ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE D’INSTITUTIONS DEL’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR (EURASHE)

Who are we?

EURASHE is the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education that offer professionally-orientated programmes and are engaged in applied and profession-related research within the Bologna cycles. Currently about 600 higher education institutions in 40 countries within and outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are affiliated to EURASHE.

Members of EURASHE are national associations of higher education institutions and individual institutions, such as universities, (university) colleges and universities of applied sciences (UAS), as well as other professional associations and stakeholder organisations active in the field of higher education.

EURASHE’s mission is to promote the interests of professional higher education in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). EURASHE aims to position professional higher education in the higher education spectrum and by this contribute to the recognition of its qualifications throughout the EHEA; provide a platform for institutions for an exchange of good practice and capacity building on the priorities in higher education reform, including internships and work-based learning; enhance cooperation of professional higher education and members of EURASHE with other stakeholders in higher education and in particular with the world of work; diversify the profile of membership to span all relevant levels of the overarching qualifications framework of the EHEA, from higher vocational education to universities of applied sciences; guarantee the quality of education provision by our members and ensure that this contributes to the employability of their graduates at levels 5 through 8 of the European Qualifications Framework.

Why we are Participating in the Project

EURASHE is a partner to the policy discussions with the European authorities and stakeholders. It and has been involved in the various working groups of the European Commission, has been a consultative member of the Bologna process. From this position EURASHE has been advocating for stronger links between professional higher education (PHE) and the world of work, for strengthened attention to life-long learning and further flexibility of higher education. That has been reflected in various projects and policy statements including the ones for the EHEA ministerial conferences, statement on life-long learning, work-based learning. EURASHE has been engaged in the current ongoing discussion on development of the European Education Area including the structures for integration of micro-credentials. EURASHE has set up a specific task group focused on the topic. EURASHE representative was co-chairing the Bologna advisory group on learning and teaching. EURASHE has a work group devoted to learning and teaching. There is therefore a strong basis for successful contribution to the conceptual work, providing a wider platform for discussing the project results and challenges, provide feedback and not last promote and disseminate the project results

Our Role in the Project

EURASHE is conducting the needs and target analysis for the first output of the project, by developing and distributing a survey for (medium) level institutional leaders. This survey is designed to understand whether institutional leaders need to gain certain digital competences to be able to better understand digital learning, and which management competences they feel are lacking to design digital learning strategies. Following the analysis of its results, EURASHE will conduct 25 scoping interviews with institutional leaders based on the survey, during a Leadership Forum on digitalisation event.

In addition to this, EURASHE will advise the project consortium at all stages of project lifetime, and actively contribute to the dissemination and exploitation of the project’s results, and the promotion of the micro-course that will be developed. With its membership, EURASHE will ideally complement the other partners in reaching out to the higher education community.

Our Team

Tess van den Brink

Tess van den Brink

Policy and Project Officer

Within the EURASHE Secretariat, Tess follows the development of the policy agenda and activities on teaching and learning, lifelong learning initiatives, digitalisation and sustainability. She previously worked for the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture at the European Commission, and is experienced in communications, student representation and event planning.

Krisztina Olàh

Krisztina Olàh

Financial and Administrative Officer

Within EURASHE Krisztina is in charge of all the financial and HR issues and supports the team with the administrative tasks. She previously worked at KPMG Hungary, 3M Hungary and has experience in the banking sector. Krisztina is an economist and studied at the Széchényi Istvàn University in Győr, Hungary.