Europe needs talented students and researchers in order to achieve its goals for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. For this reason, the European University Association (EUA) welcomes the initiative to revise the Directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing. More...
The level of autonomy of universities in each system was assessed on the basis of the methodology of the EUA autonomy scorecard. The project partners then used this analysis to develop a policy roadmap with concrete actions at national as well as at institutional level in order to foster further reforms. The project has already contributed to legal changes in all three systems, increasing the autonomy of universities in several ways. Furthermore, it helped with building capacity at institutional level thanks to training seminars and toolkits for financial management, governance reforms and human resources management – three key areas of development to enable institutions to make the best use of the newly achieved autonomy. More...
The survey is part of the UNI-SET project on “Mobilising the research, innovation and educational capacities of Europe’s universities in the SET-Plan”. The second phase of the survey was launched last week and will be open until 30 November 2015. So far, 100 universities have provided important information that will contribute to creating a European map and a solid database on energy-related university activities and their future plans. As ‘energy’ is a truly multidisciplinary area, the survey calls for energy-related programmes covering the whole spectrum of knowledge – from the typical science, engineering and technology fields, to economics, social sciences and humanities. More...
Early-bird registration for the 10th European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) is open until 5 October 2015. Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, so register now to secure your place for this year’s Forum, which will take place in London, UK, on 19-21 November 2015, hosted by the Quality Assurance Agency/UCL Institute of Education. More...
EUA has recently conducted a workshop on its U-B Tool (Assessment Tool for University-Business Collaborative Research Partnerships) on the occasion of the Coneeect symposium on Entrepreneurship Education held in Berlin on 10-11 September.
The symposium “Next Step into the Future of Entrepreneurship Education” was organised by Coneeect, an international network of higher education institutions that promotes excellence in entrepreneurship education. The event counted more than 135 entrepreneurship experts and practitioners from all over Europe.
The U-B Tool is an online self-assessment tool for collaborative research partnerships intended for universities, businesses and other non-academic organisations, and has been developed from contributions from both university and industry leaders. More...
On 11 September, the European Commission launched an online consultation on the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures. The Charter defines non-regulatory principles and guidelines that can be used, on a voluntary basis, in the definition of rules and conditions for access to research infrastructures.
The Charter was developed by a working group coordinated by the European Commission and with the collaboration of the ERA Stakeholders (EUA, CESAER, EARTO, LERU, NordForsk, Science Europe), ESFRI and e-IRG. Specifically, EUA’s input to the development of the Charter was based on the recommendations of its Research Policy Working Group (RPWG), which were adopted by the EUA Council. The working group responsible for preparing the Charter completed a first version of the document in December 2014 which was later published in July 2015. More...
A recently published report on mobility impacts on UK undergraduate students suggests, somewhat surprisingly, that the length of time spent abroad as part of degree studies does not have a significant influence on the perceived benefits of the experience. The study, commissioned by the UK Higher Education International Unit and the British Council, examined what internationally mobile students who have pursued either study abroad, volunteering or traineeship placements have gained from international mobility. The results are based on an online survey of 2 842 first-degree students in 37 institutions and on focus groups in eight of these institutions. The findings reveal that students participating in very short mobility programmes of a few weeks in duration perceive similar benefits associated with time spent abroad as students completing a semester or a full academic year abroad. Specifically, both groups credit their mobility experience for developing independence, intercultural awareness and a greater probability of long-term employment abroad. Moreover, the study indicates that almost all students who have spent time abroad are keen on repeating the experience. More...
Earlier this month at the Joint Conference in Promoting Excellence through Enhanced EU-China Researcher's Mobility and Cooperation in Beijing, Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, and Wan Gang, Chinese Minister for Science and Technology, introduced a new co-financing mechanism for EU-China joint research and innovation activities. The establishment of the co-funding mechanism follows the agreement reached at the 17th EU-China Summit, held on 29 June 2015 in Brussels.
Press releaseHorizon 2020 guide for China. More...
The number of Russian degree students in Finnish higher education institutions has grown rapidly over the last years. Whereas in 2010 the number of Russian students pursuing a degree in Finland was 1 776, the latest statistics on student mobility in Finland show that Russia is clearly the number one sending country with 3 044 degree students in 2014. The total number of international degree students in Finnish higher education institutions in 2014 was 20 255, with China (1 963 students) and Vietnam (1 619 students) completing the top three sending countries. Student exchange with Russia has remained stable over the last years with 333 students from Finland studying in Russia and 483 students from Russia studying in Finland in 2014, with study periods lasting from 3 to 12 months.
More information about the FIRST programme can be found here. More...
The Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) has analysed all 42 applications for the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) submitted by Swedish institutions in 2013 to determine how the institutions organise their work with respect to internationalisation in general and mobility in particular.
Results of the analysis show that Swedish institutions have over 11 000 agreements with foreign institutions in total, and more than 8 000 of these are within Erasmus. The activity is generally higher within the agreements that institutions have with partners in non-Erasmus countries. Most Swedish universities show an imbalance between the number of incoming and outgoing students, with a significantly higher number of incoming students. Although institutions claim that they aim for a greater balance, they have more measures in place to support incoming than outgoing students.
On the basis of the analysis, the Swedish Council for Higher Education recommends that the questions in future ECHE applications are simplified and clarified in order to obtain comparable answers to the questions. Many of the questions are vague and cover multiple aspects at the same time, while the space for answers is limited. Moreover, there is a lack of definitions and explanations for some of the terms used. This limits the possibilities for comparison and makes it difficult to assess the quality of the applications. With the above reservations on the design of the questions, the ECHE applications should constitute a good basis for self-evaluation as well as monitoring of the internationalisation work in the institutions.
The report (in Swedish, with a summary in English) can be downloaded here. More...
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