Projects
In line with its mission of strengthening the role of the universities in the European Higher Education and Research Areas EUA has launched a number of pilot projects to support its members in key areas. The intention is to give member universities the opportunity to work together across Europe thus
• stimulating internal capacity for self reflection and change;
• promoting the exchange of ideas, experience and good practice;
• strengthening the European dimension of their activities
Most EUA projects involve targeted networking and benchmarking activities between EUA member universities from different parts of Europe.
This in turns helps EUA to
• gain hands-on knowledge and an in-depth understanding of the key issues facing universities in Europe, thus enabling the Association to improve service to its member institutions more generally, and
• feed this knowledge and experience into its policy work both in the context of the Bologna process and the development of the European Research Area. EUA projects are largely funded by the European Commission's Directorate Generals for Education and Culture and Research and correspond to the key areas indicated in the EUA Action Plan
EUA's current projects are:
• European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)
• Joint Masters
• Quality Culture
• Mapping Research in the Social Science and Humanities (MORESS)
• Doctoral Programmes
• Trends IV
Quality Culture Project
Project Background and Objectives
The Quality Culture Project had its origin in the EUA's action plan 2001-2003 and Policy position paper on quality (approved by the EUA Council in September 2001). Both documents (i) emphasised that, in issues of quality assurance, the point of departure must be the universities' capacity for developing a robust internal quality culture, and (ii) stressed that this capacity is integrally linked to institutional autonomy and public accountability.
The Quality Culture Project aims at contributing to the development and embedding of a systematic and coherent quality culture in universities as well as to the general goals of the Bologna process through increased transparency and attractiveness of European higher education. It increases the awareness within the institutions for the need to develop an internal quality culture and to promote the introduction of internal quality management. This in turn helps the institutions to approach external procedures of quality assurance in a constructive manner.
• Working Method
• Selection and Structure
• Round I
• Round II
• Round III
Quality Culture Project -
Round III
(2005)
Networks
For the third round of the project EUA selected 44 institutions from 23 European countries and grouped the in the following themes:
1. Research Strategy and Industrial Partnerships
The network will address how universities can develop research strategies, including tools to identify synergies among researchers and the utilization of research results with industrial and public partners. The network will also focus on how a research management office can support individual researchers and research teams and organise partnerships with industrial and public actors in order to improve institutional quality.
• AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland – coordinator, Professor Andrzej Korbel
• Medical University of Graz (MUG), Austria
• University of Mining and Geology "St. Ivan Rilski", Bulgaria
• Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Czech Republic
• University of Applied Sciences Cologne / FH Köln, Germany
• Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania
• Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
2. Leadership
Higher education institutions are looking for ways to promote quality and better governance. Both aims require up-skilling staff members, and ensuring the productive participation of students in governance. Quality requires developing the professional research and teaching skills of the staff and creating attractive career paths to retain
the most promising individuals. Governance requires a professionalized and well trained senior management and effective and efficient committees. This network focuses on ways to improve the quality and the leadership competences of staff and students in order to improve institutional quality.
• Universidade do Minho, Portugal – coordinator, Professor Manuel Mota
• Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille, France
• University of Zagreb, Croatia *
• Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania
• Technical University of Košice, Slovakia
* non-Socrates funded participation
3. Implementing Bologna Reforms
The Bologna reforms are the main focus of innovation in higher education. While the concepts are relatively clear, the implementation frequently turns out to be difficult due to unresolved details, the adaptation of the Bologna model to specific institutional profiles or resistance within the institutions. This network focuses on good practices for developing high quality study programmes and implementing them in a coherent way.
• "Gh. Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania – coordinator, Professor Gabriela Maria Atanasiu
• University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Austria
• University of Prishtina, Serbia and Montenegro (Kosovo) *
• Åbo Akademi University, Finland
• Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), Greece
• Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
• Politechnika Koszalińska (Technical University of Koszalin), Poland
• St. Petersburg State University, Russia *
• University of Mersin, Turkey
* non-Socrates funded participation
4. Teaching and Learning: Implementing Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes are increasingly important for HEIs as a means to design student-centred and competence-based curricula and to evaluate them. The network focuses on the identification and implementation of learning outcomes in curricula and how these can be used to improve the learning experience of students. Special interest is given to the integration of learning outcomes and ECTS.
• University of the Aegean, Greece – coordinator, Professor Sokratis Katsikas • Université de Liège, Belgium
• The University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
• University of Camerino (Unicam), Italy
• Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
• South East European University, FYROM *
• University College Winchester, United Kingdom
* non-Socrates funded participation
5. Women in Universities: Research, Teaching and Leadership
The low participation rate of women in higher education and research constitutes an important challenge for HEIs and society. While women and men are nearly equally represented in undergraduate education, the share of women in graduate and postgraduate education, teaching and research posts and institutional leadership is much lower. Thus, the institutions forfeit an important human resource potential. This network focuses on ways in which institutions can improve their quality by promoting the participation of women in higher education.
• Agricultural University, Bulgaria – coordinator, Assoc. Professor Anna Aladjadjiyan
• FH Joanneum - University of Applied Sciences, Austria
• Central European University, Hungary
• Siauliai University, Lithuania
• The Karol Adamiecki University of Economics in Katowice, Poland
• Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia
• University of Sunderland, United Kingdom
6. Joint Degrees
Joint degrees are an important part of the internationalisation of universities. Often, however, joint degrees lack institutional anchoring and internal quality processes. The network focuses on developing internal quality assurance procedures specifically suited for joint degrees.
• Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany – coordinator, Professor Axel Hunger
• Bankovní institut - vysoká škola, a.s., Czech Republic
• University of Zadar, Croatia *
• Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
• Zuyd University, Netherlands
• Stockholm University, Sweden
• Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom
