HERE activities 2015 A recap Elizabeth Colucci SPHERE

HERE activities 2015: A recap Elizabeth Colucci, SPHERE NEO meeting 10 May, 2016 - Brussels

SPHERE activities • • • 2 seminars per year – Thematically focused 2 study visits per year – To an institution/city: case focused/ ‘hands on’ Technical Assistance Missions (TAM) (approx 55/year) – Targeted county assistance – Annual call for proposals – Expert provided for national support/national activity Annual conference – Bridging event/ linking key themes/ larger-scale networking Website and Virtual Community – Information – Event results and resource material – Discussion threads Ø All underpinned by Needs Assessment/ consultation with NEOs

Activities 2015 • Study Visit: Institutional structures for the management of
internationalisation and mobility: 1519 May, Berlin • Study Visit: Organising International Credit Mobility: 10 -12 June, Ghent/Brussels • Seminar: ICT based learning: opportunities for higher education learning and teaching: 26 -27 October, Petra, Jordan • Conference: Innovating Teaching and Learning – the Next Phase of the Bologna Process: 3 -4 December, Tbilisi, Georgia • TAM (ongoing)

Event forecast 2016 • Seminar: Joint degrees: Strategic planning, management, quality assurance – 17 -18 March, University of Novi Sad, Serbia • Study Visit – Learning outcomes and student-centred learning – 18 -19 April, Tallinn University, Estonia • Study Visit - Capacity building in doctoral education – 31 May-1 June, Malmoe University, Sweden • Seminar: Qualifications frameworks: Application and utility – 19 -20, September, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland • Seminar: The new European Standards and Guidelines for QA (ESG) in practice – 19 -20, October, Lviv, Ukraine • Annual Conference – First week December (tbc), Barcelona

Study Visit: Berlin • Host: Technical University of Berlin/ BMBF • Main themes – Institutional strategies for internationalisation – Managing mobility: centralized services/ faculty perspectives – Enhancing internationalisation and mobility through global networking and diverse international partnership models – Policies and programmes for internationalisation in Germany

Study Visit: Ghent/Brussels • Hosts: University of Ghent/ European Commission • Themes Choosing and monitoring partners for credit mobility Student support services and the role of the IRO Administration tools for credit mobility The application of ECTS, recognition of credits: procedures, obstacles, solutions, outstanding issues (ex. grading) – Credit mobility between the EU and the rest of the world- EU programmes and support – The new ECTS User’s Guide – The role of networks – –

Seminar: Petra • Host: Al-Hussein bin Talal University / NEO Jordan • Themes: – Current trends with regards to e-learning - the variety of types, approaches and uses – Strategizing regarding e-learning/ implications for teaching and learning, the institution and its members (staff, students, infrastructure and management) – National regulatory contexts that may hinder or help e -learning, (recognition and quality assurance…) – E-learning to address conflict regions

Annual Conference: Tbilisi • Innovative Learning and Teaching: The Next Phase of the Bologna Process • Host: Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University/NEO Georgia • SCL: Theory versus practice…. . – How impart change in the institution – How to incentivise staff – How to resource SCL – Role of ICT – Implications for quality assurance

Events: General remarks • Mixed audience with different levels of experience and expectation – Utility of pre-surveys on occasion – Priming events on the Virtual Community – Importance of nominations process (NEOs) • Interest to involve participating universities in study visit programmes (cases from HERE countries) • Importance of break-outs/small group discussion • Interest in case studies and ‘how to’ – Successful ’calls for interest’ for HERE presentations – However, need for balance with EU examples

Events: General Remarks (logistics) • Registration procedure – ‘Kinks’ are being worked out… – Need to respect deadlines/register via website – General need to promote HERE Website as central source of information for all events (is improving…) • Priming and follow-up on virtual community – Discussion threads, documents/publication sharing • Pre-survey: Useful, but need to improve response rate • Working with NEOs and hosts – – Importance of doing events in partner countries Enthusiastic and valuable support of NEOs Division of tasks seemingly clear Hosts need a clear delineation of their responsibilities

TAMs 2015 • 33 Delivered in 2015 (10 spilled over to 2016) • Themes: Joint degrees, quality assurance, NQFs, doctoral studies, student-centred learning, teacher training/teaching excellence, e-learning • Types of events: National seminars (25 -45 people), conferences (100+), focus groups, meetings with ministry • Results posted on Virtual Community

TAM organisation • Need to have draft programmes/suggested dates before experts are contacted • Occasional mismatches between expert profile and interest (flexible solutions found) • NEOs sending evaluations (not all) – but unclear as to whether participants were consulted • Procedural improvements in 2016 – 1 call, 2 semesters, 2 deadlines for revised proposals/programmes • Yet still a lot of juggling of dates and correspondence – More NEOs are requesting specific experts (positive)

TAM Observations • Some countries using this tool very productively • General interest in experts with ‘hands on’ experience • Experts very enthusiastic – seen as professional development • Some TAM inspired from HERE events • Important to track – ‘spin-off projects’ going forward – Policy impact • Country pages: Please share your experiences!

Virtual Community • Activity-level of discussion groups has grown – Advertising events and publications – Posing questions – Specific thematic interests (joint degrees, learning outcomes…. ) • Still some technical issues but seemingly improved (double posting, etc) • Are HERE using email reply? • Does it need more animation from SPHERE or shall we let it evolve ‘organically’?

Some questions • Are SPHERE activities supporting the diverse needs and interests of your HERE? • How can conferences best be designed? • Do we need another needs assessment? • What about HERE students? Shall we offer them a venue to come together? • Shall we experiment with the format of events? Ideas? • Country tailored services…. . – Country sub-groups in Virtual Community (write us!) – Country pages – Publications?

SPHERE Contacts • • • Elizabeth Colucci: elizabeth. colucci@eua. be Nicolas Patrici: npatrici@obreal. org General queries: here@ub. edu