partnership with U.S. universities specialising in science and technology to develop its human resource as science and technology is a priority in Ethiopia's higher education. More...

By Rahul Bhatia. India’s prosperous future has hardly ever seemed farther away than it does today. The country’s ongoing economic crisis has darkened the atmosphere -- and done so in a way tragically familiar to most Indians. There is a feeling of déjà vu among the public, a creeping sense that the country is adrift and sliding back to the economic, political, and cultural dysfunctions of its very recent past; Indians are beginning to doubt that their country has such a bright future after all. And as long as that remains the case, India’s vast potential will remain just that.
It wasn’t so long ago that Indians were saddled with an economic system that imposed on them burdensome regulations and an opaque system of pricing, as well as a political system that failed to guarantee their civil rights and restricted their freedom of expression. For most of India’s history, the state and the public harbored mutual suspicions about each other’s intentions -- a dynamic that would periodically worsen during economic crises. Indians often doubted their government’s ability to master whatever crisis the country was presently struggling with, and they acted accordingly. More...

Overall objectives

The QACHE project stems from a real and perceived need to address, in terms of information and practical support, the quality assurance of cross-border higher education (CBHE). The overall aim of the QACHE project is to enhance the development of the quality assurance of CBHE and to support the development of a European dimension in QA, by addressing common standards and principles for the quality assurance of CBHE by European providers. By doing so, the project also foresees to facilitate and enhance the engagement of European HEIs in CBHE reinforcing their accessibility and attractiveness in other parts of the world but also contributes to the protection of students against low standard provision and issues related to recognition of CBHE due to lack of collaboration in their QA.

Specific objectives

The project will assess the role of national quality assurance agencies in the QA or accreditation of CBHE and identify the main obstacles and challenges, and elaborate ways of addressing these issues. The project will analyse and compare examples of good practices from countries with extensive CBHE provision experience and further assess to what extend specific criteria and procedures are in place for CBHE as compared to those used in QA of education delivered in-country in order to create a set of criteria for European CBHE, compatible with the ESG. The project will also elaborate basic principles for a common approach to QA of European CBHE based on good practices from Europe, Australia, Asia-Pacific and the Gulf Region which is foreseen to facilitate collaboration with countries outside of Europe by providing a shared framework applicable to and used by all European countries. The project will also produce a toolkit for quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions with common approaches on QA of CBHE and a framework to guide the activities of internal and external QA processes of CBHE.

Target groups

The direct target groups of the project are primarily the quality assurance agencies within and outside of Europe and the European providers of cross-border education (HEIs). Students, national and European policy makers and the higher education sector are indirect target groups who will benefit from the project outcomes.

Methodology and activities

In order to achieve the objectives and aims of the QACHE project, the project will include the following activities:

• A survey of QA agencies in Europe to collect information on how the agencies address QA and/or accreditation of CBHE; to detect the use and impact of international guidelines on national QA practices of CBHE; to investigate on the standards used for QA of CBHE and to collect information on good practices and challenges
• A survey of QA agencies members of ANQAHE and APQN, to collect information on the “host country perspective”; to collect information on good practice of cooperation with European QA agencies or institutions for the QA and recognition of education delivered by foreign providers/leading to a foreign qualification; detecting needs, concerns and legal conditions for accreditation/QA of imported higher education and recognition requirements
• Country reports and identification of case examples and good practice in the core provider countries in Europe in QA of CBHE
• A survey of CBHE in Europe to investigate their views on the current criteria, standards and procedures in place and their usefulness; to collect information on the support needs of HEIs and their QA offices by QA agencies
• A European Expert Forum, to validate the findings at the European level and support the preparation of the shared standards and common principles and approaches to be proposed to HEIs and QA agencies in Europe; and to disseminate and discuss the first project findings (outcomes of surveys and good practice)
• Two regional seminars, in the Gulf Region and in East Asia, to validate and enrich findings from the two regional surveys; to disseminate information on the status QA of CBHE in Europe (outcomes of the European survey and other activities); to establish and reinforce collaborative links between QA agencies in Europe and in the target regions and to further open a dialogue on the development of dual procedures for the QA of CBHE
• Elaboration of a toolkit on QA of CBHE for QA agencies and HEIs
• Elaboration of common criteria for QA of CBHE for QA agencies and HEIs
• Development of a format for a pilot testing to be applied voluntarily by identified CBHE initiatives to support sustainability of the project outcomes
• Publication of the project outcomes and the comprehensive final report including the main recommendations
• Final dissemination conference.

PROJECT OUTCOMES

The main project outcomes include the elaboration of a toolkit on QA of CBHE and common criteria for QA of CBHE for quality assurance agencies and HEIs. The project will result in a comprehensive final report including the main recommendations to European providers of CBHE, European quality assurance agencies and other quality assurance agencies outside of Europe.

The project results will facilitate collaboration with regions outside Europe while supporting the internationalisation of European higher education and strengthening its attractiveness through increased efficiency of QA of CBHE. Higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies will receive support in establishing QA procedures for CBHE, thus, enabling higher education provided by European institutions to be of comparable quality and meet the same standards within or outside Europe and being recognised in the host country without facing double procedures.
PROJECT EVENTS
In order to validate the findings of the information collection, and to support the creation and reinforcement of mutual understanding and collaborative links, and to reinforce the policy dialogue, three regional events will be organised during the project lifespan:

• A European Expert Forum, to validate the findings at the European level and support the preparation of the shared standards and common principles and approaches to be proposed to HEIs and QA agencies in Europe; and to disseminate and discuss the first project findings (outcomes of surveys and good practice);
• Two regional seminars, in the Gulf Region and in East Asia, to validate and enrich findings from the two regional surveys; to disseminate information on the status QA of CBHE in Europe (outcomes of the European survey and other activities); to establish and reinforce collaborative links between QA agencies in Europe and in the target regions and to further open a dialogue on the development of dual procedures for the QA of CBHE.
A final dissemination conference will take place towards the end of the project gathering participants among practitioners of QA, providers of CBHE, policy makers, and stakeholders. This is the main dissemination event of the project. As the subject is not only related to quality assurance, the conference is also an interest to professionals dealing with the inetrnationalisation of higher education and the promotion of European higher education in other regions of the world.
More information on the project activities and results will be published as the project advances.
This project has been funded with the support of the Erasmus Mundus Programme of the European Union.

The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL), in partnership with the UEF/Learning for Well-Being and InterRail, is launching an image contest entitled “Picture the Future of Learning – Unlocking each and everyone’s unique potential“.
Share your creativity with us and get a chance to win an InterRail Global Pass! The 10 best pictures will be exhibited at the European Parliament during the Lifelong Learning Week, 2-6 December 2013.
You can submit your picture until 10 November in the following categories:
# Learning environments: learning takes place everyday, everywhere. Where and with whom would you like to learn?
# Learning diversity: the motto of Europe is “united in diversity”. How could we include different learners and take into account different ways of learning?
# Learning Europe: the EU is contributing to our future. How could we live, learn and shape Europe?
You can also participate in the competition by voting for the best picture online!
Participate also on Facebook and share this application with your family, colleagues and friends!
http://www.eucis-lll.eu/futureoflearning/.