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2011 SEFI Student year

NEWS@SEFI 6/2011

The SEFI newsletter contains information about SEFI’s recent activities as well as a summary of the latest stories in higher engineering education in Europe and worldwide. News@sefi is sent for free to SEFI members. All previous issues are available on www.sefi.be “members only”. All staff and students of an institution, an association or a company member of SEFI are entitled to receive free copies of the newsletter. So, if you know anybody interested in a free copy, please contact us

IN THIS ISSUE: FROM SEFI:

- SEFI Student Column

- Workshop of SEFI Working Group Engineering Education

Research

FROM MEMBERS AND PARTNERS: FROM IFEES

- 2011 Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education

FROM EUA

- EUA Seminar « Getting the grips to rankings »

- Promoting creativity in doctoral education

FROM CDIO

- 7th International CDIO Conference

FROM HELENA

- First International conference on Gender and Interdisciplinar-

ity in Engineering Education FROM FEANI

- The professional card—a Key tool for fostering innovation in

Europe FROM EUROPE:

FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

- EU research priorities to be revealed, renamed

- Ranking of Universities

FROM FRANCE

- Rankings helped inspire French Reforms

FROM UK

- Treble cause: UK signs up to boost Indian places

FROM UKRAINE

- Seminar ‘Reforms in the higher education system in Ukraine’

FROM TURKEY

- International Science and Technology Conference ISTEC 2011

—Call for papers FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD: FROM CANADA

- There’s good news as well as bad, international educators

hear

- Balancing act: strike a pose between market and values

FROM LATIN AMERICA

- Partnerships to boost higher education

PUBLICATIONS

- New book in the Council of Europe Higher Education Series

- Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education

- EUA 2010 Annual Report

FOR YOUR CALENDAR

Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this issue!

Do not forget to inform the students about the free SEFI membership in 2011!

2011 SEFI Student Year

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FROM SEFI ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2011

Workshop of SEFI Working Group Engineering Education Research On the 27th of September 2011 the EER Working Group provides two workshops during the First World Engineering Education Flash Week in Lisbon . The first one takes part from 10.00-13.00 as an internal and Eugene workshop. The second one is an open workshop from 15.00-18.00. SEFI Student Column Dear SEFI Students, dear SEFI Members, You surely all have already had a look on our SEFI Blog and discovered it article by article. Some of you might not have had the time to partici-pate actively in our discussions or not even managed to have a closer look. Therefore we take this opportunity to draw your attention again on our SEFI Blog with its various interesting topics. There are e.g. the challenges of higher education in the 21st century – do you think it’s time for a change? What do you think plays a major role in higher education nowadays? Or the university rankings – what do you think of rankings? Did they help you to find the right university, faculty, course for you? Or what about the digitalisation of learning material at universities? Where lie the advantages and disadvantages? How do you imagine university in some years? Visit our SEFI Blog on http://www.sefi.be/blog/! We look forward to reading your comments and discussing with you the topics that are current and important in our days!

By Anna Reiners SEFI Headquarters, Brussels.

FROM MEMBERS AND PARTNERS From IFEES

2011 Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Jack R. Lohmann, editor of ASEE's Journal of Engineering Education (IFEES member) has received the 2011 Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education from the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies.

He was one of four nominees put forward by IFEES members. The Award Committee, consisting of co-chairs Tan Moorthy and Doug Gor-ham and Euan Lindsay, Michael Auer and Gordon Griffith, agreed that Lohmann's work "has had a clear impact on the profession worldwide," raising JEE to tier one status among research journals in both Science and Social Science indices. Lohmann, vice provost for Faculty and Aca-demic Development and professor of Industrial and Systems Engineer-ing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was also cited for contribut-ing to faculty development through workshops on engineering educa-tion research. Jack also played an important role in helping to define the strategic directions of IFEES soon after it was founded. He was the co-chair of the ASEE Global Colloquium in Istanbul and also played a leadership role in the IFEES meeting which was part of that GC. Loh-mann is a Fellow of ASEE, the Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the European Society of Engineering Education. (Source: http://www.ifees.net/) From EUA EUA Seminar « Getting the grips to rankings » On 17th June, I have had the pleasure to attend the EUA seminar « Getting to grips with rankings” took place in Brussels (Solvay Library). The event that brought together around 120 participants, was organ-ized for top university leaders and included the presentation of the very interesting EUA review of international rankings carried out by Prof. A. Rauhvargers (EUA) over the last 18 months. Indeed, universities are nowadays confronted with a plethora of ranking and classifications initiatives both at national and international levels. In spite of the fact that university leaders have most of the time serious reservations relat-ing to rankings, and especially relating to their methodologies and crite-ria, there is a growing recognition that such initiatives are here to re-main. It also seems that despite their acknowledged shortcomings, rankings have an impact on decision-making and activities across Europe. The document “ Global University Rankings and their Impact” is available at www.eua.be. The objective of the seminar was to present the review and its findings as a means to improve knowledge and un-derstanding among university leaders of the purposes and methodolo-gies of the various rankings, to provide a platform for an open debate on ranking methodologies (strengths and weaknesses) to encourage alternative approaches to enhancing transparency and to gather feed-back from the academic community on the effectiveness of this pilot project. Please note that a discussion about rankings has been initiated on the SEFI blog and that you are cordially invited to contribute. No doubt that Rankings will soon become a topic of discussion within the SEFI commu-nity too.

By Françoise Côme SEFI Headquarters, Brussels.

Promoting creativity in doctoral education Some 200 university leaders, researchers, politicians and other stake-holders met this June in Madrid to discuss how universities can support the development of talented young researchers embarking on a PhD by implementing structures and creating conditions aimed at promoting creativity and innovation in doctoral education. The experts will gather at the Carlos III University for the annual meeting of the EUA Council for Doctoral Education, a major gathering of all European stakeholders in the field of doctoral education. EUA Secretary General Lesley Wilson said one of the goals of doctoral education was to nurture "the innova-tive research mindset". Achieving this required the development of a high level of autonomy and critical thinking as well as the ability to think independently and creatively about highly complex issues. "This inno-vative mindset is a precondition for the development of the knowledge society and universities have a great responsibility to provide the train-ing through research that cultivates the innovative mind," Wilson said.

Meeting dates:

EEDCouncil, Kick-off meeting, 27/9, 10:00 (on invitation only)

- AC meeting I, 27/9, 15:00-1800. WGs Chairpersons and na-

tional correspondents are invited to attend this meeting

- WG EER Workshops, 27/9, 10:00, 15:00

- EJEE Editorial Committe meeting, 28/9, 18:30

- 2011 General Assembly, 30/9, 17:00 (it will be followed by the

Fellowships Ceremony)

- Administrative Council meeting II, 30/9, 19:30.

Members are invited to attend the IFEES Summit Welcome

organised on the 30/9 at 20:00.

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As well as keynote presentations, those attending will also hear case studies on a variety of issues that affect creativity such as how univer-sity structures can support creativity; assuring individual freedom in supervision arrangements; focusing on the individual in career devel-opment; and creating a diverse portfolio of doctoral programmes in the institution. (Source: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110603183651439) From CDIO 7th International CDIO Conference The 7th International CDIO Conference, which was held 20-23 June 2011 in Copenhagen, had the theme "Building Educational Networks" to indicate an aim to deepen the dialogue between communities engaged in engineering education. At this conference, two specially invited workshops were held to share experiences between people engaged in SEFI, PBL and CDIO. Urbano Domínguez Garrido, the chairman of the SEFI working group on Curriculum Development, was invited to lead a workshop to-gether with Kristina Edström of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, one of the CDIO founders. The aim of the workshop was to investigate and compare aims, approaches and results of curricu-lum development innovations. The workshop was a lively mutual exchange with many recognitions that problems share characteristics across contexts. It became evident that while there were several areas of common interest, the approaches are very different. While the SEFI working group is a place to raise questions and discuss ex-periences on many different levels, the CDIO community is jointly developing and implementing a specific approach to program-driven curriculum development. Anette Kolmos, in her capacity as UNESCO Chair of PBL in Engineering at Aalborg University, was specially invited to present an analysis and comparison of PBL and CDIO, also with Kristina Edström. CDIO and PBL was compared in terms of history, organization of community, educational principles and conceptual framework, model of change, variation in implementation, body of research, extent of dissemination, and relation to certification and evaluation. It was established that PBL is an essential part of CDIO, and suggested that the two approaches can be fruitfully combined to mutually strengthen each other. This was further confirmed during the Copenhagen conference when Aalborg University joined CDIO as an official collaborator. For a copy of both sets of workshop slides, please email kris-tina@kth.se. For more about CDIO, see www.cdio.org.

By Kristina Edström SEFI AC Member

KTH (Sweden) From HELENA International conference: “Gender and interdisciplinary Education for Engineers 2011”. The First international Helena Conference was held in Paris on the 23-24 June 2011 on the theme: “Does Interdisciplinary Education im-prove the gender balance and attract more young people in Engineer-ing and Technology higher education?” Indeed, attracting young people towards engineering, particularly women, is a major concern today throughout Europe as their number is said to reduce drastically. The studies and researches led by the HELENA project allows us to picture more accurately the reasons, and

also draw some possible solutions to that issue. It seems that the situation in Europe is currently mixed, and a general scheme cannot be settled. In some countries an engineer career is still appealing for young people, as in some other, the situation is totally the opposite. The Engineering field stays mainly masculine as well as the engineering academia positions, which are displaying also a certain “maturity”. How can that be an example for young women, and more generally for young people? As it was well underlined by Pr. Barbara Bagilhole (Loughborough University, UK): “In a competitive world, countries cannot afford to ignore the talent of half, even more than a half, their population”. But is interdisciplinarity in engineering education the solution to attract more young people, especially women? What is certain is that women have higher succeeding rate in interdisciplinary curricula and a lower drop out rate. Interdisciplinarity also allows us to broaden the question on diversity in engineering, enabling universities not to train only technicians but also to educate citizens, playing a real part in the society. The SEFI has a longstanding interest on these matters, illustrated by

the presence of Susanne Ihsen (SEFI WG chair on Gender and diver-

sity) and Henk Zandvoort (SEFI WG chair on Ethics) and is eager to

learn more with the complete results of the HELENA project.

By Jacques Schibler

SEFI Headquarters, Brussels.

(The GIEE 2011 was organised by HELENA, the CDEFI and the

ECEPIE).

Proceeding will be published soon. For further information:

http://www.fp7-helena.org/

http://www.fp7-helena.org/CONFERENCE2011/index.html

From FEANI

The professional card—a Key tool for fostering innovation in Europe.

FEANI-EU Debate in cooperation with K4I, Brussels, 28 June 2011.

Responding to the invitation of FEANI, members of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, MEP Evelyne GEBHARDT and MEP Bernadette VERGNAUD, and the Chairman of the Steering Com-mittee, Mr. Jürgen TIEDJE from the European Commission, entered together, with the stakeholders and the representatives from the pub-lic sectors, into an active debate on the benefits for engineers and other professionals. The president of FEANI , Mr. Bytoft , as well as the honorary president Mr. Fuchs were also present for the debate, ani-mated by the secretary-general of FEANI, Mr. Bochar. Five features have been settled for the issue of the engineering profes-sional card:

- Completeness: information on education, profes-

sional experience, continued training.

- Standardized: Based on the EU standards (EQF)

- Reliable: independent recognition of the qualifica-

tion

- Flexible: through a decentralized administration

- Voluntary.

Along with the card, an exhaustive description of the qualification will be available on an internet platform. The advantages of such a card will be a quick identification and a faster exchange of data along with simplification of administrative processes for the card holders and the employers. This card will also enhance the single market, allowing a better mobil-

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ity throughout European countries. As a first step, the card has been launched in Germany and several other states are interested in its implementation (Poland, Switzerland, Serbia, Czech Republic, Slova-kia, Slovenia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and the Nether-lands). The results of the professional card implementation will be reviewed in the coming months, and hopefully demonstrate the success of this initiative.

By Jacques Schibler SEFI Headquarters, Brussels.

More information: http://www.feani.org/site/fileadmin/

PDF_Documents/Position_papers/1102_Policy_Paper_FEANI_-

_Professional_Card.pdf

FROM EUROPE FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION EU research priorities to be revealed, renamed Climate change, energy, health and SMEs will form the centre of European Commission proposals for research funding within the new Common Strategic Framework (CSF), which will be renamed today (10 June) at a 700-strong stakeholder event. The CSF will follow on from the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) after it expires in 2013, but the new funding pool will be the subject of heated debate as the Commission mulls over a White Paper to be released later this year. The White Paper will outline how the re-search budget should be allocated under the new programme, which will roll together several existing structural and cohesion funding mechanisms under a common umbrella. University associations, national research institutions, government officials and business leaders will all mingle at the conference, during which in the Commis-sion will unveil the new name of the programme after holding an open competition to settle the matter earlier in the year. Direction: Climate, health, energy, SMEs European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn will also outline the Commission’s response to hundreds of submissions it has received following the publication of a consultation paper on the CSF earlier this year. Officials said that a new innovation competitiveness report issued by the EU executive this week (8 June) highlighted the direction that the Commission would take on the CSF. The report found that education systems needed to be adapted to business innovation needs, SMEs needed more encouragement, and that more research was needed to tackle climate change and to reduce the gender gap in science. It found that business investment – as opposed to state funding – of research was a key weakness in Europe, where half as much private sector cash was spent than in South Korea and Japan. A source in the EU execu-tive said the report's findings would echo today's Commission priori-ties for the new framework programme. He added: "What EU citizens want is for the EU to tackle the grand challenges including health, energy, SMEs and climate change. That's what they want the EU fund-ing to do." Cut back red tape, inefficiency The CSF will attempt to avoid the inefficiencies of the current pro-gramme. On Wednesday, MEPs adopted a resolution on the mid-term review of FP7, noting that complexity of administrative management, red tape, lack of transparency and unjustified delays remain major handicaps. The resolution said the Commission and EU member states should push harder for co-operation and co-ordination be-tween the various EU and national funding programmes. (Source: http://www.euractiv.com/en/innovation-enterprise/eu-research-priorities-revealed-renamed-news-505514)

Ranking of Universities On 9 June 2011, the final conference of the U-Multirank project took place in Brussels. “U-Multirank” is a new international transparency tool which is multi-d i m e n s i o n a l , m u l t i - l e v e l a n d u s e r - d r i v e n . Because of these characteristics, it differs substantially from all exist-ing higher education rankings and addresses the needs of various stakeholders in higher education. The U-Multirank project was initi-ated and funded by the European Commission (DG Education and Culture) and has been carried out by a consortium of research organi-sations under the name CHERPA Network (Consortium for Higher Education and Research Performance Assessment). Its objective is “to develop a feasible transparency instrument that can contribute to enhancing the transparency of institutional and programmatic diver-sity of European higher education in a global context and test its feasibility. The general intention is to create a transparency instru-ment that will have a global outreach, potentially covering higher education institutions of all continents”. The results of the feasibility study were presented to a large audience composed of academics from all over Europe and beyond as well as representatives of inter-national bodies (OECD…) and EU representatives. The morning ses-sion was dedicated to a speech made by Jan Truszczynski, Director General for Education and Culture (EC) who spoke about the general context of the university rankings and by a series of presentations about the making of the U-Multirank as well as some demos about the different uses and approaches of this new tool. The event was also available via Livestream. The overview of the major outcomes of the project entitled “The design and testing the feasibility of a multi-dimensional global university ranking” , is available at info@sefi.be. This overview provides a concise outline of the need for a new multi-dimensional ranking, the major features of the new transparency instrument designed within the project, the underlying design princi-ples of the new instrument, the outcomes of the pilot test involving over 150 higher education institutions from more than 50 countries in Europe and beyond, and the CHERPA’ s recommendations on how to implement and institutionalize U-Multirank as an important new European and international transparency tool in the increasingly complex world of higher education and research. The first interim report is available at http://www.u-multirank.eu UMR_IR_0110.pdf and the second interim report is available at http://www.u-multirank.eu/project/U-Multirank%20Interim%20Report%202.pdf For further information: info@u-multirank.eu or www.u-multirank.eu

By Françoise Côme SEFI Headquarters, Brussels.

On the same subject in University world News and the Times Higher Education: “Europe's new ranking system unveiled”: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110612103720983 “Difference engine: U-Multirank aims to disrupt ranking ‘homogenization’”: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416497&c=1 FROM FRANCE Rankings helped inspire French Reforms Sweeping reforms of French higher education were prompted in part by its performance in world university rankings, the country's higher

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education minister has suggested. In an interview with The New York Times, Valérie Pécresse said French higher education was "very separated", with grandes écoles, research institutes and universities all fulfilling different roles. "The problem is that the world model is a university. If you have a ranking, you rank universities," Ms Pécresse said. "For a long time we thought we had a French model that was different from the others and was working better. But now we know that good research and good teaching means you need a multidisciplinary university." The minister, who has been in post for four years, said another key plank of the changes was to give universities the autonomy so cherished by other academies. "When I came into office, French universities didn't have any freedom to offer new degrees, to open new labs or to hire new professors," she said. "They had no responsibility, either. Their means - their budget - did not depend on their capacity to manage it. So we had to give them autonomy." Ms Pécresse acknowledged the controversy caused by the reforms, and said the protests they triggered could have cost her her job on more than one occasion. But she was ada-mant that change was required: "In France we are always thinking about decline. One of the major points of my political thinking is how to give back optimism to French society and French youth...We want to attract the best students from all over the world; we want more researchers," she said. Reflecting on the trebling of the tuition-fee cap in England, she said she had made a conscious decision to "stand up for a model where tuition fees are not high". "We were so late in investing in universities. We were so late in reforming universities. And it's difficult to do reform without financial incentives. It was really important that universities in France understand - and French people understand - that reform is not always punitive," she said. (Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416373&c=1)

FROM UK Treble cause: UK signs up to boost Indian places A £5 million-a-year partnership between India and the UK is to help the world's second most populous country in its bid to treble the number of university places to 40 mil l ion. The British and Indian governments will today announce the second phase of the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), originally launched in 2006. The project takes account of India's aim to increase its student numbers from 13 million to about 40 million by 2020 - which will involve the creation of 800 new universities. The second phase of UKIERI includes "a five-year strategic plan to trans-form leadership and management in Indian schools, higher education and further education institutions". It follows a visit to India by David Cameron last July with a delegation that included David Willetts, the universities and science minister, and a number of British vice-chancellors. The new phase covers four areas: the leadership pro-gramme; supporting "innovation partnerships" involving young aca-demics and researchers from British and Indian universities; "developing skills capacity" in Indian vocational education; and "enhancing mobility of students and qualifications". Mr Willetts said that India had "incredible ambitions" in higher education. "It is keen to see its universities, particularly its new universities, partner with British universities," he told Times Higher Education. "I think the whole basis for our relationship is one of mutual respect, one in which we want British students to study in India as well as Indian students studying in Britain." He added that the UK could make a "big contribution" to helping India raise enrolments. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that in addition to the £5 million annual funding from the two governments, the coali-tion was "anticipating that business will invest". Paul Marshall, chief executive of the 1994 Group, said the announcement was "an excel-lent example of what can be achieved when the government and the

sector work together with business towards shared strategic aims". (Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416443&c=1) FROM UKRAINE Seminar ‘Reforms in the higher education system in Ukraine’ On 31 May - 01 June, the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sport of Ukraine and the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Training Foundation held a seminar in Kyiv on “Reforms in the higher education system in Ukraine in the context of the Bolo-gna process, the NQF for LLL and legislative changes”. The objective of the seminar was to look into current challenges of the higher education reform process in Ukraine, in particular with regard to the development of a national qualifications framework and the preparation of the Draft Law on Higher Education in Ukraine. A set of conclusions was adopted at the end of the seminar. (Source: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/highereducation/2011/Ukraine_May%202011.asp#TopOfPage ) FROM TURKEY International Science and Technology Conference ISTEC 2011 — Call for papers The main goal of this conference is to present and discuss new trends in science and technology. It will take place at the Istanbul University in Turkey from the 7th until the 9th of December 2011. Deadlines: Abstract Deadline: 18 November 2011 Full Article Deadline: 25 November 2011 Early Registration Fee Deadline: 25 October 2011 Registration Fee Deadline: 25 November 2011

FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD FROM CANADA There’s good news as well as bad, international educators hear Universities have been urged to use financial worries as an opportu-nity to reassess their internationalisation strategies in the spirit of “never letting a good crisis go to waste”. Speaking in Vancouver at the annual conference of Nafsa: Association of International Educators, Vic Johnson, Nafsa’s senior adviser for public policy, said it was unlikely that recent cuts in funding would be reversed in the near future. “Some international education pro-grammes are in a world of trouble and some of them are going to close,” he added. While this would be a painful process, Mr Johnson said, it could also have some benefits. “This is the time for us to step back and reassess what the essence and the core of our missions are in these programmes,” he said. “We need to emerge from this terri-ble budget situation prepared to grow, and that probably means being prepared to be not exactly what we were in the past.” Carl Herrin, senior partner at Global Education Solutions, a higher educa-tion consultancy, said that the financial crisis had exposed the dan-gers of the “one egg, one basket” strategy many public universities had adopted towards funding international programmes. He urged delegates to see multiple funding streams as essential. “This may be the moment that American higher education has to find a new way to fund its core institutional support for these programmes, to make

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sure it is no longer dependent on government grants,” Mr Herrin said. Mr Johnson said the funding difficulties were exacerbated by a dearth of active support for international higher education projects among policymakers in Washington. “There is still a lot of support for inter-national education and exchanges at the rhetorical level; we have a large level of bipartisan support. But, with very few exceptions, we’re nobody’s priority. Everybody loves us, but when the going gets tough, it’s not easy to find someone willing to make it their mission to make something happen. The fact of the matter is that politicians will vote for cuts,” he said. Mr Johnson supported his argument by highlighting recent cuts to study-abroad scholarships and international pro-grammes for US students, which in some cases have been as great as 40 per cent. Meanwhile, Mr Herrin claimed that politically motivated intransigence on the part of Democrat and Republican policymakers was making a bad situation worse. Predicting a victory for the Democ-rats and Barack Obama in the 2012 US presidential race and a victory for the Republican Party in the Senate, he said: “There is going to be continued disunity and disagreement and there is going to be contin-ued economic pressure that reduces the size of the spend on higher education in general.” (Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416404&c=1) Balancing act: strike a pose between market and values Conference hears that both competition and collaboration will grow as global trade in higher education booms. Sarah Cunnane reports from Vancouver. Universities have been urged to strike a careful balance between embracing market forces and preserving intellectual value as the globalisation of higher education continues apace. Speaking in Van-couver at the annual conference of Nafsa: Association of International Educators, John Hudzik, the organisation's past president and chair of its board of directors, said the number of students worldwide who study for at least part of their degree overseas was projected to more than double from 3.2 million to 7 million over the next 10 years. "Higher education globally, for at least the next decade or more, is going to be characterised by very strong demand and short supply," he said. "The result of that will be increased competition and in-creased collaboration between universities." Professor Hudzik, who is a professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University, quoted Stephen Toope, president of the University of British Columbia, who said that the cost of cutting-edge research is now too great for most universities to afford in isolation. "Competition is good; it asks each of us to consider who is doing a better job," Professor Hudzik told dele-gates at a seminar on international trends at the conference last week. Speaking at the same session, Francisco Marmolejo, executive director of the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration, said that those involved in international education were sometimes too concerned with the financial rewards, both for their institutions and their students. "We are preparing students not for a job, but for life," he said. Dr Marmolejo added that after the financial crisis, "the future is not what it used to be", and argued that it was vital for universities to develop coherent strategies. "When we think about the future, we should be concerned about the present," he said. "We are so busy in our work that we don't pay too much attention to what we are doing today in order to define, rather than just guess, the future." Meanwhile, Susan Robertson, professor of sociology of education at the University of Bristol, gave an overview of the situation in the UK. Acknowledging that the sector was going through "turbulent times", she predicted that the decision to raise the tuition-fee cap to £9,000 from 2012 would cause "very significant ripples throughout the European sector", with fees also rising else-where. However, Professor Robertson said there were fundamental flaws in the system adopted by the UK government that would force it to reassess its position before the next general election. "It was a system that was worked out in a moment of political turmoil," she said. One of the problems she highlighted was the assumption that

the same percentage of male and female students would undertake undergraduate studies. If this is incorrect, it could have a significant bearing on the proportion of taxpayer-subsidised student loans that are repaid, once salary differences are taken into account. "As most of us know, there is a higher proportion of females (in higher educa-tion)," Professor Robertson said. "A further assumption (the govern-ment) made is that both female and male graduates would receive equal salaries upon leaving university. Wrong again. "Add in the third complication of up to a quarter of graduates not being able to find jobs, and the likelihood diminishes that the government will consider (that it has made) a good decision." She predicted that the fee hike was likely to result in a gradual drift of students away from the UK to other countries, mainly in continental Europe, where degree study is less expensive. (Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416446&c=1) FROM LATIN AMERICA Partnerships to boost higher education After a consortium of 24 national and international university associa-tions gathered in Colombia last month to launch a project to boost regional development of higher education, Latin American students entering universities this year will begin to see marked changes be-fore they graduate, project officials say. The three-year $3.5 million project, Alfa Puentes (meaning 'bridges' in Spanish), is funded by the consortium and the European Community. It aims largely to bridge higher education partnerships and exchanges between the Latin American and European regions while adhering to Europe's Bologna process, which was launched in 1999 and helps to converge different country's university systems. To the average student, that means improving the quality of learning and international exchanges, accom-plished through enhanced institutional cooperation and sharing of best practices among institutions of both regions, said Michael Gäbel, head of the Higher Education Policy Unit and project coordinator for the European University Association (EUA), which represents 800 institutions. "This project is special in the sense that we are cooperat-ing with national and regional university associations, whose tasks are, on the one hand, to contribute on policy development and, on the other hand, to communicate and implement results at the institu-tions in their respective country or region," he says. As a result, a much wider community of Latin American institutions will benefit, Gäbel added. "Plus, we are supporting existing initiatives and agree-ments for higher education convergence that already have been developed in the Latin American sub-regions, thus we stress the 'bottom-up' approach." The idea for Alfa Puentes began about a decade ago, when the Latin American Common (LAC) Higher Educa-tion Area and the EU-LAC Common Higher Education and Knowledge Area appeared on the European Union's agenda, Gäbel said. This political commitment is based upon exchange of knowledge and partnership between higher education institutions in both regions. Throughout the project, meetings and regularly updated work plans will keep the aims in focus and an internal final assessment will be shared with stakeholders. Conferences for stakeholders will address issues such as the role of university associations in building the Latin American higher education space and new and ongoing sub-regional projects. A region-wide survey of university leadership and faculty will provide comparable data on how universities are currently tackling issues related to learning and teaching, research, mobility and inter-nationalisation, quality assurance and governance and management. (Source: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110610213548370 )

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PUBLICATIONS

New book in the Council of Europe Higher Education Series

Volume 17 of the Council of Europe Higher Education Series has just been published. Entitled Not by Bread Alone, the book brings together a series of essays by Sjur Bergan, Head of the Council of Europe’s higher education programme, covering the missions of higher education, reflections on public re-sponsibility for higher education and issues concerning qualifications and recognition. All titles in the Council of Europe Higher Education Series may be ordered through the Council of Europe bookshop.

Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education The Battle for World-Class Excellence Ellen Hazelkorn

University rankings have gained popularity worldwide because they appear to fulfil demands by students, parents, policymakers, employers, and other stakeholders for information and transparency. They are often equated with quality, and are now a significant factor shaping institutional reputation. Today, there are eleven global rankings, experiencing varying degrees of popularity, reliability and trustworthiness, and national rankings in over 40 coun-tries. Despite their popularity, how much do we really know and understand about the influence and impact of rankings? This book is the first comprehensive study of rankings from a global perspective. Based on original international surveys and interviews with universities and stakeholders, Ellen Hazelkorn draws together a wealth of international experience to chronicle how rankings are helping reshape higher education in the age of globalisation. Written in an easy but authoritative style, the book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the rankings phe-nomenon. It is essential reading for policy maker, institutional leaders, managers, advisors, and scholars.

Publication of the European University Association's 2010 Annual Report The European University Association (EUA) 2010 Annual Report highlights the importance of the formal launch of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in Vienna/Budapest in March 2010. At the same time the coming into force of the EU Lisbon Treaty with its Title XIX on European research marked a success for the European Research Area (ERA). Thereby, data provided by more than 800 universities in the Trends 2010 report demonstrated the EUA's role at the centre of the EHEA and the ERA. The report is available online: Download this publication.

In July/August

In September

FOR YOUR CALENDAR

3-5 August 2011, Medellín, Colombia LACCEI 2011— 9th Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering and Technology More information on: http://www.laccei2011medellin.org/english/Paginas/presentation.aspx

21-26 August 2011, University of Ulster, UK Engineering Sustainability for a Global Economy For further information: http://icee2011.ulster.ac.uk

9-12 August 2011, Mérida, México, IIDEA Workshop: “ Curriculum Innovation Workshop: Bridging the Gap Between How We Teach and the Practice of Engineering” For further details: www.iideainstitute.org

3 September 2011, HQ Brussels, Belgium SEFI Bureau Meeting 9:00-16:00

4-9 September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland World Engineers’ Convention 2011 “Engineers Power the World - Facing the Global Energy Challenge.” The International Conference Center Geneva (CICG), Geneva, Switzerland More information on the convention: http://www.wec2011.org/

8 September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland. FEANI Executive Board Meeting

8 news@sefi – 6/ 2011 – SEFI – www.sefi.be – info@sefi.be

2011 SEFI Student year

15-16 September 2011, Kocaeli University, Izmit, Turkey 12th International Workshop on Research and Education in Mechatronics REM 2011 For more information visit: http://mekatronik.kocaeli.edu.tr/rem2011/

27 September 2011, Lisbon, Portugal Workshop of SEFI WG EER

12 - 17 September 2011, Sevastopol, Ukraine XVIII International Science and Engineering Conference MACHINE-BUILDING AND TECHNOSPHERE OF THE XXI CENTURY To get more details: Information Sheet Conference

9 September 2011 Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. JSEE 59th Annual Conference and Exposition Conference theme: Engineering Education to Pioneer the Near Future Call for papers details here: Call for Papers

22-23 September 2011, Estoril, Portugal 2nd IIDEA Workshop session organised for the Tomsk Polytechnic Univer-sity. For further details: www.iideainstitute.org

1st World Engineering Education Flash Week Organised by ISEFI and anchored by SEFI

Lisbon, Portugal www.wee2011.com

27-30 September: SEFI ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2011 1 October: IIDEA Workshop 1-2 October: IFEES Summit 2011 1-2 October: PAEE 2011 Symposium 3-4 October: ASIBEI ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2011

21-23 September 2011, Piešt’any, Slovakia IGIP Regional Conference in conjunction with ICL2011 (14th International Conference for Interactive Computer aided Learning) For further details: www.igip.org

21-23 September 2011, Mannheim, Germany SEFI - PTEE 2011 7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PHYSICS TEACHING IN ENGINEER-ING EDUCATION Physics for Engineers – Soft Skill or Core Competency? For more information visit: http://ptee2011.eu/

8 September 2011, Brussels, Belgium Final conference of the ECCE project: “Engineering observatory on Com-petence based Curricula for job Enhancement”. The event is organised by SEFI. More information: www.ecceobs.eu Registration: communication_officer@sefi.be

30 September 2011, Lisbon, Portugal. IACEE Executive Committee Meeting

9 news@sefi – 6/ 2011 – SEFI – www.sefi.be – info@sefi.be

2011 SEFI Student year

We hope that you enjoyed this issue of News@SEFI.

The next issue will be published at the end of July 2011

Please send suggestions and contributions to info@sefi.be before 25th July.

SEFI receives the financial support of its corporate partners

and the support of its corporate members