The Fall 2008 edition of Liberal Education, a publication of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, is dedicated to “Globalization and U.S, Higher Education” and includes several articles of interest for European educators. In an issue that “explores the potential impact of the Bologna Process on higher education in the United States” articles by Clifford Adelman (Accountability "Light": Our Version Is Going the Way of the Dollar vs. the Euro), Paul Gaston (Bologna: A Challenge for Liberal Education - and an Exceptional Opportunity) and Sheldon Rothblatt (Global Branding and the Celebrity University) are of special interest to liberal arts’ educators.

In her introductory message (Bologna Plus: The Liberal Education Advantage), AAC&U President, Carol Geary Schneider challenges European educators when she writes, “Some will point to the greater precision—criterion-referenced standards for specific disciplines—that is being attempted through the Bologna Process with its “tuning” of cross-national degree requirements. But the Bologna Process does not promise European students an integrative, cross-disciplinary liberal education that is clearly tied to the responsibilities of democratic and global citizenship. Absent that promise, both its vision and its precision are insufficient.” The entire issue is on line here.

24/11/08
ECOLAS Conference Features European Higher Education Policy Update

ECOLAS and Amsterdam University College hosted a two-day conference on October 30-31 for seventeen leaders from European liberal arts and sciences colleges and programs. Discussion sessions included: an introduction of ECOLAS as a consortium dedicated to the cultivation of the liberal arts and sciences within the European Higher Education Area; the role of liberal arts and sciences within the Bachelors degree cycle of the Bologna framework; a report on the recent position paper, “College Learning for the New Global Century”, produced by the American Association of Colleges and Universities; strategies for the next stage of evolution for ECOLAS including a general conference on the liberal arts and sciences to be held in April, 2009, and future funding opportunities. More information can be found among Events.

02/06/08
EQAR website goes online

The website of the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) is now online. EQAR has been founded in March 2008 to increase the transparency of quality assurance in higher education across Europe. EQAR will publish a list of quality assurance agencies that comply substantially with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance for the first time in autumn 2008. For more information visit the EQAR website.

30/05/08
Report on the Bologna Process from a US perspective
 

"The Bologna Club: What U.S. Higher Education Can Learn from a Decade of European Reconstruction" is the intriguing title of a report by Clifford Adelman that was recently published by the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington. 

 

A new EUA publication "Implementing and Using Quality Assurance: Strategy and Practice" gathers contributions from the Second European Quality Assurance Forum that took place 15-17 November 2007 at the Sapienza Universita Roma. The keynotes discuss quality from a conceptual, historical and policy perspective, while the papers are mostly focused on institutional case studies and show the variety of ways that higher education institutions and QA agencies ensure quality.

17/04/2008
EUA project brings Quality Assurance and Creativity together

EUA has started work on a new project to develop a methodology for quality assurance that fosters and supports creativity and innovation. The methodology will be developed through drawing on the experience of a group of quality assurance agencies, higher education institutions and specialised arts and music schools who are exploring together the ways in which good quality systems can underpin creativity and innovation in higher education.

25/03/08
Register now for Bologna Seminar on Bologna Beyond 2010, 18-20 May 2008 in Ghent

The registration for the Bologna Seminar "Unlocking Europe's potential - Contributing to a better world" on 18-20 May 2008 in Ghent (Belgium), is now open. For more information on the seminar read the provisional programme. To register, please use the online form of the Flemish Community.

19/03/08
Netherlands ratifies Council of Europe/UNESCO Recognition Convention

On 19 March 2008, the Netherlands deposited its instrument of acceptation of the Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region (Lisbon Recognition Convention). The Convention will come into force with respect to the Netherlands on 1 May 2008. 47 countries have now ratified this convention, while another four have signed it and are in the process of ratification.

17/03/08
Register now for the Tuning Dissemination Conference, 20-21 April in Brussels

On 20-21 April 2008, the first thematic Dissemination Conference of the project Tuning Educational Structures in Europe entitled "Student Workload and Learning Outcomes; Key Components for (Re)Designing Degree Programmes" will take place in Brussels. For more information and to register online, please go to the website of the Tuning project. Deadline for registration is 28 March 2008.

11/03/08
UCSIA International Conference "Rethinking the University after Bologna", 12-13 December 2008, Antwerp, Belgium - call for papers and workshops

The University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp (UCSIA) is organising the two-day international conference "Rethinking the university after Bologna: new concepts and practices beyond tradition and the market" on the 12-13 December 2008 in Antwerp, Belgium. For more information, please read the conference programme or visit the conference website. In preparation of the conference, UCSIA has launched a call for papers and workshops. Proposals should be submitted to by 15 April 2008.

04/03/08
European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) officially launched!

The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) was officially launched in Brussels today in a move designed to improve the quality of European higher education and to promote greater student mobility. The new register is a landmark for European cooperation in quality assurance of higher education in the context of the Bologna Process reforms. For more details read the full press release and our news item of 18/02/08.