Call for contribution - The 8th European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) will take place at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, on 21-23 November 2013
Through a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, the 2013 EQAF, entitled “Working together to take quality forward”, will combine practice-oriented or research-based discussions that will take place in the paper sessions and workshops with presentations of current developments in quality assurance. This year the Forum 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.
The Forum organisers, ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE, have now opened a call for contributions from QA practitioners in higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies, students, institutional leaders and researchers in the field. Two types of contributions are sought: papers and workshops.
The deadline to submit contributions is 2 August 2013. For more information, please consult the call here.
EQAF 2013 Submission Form Paper
EQAF 2013 Submission Form Workshop
Further information on the event, including the programme and registration information will become available in summer 2013.
Please do not hesitate to contact Ivana Juraga (ivana.juraga@eua.be) should you have any questions.

45th EUCEN Conference, Charmey, Switzerland (29-31 May 2013)
The 45th EUCEN (European University Continuing Education Network) conference will take place in Charmey, Switzerland, from 29 to 31 May 2013. The theme of the conference is “Transferring Knowledge in a Globalised World: A University Lifelong Learning Responsibility”.
The conference is jointly organised by the Continuing Education Centre of the University of Geneva and the European University Continuing Education Network.
For more information on the programme or how to register, please visit the website.

Les femmes et les hommes qui font l'université - Quelles politiques de ressources humaines pour l’université de demain? Colloque annuel de la CPU – Rennes, les 15, 16 et 17 mai 2013.
Après 5 années de mise en œuvre de la LRU (loi libertés et responsabilités des universités),  une nouvelle loi est en préparation pour l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche  de notre pays. Ces évolutions s’opèrent dans un contexte économique fragilisé et un climat d’inquiétude diffus, c’est pourquoi la CPU juge nécessaire de placer au cœur de la réflexion collective la politique des ressources humaines des établissements, et au premier plan les préoccupations et les attentes des personnels des universités.
Se retrouveront à Rennes tous les acteurs de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche: présidents d’université, de PRES et responsables d’établissements, organisations des personnels et des étudiants, recteurs, représentants des ministères et des agences d’évaluation (France, Europe), ainsi que les principaux porte-parole du monde socio-économiques et des collectivités territoriales.
3 grandes séances plénières et 10 ateliers permettront aux  participants de nourrir une réflexion collective sur la gestion des ressources humaines, car au-delà du cadre de l'enseignement supérieur et de recherche c'est la question du devenir du service public et des personnels qui le font vivre qui est posée.
« Comment construire une politique de ressources humaines ambitieuse, qui laisse toute sa place au dialogue social, dans un contexte budgétaire contraint et avec des structures qui se diversifient (PRES ou communauté d'universités et établissements, Universités fédérales...) ? »
« Comment assurer la cohérence d'une politique de ressources humaines au sein des établissements, alors que les statuts se sont multipliés, que la précarité chez les jeunes chercheurs augmente sans véritable perspective et que le recours aux vacataires est difficilement encadré ? »
« Comment concilier évolution des missions des universités, des enseignants chercheurs, des personnels BIATSS avec la rigidité des statuts actuels et des mécanismes d'évaluation ? »
« Comment articuler les compétences des universités, de l'État et des autres acteurs, comme les régions, en matière de ressources humaines ? »
Autant de questions sur lesquelles la CPU aura, à l’issue de ce colloque, des propositions concrètes et adaptées aux besoins et à la diversité des établissements.
Télécharger le communiqué au format PDF.
Télécharger le programme.
Consulter les fiches ateliers.
Voir aussi Les femmes et les hommes qui font l’université.

The 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) has announced several high-ranking speakers to be present during the event on May 16th and 17th at the Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy.
The 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) has announced several high-ranking speakers to be present during the event on May 16th and 17th at the Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. Figures such as the esteemed Prof. Dr. Rory McGreal and Prof. Dr. Fred Mulder, both UNESCO chairs for Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as Christian-Friedrich Lettmayer, Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), will contribute their experience to the conference. Their support of LINQ’s continuing mission to examine the intersections between learning innovations and quality will provide an excellent framework for the state-of-the-art research and project work collected through the LINQ call for papers and projects, ended on March 4th. For more information on specific registration requirements and other matters, please visit the conference website at www.learning-innovations.eu.

Dans le cadre de la 4ème édition du Colloque Pédagogie et Professionnalisation organisé par l’ADIUT (Assemblée des Directeurs d’IUT), les acteurs des IUT sont invités à échanger sur le thème de l’évaluation.
Au programme, conférences plénières et ateliers, aux cours desquels quatre thèmes seront traités:

• l’évaluation du Projet Personnel et Professionnel,
• l’évaluation des enseignements, des formations et démarche qualité,
• l’évaluation des étudiants: formes et spécifités en IUT et place du numérique,
• les aspects multidimensionnels de l’évaluation dans le cadre des stages, de l’alternance et de la VAE.

Pour cette quatrième édition, il s’agit de poursuivre les réflexions initiées précédemment dans le cadre de la refonte des Programmes Pédagogiques Nationaux, en s’intéressant à une des dimensions incontournables accompagnant l’acte pédagogique: l’évaluation. En effet, au cours des dernières années, les pratiques d’évaluation ont évolué et se sont développées dans l’ensemble des domaines des IUT.
Le colloque sera ainsi l’occasion de s’interroger sur les liens entre pédagogie,  professionnalisation, technologie et évaluation des étudiants, dans le cadre des nouveaux programmes de DUT. Si l’on a pu conclure des précédents colloques à une spécificité de la formation en IUT alors il convient d’en interroger les implications en terme de pratiques évaluatives.
Le colloque Pédagogie et Professionnalisation, organisé par l’ADIUT se propose d’être un espace de réflexions et d’échanges sur des thématiques à la fois fondamentales et en prise avec l’actualité du monde éducatif et des IUT. Pour l’édition 2013, l’Assemblée Régionale des IUT (ARIUT Rhône-Alpes) a été choisie pour accueillir ce colloque, sous le pilotage de l’IUT Lumière Lyon 2.

14e Conférence générale de l’AIU: Présentations et documents
L'AIU a tenu sa 14e Conférence générale du 27 au 30 novembre 2012 à San Juan, Porto Rico, en partenariat avec l'Université interaméricaine de Porto Rico, établissement Membre de l'AIU qui célébrait son 100e anniversaire.
Réunissant près de 400 participants venus de plus de 75 pays, la Conférence générale a élu le Président et le conseil d'administration de l'AIU pour la période 2012-2016 et les participants ont entendu des présentations et discuté du thème de l'enseignement supérieur et de l'agenda mondial, en se concentrant sur 3 axes majeurs: comment les établissements d'enseignement supérieur contribuent-ils aux défis posés à l'humanité?; les modèles dominants de financement et la manière dont ils orientent l'enseignement supérieur et la recherche; l’agenda de l’internationalisation de l'enseignement supérieur.
Au cours des sessions parallèles, des sujets tels que les ressources éducatives libres, la mobilité académique, l'éthique dans l'enseignement supérieur, l'accès équitable et la réussite, les partenariats public-privé, les questions relatives au genre dans l'enseignement supérieur, l'enseignement doctoral et de nombreux autres thèmes ont également permis aux participants de partager leurs points de vue et bonnes pratiques.
Le programme final de la Conférence, les documents présentés au cours des sessions sur les affaires de l’AIU et toutes les présentations reçues par le Secrétariat sont maintenant disponibles sur la page web de la Conférence générale. L'AIU remercie particulièrement tous les conférenciers et présidents qui ont pris part à cet événement et qui ont initié ces échanges intéressants et enrichissants. L'AIU est maintenant en train d'organiser la Conférence internationale de 2014 qui se tiendra à l'Universidad Cientifica del Perú en mars 2014 et qui portera sur le thème du Développement durable et connaissances traditionnelles autochtones. Nous espérons que vous serez en mesure d'être avec nous au Pérou!
IAU 14th General Conference: Documents and Presentations
The IAU held its 14th General Conference from 27 to 30 November 2012 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in partnership with the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, an IAU Member institution which celebrated its 100th Anniversary. Bringing together close to 400 participants from over 75 countries, the General Conference elected the 2012-2016 IAU President and Administrative Board and participants heard presentations and discussed the theme Higher Education and the Global Agenda, focusing on 3 major areas: how higher education institutions address the challenges facing humanity; the nature of the current dominant funding models and where they are steering higher education and research; and the agenda for internationalization of higher education. In concurrent sessions, topics such as open educational resources, academic mobility, ethics in higher education, equitable access and success, public-private partnerships, gender issues in higher education, doctoral education and numerous others were among those on which participants also shared their perspectives and good practices. The final Programme of the Conference, the documents presented in the Business Sessions and all the presentations received by the Secretariat are now available on the General Conference webpage. The IAU thanks particularly all the Speakers and Chairs who took part in this event and who initiated such interesting and enriching exchanges. The IAU is already beginning its planning for the 2014 International Conference which will be held at the Universidad Cientifica del Perú in March of that year and will address the theme of Sustainable Development and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge. We hope that you will be able to join us in Peru!

This edition is focused on Knowledge, Engagement & Higher Education. The Conference will provide visibility and will critically examine one of the most significant trends: the growth of the theory and practice of engagement as a key feature in the evolution of higher education.
In the Conference, GUNi aims to approach the challenge of engagements by higher education institutions in the larger society in an integrated manner: it will explore ways in which engagement enhances teaching, learning and research;  it will explore ways in which engagement enhances teaching, learning and research; it will approach engagement in ways that accept the multiple sites and epistemologies of knowledge, as well as the reciprocity and mutuality in learning and education through engagement.
In exploring this contemporary issue, the Conference will attempt to describe how university-community engagement is evolving nowadays and will propose to go beyond by offering new visions and ways for the future. GUNi invites the international academic community to jointly analyze how to build transformative knowledge to drive social change.
You are cordially invited to attend Conference or nominate the member(s) of your institution. In this space you can find information regarding the conference, as well as details of its programme and contents.
Presentation
The 6th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education and the 5th GUNi Report are focused on Knowledge, Engagement & Higher Education. They will analyze how to build transformative knowledge to drive social change. In exploring this contemporary issue, the Report and the Conference will attempt to describe how it is evolving nowadays, and will propose to go beyond the narrow and compartmentalized approach to engagements of higher education by offering new visions and ways for the future.
In the Conference, GUNi aims to approach the challenge of engagements by higher education institutions in the larger society in an integrated manner:  it will explore ways in which engagement enhances teaching, learning and research; it will approach engagement in ways that accept the multiple sites and epistemologies of knowledge, as well as the reciprocity and mutuality in learning and education through engagement.
The Conference will look at our changing understanding about who the agents of knowledge creation are, and how the creation, distribution and use of knowledge are linked to our aspirations for a better world.  It will offer us elements of a vision for a renewed and socially responsible relationship between higher education (HE), knowledge, and society. It will also take into account the current conceptualization of the role of higher education in the process of knowledge production.
In this sense, one aim of the Conference is to call upon policy-makers, leaders and practitioners of HEIs around the world to ‘rethink’ social responsibilities of higher education and to become a part of a hub of societal innovation. We aim to move towards a more just, equitable and sustainable planet over the next decades. Thus, the Conference hopes to present experiences and ideas that suggest directions for transformation of higher education (and its diverse institutions) to exercise its social responsibility to citizens and societies locally and globally.
The other aim of the Conference is to provide visibility and to critically examine one of the most significant trends in higher education over the past 10-15 years: the growth of the theory and practice of engagement as a key feature in the evolution of higher education.
Facilitating socially engaged universities is paramount to the necessary creation of knowledge. The practices and structures of engagement are rich and continually evolving. Some scholars speak of a Community-University Engagement movement (Talloires; Holland, 2005), of service learning (Campus Compact; McIlraath and Mac labhrainn, 2007), of community-based research (Strand et al, 2003a/b), of engaged scholarship (Boyer, 1996; Fitzgerald et al, 2012), of community-university research partnerships (Hart et al, 2007; Hall, 2011), and of knowledge mobilization and its variants, such as knowledge translation, impact or utilization (Levesque, 2010, blog).
GUNi invites the international academic community to actively participate in the Conference in an open space to share and learn together, with the conviction that it is by taking action that we can improve real changes in education and enlarge the transformative awareness of our societies.
References
Boyer, E. L. (1996) The Scholarship of engagement, Bulletin of the American Arts and Sciences, 49(7), pp 18-33
Campus Compact web site http://www.compact.org/
Fitzgerald, Hiram, Karen Bruns, Steven T. Sonka, Andrew Furco,  Louis Swanson (2012) “The Centrality of Engagement in Higher Education” in Journal of Higher EducationOutreach and Engagement, 2012, 16(3).
Hall, B. et al (2011) “Towards a Knowledge Democracy Movement: Contemporary Trends in Community University Research Partnerships” in Special Issue of Rizoma Freireano on “Global Developments in Community University Research Partnerships. Vol 9.
Hart, A., Maddisson, E. and Wolff, D. (2007) Community-university partnerships in practice. Leicester, UK: National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education
Holland, B. (2005) Scholarship and Mission in the 21st Century University: The Role of Engagement Keynote Address to the Australian Universities Quality Agency
Forum, 5 July, Sydney Australia.
Levesque (2010) knowledge Mobilization (Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/zbPyME)
McIlrath, L. & Mac Labhrainn, I. (Eds.) (2007) Higher Education and Civic Engagement: International Perspectives. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Talloires Network web site - http://www.tufts.edu/talloiresnetwork/

Learner Journeys - Origins, Experiences,and Destinations.
FACE Annual Conference 2013 Plymouth University, 3-5 July 2013.
General Information
The Forum for Access and Continuing Education (FACE)'s Annual Conference will be hosted by Plymouth University at Plymouth, Devon, England from 3rd-5th July 2013 inclusive.
Further details about the conference regarding subject themes,submission of abstracts/posters, social calendar, accommodation, booking information, travel and information about Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall will be posted to this website in October 2012.
The conference will take place in the Rolle Building at Plymouth University, UK. Maps (including campus maps) are available here.
FACE aims to facilitate - through avenues such as conferences, seminars, workshops and publications - the exchange and dissemination of information and practice to encourage continuing education and lifelong learning between practitioners and providers. FACE offers both institutional and individual membership and this provides access to monthly e-Bulletins, occasional papers and reports; access to thematic groups and access to other national and international members plus special rates at all events including the Annual Conference.

After 5 years of hosting the INQAAHE Secretariat by NVAO the contract between INQAAHE and NVAO will come to an end on 30 June 2013. Therefore, the INQAAHE Board is seeking expressions of interest to host the Secretariat from July 2013 to December 2015. The contract between INQAAHE and the hosting agency may be prolonged for a second term until June 2018.
If you are interested in hosting the INQAAHE secretariat from July 2013, please let us know!
INQAAHE member agencies are invited to express their interest in hosting the INQAAHE Secretariat by 1 December 2012 by sending an expression of interest to the secretariat (secretariat@inqaahe.org). In the attachments you will find the details of the Call for expressions, as well as the Secretariat-specifications.
Call for EOI to host the INQAAHE Secretariat. Secretariat-specifications.