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On the occasion of International Literacy Day, an International Conference on “Girls’ and Women’s Literacy and Education: Foundation for Sustainable Development” took place in Dhaka on 8 September 2014. It was organised by the Government of Bangladesh in partnership with UNESCO and in support of the United Nations Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative. The inaugural session was attended by around 2,000 participants, including the Prime Minister of Bangladesh as the Chief Guest, the Director-General of UNESCO as Guest of Honour, eight Ministers and Deputy Ministers, representatives of civil society organisations, bilateral donors, UN agencies and a big group of school children. During this session, the 2014 UNESCO Confucius and King Sejong Literacy Prizes were awarded to programmes from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, South Africa/USA and Spain. More...

EUA’s Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, a milestone that has been marked by the launch of a new publication and an event in Brussels on 18 September.
Created in 1994, IEP is an independent membership service of the European University Association (EUA) which has carried out over 300 institutional evaluations in higher education institutions (HEI), in Europe and worldwide, and a number of system-level evaluations in countries such as Ireland, Portugal and Romania. The mission of IEP is to support HEIs and systems in developing their capacity for change through the process of institutional evaluation.
The new publication, entitled “A twenty-year contribution to institutional change: EUA’s Institutional Evaluation Programme” brings together a series of papers and articles that have been provided by a panel of authors who have been involved with the Programme over the last two decades. More...

EUA’s Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) is to prepare a new policy initiative designed to set the agenda for doctoral education in the next decade.
Since the publication of EUA’s Salzburg Principles in 2005 and the Salzburg Recommendations in 2010, European universities have developed a common vision for developing institutional structures for doctoral education, mostly through doctoral schools. More...

On 16 September, the European Commission (EC) presented its latest European Research Area (ERA) Progress Report, which aims to provide an update on progress towards the ERA priorities. The report is accompanied by the ERA facts and figures 2014 publication which includes a section with details of actions carried out by EUA and other European organisations involved in the ERA Stakeholder platform.
To complement the ERA Progress Report, EUA has also published this week further details of its recent ERA-related activities and which highlight the contribution of universities to achieving the ERA goals.
According to the European Commission, its 2014 ERA Progress Report published this week confirms that the ERA partnership between member states, research stakeholders and the Commission has made good progress in delivering ERA. More...

EUA is currently coordinating the EUREQA project* (“Empowering Universities to fulfil their responsibility for Quality Assurance”) which aims to support universities in the Western Balkans in developing their internal QA systems. In the context of this project, the EUA publication, “Examining Quality Culture” (parts II and III) has been translated into Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Meanwhile, the third EUREQA training workshop took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 4 to 5 September.
“Examining Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions” (EQC) was a project funded by the European Commission and coordinated by EUA (2009-2012), with the aim of identifying internal quality assurance processes in place in institutions, focusing in particular on the implementation of part 1 of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). More...

The European Commission, in partnership with the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) and the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations, will organise this thematic University-Business Forum focusing on cooperation between higher education and business.
The event, that will take place in Berlin, Germany, from 20 to 21 November 2014, will include plenary sessions and parallel sessions that will focus on a number of themes such as:

• Dual Study Programmes – Combining Academic and Professional Learning
• Adapting Higher Education to Lifelong Learning
• The Impact of University-Business Cooperation
• Higher Education and Entrepreneurship

The event looks to bring together policy makers and representatives from business, higher education and public authorities from across Europe.
More information on the event, programme and how to register is available here. More...

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published the latest (2014) edition of its “Education at a Glance – OECD Indicators” publication, which “provides data on the structure, finances, and performance of education systems in the OECD’s 34 member countries, as well as a number of partner countries”.
More information, including country notes, multilingual summaries, and the full publication, are available on the OECD website. More...

EURASHE, the European Association of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that offer “professionally oriented programmes and are engaged in applied and profession-related research”, are co-organising a Seminar on Professional Higher Education (PHE) entitled “Building bridges for a more professional higher education” in Otočec, Slovenia, on 16 and 17 October 2014.
For more information or to register, please visit the event website. More...

The 41st Bologna Follow Up Group Meeting was hosted by the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research in cooperation with the Free International University for Social Studies (LUISS) and was marked with the opening speeches of the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research, Ms. Stefania Giannini, the Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani as well as the Armenian Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Armen Ashotyan.
Among other issues, the Ministers stressed the importance of the Bologna Process and noted that the political vision behind the Bologna reforms is still relevant.  It was also highlighted that there is a need of the cooperation of the EHEA countries since this idea lies at the root of the Bologna Process. Last but not least the important role of education in unrecognised territories was noted as a significant issue for further deliberations.
As for the upcoming Yerevan Ministerial Conference and the Fourth Bologna Policy Forum, Mr. Asotyan ensured that the best conditions will be provided for the participants. More...