Rising student numbers across the majority of European universities, increasingly diverse student populations, more life-long learners and the advent of digital technologies are reshaping the context of learning and teaching. In the run up to the event, we talked to Jean Chambaz, President of the UPMC and EUA Board member about the challenges faced by universities today.
“Universities globally share an obligation to adapt learning and teaching practice in accordance with this changed environment but the difference is in the answers they apply to these challenges because national contexts differ so much. I was closely involved with EUA work establishing common European principles for doctoral education and have seen the value of that work. We must do the same now for learning and teaching as we approach the 20th anniversary of the Bologna Process.”
We also asked Dr Oliver Vettori, Dean of Accreditation and Quality Management and Director of Program Management and Teaching and Learning Support at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, as well as member of the EUA Institutional Evaluation Programme expert pool, on his views.
“In recent years Europe has experienced a learning and teaching renaissance that is largely due to an acceleration of existing trends at the political level and within the labour market. In order to cope with the expectations of society and of students, there is an increasing understanding that universities need to tackle learning and teaching differently. It isn’t just about content; it is also about pedagogy and didactics. One of the challenges in this area is that learning and teaching covers a very broad area touching upon everything from curriculum development to student support and within different institutions there are sub-trends and differing focus areas. Technology is also a big driver of today’s focus on learning and teaching. We need to prepare people for life in a digital world and the availability of technology is changing both teaching approaches and the way that people learn.”
Read the full interview
Last, we interviewed Ann Ann De Schepper, professor at the University of Antwerp, to learn about her views on the challenges in learning and teaching at universities and how to make an inclusive approach a reality.
Jean Chambaz, Oliver Vettori and Ann De Schepper will be among the speakers of the 1st Learning and Teaching Forum organised by EUA on 28-29 September 2017, in collaboration with the CPU and hosted by UPMC.
Follow the event on Twitter under #EUALearnTeach and if you cannot attend the forum, you will be able to watch live on Thursday 28 September between 11.30 and 13.00 the session on the Recent developments in Learning &Teaching and the response of European universities. Chaired by Jolanta Choinska-Mika, Vice-Rector, Warsaw University, Poland, it will include the following speakers:
Michael Gaebel, Director, Higher Education Policy Unit, EUA
Cecilia Christersson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Global Engagement and Challenge Based Learning, Malmö University, Sweden
Pedro Teixeira, Vice-Rector, University of Porto, Portugal.
The EUA Learning and Teaching forum is part of the EUA initiative on Learning and Teaching, a programme which aims at exploring the challenges and practices of the higher education institutions in that field.
