On 24 January, ACA held the 2013 edition of its popular What’s new in Brussels? seminar. Despite admitting the record number of 150 participants, the event was oversubscribed. We apologise to those who did not manage to get a place anymore.
The seminar presented participants with the state of play in the legislative process over the Erasmus for all Programme and its counterpart in the field of research, Horizon 2020, amongst others. The news came right from the lion’s mouth, i.e. key staff of the European Commission, such as Director Jordi Curell. Some participants deplored that agreement on some key issues – not least of which the budget – had still not been reached between the member state governments and the European Parliament. One highlight of the seminar was the presentation of the work of NGO Empower European Universities, by former Dutch education minister and World-Bank Vice-President Jo Ritzen.  ACA held the seminar in a new venue, where all 2013 seminars are going to take place.
The second ACA European Policy Seminar is going to take place soon, on 14 March. It is going to be devoted to recent developments in Indian higher education and cooperation between India and Europe. One of the many distinguished speakers will be Phil Baty, the editor at large of Times Higher Education, who is also in charge of the global league table of Times Higher Education.  Registrations were opened two weeks ago. Coming soon is also the ACA annual conference, which will take place in The Hague (the Netherlands) from 9 to 11 June. Registrations will open soon.
ACA – What’s new in Brussels?
ACA – Higher Education in India: Recent developments and relations with Europe.

Il y aurait des métiers de filles et des métiers de garçons? Les filles ne seraient pas assez fortes physiquement? Les garçons ne sauraient pas s’occuper des enfants?
Afin de dépasser les idées reçues et de faire évoluer les comportements, l’Etat (Délégation régionale aux droits des femmes et à l’égalité, Direction régionale des entreprises, de la concurrence, de la consommation, du travail et de l’emploi) et la Région Alsace, avec le soutien du Fonds social européen, ont mis en place trois Prix. Ils récompensent et valorisent filles et garçons qui ont fait le choix de diversifier leurs projets professionnels.
Seulement 12% des personnes en emploi évoluent dans un milieu mixte. Certains secteurs sont encore principalement représentés par des femmes (santé, social, éducation…) ou par des hommes (bâtiment, industrie…).
C’est pourquoi l’Europe (Fonds social européen), l’Etat (la Direction régionale des entreprises, de la concurrence, de la consommation, du travail et de l’emploi, la Délégation régionale aux droits des femmes et à l’égalité, le Rectorat), la Région Alsace et les partenaires s’engagent pour faire évoluer les comportements.
Trois Prix encouragent la diversification des choix d’orientation et participent à une plus grande mixité professionnelle.
Comment psotuler?
Téléchargez le dossier de candidature sur www.lesmetiersnontpasdesexe.fr ou demandez un exemplaire aux contacts cités. Renvoyez votre dossier complété avant le 31 juillet de l’année en cours.
Voir le site lesmétiersnontpasdesexe, Communiqué pour le prix et le Dépliant.

La Commission européenne se mobilise pour la formation et l'emploi, notamment des jeunes. Conformément aux demandes du Conseil européen et du Parlement européen, la Commission a inclus dans son "Paquet emploi jeunes" une recommandation demandant aux Etats membres de mettre en place une "Garantie pour la jeunesse". Celle-ci permettrait à tous les jeunes de se voir proposer une offre d'emploi, un complément de formation, un apprentissage ou un stage dans les 4 mois suivant leur sortie de formation ou d'emploi. En parallèle, la Commission a lancé le Panorama européen des compétences, un site web indiquant, en termes quantitatifs et qualitatifs, l'offre et la demande de compétences à court et moyen terme. Cette 1ère version du site est, à ce jour, uniquement diffusée en anglais, à destination principale des chercheurs, décideurs et professionnels.
Recommandation eupéenne "Garantie pour la jeunesse". Site Web Panorama européen des compétences.

The ECA Winter Seminar will take place on 17th January 2013 in The Hague. Recognition and "automatic recognition" are important topics in the Bucharest Communique. ECA has been working on mutual recognition since 2003 and would like to explore the relationship between its work and the statements regarding recognition in the Bucharest Communique. To attend the seminar, please fill in the registration form.
Automatic recognition in the Bucharest Communiqué:
"Fair academic and professional recognition, including recognition of non-formal and informal learning, is at the core of the EHEA. It is a direct benefit for students’ academic mobility, it improves graduates’ chances of professional mobility and it represents an accurate measure of the degree of convergence and trust attained. We are determined to remove outstanding obstacles hindering effective and proper recognition and are willing to work together towards the automatic recognition of comparable academic degrees, building on the tools of the Bologna framework, as a long-term goal of the EHEA. We therefore commit to reviewing our national legislation to comply with the Lisbon Recognition Convention. We welcome the European Area of Recognition (EAR) Manual and recommend its use as a set of guidelines for recognition of foreign qualifications and a compendium of good practices, as well as encourage higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies to assess institutional recognition procedures in internal and external quality assurance."

The European Skills Passport, which helps people to assemble their skills and qualifications online, has now been launched by the European Commission.
The Passport enables people to improve the presentation of their CVs by bringing together their educational and training certificates in one place, providing evidence for the qualifications and skills declared in the CV. It is available for free in 26 languages on the Europass portal where an on-line editor helps users to create their individual passports. It complements the Europass CV which is used by more than 20 million Europeans.
By giving a clear and comprehensive picture of the skills and qualifications users refer to in their CVs, the European Skills Passport helps job-seekers to improve their chances on the labour market and employers to find qualified personnel.
The European Skills Passport is one of thirteen actions launched under the Commission's Agenda for New Skills and Jobs, which aims to make Europe's labour markets work better.
More information
    European Skills Passport.
    Create your European Skills Passport online.

On December 12, the Committee of Ministers adopted Recommendation Rec(2012)13 on ensuring quality education. The Recommendation and its Explanatory Memorandum outline the Council of Europe’s understanding of quality education, link the concept to the multiple purposes of education and consider the roles and responsibilities of public authorities for ensuring quality education at various levels of education. The texts were prepared by the Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice (CDPPE).
Recommendation Rec(2012)13 on ensuring quality education
Higher education
18. Students should be granted effective and equitable access to higher education institutions and programmes on the basis of their aspirations and abilities. Their qualifications should be suited to address the major objectives of higher education as defined in paragraph 6. Moreover, students should be entitled to contribute fully to and participate in the governance of the institution as responsible members of an academic community.
19. Public authorities have a leading responsibility for establishing a coherent framework which ensures equal opportunities of access to and in higher education for all citizens and which is based on the principle of institutional autonomy. The development of quality-assurance criteria, while based on the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, should take account of the concept of quality education as defined above.
Explanatory Memorandum
7.2 Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice (CDPPE)
Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)13 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on ensuring quality education – Explanatory Memorandum
Preamble
The Preamble places the present recommendation in its proper context by recalling the relevant Council of Europe Conventions and recommendations with particular relevance to the topic of the present Recommendation as well as the fundamental agreed principles on which it builds.
The action foreseen in the recommendation is that which is typically included in recommendations concerning States party to the European Cultural Convention, whereas the subject matter of the recommendation is described in the appendix. It recognises that member States are responsible for the organisation and content of their educational systems.
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes the right to education. The preamble recognises that this right can only be fully exercised in practice if the education is of sufficient quality and if it pursues a variety of purposes. This view of education is consistent with that expressed in Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)6 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the public responsibility for higher education and research.
The recommendation to member States (1.a – f) allows for the fact that competence in education is located at different levels in different member States and that while the public authorities at central level in some cases have direct authority in all or some education matters (1.a), in other cases they do not (1.b). Hence, public authorities at central level may need to take action of different kinds according to the degree of their competence in education matters, as reflected in the text of the Recommendation...
Scope and definitions (paragraphs 1-9)
Public responsibility is understood as exercised through public authorities. These terms are defined as in Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)6 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the public responsibility for higher education and research. The competent public authorities may, according to the level and strand of education concerned and the constitutional arrangements of various countries, be located at national, regional, local or other levels but the principles for the exercise of public responsibility remain the same.
Higher education (paragraphs 18-19)
Measures to ensure quality higher education are articulated somewhat differently than measures concerning other kinds of non-compulsory education in view of the highly specialised nature of higher education, the increasing maturity of students and, in some cases, of the considerable financial needs involved. Access to higher education should be effective and equitable and commensurate with students’ abilities and aspirations.
Public authorities, then, have the obligation to ensure that access to higher education is given on an equitable basis. However, selectivity is a much more prominent feature of higher education than of education at other levels. Rather than universal access, the goal for higher education should therefore reasonably be that public authorities should provide all those qualified for higher education with access to a study programme which is compatible with their aspirations and qualifications. As stated in the Preamble to this recommendation, public authorities should ensure that all persons should enjoy quality of education, commensurate with their aspirations, abilities and circumstances and for some persons, their aspirations, abilities and circumstances will take them along learning paths which do not include higher education.
The recommendation underlines that the qualifications which students will earn should fulfil the full range of purposes for higher education. These are defined in Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)6 by the Committee of Ministers to member States on the public responsibility for higher education and research:

- Preparation for sustainable employment;
- Preparation for life as active citizens in democratic societies;
- Personal development
- The development and maintenance, through teaching, learning and research, of a broad, advanced knowledge base.

The first sentence of paragraph 19 follows the wording of Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)6. The paragraph further underlines the importance of observing the principle of institutional autonomy. Unlike all pupils in pre-primary and the majority of pupils in compulsory education as well as non-compulsory secondary education – unless they are older learners enrolled in lifelong learning programmes – the vast majority of higher education students will be legally adult and hence competent to make their own decisions, even if in many cases, parents or legal guardians will have an important role in advising students about their choice of whether or not to seek access to higher education as well as about which study programmes to apply for...
Private education provision (paragraphs 20-22)
A quality assessment will be an important part of these criteria and for the areas of education for which a formal quality assessment procedure has been established, such as higher education and in many countries also vocations education and training, the outcomes of these procedures will be the basis of the decision. The commitment of institutions and programmes to providing equal opportunities to quality education should also be given consideration, either as a part of the quality assessment or as a separate consideration...
Learning paths and qualifications frameworks (paragraph 25).
Qualifications frameworks are a new way of describing the full body of qualifications of a given education system. They describe not only individual qualifications but also the way in which these qualifications interlink and the learning paths that pupils and students as well as those engaged in informal and non-formal education may follow in order to obtain a given qualification. Qualifications frameworks are therefore, among other things, instruments which make it easier for students to obtain quality education and to help them identify the learning paths which suit them the best. They should help education institutions as well as public authorities identify ways in which they may ensure that courses and programmes best lead to qualifications which are a part of the national framework and hence of the national education system. By emphasising learning outcomes – what pupils and students know, understand and are able to do – on the basis of a given qualification, they should, in the words of the Council of Europe/UNESCO Recognition Convention (ETS No. 165) on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region, further the fair recognition of qualifications.
It should be noted that all 47 countries party to the European Higher Education Area have committed to developing national qualifications framework for higher education – an effort coordinated by the Council of Europe - and that 32 countries are engaged in the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning, supported by the European Commission and covering all areas and levels of education. Qualifications frameworks are therefore a key instrument of European education policies and competent public authorities as well as institutions and pupils and students should see qualifications frameworks not merely as technical instruments but as instruments helping fulfil the main goals of education...
Measures for vulnerable groups and/or groups with special needs (paragraphs 26-29)
The recommendation recognises that some individuals are unable to benefit mainstream education provision and that the reasons for this may be highly diverse. Public authorities have responsibility for providing individuals concerned with suitable education offers adapted to their needs and circumstances...
It is understood that the obligation to provide training in the language(s) of instruction for those lacking the required proficiency may be articulated differently at different levels of education, so that such training will, for example, be different for those in primary education and for those in higher education. It may also be articulated differently for pupils in compulsory education that for higher education students engaging in academic mobility.
Combating corruption in education (paragraph 31)
The extent of corruption in education varies from country to country and with the kind of education. In particular, access to and qualifications from higher education seem to be areas in which corruption is the most widespread. Nevertheless, corruption is a real or potential issue in all countries and for all kinds and levels of education.
Public authorities have the responsibility to take measures against corruption in education. These should involve all stakeholders as well as the general public and in addition to providing adequate legal regulation measures should aim to develop attitudes so that corruption is widely condemned and those engaging in it run a strong risk of exposure and denunciation.

ENQA initiates and coordinates transnational quality assurance projects, which aim to disseminate information at the European level and promote the establishment of the quality assurance framework of the European Higher Education Area.

Transparency of European higher education through public quality assurance reports - EQArep

ENQA has recently obtained funding for a LLP/Erasmus proposal. The two-year project started on 1 October and will end on 30 September 2014. The project, entitled “Transparency of European higher education through public quality assurance reports” (EQArep), aims at developing European standards for quality assurance reports.

Enhancement of Quality Assurance Management in Jordanian Universities - EQuAM

The University of Barcelona is launching a new project entitled "Enhancement of Quality Assurance Management in Jordanian Universities" (EQuAM), in partnership with ENQA and 15 other higher education bodies.

Promoting Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions - PQC

In the autumn of 2012, EUA is launching a new project entitled ‘Promoting quality culture in higher education institutions’ (PQC), in partnership with ENQA, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of Lisbon and the University of Zagreb.

Joint capacity building project in Southeast Asia

The DIES ASEAN-QA Project which promotes regional quality assurance in Southeast Asia has been sealed by signing a Memorandum of Understanding on the 4th July, 2011 in Bonn.

On 20 November 2012, the European Commission published a Communication entitled “Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes”. The document, which repeats known positions and adds new ideas, calls for a comprehensive and determined skills strategy at all levels of Europe’s education and training systems. The EU Commission argues that the days are over when Europe’s competitors provided only low-skilled services. In order to stay competitive on world markets and to sustain and revitalise the Union’s labour markets, Europe needed to reduce skills mismatches and raise skills levels.
The skills strategy behind the Communication is broad: the Commission asks for the improvement of transversal and basic skills, particularly in the entrepreneurial field, but also STEM-related skills. It insists that the basis of any meaningful skills strategy are foundation skills such as literacy, numeracy, and basic maths and science, but it also calls for increased foreign language competencies, the development of high-quality vocational education and training (VET) systems (“world-class”), including importantly work-based learning and apprenticeships, and for mobility.
The key messages to member states are the following: promote excellence in VET; improve achievement level of pupil groups with high risks of early school leaving and low basic skills; strengthen provision of employability-enhancing transversal skills (entrepreneurial initiative, digital skills and foreign languages); reduce the number of low skilled adults; increase the use of ICT-supported learning; and strengthen the professional profile of all teaching professions.
The Communication is accompanied by a number of “staff working papers” which display policy evidence and good practice, country sheets with information on EU member states’ performance and reforms in education and training, as well as the first edition of an “Education and Training Monitor”, providing information on progress (or otherwise) towards the Europe 2020 headline targets.
European Commission - Communication.
European Commission – Staff working document.

Apprenticeship and similar schemes give young people a head start on the labour market. Awareness raising, targeted thematic peer learning and the use of European funds were tabled as key components of cooperation on dual training at a meeting of Ministers from Germany and other EU Member States, the European Commission and Cedefop.
In Germany, Austria and Denmark where more than 30% of vocational students participate in apprenticeships or other forms of work-based vocational training, youth unemployment is far below 15% - whereas in countries where less than 6% of vocational students are enrolled in this type of training (Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Estonia), youth unemployment levels tend to be above 25%.
The key advantage of combining theoretical studies with working in a company gives young people the chance to acquire job-specific and soft skills and to get to know the day-to-day reality of the world of work.  Deputy Director General for Education of the European Commission Xavier Prats- Monné stressed that investing in work-based learning can bring a win-win situation for learners and companies.  He reiterated the European Commission’s commitment to establishing a European alliance for modern, high-quality and attractive apprenticeships, as stated in Rethinking Education (Commission Communication of 20 November 2012). A well-equipped toolbox to underpin the key actions of this ‘federation for excellence’ is required, as Antonio Silva Mendes, European Commission, Director in DG EAC underlined.
Cedefop’s Director Christian Lettmayr will point to the importance and key challenges of dual training in this complex European setting in his keynote speech on 11 December 2012. See also Dual education, better prospects?