Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Axel Didriksson. Introduction
Resolving the urgent need for a new form of development founded on equality and sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean is strongly dependent on the outcome of strategic decisions currently being taken with regard to public policies on higher education, science and technology, and on the stances that governments adopt regarding participation in the creation of new knowledge platforms and learning experiences.
This view was expressed and universally supported (by more than four million representatives of higher education institutions) in one of the documents forming the basis of discussion at the UNESCO Regional Conference on Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (Gazzola and Didriksson, 2008), held in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in 2008, and in the conclusions reached at the Regional Conference and those outlined in the final communiqué of the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, held in Paris, France, in 2009.
According to these outcomes and conclusions, the past decade has seen some twenty academic, institutional and legislative reforms (some of them at national level) that, in one way or another, have had – and continue to have – a bearing on the construction of a new agenda for discussion between universities, education ministries and government departments. Read more...

The 6th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education (HE), "Let's build transformative knowledge to drive social change", held in Barcelona from 13th to 15th May 2013, gathered more than 325 participants from about 60 countries. In this article we present the main outcomes of the Conference.
The 6th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education (HE), "Let's build transformative knowledge to drive social change",held in Barcelona from 13th to 15th May 2013, gathered more than 325 participants from about 60 countries. More on GUNi Conference general outcomes [here]
The following are brief articles on the main issues debated at the conference. All materials, proceedings, videos, posters and good practices, as well as the complete programme and information on the speakers, can be found [here]. Read more...

The aim is promoting Quality Assurance (QA) as a key indicator of checks and balances for the development of higher education institutions all over the world, and more specifically within the African Region.
The Association of African Universities (AAU) and GUNi-Africa have established an agreement for the encouragement between both institutions of the development and dissemination of the Africa Regional Quality Assurance Framework.
The AAU, a main voice of higher education in Africa, is one of the stakeholders that received the draft report of the study on the establishment of the Africa Regional Quality Assurance framework, distributed by GUNi with intention of seeking comments about it. Such collaboration between the AAU and GUNi-Africa is expected to become a tool for promotion of initiatives on higher education led by African institutions.

The objective of the Conference was to improve in the quality of educational services offered by different type of institutions through the presentation of new tools and experiences.
GUNi was present and participated in the Jornadas Internacionales para la Gestión de la Calidad Educativa (International Conference for Educational Quality Management), which took place last 26-28 September at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (Mexico). The event gathered 400 participants from more than 60 higher education institutions. The attendants at the Conference debated themes related to the social responsibility of universities and their contribution towards a more sustainable society.

If you are working on Community-based research (CBR), engaged scholarship, academic enterprise, knowledge mobilization, implementation science and research utilization, science shops and service-learning, this is your conference!
Call for videos
GUNi is giving the students an opportunity to bring their ideas to the higher education community by making a 2-3 minute video interpreting the statement:

The world we imagine

What world would you like to live in?

Share with us your ideal future!

Call for Good Practices
Sharing experiences to improve practice! We encourage you to contribute with your own experiences.
More information on how to participate is available here.

GUNi Report
The contents of the 5th GUNi Report: “Higher Education in the World 5. Knowledge, Engagement and HE: Rethinking Social Responsibility”, will be discussed at the Conference.  Registration fee includes a free copy of the Report that you will receive when published.

Forum of networks
Your network is invited to participate in envisioning the future of engagement in the meeting of networks that will be held during the Conference under the global dialogue conducted by the “Big Tent Group”.

Parallel meetings
Hold a meeting of your network during or around the dates of the event, GUNi could provide you the facilities and announce your meeting as a side/parallel event.
The 6th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education is focused on knowledge, engagement and higher education. In exploring this contemporary issue, the Conference will attempt to describe ways in which engagement enhances teaching, learning and research and will propose to go beyond the third mission by offering new visions and ways for the future.

Changes in the presidency and secretariat of the regional representation.
GUNi is pleased to announce that the presidency of the Latin American & The Caribbean region (GUNi.LAC) hasbeen assumed by Dr. Axel Didriksson, Associate researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair "University and Regional Integration".
Furthermore, GUNi also announces that Dr. Denise Leite, Permanent Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), will be the new Regional Secretary.
GUNi would like to thank the outgoing members, Rodolfo Pinto and Giovanna Valenti, for supporting the activities of the network in the region, and for their contribution to help us achieve the GUNi goals. For these reasons, and for their undoubted commitment to strengthening higher education, they have been nominated honorary members of the network.

Has your university changed its offer to students recently?
The Open University UK and the Higher Education Academy are working together to develop case studies of excellent global practice in curriculum reform. They are looking for universities across the globe which have large scale curriculum reform and could shine a light on excellent practice. The research will be developed into a resource which will be relevant and useful to higher education institutions global. Actually, those chosen will be used to make recommendations to the UK higher education sector and internationally. The Open University is globally recognized leader in open and distance education, with a strong research reputation. And the Higher Education Academy leads the UK’s development of teaching and learning in higher education, enhancing the quality and impact of teaching and learning. For more information follow this link.

The 8th European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) will take place at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, from 21 to 23 November 2013.
The Forum is organized by the ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE, who have publisghed a call for contributions (papers abnd workshops) from QA (quality assurance) practitioners.
This year, the 2013 EQAF, entitled “Working together to take quality forward” will specifically explore how both individuals and organisations can better understand the role that quality assurance can play in their daily lives, get engaged and work together to take quality forward.
Call for contributions deadline: 2 August 2013
For more information, follow this link.

By Aura Vuorenrinne. Rethinking Education, a strategy presented by the European Commission last November, calls for focusing on 'learning outcomes' - the knowledge, skills and competences that students acquire. The rapporteur of the European Parliament´s (EP) Draft Report, Katarína Neveďalová (S&D, SK), defends adult education and lifelong learning.
- I have summarised the content of the Draft Report to three areas: youth unemployment, partnerships and lifelong learning, Ms Neveďalová said in her presentation in the meeting of the Committee for Culture and Education (CULT) held this week´s Monday, the 17th of June.
She points out that most European countries struggle with youth unemployment and education should support employability. Partnerships between education institutions and businesses as well as with NGO´s should be fostered because non-formal and informal skills can be acquired also that way. Read more...

By Aura Vuorenrinne. Unemployment and financial difficulties change priorities in policy making. EAEA fortifies advocacy work to defend adult education on European level.
Europe is in crisis that is not only financial; there are different levels to it. It is a social crisis: people are getting excluded at the same time as they lose jobs and their money.
- It is also ethical crisis, because people who suffer the most have not caused the crisis, says Gina Ebner, the Secretary-General of EAEA.
In addition, it is a European crisis; which country should pay the costs?
The EAEA Secretary-General and many other speakers spoke at the European Year of Citizens 2013 Conference in Leicester, UK on 7 June 2013. Read more...