HERE activities 2015: A recap Elizabeth Colucci, SPHERE NEO meeting 10 May, 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  All underpinned by Needs Assessment/ consultation with NEOs

Activities 2015 Study Visit: Institutional structures for the management of internationalisation and mobility: May, Berlin Study Visit: Organising International Credit Mobility: June, Ghent/Brussels Seminar: ICT based learning: opportunities for higher education learning and teaching: 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 – March, University of Novi Sad, Serbia Study Visit – Learning outcomes and student-centred learning – 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

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 Seminar: Petra

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 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 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: Nicolas Patrici: General queries: