Project partners: EADTU; FernUni in Hagen; OUUK; OUNL; UNED; OUCatalunya; HOU; Uninettuno; Anadolu University; Universidade Aberta; OUCyprus; University of Jyväskylä; KU Leuven; AGH

Project aim: It will raise the capacity of universities with patterns of good practices with regard to pedagogies, technologies, organizational support and business models for these innovative curricula. It will create an expert pool to enlarge this capacity by on site seminars for university leaders and teaching staff (CPD).

Project goals: 

1. Defining the concept and position of short learning programs as part of higher education systems and of policies for continuous education/continuous professional development (CPD) and lifelong learning, responding to needs of the economy and personal development.

2. Developing institutional policies, strategies, and frameworks for the development and delivery of  flexible and scalable SLPs in Europe, keeping pace with the size and diversity of needs of employers and employees and as an opportunity for learners to fit study programs to their time horizon.

3. Empowering university leadership and staff for curriculum and course design, quality assurance and recognition for SLPs complying with the EQF.

4. Developing guidelines for collaborative SLPs and related mobility, enriching the content and quality of SLPs and raising their European outreach, scale and cost-effectiveness.

5. Designing next steps for change towards systemic and sustainable institutional, governmental and EU policies and strategies for continuous education, mainstreaming SLPs as a specific area of university provision, next to degree education and open education.

Target group: learners, universities and companies.

About:  This project is about forward looking, forward thinking and forward acting with regard to the integration of SLPs in higher education systems. It starts with identifying the concept and position of SLPs in higher education, analyzing European, national and institutional policies and looking for a consensus on SLPs as a structure responding to the needs in the economy and society at large. In this concept, SLPs respond to mismatches and gaps in knowledge/skills and needs for personal development. Online/blended SLPs are flexible and scalable and enable universities to serve large numbers of learners.

The project looks how institutions take this forward in policies, strategies and funding/business models within the context of national frameworks. It will raise the capacity of universities with patterns of good practices with regard to pedagogies, technologies, organizational support and business models for these innovative curricula. It will create an expert pool to enlarge this capacity through on-site seminars for university leaders and teaching staff (CPD). It will develop guidelines for collaborative curricula and mobility in order to increase the scale and impact of SLPs internationally based on pilot studies. It will deal with issues on the recognition of SLPs and their compliance with the (renewed) EQF as well as with quality assurance and accreditation procedures. Throughout the project, a Stakeholder Group with main stakeholders will point to all policy implications, using the Roma-technique, ending with a set of recommendations for policymakers at the institutional, national and European level.

Project website: https://e-slp.eadtu.eu/