"Developments in the issues relating to gender in higher education" Professor Heather Eggins, SRHE

"Re-using online resources: a sustainable approach to e-learning," Professor Allison Littlejohn, University of Strathclyde

"Report: Situation Analysis and tendencies," Professor Margarita Teresevicene and Vaiva Zuzeviciute, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania

Individual partner papers

Some general remarks on innovations in HE. A model for encouraging innovation in HE Professor Marek Frankowicz

1. Need to encourage HE institutions to develop systems to keep good ideas alive in the academic environment until the opportunity/timing is right to develop the idea. This may require funding to develop "Knowledge Transfer" brokers within all HEIs. A key role of these brokers would be to capture internal knowledge and to make links by reaching outside the HEI so as to identify potential new markets in business and the community so that knowledge can be transferred from the HEI eg the UK model developed by HEFCE for HE Innovations Fund (HEIF).

2. Need to help HEIs to develop their alumni groups so as to ensure that students are continuously brought back into the HEI for CPD, and other LLL opportunities. Alumni groups can provide the first contact with many businesses and may allow networks to be developed for different business sectors so as to enable HEIs to identify new education and training needs which are directly relevant to business and the community. This will require funding, some of which may come from Government funds, others of which may come from developing tax breaks for business organisations which encourage businesses to interact with businesses.

3. Encourage knowledge transfer from all discipline areas. There are many examples of knowledge transfer from Science, Engineering and Technology developments in HEIs. Yet more than half of the University sector in most countries is comprised of Arts, Humanities, Culture, Social Sciences and Education; it is more difficult to develop knowledge transfer in these areas but the potential is there and more effort should be made to encourage development in these areasl.

4. Recognise and develop the important role of Arts, Humanities, Culture, Social Sciences and Education related disciplines in producing leaders in Knowledge Societies, in developing creativity for innovations in business and the community, in developing attitudes towards society in general and in developing an understanding of ethics to tackle problems in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors. Ideally, this requires the development and funding of some cross-disciplinary and trans-national work.

Innovation Strategies for HE - Bologna Declaration & Prague Communique. Libor Novacek

1. More work is required to improve existing accreditation systems and so as to encourage trans-national LLL. Attention needs to focus on access, CATS and funding issues across national boundaries.

2. Steps need to be taken to address the brain drain issue which will occur after the 10 new accession countries join the EC in May 2004.

3. Need to encourage multi-country development of distance learning materials and delivery.

Emotion and Art in Education. Juris Dzelme

1. The State needs to recognise how Art can contribute to a Knowledge Society and to support. It is important to recognise that the contribution and value of Art-related subjects to Knowledge Societies is often difficult to evaluate in tangible financial terms and that financial support from the State may be required to introduce innovations both in teaching and learning and in Knowledge Transfer activities in these disciplines.

2. There is a need to carry out research which helps EC Member States to understand what contribution Arts and Humanities disciplines can make to a Knowledge Society. This research would bring together the themes of "Emotional Intelligence in HE", of "Neuroscience and the Human Brain for Teaching & Learning", "Art, Emotions and Ethics in HE", and "The Role of Arts in the development of the Economy and Society".

3. There is also a need to develop joint curricula across EC partner countries which incorporate Arts & Humanities disciplines into all Science, Engineering and Technology education in HE so that students are able to develop creativity for innovations, as well as well-developed attitudes and solutions to ethical problems in business and the community.

Working Groups

The working groups were asked to consider a number of questions and to report back in pleanry:

What should feature in a T&L strategy to prepare students for the 21st century?

Lithuania - There is a need to change from a 'knowledge acquisition' model to a 'problem solving model. The future needs will demand more in the way of critical thinking skills allied to identification and solving of problems.

Latvia - agreed but more emphasis on identifying the problem - new problems, seeking out new knowledge and ways of doing things. There is also an element of the cultural situation - which involves changing/reversing pre-existing political procedures, structures and ways of thinking.

Greece - a traditional system - (based primarily on experience in Arts) the main universities are full-time and only the open university takes part-time and non-traditional students - but, not all subjects fit into this delivery model - eg, Psychology cannot be delivered via the GR OU. The need is to change HE to provide more flexible learning opportunities taking into account economic pressures, work-patterns, employment needs, multiculturalism etc...

Poland - Lifelong learning is becoming more and more important. The need is to develop flexibility for the future - not just changes in courses - and to address increasing multicultural influences.

Summary: A T&L strategy for the 21^st Century must:

• 1. Help students to become more flexible: they need to develop self-reliance skills to cope with a future employment market that will not guarantee them "a career" but rather a portfolio of employments that it is up to them to manage effectively. This mirrors their experience of learning in the mass market educational institutions in which they will study: they have to manage their learning as a portfolio of learning opportunities within a context that may require them to work and manage family commitments as well.
• 2. Help staff become (and remain) more flexible too: they are expected to be able to be expert learning enablers in all situations and with all types of students and cope with a wider range of abilities and problems than ever before while having less security and more scrutiny than previously.
• 3. Develop properly portable and transparent (across an Europe of 25+ nations) systems to recognise, accredit and quality assure non-traditional (including occupational and work-based) and informal learning, especially for part-time, distance, older and non-traditional students.

What are the burning issues in relation to T&L?

The burning issue was fees and how to pay them:

Latvia has selective entrance exams that lead to funding for 25% of students in HE (but at a very low level). The rest have to pay both in state and private institutions.

Poland - similar to Latvia - limited support for students depends on success in entrance and progress exams. Rest self fund

Greece - ALL HE is free...

Summary:The challenge for HE will be to be able to deliver all of this within a financing structure that is both inclusive and affordable (individually and collectively).

Which innovations in T&L practice seem to be most favourable for creating EU HE space?

1. Quality assurance - or rather the influence of quality assurance on pedagogical practice. There were two aspects to this, first the processes of internal quality improvement and second the external pressure to harmonise procedures.

2. The Diploma Supplement - since this offers a way of facilitating transparency and portability of qualifications between national HE systems.

3. Common study programmes and joint actions - where students study in different institutions either as part of inter-institutional collaborative study programmes or study exchange schemes.

4. But, innovations in one area (subject or place) are not always applicable in another, or may be adopted more slowly/quickly.

Summary: It was felt that this question was concerned with systemic enabling measures that were broad scale and essentially driven from the top down. Innovations here were largely concerned with enabling transferability and transparency of credits and qualifications.

In which way pedagogical practice in HE is influenced by ideas of lifelong learning and non-traditional students?

1. Lifelong learning broadens the profile of the HE learning community and also is a force for integrating HE more closely with the external environment.

2. The broader profile of learners means that there is also a wider spectrum of needs, which challenges HE to adapt and accommodate: a matter often of changing attitudes

3. There are expectations that HE will recognise learning and ways of learning over which HE itself has no control or influence.

Summary: In contrastto the previous question, the discussion here identified a bottom-up driver for change where learner's needs were individual and had to be addressed individually (or at least local or small scale)

Caught in between was HE which had to meet both broad system-wide requirements and the very narrowly defined needs of individual learners. It was felt that if HE institutions were able to balance both these forces it would produce useful change in generally the right direction...

Questionnaire - Key Features for Teaching and Learning in Tomorrow's University

In order to sketch a general idea about the main changes in teaching and learning perspectives that we are witnessing in our countries of partnership, we would like to ask you to complete this questionnaire*. Opinions of your colleagues, yourselves, and, possibly, students would be meaningful in discerning trends. Grateful, co-coordinators of WP 10: SRHE, Surrey Roehampton University (UK), Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania)