By Annika Sundback-Lindroos. As Europe struggles with unemployment and economic downturn, the focus of the higher education sector should be on creating new knowledge to support innovation and growth. Why, then, is there so much emphasis being put on developing and implementing time- and resource-consuming joint academic programmes? Could it be that academic added value and student learning outcomes can be reached through a joint international curriculum with integrated mobility, ie, through joint study programmes?
Joint study programmes have long been both academically and politically prioritised within the European Higher Education Arena (EHEA). They were first mentioned in relation to the inter-ministerial Bologna Process in 2001, since joint study programmes are directly linked to Bologna action lines of mobility, joint curriculum development and quality assurance. Today, the Bologna Process is one of the main voluntary processes at European level, and is implemented in the 47 EHEA states. The latest Bologna meeting resulted in the Bucharest Communiqué, stating: “We encourage higher education institutions to further develop joint programmes and degrees as part of a wider EHEA approach. We will examine national practices as a way to dismantle obstacles to cooperation and mobility.” More...

By David Crosier and Andrea Puhl. "Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes." – Kurt Vonnegut
At the centre of Europe 2020 – the EU's main strategy for growth in the current decade – lie two European targets for education. The EU aims to increase tertiary graduation rates to at least 40 % and reduce early school leaving (ESL) rates below 10 % – despite the fact that education remains a national, rather than a European, competence. But if the European Union is not responsible for the policies that may lead to the success or failure in reaching these numbers, are the targets meaningful, or merely symbolic?
The EU's education targets can be understood as setting essential goals for a continent that has the ambition of staying competitive in an increasingly innovative and globalised world. Indeed increasing the number of higher graduates and reducing school dropouts are really rather obvious steps for any knowledge-driven economy. Yet does it really matter to overall economic development if these particular quantitative goals are achieved? A recent article in the Higher Education News suggests that the importance of these targets does not lie in their concrete realisation: “are they meant to be achieved or do they exist as almost arbitrary numbers that only give an indication of the necessity to focus on a particular policy field”. More...

Fachpraktika im Ausland sind oft der erste Schritt zum erfolgreichen Berufseinstieg
Bei der Suche nach Praktikumsplätzen berät und unterstützt die internationale Organisation IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience). Sie vermittelt seit über 65 Jahren weltweit Praktika für Studierende der ingenieur- und naturwissenschaftlichen sowie land- und forstwirtschaftlichen Fachrichtungen. Der deutsche Zweig arbeitet unter dem Dach des Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes (DAAD). Bei der jüngsten Generalkonferenz der IAESTE in Quito/Ecuador, auf der 85 Länder vertreten waren, wurden rund 6.000 Praktikumsplätze auf die Mitgliedsländer verteilt. Fast 1.000 Plätze für deutsche Studierende vergibt der DAAD in diesen Tagen an die 120 lokalen IAESTE-Stellen der deutschen Hochschulen. Für 2014 haben sich knapp 3.500 Studierende um ein IAESTE-Auslandspraktikum beworben. Mehr...

Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience (P.R.I.M.E.)
The German Academic Exchange Service  (DAAD) offers a new funding programme - co-financed by the Marie Curie Programme of the European Commission -  for outstanding postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines and nationalities: „Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience“ (P.R.I.M.E). The funding consists of salaries instead of scholarships.
Funding is provided for 18 months, in which 12 months have to be spent abroad and 6 months (re-integration phase) at a German university. The re-integration phase is mandatory. The German university administrates the salary during the whole funding period.
call for applications 2014 (German)
call for applications 2014 (English)
The application form will be available from March 1st 2014 at the application portal. To get to the portal please click on Stipendiendatenbank für Deutsche, fill in Fachrichtung (subject of your research), Zielland (country of the period abroad) and Status „Promovierte“ (position) and select the programme. More...

Underlining skills development and digital literacy, the Council of the European Union, in its configuration as Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) Council meeting, adopted new Council conclusions on 24 February.
In response to the 2014 Annual Growth Survey and the Commission’s communication on Opening Up Education (see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, September 2013), the new Council conclusions strongly underline the need for action in order to tackle insufficient digital skills and Europe’s skills mismatch in education to employment transition (see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, November 2013). In consequence, the Council of the European Union agrees to focus on:

• Long-term investment in the modernisation of education and training;
• Strengthening of lifelong learning programmes;
• Promoting work-based learning schemes; and
• Modernising and improving educational methods through ICT infrastructure investments and digitally supported teaching methods.

In addition, member states and the Commission are invited to encourage partnerships with creators of Open Educational Resources (OER) and to ensure cooperation by means of the open method of cooperation.
Council conclusions are political statements without binding legal effect. However, they set the direction of policies and often ensure and set out the framework for cooperation between member states and the Commission in educational matters.
EYCS Council conclusions

European Commission - Press release. More...

The print edition of Open Doors 2013: Report on International Educational Exchange, published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in partnership with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is now available for purchase. The new Open Doors book provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of academic mobility between the United States and the nations of the world, as well as a discussion of global and regional academic mobility trends. The print edition includes new narrative analysis and commentary that go far beyond the data tables that appear on the Open Doors website and the statistical highlights that were previously released during International Education Week last November.
The new material included in the print edition includes sections on the more than 122,000 international scholars who taught or conducted research at U.S. universities and on the nearly 111,000 international students who were in the United States for Intensive English Programs, as well as further detailed analysis on the nearly 820,000 international students in the United States and on the more than 280,000 U.S. students who sojourn abroad as part of their academic experience. The book features graphic displays of data maps, tables, and figures as well as to-the-point policy-oriented analysis.
IIE - Open Doors website. More...

Exploring Europe’s place in light of recent higher education trends from across the world is the central theme of ACA’s Annual Conference 2014. Under the title Europe in the world. Higher education developments across the globe, the conference aims to bring together, as always, a remarkable cast of policy experts, university leaders, academics, and institutional managers working on international aspects of higher education.
The two and a half–day event will be organised around three main foci. Through part of the programme it will first assess the relative attractiveness of European higher education on a global scale. Second, it will address current and future crucial issues of European and global higher education, such as the future of the university in a world characterised by MOOCs and open educational resources, transnational education, and strategic partnerships. Last but not least, it will explore, via two sets of parallel sessions, recent trends in major non-European countries and regions around the world and present current collaborations between universities in these regions and countries and Europe.
In line with the ACA tradition, the programme features speakers who are internationally-recognised ‘authorities’ in the field – scholars, high-level policymakers and innovative institutional leaders, including Cédric Villani (Professor of Mathematics at Université de Lyon, Fields Medal (2010), Administrator of the pro-European Think-Tank EuropaNova), Jordi Curell (Director, European Commission, DG Education and Culture), John Yopp (Associate Provost for Educational partnerships and International Affairs, Lexington, USA), and Lesley Wilson (Secretary General, EUA), to name just few.
Some of the brightest minds in higher education will be at from 15 to 17 June at the 2014 ACA Annual Conference. So do consider to register soon – if not for the speakers and the programme, than for the wonderful time that Bordeaux promises to offer you!
ACA Annual Conference 2014. More...