UIL and the UNESCO office in Dakar have held the first technical workshop for phase II of the RAMAA project, which aims to develop qualitative methods and tools to evaluate adult literacy learning in different cultural and social contexts in order to improve the quality of programmes.
This meeting, which took place in Hamburg from 13 to 15 October, included representatives of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Statistics Canada, as well as researchers from the universities of Hamburg, Paris and Montreal. Its purpose was to review the conceptual, methodological and institutional framework, and to carry out a critical analysis of the results of the first phase of the project in order to prepare the framework for the second phase in 2015.
For more information about RAMAA, please visit: http://uil.unesco.org/home/programme-areas/literacy-and-basic-skills/ramaa-measuring-learning-outcomes/. More...

At the upcoming World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (Nagoya, Japan, 10-12 November 2014), UIL and Okayama City will co-host a workshop entitled ‘Local Communities in Action: Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development’.
Through this workshop, we intend to raise the profile of community-based learning spaces and centres among the stakeholders of education for sustainable development. More...

The Ministry of National Education of Romania (MEN) and the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) are organizing the second edition of the “Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference” (FOHE-BPRC 2), in Bucharest, Romania on 24 – 26 November 2014.

The academic papers that will be presented during the conference will tackle one of the nine proposed sub-themes of the event:
1. Internationalization
2. Financing and Governance
3. Excellence and diversification of higher education institutions’ missions
4. Teaching, learning and student engagement
5. Social dimension/ Equity
6. Education, Research and Innovation
7. Quality Assurance
8. The impacts of the Bologna Process on the EHEA and beyond
9. Evidence-based policies in higher education: data analytics, impact assessment and reporting

Following the open call for authors, published on the official website, the Editorial Board selected approximatively 60 papers that will be presented at the conference and further published in two research volumes, these being part of the background documents of the 2015 EHEA Ministerial Conference in Yerevan.
Participation in the event is open for all those interested, within the limits set by logistic capacity . No participation fee is required and additional registration details for this category of participants will be available at the beginning of September 2014 on the official website. More...

The revised version of the “Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area”, commonly known as ESG  has been endorsed by the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) in September 2014.
Now it is subjected to approval by the Ministerial Conference in May 2015, Yerevan (Armenia).
This revised version was proposed by the E4 Group (ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE) in cooperation with EI, BUSINESSEUROPE and EQAR, following the mandate given in the Bucharest Communiqué by the ministers. The revision included several consultation rounds involving both the key stakeholder organisations and ministries. More...

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is organising the European Directors Forum from 27 to 28 November 2014 in Paris.
The forum is designed for “colleagues from across Europe who have strategic responsibility for the fundraising activities in their institution”, and participants will discuss a number of issues including:

• Navigating politics and how to lead the advancement function
• Recruiting, building and retaining a high-performing fundraising team
• Leadership transition, ethics and how advancement functions can work together

For more information, please visit the event website. More...

The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) is holding its 44th European Policy Seminar in Brussels on 4 December, on the subject of “English-medium instruction in Europe”.
This seminar will present, among other things, “the key findings of ACA’s latest (2014) Europe-wide surveys” and will also look at “linguistic quality issues”. More...