On July 8, the European Parliament voted in favour of the Trade Agreement with the US (TTIP), despite protests from constituents. Thus, TTIP Negotiations moved to the 10th Round, which took place in Brussels from 13 to 17 July 2015.
ESU as well as other like-minded organisation and interest groups are concerned about the possible consequences of the negotiations on education and training sectors. We are glad to see that the Parliament voted on Helga Trüpels’ amendement with 373 votes in favour, 336 against and 1 abstention. This means that the European Parliament officially calls the European Commission to exclude non-profit educational services from the scope of the TTIP. More...

On July 2, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) passed Resolution 29/14 on the right to education, including substantially the language we sought on State responsibility to protect higher education from attack. Specifically, the Resolution states at page 4, paragraph 8:
“[The Human Rights Council...] Urges all States to comply with their responsibilities under international law, and also urges them to strengthen the protection of schools and universities, as well as other educational settings, from attacks by reviewing national laws to ensure that attacks on schools and universities are criminalized, where appropriate; investigating attacks on schools and universities, and prosecuting and punishing those responsible, as appropriate; making every effort to collect reliable relevant data with respect to attacks on schools and universities; and providing assistance to victims, on a non-discriminatory basis, towards the full realization of the right to education”. More...

The Steering Committee of the ESU QA Student Experts’ Pool hereby opens a call for 30 members of the ESU Quality Assurance Student Experts’ Pool. In addition to new recruits, the call is also being issued to current members of the ESU QA Pool, who wish to continue their activities as pool members.
Successful applicants will be included into ESU’s quality assurance experts’ pool until 30th of June 2016. Becoming a member of the pool will give eligibility to be nominated by ESU for quality assurance reviews and trainings, and provide an opportunity to gain more knowledge about quality assurance in Europe.
Download Call for ESU QA Student Experts' Pool. More...

According to European Students’ Union newly released publication Bologna With Student Eyes 2015, after more than 15 years, the goals of the Bologna Declaration remain largely unfulfilled. The major challenge for the Bologna Process today from the student perspective is the uneven implementation of reforms and countries’ poor follow-up on previous commitments. Additionally, unrelated, and at times unpopular national reforms have been pushed using the Bologna-name. Cuts in funding have also stopped or delayed the implementation process.
Basic recognition of degrees and qualifications is not yet a reality. More...

When student unions in Sweden was asked which question is of most importance to quality of higher education the answer was clear: pedagogy. For several years the Swedish National Union of Students (SFS) has worked to push the debate on quality to also include the aspect of pedagogy. More...