Getting ready for the future!

Harpa Sif Arnarsdottir

Policy Officer - Higher Education Unit

European Commission | DG EAC B1

Opportunities in the future

Erasmus programme

Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash

Main policy priorities for higher education

Interconnected

Strengthening the strategic and structured

cooperation between higher education

institutions

Inclusive

Reaching out to all students and fostering inclusive approaches

for mobility and cooperation activities

Digital

Supporting digital capabilities of the

higher education sector and the development of

digital skills

Innovative

Stimulating innovative learning and teaching

practices to tackle societal challenges and rewarding excellence

One in five 15 year-olds has issues with reading, science

and maths

More than 40% of adults in Europe have insufficient

digital skills

Only 20% of teachers consider their profession

valued in society

Half of employers cannot recruit people with the right

skills

Less than 4% of young people has

Erasmus+ experience

Education investment continuously decreasing

Key challenges to address

Digitalisation is an opportunity

for us to do more and better

• Skills Agenda

• European Education Area

• Digital Education Action Plan

• European Research Area

• Future Programmes 2021-2027

• Rome Communiqué adopted 19 November

Key policies for Higher Education

Stakeholder consultations

➢Extensive targeted stakeholder consultations

(March- September);

➢Outreach events with participation at highest

political level;

➢Open Public Consultation on the lessons learnt

from the COVID-19 crisis (18 June - 4 September)

targeting all parts of the society.

Results of the stakeholder consultation

• Almost 60% of the respondents had not used distance and

online learning before the crisis

• 95% consider that the COVID-19 crisis marks a point of no

return for how technology is used in education and training

• Respondents say that online learning resources and content

need to be more relevant, interactive and easy to use

• Over 60% felt that they had improved their digital skills

during the crisis and more than 50% of respondents want to

do more

Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027: Resetting Education and Training for the Digital Age

…has two strategic priorities:

• Key Action 1: Mobility of individuals

• Key Action 2: Cooperation for Innovation and

Exchange of good practices

• Key Action 3: Support for Policy Reform

All actions helping to pave the way for the

European Education Area!

Erasmus 2021-2027

• New Erasmus Charter

• Flexible mobility formats

• Automatic recognition

• Revised grant system

• European Student Card Initiative

• Improved Online Language Support

• European Universities

• New Inclusion and Diversity measures

A new, more inclusive Erasmus+

• Supporting the Digital Education Action

Plan

• Focus on developing Digital Skills of

both students and staff

• Support for blended and virtual mobility

• Supporting projects to foster innovative

curriculum design and learning and

teaching practices using ICT

• Paperless Erasmus

Digital Erasmus

• Offer new and more flexible mobility formats

• Foster innovation in curriculum design

• Reach out to a broader range of students

Objectives of blended mobility

Blended mobility

Physical mobility

combined with a virtual

component

Two types: individual

blended mobility and

blended intensive

programmes

High quality online experience

• Collaborative online learning exchange and teamwork

• Applies to any study field and cycle and both students and staff

• Practice a transdisciplinary, challenge based and transnational

approaches in learning and teaching as well as the development of more

flexible and innovative curricula

Blended intensive programmes

• Develop short, intensive and joint blended mobility curricula and activities

• Both for students and academic and administrative staff

• Short-term physical group mobility abroad (5-30 days) combined with a compulsory virtual component

• Minimum 3 HEIs from 3 programme countries

• Minimum 15 participants

• Minimum 3 ECTS credits for students

KA2: Cooperation between higher education institutions

Partnerships

for CooperationPartnerships

for innovation

Partnerships

for Excellence

• Cooperation

projects

• Capacity

building

➢ Decentralised

management

• Alliances for Innovation

• Forward-Looking

projects

➢ Centralised

management

• European

Universities

• Erasmus Mundus

➢ Centralised

management

Cooperation Partnerships in higher education

• Supporting change, transformation,

innovation and development of results

• Building capacity of organisations to work

transnationally and across sectors

• Better links between policy priorities and

projects

• More flexible project structure

• Simplified terminology

Cooperation partnerships priorities

• Environmental sustainability

• Inclusion and Diversity

• Digital dimension

Partnerships for

Innovation…

Alliances for Innovation

Lot 1: Alliances for Education and Enterprises

Lot 2: Alliances for SectoralCooperation on Skills

Forward-Looking ProjectsLarge scale projects which aim to

identify, develop and test innovative policy approaches

…strengthening Europe’s

innovation capacity

Developing entrepreneurial mind-sets and new skills

284

in 41

Partnerships for

Cooperation

Partnerships

for Innovation

Partnerships for

Excellence

Erasmus

Mundus

European

Universities

Cooperation

Projects

Forward

Looking

Projects

Alliances for

innovation

Long-term Strategy

Ambitious

Cooperation building pathway

• r

Support and sources

for inspiration

• Erasmus+ project results platform

• Search for projects focusing on digital skills and use

of ICT in courses

• The OpenU project

• that is creating an innovative European hub called

BLOOM to support blended learning, mobility and

networking in higher education

• Commission’s repository

• of online materials to support digital education

• Digital Education Hackathon

• a series of online and offline idea-hackathons to find

solutions for challenges in digital education

• Project: Innovative ICT Solutions for the Societal Challenges

• Project in a nutshell: The project brings students from across the EU together to debate solutions to

the downsides of cutting-edge ICT technology

• Filed: Higher Education

• Action: strategic partnership

• Partners: 8 countries

• EU grant: 203,365 euros

• Project duration: 2015-2017

Example of good practice: Cooperation partnerships

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Thank you for your attention!

Questions?