Convenció de l’EUA a Praga

ImageAquests dies l’European University Association (EUA) fa la seva cinquena convenció a Praga (Universitat Carolina), amb el títol Facing Global Challenges – European strategies for Europe’s universities.

Sobre aquesta convenció he vist que el THES en parla, amb el titular Sector stops to reflect as Bologna milestone nears. Com molt bé diu el president de l’EUA, del 2010 se n’ha parlat molt, però ara s’hi arriba i cal veure qu’e s’ha aconseguit i què cal fer a partir d’ara. Cal tenir idees clares sobre el que es vol que passi en els propers passos del Procés de Bolonya:

“Everyone’s been talking about 2010 for ages, but now that we’re actually getting there we have to say what we think we’ve achieved and what we want to do next.” “We need to have very clear ideas on what we want to happen in the next round of the Bologna Process.”

Ja és bo que les Universitats europees reflexionin sobre això, però potser caldria també que (almenys algunes) també reflexionéssin sobre els passos que s’estan fent ara mateix, sobretot sobre la comunicació estratègica del propi Procés. Potser caldria que l’EUA fes un pas més i enviés una reflexió als governs sobre la importància de considerar els canvis derivats del Procés de Bolonya en un marc d’una societat que ja viu de ple al Segle XXI i que a més pateix un xotrac econòmic.

La darrera frase de la minientrevista del THES és significativa: “The fact that we are trying to do this from a European perspective, in the face of global competition, is a challenge, and it’s very important that we keep going.” Això és Bolonya. Treballar per Europa, per la internacionalització, pel bé comú, per fer una bona feina, per una Universitat al servei de la Societat, per la igualtat d’oportunitats per estudiar i per moure’s per Europa. Poder canviar els plans d’estudi, poder modificar-se els entorns docents, però el que importa són les ganes d’aprendre i d’ensenyar, la curiositat personal, i preguntar-se perquè les coses són com són i per què no són d’una altra forma.

Pel que fa a la conferència a Praga, a part de les habituals presentacions sobre els temes d’una universitat europea i internacional, he vist que ahir divendres hi havia quatre clústers.

Cluster 1: The University as an inclusive and responsive institution

Cluster 2: Universities as Research Institutions

Cluster 3: Governing and managing complex institutions – New challenges in higher education: Impact and institutional response

Cluster 4: Global Outreach – Europe’s interaction with the wider world

Amb els següents focus per a cadascun:

Focus 1: Demographic developments and rapidly evolving labour markets are among the key factors that require Europe’s universities to become more responsive and inclusive. At the same time universities are faced with increasing accountability demands.

The ongoing worldwide debate on assessing learning outcomes underlines the critical importance of establishing approaches that respond to access and retention requirements and demonstrate simultaneously high quality education.

The cluster will offer ample opportunity to discuss these issues with regards to the institutional mission, and in particular with regards to part-time students, the contribution of European Masters programmes to lifelong-learning, and institutional strategies to enhance the flexibility of learning paths.

Focus 2: Europe’s Universities need to be both “competitive”, in terms of enhancing their research missions through success in competitive research funding schemes and retaining and attracting researchers, but also “cooperative” through research exchange and regional cluster building in order to maximize the opportunities available through EU/ERA mechanisms (FP7, ERC, EIT etc) and national and regional research and innovation programmes.

Focus 3: The objective of this cluster is to explore and discuss how university governance is affected by a series of new challenges. Diversification of missions and activities, financial strains caused by rising costs, new stakeholder demands, and global competition all contribute to the increasing complexity of steering and managing universities.

Focus 4: This session will present global HE trends from European and international perspectives as well as case studies for how higher education institutions could be structured and organised in the future. The assumption is that while institutions will develop rather different international portfolios, overall global collaboration and partnership in its various articulations will always play a crucial role, as a means to ensure strategic presence, and to ensure a universal and cosmopolitan outlook.