With the Refugees Welcome Map, EUA aims to showcase and document the commitment of higher education institutions and tertiary education sector organisations in supporting refugee students, academics and university staff. Their initiatives and activities will be presented in an interactive map on 29 February 2016. More...
RPWG focuses on EU research and regional innovation
The discussions covered a broad range of topics, including developments on the European Research Area (ERA), forthcoming work of EUA’s Expert Group on Science 2.0/Open Science, and progress on the FP7 UNI-SET project. Particular attention was paid to preliminary discussions on the future EU Research Framework Programme (FP9; 2021-2027). In this respect, RPWG members took stock of outcomes of the ex-post evaluation of FP7, the 2015 Lund Declaration, discussions of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Commission’s (EC) Horizon 2020 mid-term review. EUA is currently conducting a survey for its membership to collect evidence of their experience, with a view to the mid-term review of Horizon 2020. More...
ERC announces winners of Consolidator Grant competition
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 585 million euros to more than 300 mid-career scientists. The winners of the 2015 Consolidator Grant competition will receive up to two million euros each to consolidate their research teams and develop their innovative ideas. More...
Lithuania: An experimental “class voucher” methodology aimed at solving education funding problems will be tested
The financing principle “the money follows the pupil” or better known as the “pupil voucher” implemented in Lithuania has been criticised for a number of years. With the decreasing number of pupils in schools, particularly in rural areas, this fails indeed to ensure equal financing. In fact, it often encourages educational establishments to compete with each other by simply reducing the requirements for students rather than improving the quality of education, as schools are interested in attracting a pupil and so the “pupil voucher”. More...
Is money the solution to widening participation in higher education?
What students pay to study, and the support they receive, has been highlighted by Eurydice as a key aspect of the social dimension of higher education. Whatever the economic and political reality in a country, issues about fees are often highly charged, and recent student protests over proposed fees in South Africa are one recent case to illustrate this point. Altering the balance of fees and support is one of the key levers that governments are able to pull in an age when higher education institutions enjoy substantial autonomy. But in which direction should the levers be pulled to help the disadvantaged. More...
Study on foreign language proficiency and employability published
This study, commissioned by the European Commission’s department
for jobs, social affairs and inclusion, highlights the link between foreign languages skills and employability in EU countries.
It analyses how it changes across countries, economic sectors and job roles and gives recommendations on further support and diversification of language learning, and certification and assessment procedures.
Promoting gender studies in the EU's neighbours
Launched in 2015, the GeSt project (Gender Studies Curriculum: A Step for Democracy and Peace in EU-Neighbouring Countries with Different Traditions) is helping universities in Ukraine, Morocco and Tunisia introduce Master's programmes with specialisations in gender issues in social and behavioural sciences. More...
New study on the diversity of the teaching profession in Europe
The European Commission has just published a new study on the diversity within the teaching profession with regard to migrant and/or minority background. Although data is limited, teaching staff with migrant and minority backgrounds are underrepresented compared to the actual diversity of learners in many European countries. The study identifies and analyses the existing statistical data, explores the prevalence of the different barriers to teacher diversity, maps the policies and initiatives implemented across Europe and examines the evidence on the effectiveness of the policies. More...
EU-backed researchers prove Einstein right on gravitational waves
The GraWiToN project, contributor to this breakthrough, is an Initial Training Network, funded under Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, coordinated by the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), in which 14 EU-supported young researchers participate. The researchers were involved in the data analysis and the technological development necessary for this much-awaited scientific milestone. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellows working on the project come from host institutions in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. More...
February focus on schools, diversity and inclusion
Each month the School Education Gateway
takes a different theme or policy area and publishes news articles, expert opinion pieces, examples of good practices and other resources for teachers, schools, and anyone involved in school education in Europe and beyond.
New features this February include an article highlighting good practices from Erasmus+ and eTwinning projects relating to inclusion, diversity and active citizenship, and a collection of approaches specifically related to newly-arrived migrants. More...