Formation Continue du Supérieur

Décret n° 2012-197 du 8 février 2012 modifiant le code de l'éducation (partie réglementaire) pour l'application des articles L. 6222-5-1 et L. 6325-4-1 du code du travail. JORF n°0035 du 10 février 2012, page 2372, texte n°29. NOR: MENE1135547D.
Publics concernés : personnes titulaires d'un contrat d'apprentissage ou d'un contrat de professionnalisation, conclus conjointement avec elles par deux employeurs, pour l'exercice d'activités saisonnières.
Objet : permettre, pour les personnes mentionnées ci-dessus, l'inscription à deux spécialités de certificat d'aptitude professionnelle ou de baccalauréat professionnel au titre de la même session d'examen.
Entrée en vigueur : le texte entre en vigueur à compter de la session 2012.
Notice : le décret modifie le code de l'éducation pour tenir compte des articles L. 6222-5-1 et L. 6325-4-1 du code du travail, créés par l'article 6 de la loi n° 2011-893 du 28 juillet 2011 pour le développement de l'alternance et la sécurisation des parcours professionnels. Ces articles prévoient que deux employeurs peuvent conclure conjointement un contrat d'apprentissage (ou un contrat de professionnalisation) avec toute personne remplissant les conditions prévues par les textes, pour l'exercice d'activités saisonnières. Ce contrat peut avoir pour finalité l'obtention de deux qualifications professionnelles. Le code de l'éducation est donc modifié pour permettre, dans le cadre d'un tel contrat, l'inscription à deux spécialités du baccalauréat professionnel ou à deux spécialités de certificat d'aptitude professionnelle au titre de la même session d'examen.
Références : le code de l'éducation, dans sa rédaction issue du présent décret, peut être consulté sur le site Légifrance (http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr).
Le Premier ministre,
Sur le rapport du ministre de l'éducation nationale, de la jeunesse et de la vie associative,
Vu le code du travail, notamment ses articles L. 6222-5-1 et L. 6325-4-1 ;
Vu le code de l'éducation, notamment ses articles D. 337-1 à D. 337-25 et D. 337-51 à D. 337-94 ;
Vu l'avis du Conseil supérieur de l'éducation en date du 17 novembre 2011 ;
Vu l'avis du comité interprofessionnel consultatif en date du 12 décembre 2011,
Décrète :
Article 1
Il est inséré après le deuxième alinéa de l'article D. 337-21 du code de l'éducationun alinéa ainsi rédigé :
« Par dérogation à l'alinéa précédent, les candidats titulaires d'un contrat d'apprentissage conclu en application de l'article L. 6222-5-1 du code du travail, ou d'un contrat de professionnalisation conclu en application de l'article L. 6325-4-1 du même code, peuvent s'inscrire en vue de l'obtention de deux certificats d'aptitude professionnelle à la même session. »
Article 2
Il est ajouté à l'article D. 337-90 du même code un alinéa ainsi rédigé :
« Par dérogation à l'alinéa précédent, les candidats titulaires d'un contrat d'apprentissage conclu en application de l'article L. 6222-5-1 du code du travail, ou d'un contrat de professionnalisation conclu en application de l'article L. 6325-4-1 du même code, peuvent s'inscrire en vue de l'obtention de deux spécialités de baccalauréat professionnel à la même session. »
Article 3
Les dispositions du présent décret entrent en vigueur à compter de la session d'examen 2012.

EADTU 25th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE 2012. The role of open and flexible education in national higher education systems: comparisons and ways forward for widening participation and LLL.
The Open University of Cyprus, having EU Presidency for the second half of 2012, will be hosting EADTU's Annual Conference in Paphos, on 27-28 th September 2012.
About OUC
As of the academic year 2011-2012, the Open University of Cyprus (OUC), the country’s second state university, has an enrolment of over 2500 students and has already developed ten, dynamic Study Courses. Aiming to become an attractive, regional, educational institution, the Open University of Cyprus actively participates in university networks and international organisations.  This initiative encourages the exchange of views on higher education and research at the European and international level. By participating in these networks, OUC promotes policy positions relating to lifelong learning and the development of distance education and establishes partnerships for the exchange of academic staff, administrative personnel and students with other universities, members of the networks.

Conference Supporting documents

Related papers

• Budapest-Vienna Declaration on the European Higher Education Area
• Magna Charta Universitatum
• Sorbonne Joint Declaration
• The Bologna Process 2020 (Leuven 2009)
• Bologna Declaration
• From Bergen to London: the EU contribution
• Lisbon Strategy
• From Bologna to Prague (Lourtie Report)
• Salamanca Convention
• Prague Communiqué
• From Prague to Berlin (Zgaga Report)
• Berlin Communiqué
• Graz Declaration (EUA)
• Copenhagen Declaration
• Maastricht Communiqué
• The Communication of Madrid
  

Lisbon progress reports

• Progress towards the Lisbon Objectives in Education and Training – Indicators and Benchmarks 2008
• Progress towards the Lisbon Objectives in Education and Training - 2006 Report
• Progress towards the Lisbon Objectives in Education and Training - 2005 Report
• Delivering Lisbon Reforms For The Enlarged Union
• Facing The Challenge: Report From The High Level Group Chaired By Wim Kok
• José Manuel Barroso: Growth And Jobs: A New Start For The Lisbon Strategy
• José Manuel Barroso: Creating A Europe Of Opportunities
• The Economic Costs Of Non-Lisbon A Survey Of The Literature On The Economic Impact Of Lisbon-Type Reforms
• Lisbon Action Plan Incorporating Eu Lisbon Programme And Recommendations For Actions To Member States
  

Trend reports on European Higher Education (EUA)

• Trends 2010 Download Document
• Trends V Download Document
• Trends IV Download Document
• Trends III Download Document
• Trends II Download Document
• Trends I Download Document
  

Visions, trends and patterns

• Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly - Realising the full potential of e-learning for education and training. Recommendation 1836 (2008)
• National Reports to the Bologna Process
• Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe
• National Trends in the Bologna Process - Eurydice
  

Quality-related policy documents

• Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area
• A Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area
• Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education (UNESCO)
• Quality in e-learning: Use and dissemination of quality approaches in European e-learning (a study by the European Quality Observatory)
• Guidelines for Quality Enhancement in European Joint Master Programmes (EUA publication)
• Quality Assurance and Accreditation – improving quality and promoting mobility (ESIB)
• Quality Assurance of E-learning (ENQA) 
  

Lifelong Learning -related policy documents

•  European Universities’ Charter on Lifelong Learning (EUA)
• Future on the LLL Programme & Review of the Financial Regulation (EUCI-LLL)
• Europe for lifelong learning (EC, Education and Training)
• Europe lifelong learning programme: key competences for LLL  (EC, Education and Culture)
• Bologna coordination groupe on mobility (Praque 2009)
• Statement by the Bologna Policy Forum 2009
  

Employability-related policy documents

• Working group on employability, Bologna C

See also: Universities and regional development in an open knowledge society sharing innovation and knowledge in European universities, Strategies and business models for lifelong learning, Colloque "Lifelong learning in higher education", Poitiers.

Heutagogy (based on the Greek for “self”) was defined by Hase and Kenyon in 2000 as the study of self-determined learning.
« According to Schön (1983), reflective practice supports learners in becoming lifelong learners, as “when a practitioner becomes a researcher into his own practice, he engages in a continuing process of self-education” (p. 299). Heutagogy’s holistic approach takes into account the learner’s prior learning experiences and the way in which these influence how she or he learns; by considering these past experiences and the learner’s current experience and reflecting upon these, the learner moves into a growth process that has the potential to lead to transformative learning – a process described by Canning and Callan (2010) as “spirals of reflection” (p. 71).
Lisa Marie Blaschke, Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Education, January 2012.
Abstract – Heutagogy, a form of self-determined learning with practices and principles rooted in andragogy, has recently resurfaced as a learning approach after a decade of limited attention. In a heutagogical approach to teaching and learning, learners are highly autonomous and self-determined and emphasis is placed on development of learner capacity and capability with the goal of producing learners who are well-prepared for the complexities of today’s workplace. The approach has been proposed as a theory for applying to emerging technologies in distance education and for guiding distance education practice and the ways in which distance educators develop and deliver instruction using newer technologies such as social media. The renewed interest in heutagogy is partially due to the ubiquitousness of Web 2.0, and the affordances provided by the technology. With its learner-centered design, Web 2.0 offers an environment that supports a heutagogical approach, most importantly by supporting development of learner-generated content and learner self-directedness in information discovery and in defining the learning path. Based on an extensive review of the current literature and research, this article defines and discusses the concepts of andragogy and heutagogy and describes the role of Web 2.0 in supporting a heutagogical learning approach. Examples of institutional programs that have incorporated heutagogical approaches are also presented; based on these examples and research results, course design elements that are characteristic of heutagogy are identified. The article provides a basis for discussion and research into heutagogy as a theory for guiding the use of new technologies in distance education.

Erfolgskonzept Fernstudium: Betreuung, Individualisierung, Methodenmix und Virtualität/ Distance Education as a Recipe for Success: Student Support, Individualization, Mix of Methods and Virtuality.
Die Ausschreibung für Programmbeiträge (CfP) der AG-F-Frühjahrstagung zum Thema Erfolgskonzept Fernstudium: Betreuung, Individualisierung, Methodenmix und Virtualität/ Distance Education as a Recipe for Success: Student Support, Individualization, Mix of Methods and Virtuality ist jetzt öffentlich. Die Frühjahrstagung findet vom 30. Mai bis 01. Juni 2012 an der Universität Hambug statt. Die Tagung wird auch einen internationalen Strang umfassen, bei dem Englisch Konferenzsprache ist. Die Ausschreibung für Programmbeiträge finden Sie hier. Here you can find the Call for Papers. (23.01.12).
Call for Papers
The Section for Distance Education (AG-F) within the German Association for University Continuing and Distance Education (DGWF) will host its annual spring conference from May 30 to June 1 in cooperation with the Center for University Continuing Education of Hamburg University (AWW). The conference will look into the following theme:
Distance Education as a Concept for Success: Student Support, Individualization, Mix of Methods and Virtuality
There will be two strands: one in German and one in English. The keynotes will be held in English. The sessions will be either in German or in English.
Against this background we want to discuss the following aspects and lines of discourse in the
following subsections:
1. Student support
Is student support really key to success in distance learning? Are there research results which proof the predominance of well supported distance learning? What is the meaning of support in times of webbased learning / elearning? Which concepts have been proven valuable and transferable? What are the essential qualifications moderators, tutors, mentors need for a subjectspecific support, what is necessary for student support beyond subjects? How can the quality of student support be evaluated and further developed?
2. Individualisation
Are distance teaching concepts and webbased arrangements more appropriate to serve the individualisation of learning paths than the traditional instructional designs? Is supported distance learning the future? What is needed in order to develop the individual learner to become an expert in his or her individual learning process? What are the follow-up changes in the teacher’s and tutor’s roles and tasks? What are the competences needed and who qualifies the students by what means? How can individualization with web 2.0 and user generated content be brought in line. What significant value should e-portfolios provide regarding documentation and recognition of prior learning and acquired competences? Which concepts are in place to secure and develop quality of individualized learning processes and/or can be recommended?
3. Mix of methods and virtuality
Is mix of methods a set part of the recipe for success in distance learning? Is the good old written course material disused and has virtuality taken over when it comes to transfer content? What are the consequences of virtuality with regard to student support. What is/what will be the role of face-to-face meetings between teachers and students and students among themselves? How can we make sure that mix of methods will not end in itself but stay part of a didactical concept? Which steps of quality assurance and development are appropriate, evaluated and exemplary with regard to mix of methods and virtuality?
Closing date is March 15, 2012. Please send your proposal to: agf-tagungsbeitrag@dgwf.net.

The 7th issue of the ECVET magazine contains
- an editorial by Christian Lettmayr, Acting director of CEDEFOP on the active involvement of social partners in implementing the common European tools on the VET-Agenda;
- an article on the final events of eight of the 1st generation European pilot projects (Call 2008-2012) and the key messages conveyed
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project CPU Europe that is an element of a major reform of the vocational education and training (VET) system in the French Speaking Community of Belgium;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project MENECVET that aims to examine how VET qualifications of the French Ministry of National Education compare with principles of ECVET;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project EASYMetal which develops and tests methods and tools to enhance transparency and permeability at the interface between pre-vocational training and vocational training in Germany;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project ICARE that aims at developing a recognition model in the field of personal care and establish mutual trust among the partner countries involved;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project 2get1care that seeks to develop an approach for inter-professional and transnational transferability of training components in health professions;
- a series of news items;
- an outline of the concept of the joint Final conference of the European pilot projects on 22-23 February 2012.
MENECVET – How do French qualifications of the Ministry of national education compare with ECVET?
Note: This article refers only to those VET qualifications that are governed by the Ministry of National Education.This article is in particular based on presentations of Maryannik Malicot and Martine Paty both from the Ministry of National Education.
What is MENECVET?
The project MENECVET aims to examine how VET qualifications of the French Ministry of National Education compare with principles of ECVET. Based on this comparison the project will develop recommendations to be used for VET qualifications falling under the Ministry of National Education, regarding:
• Description of qualifications and more specifically the description of learning outcomes;
• Organisation and practical arrangements that will enable the recognition of learning outcomes achieved through mobility (international geographical mobility);
• Use of ECVET points.
The project is based on five qualifications, all of the same type and level (vocational leaving certificates EQF 4 – Baccalaureat Professionnel), but covering different sectors (production and services);
The project is structured in three main phases:
• March to December 2011 – an analysis of the legibility of qualifications of the French Ministry of National Education compared with the ECVET Recommendation;
• January to September 2012 – transfer of learning outcomes: does the norm in place in France enable the recognition of learning outcomes abroad and under what conditions;
• August to December 2012 – how to allocate and use ECVET points.
Context
The French Ministry of National Education is the main certification authority for learners in initial VET even though the qualifications of this Ministry can also be achieved by adults (through continuing training or through the validation and recognition of non-formal and informal learning). The Ministry is the competent authority for designing VET qualifications that fall under its competence. This is ensured through national bodies called « Consultative professional committees », (commissions professionnelles consultatives) involving the economic world, that are chaired by the Ministry. It is also the competent authority for defining assessment requirements as well as for awarding VET qualifications. The last competence is devolved to the regional representations of the Ministry – Rectorat (local education authority). Using ECVET terminology, this means that the Ministry is the competent authority for several functions that are engaged in the implementation and use of ECVET.
The rules for designing and awarding VET qualifications are set in a national framework composed of two elements:
• The education code which sets the regulatory framework;
and
• A National guide on the development of vocational qualifications (Guide later in the text)
According to this framework, all VET qualifications must have the following structure and content:
• The professional activities standard which describes the activities and tasks that a holder of the qualification will be able to carry out;
• The certification standard that describes the professional competences expected to be achieved by the graduate. In particular, this concerns the description of competences using active verbs and defining the conditions in which these competences are to be realised in addition to the associated knowledge;
• The assessment standard which is a document that defines the conditions/terms of certification. This part contains the units that constitute the qualification. The assessment regulation and the conditions of assessment (such as the type of assessment, who can assess, etc.);
• Description of the compulsory on-the-job training period. In summary, the qualifications are based on competences and use the structure of units that indicates convergence with the ECVET principles. The objective of this project is to analyse in more detail how the national framework fits with ECVET, to identify points that could be used to update the existing National guide and to develop specific guidelines that will support the use of ECVET for the geographical mobility of learners (particularly in initial VET).
First phase of project work – structure and content of VET qualifications compared to ECVET In the first phase of this project, the five qualifications selected (vocational leaving certificates EQF 4 – Baccalaureat Professionnel), were analysed and compared with:
• The national framework for qualification design and description (the education code which sets the regulatory framework; and the National guide on development of vocational qualifications); and
• The ECVET technical specifications.
The preliminary results of this analysis are summarised as follows:
With regard to the first component of French qualifications’ description, definition of professional activities, this element is not part of the ECVET technical specifications. In the description of French qualifications this is a core element of the qualification design. It describes the objective of the qualification – what the person holding the qualification will be capable to perform in the workplace. This description justifies the existence of the qualification in the eyes of employers and employees’ representatives. It situates the qualification in the reality of the professional field. It sets the basis for understanding the remaining aspects of the qualification and enables discussions about the qualification with stakeholders in France and also partners from other countries. It also gives a clear reference for the assessment of learners: this component of the French framework governing qualifications therefore seems to be an important element in the perspective of ECVET implementation. The analysis of the five qualifications selected for the project showed that certain differences exist in how a part of a qualification is defined and described. In particular the following questions were identified, and will require further consideration:
• What is the unit of analysis for describing professional activities – is it the activity, the task or the basic operation?
• How to group professional activities – according to functions or according to professional situations?
• How to articulate transversal elements that are common to all or many qualifications?
The qualification standard is the core of the qualification. It defines the competences to assess as well as the associated knowledge and groups these into units which are coherent with regard to a given professional situation. The qualification standard is the part of the qualification description in which ECVET meets the national standard. The French rules in this area do not distinguish between the terms knowledge, skills and competence (KSC see the ECVET definition of learning outcomes) but instead use the terminology of competences, aptitudes and capacities as well as associated knowledge.
The analysis of the five qualifications selected for the project showed that there can be semantic differences among qualifications: this semantic aspects will have to be clarified later in the project.
The analysis also showed that the French terminology should not constitute a major obstacle for the use of ECVET in the French context: we can consider that French units are units of learning outcomes, covering all: knowledge, skills and competence. It is also important to underline that in the French context the different components (competences, aptitudes, capacities and associated knowledge) are not considered separately one by one (even though they are separated in the description). The term: competence is seen as an encompassing term - the combination of skills and knowledge resulting in the capacity to carry out a given activity...
The assessment standard of French qualifications systematically contains:
• The assessment regulation which defines how units will be assessed, the assessment mode (e.g. oral, written or practical) and their coefficient (the coefficient gives the weight of each unit in the overall assessment);
• Definition of assessment situations for each unit (list of competences to assess, assessment criteria, duration of the assessment situation, etc.);
• The possibility to assess the unit through either a oneoff final assessment or continuous assessment. Continuous assessment takes into account the assessment made in the workplace. The conditions of continuous assessment (objectives, duration, context – place) are also described in the standard.
Compared with ECVET, this means that there is a clear framework for the assessment (per unit) that leads to certification.
The fact that the option to use continuous assessment exists makes it possible to share the assessment between different actors (potentially including assessors abroad). However, it is necessary to clarify and refine the conditions in which such shared assessment (shared between the training centre and a French company or a foreign training centre/company) takes place. In particular the following questions arise:
• How are we sure of what we assess – is it the competence or the result of professional activities?
• How can we develop trust between assessors who are French teachers and assessors who can be professionals in the enterprise, or assessors ‘abroad’? Consequently how can we develop trust in assessments made ‘by delegation’?
In summary, the first phase led to the following preliminary conclusions:
• the fundamentals of the national framework for designing and awarding qualifications are close to the ECVET specifications. The national framework contains aspects such as the definition of qualification in terms of learning outcomes, grouping of learning outcomes into units, partial delegation of assessment to actors such as training centres, companies and possibly foreign actors competent for such intervention in the future;
• the analysis of specific qualifications showed the need to clarify certain aspects in the French context: review and/or deepen and precise the definition of the concepts (activities, tasks, competences), eliminate some aspects of the norm which currently make the presentation of qualifications somewhat complex to read;
• there is a need to extend and clarify what regulatory, operational and human conditions will enable the extension of the principle of ‘shared assessment’ to other actors without derogating from the principle of a national qualification (i.e. a qualification that is guaranteed to be homogeneous across the whole territory, ensuring that all persons qualified have reached the same minimum requirements).
Next stage of project work
The next stage of this project will analyse the conditions for credit transfer in the French context in particular. It will among other things build on the experience of French organisations involved in earlier ECVET pilot projects such as OPIR, VaLOGreg, Recomfor and others.
CPU- Europe: Certification based on units (Certification par Unités)
Context
CPU is much more than a European project. This project (called CPU-Europe) is an element of a major reform of the vocational education and training (VET) system in the French Speaking Community of Belgium (French speaking Community later in the text). The VET system of the French speaking Community faces a number of important challenges (see below). Since 2010, a reform of the VET system focusing on certification by units (hence the name CPU - certification par unites) is being progressively implemented. This reform is based on the principles of ECVET as well as those of lifelong learning.
See also ECVET Magazine n. 6, ECVET Magazine n. 5, Issue 4, April 2011, Issue 3, January 2011, Issue 2, November 2010, Issue 1, June 2010, Issue 4, April 2010, Issue 3, November 2009, Issue 2, July 2009, Issue 1, April 2009.

New Study Provides Standardized Framework for Understanding Higher Education Institutions in the Middle East. IIE’s groundbreaking study provides baseline for improving quality of higher education in the Middle East and North Africa region.
A new report released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) lays the groundwork for a new classification model for higher education institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries. The report, "Classifying Higher Education Institutions in the Middle East and North Africa: A Pilot Study," was produced by IIE with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and in partnership with the Lebanese Association of Educational Studies (LAES) in Beirut.
While the number of global and country-level ranking and classification systems continues to increase, a regional classification of higher education institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has not been developed. Such a system is particularly needed given the rapid expansion of the higher education sector in the region, as new domestic institutions and branch campuses of overseas institutions emerge and as developments associated with the Arab Spring lead to changes in the governance system of higher education, resulting in the potential for greater international collaboration and educational reform.
"There is no standardized framework for understanding the region's institutions," said Rajika Bhandari, deputy vice president of research and evaluation at the Institute of International Education and the lead researcher for the study. "Having more comparable information such as that provided by our study will lead to a deeper and more transparent understanding of the wide range of institutions in the Arab world and how best to engage with them at a national, regional and global level."
The pilot study, which was initiated in May 2009, surveyed over 300 higher education institutions in seven pilot countries: Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. Egypt was originally included in the study but data was ultimately not available due to the political events unfolding there. The findings from the report were first presented at the 3rd World Innovation Summit on Education in Doha earlier this month. “Many higher education systems in the region are undergoing a transition from old systems to new,” said Adnan El Amine, co-author of the report, and a founding member of the Lebanese Association for Education Studies. "Overall, Arab institutions' involvement at the international level is relatively low. Yet there is a critical need for institutions of the region to engage with those outside, especially as they rebuild their societies after the recent political events and begin to engage a newly mobilized youth population."
The IIE study resulted in a comprehensive classification model—the Classification Model for the Arab Countries (CMAC)—comprised of 77 key institutional and research indicators that fall within the following 11 dimensions: institutional characteristics; teaching and learning profile; curriculum; student profile; faculty profile; financial profile; research involvement; cultural orientation; religious orientation; regional engagement; and international engagement.
The goals of this new classification model are to:
- Help strengthen MENA institutions locally by providing benchmarks and key indicators on which institutions can measure and track their growth and compare themselves to similar institutions.
- Generate international interest in the region’s institutions, leading to deeper linkages between MENA HEIs and other institutions around the world to facilitate knowledge sharing, research collaboration, and institutional capacity building.
- Provide critical institutional-level information and data that prospective students from the MENA region or from other parts of the world can use to select a higher education institution.
The online report is available for purchase at IIE publications and reports, where you can also download the executive summary for free.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
While the number of global and country-level ranking and classification systems continues to expand, a regional classification and assessment of higher education institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has not been developed. Such a system is particularly needed given the rapid expansion of the higher education sector in the region, as new domestic institutions and branch campuses of overseas institutions emerge. As a result, higher education in the Arab countries nowadays is complex and takes disparate forms. Such a situation leads to some confusion in the ranks of Arab educators themselves, as well as among international observers, particularly in terms of meanings and equivalences.
From an international perspective, the varying nature of higher education institutions and degrees in the region has consequences for the way international agencies and higher education institutions can relate to credentials issued in the Arab countries. This is a challenging issue particularly as students’ mobility from Arab countries towards the U.S. and other OECD countries has taken a significant leap in recent years. According to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report, out of a world total of 723,277 foreign students in the USA in 2010/11, 47,963 or seven percent were from the MENA region, an increase of 24 percent over the previous year. In the meantime, classification of higher education institutions is becoming an international necessity, either within a specific country (for example, the Carnegie classification in the U.S., and the UK typology), or within a whole region (the European classification, for example).
The lack of an Arab regional classification or common framework has implications for all of the following stakeholders:
- At the research level: Due to a lack of an empirically developed classification of HEIs, researchers and research agencies are likely to work with an arbitrary selection of higher education institutions in the Arab region, resulting in inconsistent or conflicting results, and unreliable or inappropriate conclusions.
- At the institutional level: The lack of a classification scheme for HEIs in the Arab region also limits the prospects of networking, exchange, mobility and cooperation between institutions, in the region and abroad, of similar profiles and characteristics.
- At the selection level: The paucity of information on HEIs and their lack of accessibility limits the ability of students and the public to make better informed choices regarding their selection of fields of study and subsequent careers.
- At the policymaking level: The lack of precise data on classified higher educational institutions in the Arab region sometimes misleads policymakers and frustrates initiatives for possible cooperation among institutions, regionally and internationally, and creates confusion regarding: transferability of students, faculty mobility, and the establishment of quality standards and regional frameworks for quality assurance.
- At the industry level: The current lack of a classification scheme for HEIs in the Arab region also results in insufficient research funding from the industry and the lack of university-industry partnerships. Without a clear understanding of different types of institutions and their features, HEIs are often mischaracterized and the distinction between research-oriented and teaching-oriented institutions is not always evident.
All this makes the establishment of a classification system for higher education in the Arab countries more urgent.
Recommendations for the Future
Higher education in the MENA region is undergoing a period of rapid change and expansion. Our study and the resulting classification provide the groundwork for further research on developing a common framework that enables a better understanding of the institutions in the region.
The data gathered through our pilot study can be used to conduct in-depth country-level analysis. The data can also be used to further study differences across sub-regions within the larger Arab region. The CMAC assumes certain commonalities and similarities (while accounting of key differences by sector and other criteria), however there is scope to further analyze any sub-regional trends that exist. The data can also be used by HEIs to benchmark themselves within the country and the region.
Finally, although rankings were not the goal of our study, it is conceivable that data from the study can be used to generate rankings of HEIs in the seven pilot countries, especially on the dimensions for which there is more complete and reliable data. This next step would require relative weighting of various indicators, a task that we did not undertake in our analysis as our goal was to present the data in a descriptive way rather than to rank institutions.
In conclusion, it is clear that to develop a comprehensive classification—with more complete information and that could be scaled up to apply to all countries in the region—more time and effort is needed to mobilize countries, ministers, and institutions in the MENA region regarding the importance of gathering high-quality institutional data and of participating in the classifications initiative. Local and regional buy-in is essential or else there is little motivation for governments and institutions to participate and the initiative is viewed as being externally imposed.
One step to mobilize the higher education sector in the region is to share findings from this pilot study at key events in the region with the goal of engaging representatives of the Arab countries that have participated fully in the study as well as representatives of other developing and non-Western countries that have invested in developing classification systems for their higher education sector. One example of this was a highly successful workshop at the recent 2011 WISE conference in Doha, Qatar. The session was attended by over 60 participants from several different countries. There are many good examples from Latin America, Asia, and the former Soviet states of how to develop a shared set of criteria against which to benchmark or compare HEIs, and of how to use this type of institutional data for improving the quality of higher education. Ministers of higher education from the target MENA countries can learn first-hand through the best practices of these other countries that transparency of higher education systems is critical to increasing the quality of higher education in the region, similar to what China set out to do through the Shanghai rankings (now called the Academic Ranking of World Universities or ARWU) which were originally conceived of as a way to improve the quality of Chinese institutions and to position them as world-class.
A current report on higher education in the Arab world would be incomplete without acknowledging the widespread political upheaval in the region and the potential impact of the “Arab Spring” on universities of the region as they reshape themselves to educate a newly mobilized youth population whose understanding of their political, economic and social reality has changed dramatically. What role universities will play in preparing future leaders and the workforce of tomorrow in the region remains to be seen, but it heightens the need, at the most fundamental level, for solid institutional data and information.
The project directors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of participating HEIs and ministries in the MENA region, as well as individual research coordinators in each country, and the overarching support of Carnegie Corporation, without which the project would not have been possible.
See also Lifelong learning as a key to social transformation and education in the Middle East and North Africa, More funding for better education in the Middle East and North Africa analyze the World Bank and the French Development Agency.

Peut-on classer les universités en fonction de leur performance d'insertion?, Jean Bourdon, Jean-François Giret et Mathieu Goudard.
Accéder au document: Peut-on classer les universités en fonction de leur performance.
Résumé
Afin de mesurer la qualité de l'insertion de leurs diplômés, la très grande majorité des universités a développé un système d'observation régulier de l'insertion de leurs étudiants. Plus récemment, sous l'impulsion du MESR, une enquête commune à plus de 70 établissements a été réalisée sur les diplômés de master. Si l'objectif était de proposer aux étudiants une information nécessaire sur leurs débouchés professionnels, est apparue rapidement la tentation de classer les universités en fonction de leur "performance" d'insertion. Le travail proposé dans cet article se veut une contribution à la réflexion sur la pertinence d'une telle mesure à partir des enquêtes existantes. Dans une première partie, nous nous proposons de revenir sur le classement des universités présenté dans les premiers résultats publiés par le Ministère à partir de l'enquête Master 2007. Nous montrons que le poids des effets de structure et des effets régionaux du marché du travail influencent largement ce classement. Dans une seconde partie, nous nous proposons de discuter de la mesure des effets établissements sur l’insertion professionnelle à partir de la littérature existante notamment en économie de l’éducation. Comme on pourra le voir, il apparaît souvent difficile de mettre en évidence des effets nets liés aux établissements, notamment lorsque l’on tient compte des caractéristiques individuelles des étudiants au sein de ces établissements. Enfin, dans une troisième partie, à partir des données de l’enquête Génération 2004 du Céreq sur les sortants des universités, mais également des écoles d’ingénieurs, nous proposons de mesurer l'effet spécifique des établissements sur les salaires des diplômés, en contrôlant les caractéristiques individuelles des étudiants et celles de leur marché local du travail. Pour les différents types d’établissement d’enseignement supérieur, nous montrons que l’effet "établissement" est en général faible ou inexistant : la plus grande partie de la variance des salaires, quelle que soit la formation, est expliquée par des caractéristiques individuelles des diplômés et par la conjoncture sur le marché local du travail où la majorité d’entre eux s’insère. De plus, lorsqu'ils existent, une partie des effets établissements pour les universités s'explique par la part des boursiers sur critères sociaux dans l'établissement, qui a toujours un effet significatif et négatif sur la rémunération des diplômés.
5. Conclusion
Ce travail avait pour objectif de proposer quelques éléments de réflexion concernant la mesure de l’effet propre que pouvaient avoir les établissements d’enseignement supérieur sur l’insertion de leurs diplômés. Le classement proposé dans l’enquête Master 2007 du Ministère a conduit à classer les établissements selon leur performance d’insertion supposée. La prise en compte des effets de structure liés à la composition des établissements et à la territorialisation des établissements conduit à remettre en question la pertinence du critère d’insertion retenu et surtout le classement qui a été publié.
Une autre manière de travailler sur des effets établissement est de proposer des analyses multi-niveaux en tenant compte des caractéristiques des individus et des établissements. Nos résultats issus de l’enquête Génération 2004 montrent que cet effet propre est en général faible: la plus grande partie de la variance des salaires, quelle que soit la formation, est expliquée par des variables individuelles. Quelques variables liées aux établissements ont cependant un effet sur la rémunération de leurs diplômés: le niveau de sélection à l’entrée pour les écoles d’ingénieur, la part d’enseignement chercheur pour les IUT ou la part d’autofinancement pour les universités. De plus, pour les universités, la part des boursiers sur critères sociaux à toujours un effet significatif et négatif sur l’insertion, ce qui montre l’importance pour les établissements de créer du capital social lorsque leurs diplômés n’en disposent pas. Au total, notre travail confirme l’extrême difficulté à évaluer les établissements en fonction de leur performance d’insertion professionnelle: les effets spécifiques aux universités sont extrêmement faibles même si l’analyse que nous avons proposée n’est pas exempte de critiques. Il serait surtout souhaitable de refaire ce travail à partir des données individuelles de l’enquête Master 2007 du MESR, qui permettrait de travailler sur un échantillon beaucoup plus représentatif et homogène au niveau des établissements. On pourrait ainsi tester la pertinence des effets établissements tels qu’ils ont été publiés.
Ces enjeux de la mesure comparée des universités face à l’insertion restent largement liés à l’incertitude entre moyens et résultats dans toute évaluation d’un système éducatif. On souhaiterait des réponses sans ambigüité, du type: tels moyens engagés, donc tels résultats obtenus. Rien n’est pourtant simple, il faut relativiser; on retrouve sous d’autres formes l'expérience des indicateurs de résultats des lycées en France. Ces indicateurs de résultats des lycées, au baccalauréat, possèdent à l’usage une double fonction: rendre compte des résultats du service d'éducation et fournir des éléments pour aider à en accroître l'efficacité.
Ce constat pose la question de l’équilibre entre le critère d'efficacité et celui de justice tel qu'il a été défini par Crahay (2000). Comme pour les lycées, on peut penser que l’établissement supérieur qui doit être mis en avant n’est pas celui où le taux d’insertion est favorable dans l’absolu pour une spécialité, mais celui où un étudiant de cette spécialité se verra mieux inséré sur le marché du travail compte tenu de ce à quoi il aurait dû s’attendre en fonction des ses origines socio familiales, de ses performances antérieures et de son auto estime.

The 6th edition of New in Hedbib has been released. Containing references and abstracts of the latest higher education (HE) research articles and publications worldwide, this resource is produced from HEDBIB, the International Bibliographic Database on Higher Education. It aims at representing all world regions with a focus on IAU’s priority themes - access to higher education, Education for All; intercultural dialogue; internationalisation; research and doctoral education; and sustainable development. Each edition highlights recommended publications. Contact: Amanda Sudic.
The form below allows direct acces to HEDBIB to all. A Member login is only required to additionally access abstracts and to e-mail search results. HEDBIB is a database on higher education systems, administration, planning, policy, and evaluation. It has been maintained by the IAU since 1988 with contributions from UNESCO Headquarters; the European Centre for Higher Education (CEPES); UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP); UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America (IESALC); the American Council on Education (ACE).
Welcome to the sixth edition of New in HEDBIB, a resource containing full references of newly entered publications into HEDBIB. Published five times a year, New in HEDBIB is divided into the six main IAU priority themes: Equitable access and success in higher education; doctoral education; internationalisation; higher education and Education for All; intercultural dialogue; and sustainable development plus Other themes. IAU priority themes are sub-divided by region.
Each issue is supplemented by the IAU montly selection 'We Recommend', which provides a close-up of one or more publications. We hope that you find New in HEDBIB useful and informative. The next issue of New in HEDBIB will be published on 1 April 2012.

In this interview, Paul Rowland of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) explains the importance of increasingly including sustainability in higher education and the leading role that AASHE is taking on that regard.
What is the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)?
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, AASHE, is a member organization that works with higher education institutions primarily in the United States and Canada, to help them through their activities in sustainability. And we have about 850 institutions that are members of AASHE, that means essentially everybody on a campus that is a member, is a member of AASHE, that is 5 to 6 million people. But what we do is we service a node for information transfer. I think that is probably the best way to describe what AASHE does. We try to help institutions learn from one another about how to move forward in sustainability, not only in their operations but also in their curriculum and their other efforts.
How does AASHE contributes to the transformation of HE in the USA?
Our mission has a phrase about empowering higher education to lead the sustainability transformation, and that is what I get up every morning thinking about: How are we going to help empower higher education do that? So a lot of it does have to do with gathering good practices, sharing them trough a bulletin that we put out every week. We send a bulletin to  about eleven thousand subscribers and those subscribers then receive anywhere from thirty to seven days stories about sustainability activities that are going on campuses, and this comes out every week. AASHE also has a resource center that gathers this information and helps bring it together so that campuses can learn what other campuses have done. Everything from what they are doing on their curriculum, new courses, new programs, co-curricular activities, student engagement activities, etc.. But also the operations, what they are doing with their buildings, what activities they are doing for energy conservation or renewable energy production, or water conservation, or what chemicals  they are using on their buildings and grounds.
Everything a university does has something to do with sustainability. So we try to gather as many stories as we can about how institutions are doing these things sustainably and then let that information out to others so that they can learn about sustainability in higher education.
What are the topics in which the HE community in the USA is focusing their efforts to advance sustainability?
I would say the areas regarding climate change. Climate change has obviously become a focus and that ties very directly to energy use and in some of our campuses energy production, because some of our largest campuses are energy producers for heating and cooling and we have seen a lot of advances made in that area,, but over the last few years we have seen more and more of our professors become interested in talking about how they can put sustainability into what they teach. Regardless of what discipline they are in. AASHE has been engaging the professors in training and discussion about how to make sustainability a part of everything that they do on the campus, including their teaching and research.
From your perspective, which are the main barriers for the contribution of HE to sustainability in the USA?
One of the main barriers is that not enough people engage in sustainability education right now, and in some ways that is the biggest barrier for us to move forward to empower higher education to lead the sustainability transformation. So we have probably a core right now of people who are committed to sustainability, who are leading all of these different efforts. We need to double, triple, quadruple those kinds of numbers, and I think that is the challenge we face. How do we bring more the professors, more the staff, and engage more the students in talking about sustainability? On top of that I think we still have a lot of work to do in engaging the leadership of higher education, and particularly the leadership on our government to talk about sustainability as a foundational piece of higher education.
Higher education has a long tradition of not changing very fast and there is an urgency that many of us feel with respect of sustainability: that we need to make changes at a rate of speed that higher education is not use to changing. That is going to require the leadership, the precedence of the universities and the people who answer directly to them to step forward and   agree that sustainability is so important that we have to make that a priority on higher education, that we have to make it a priority on how we run our university, on how we use our moneys, and how we educate the students because the main thing we do in higher education is educate students and we have to be doing  that in a way  that is creating a sustainable world.
About the interviewee
Paul Rowland became the Executive Director of AASHE on August 1, 2009. Paul was one of the founders of the Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University where he served in a variety of capacities including Director of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Education, Coordinator of Environmental Education, and Director of Academic Assessment. More recently he has served as Dean of the School of Education at The University of Montana and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Idaho. He holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from New Mexico State University and an M.S. in Ecology and a B.A. in Biology from Rutgers University.

The European Quality Assurance Network for Informatics Education (EQANIE) is a non-profit association seeking to enhance evaluation and quality assurance of informatics study programmes and education in Europe. It was founded on January 9th, 2009 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
EQANIE develops criteria and procedures for the evaluation and quality assurance in informatics study programmes and education. Furthermore, it develops and maintains a system for the award of a European quality-label for informatics degree programmes as well as its protection and continued further development.
It provides information about events, activities and publications relevant to quality assurance in informatics education and lists study programmes that have been awarded the Euro-Inf quality label. EQANIE maintains contacts and relations to other European or non-European organisations important for the goals of the Association.
It promotes the development of national and regional accreditation bodies.
EQANIE is organises events, seminars, workshops and conferences in its field of activities.
Background
EQANIE is to be seen in the broader political context of the Bologna Process, aiming at the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The Bologna Process is closely related to the – more economically focussed –Lisbon-Strategy and its objective of developing a “European Knowledge Society“.EQANIE was founded in January 2009 to contribute to these objectives.
The Association is part of the follow-up process to the Euro-Inf Project which was co-financed by the European Union under the Socrates Programme. From 2006 until 2008, the Euro-Inf Project established and tested Framework Standards and Accreditation Criteria for Informatics Programmes in Europe.
EQANIE holds full rights of ownership and copyright on the assessment tools developed by Euro-Inf.
Objectives
Main objectives of EQANIE in the area of accreditation and quality assessment are:
    Improving the quality of educational programmes in informatics;
    providing an appropriate “European label” for accredited educational programmes in informatics;
    facilitating mutual transnational recognition by programme validation and certification;
    facilitating recognition by the competent authorities, in accord with the EU directives and other agreements;
    increasing mobility of graduates as recommended by the Lisbon Strategy
Consistent with the framework of the Bologna process, accreditation will distinguish between the first and second study cycle; it will cover informatics degree programmes of all types of Higher Education Institutions (HEI).
The hitherto existing results of the so-called Thematic Networks and the Tuning-project build the ground on which EQANIE’s activities are based. Since participating institutions of EQANIE actively take part in the Network for the Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE) and the Eurobachelor/Euromaster project of the European Chemistry Thematic Network Association (ECTNA), the project particularly takes into account the positive experience and results gathered there.
Constitution Act and Statutes of EQANIE, Version March 07, 2011.