Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Groups
The EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Groups gather a selected group of EUA member universities each year to discuss and explore practices and lessons learnt in organising and implementing learning and teaching at the institutional level. They also identify good practices on the given theme. The groups are designed to strengthen a bottom-up approach in engaging European universities, to foster community building, and to complement the European Learning & Teaching Forum.
Further information about the 2023 Thematic Peer Groups is available in this document.
Summary reports on the lessons learnt by previous Thematic Peer Groups are available via the following links:
2022
- Collaborative teaching practice
- Digitally competent teachers in designing quality learning environments
- Needs and wellbeing of students and staff
2021
2020
- Environmental sustainability of learning and teaching
- Meeting skills and employability demands
- Approaches in learning and teaching to promoting equity and inclusion
2019
- Evidence-based approaches to learning and teaching
- Student assessment
- Internationalisation in learning and teaching
- Curriculum design
2018
- Promoting active learning in universities
- Evaluation of learning and teaching
- Continuous development of teaching competences
- Career paths in teaching
2017
The groups’ work feeds into EUA’s ongoing policy work and debates on learning and teaching by providing direct feedback from an institutional perspective on the key challenges in the area, as well as recommendations. Based on the work of these groups, EUA issued a position paper that underlines the importance of learning and teaching as a core mission and responsibility of universities.
For further information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Resources
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Needs and wellbeing of students and staff: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
17 March 2023This report summarises the findings of the EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group "Needs an...
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Collaborative teaching practice: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
17 March 2023This report summarises the findings of the 2022 EUA Thematic Peer Group which explored collabo...
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Digitally competent teachers: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
17 March 2023This report summarises the findings of the EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group “Digita...
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Strategy and organisational culture
Report
18 March 2022This report outlines the conclusions of the Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group “Strategy ...
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Curriculum and assessment
Report
11 March 2022This report outlines the conclusions of the Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group “Curriculu...
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International partnerships
Report
04 March 2022This report summarises the findings of the EUA Thematic Peer Group ‘‘International Partnershipsâ...
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Environmental sustainability of learning and teaching
Report
19 March 2021The 2020 EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on “Environmental sustainability of learn...
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Meeting skills and employability demands
Report
12 March 2021The 2020 EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on “Meeting skills and employability dema...
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Approaches in learning and teaching to promoting equity and inclusion
Report
05 March 2021The 2020 EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on “Approaches in learning and teaching t...
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Evidence-based approaches to learning and teaching: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
19 March 2020The concept of evidence-based learning and teaching is complex and multifaceted. The EUA Learning &a...
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Student assessment: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
17 March 2020Assessment is an essential and influential element in the learning journey of all students. There is...
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Internationalisation in learning and teaching: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
16 March 2020The EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on “Internationalisation in learning and teach...
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Curriculum design: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
13 March 2020At the centre of a student’s university experience stands the programme that they follow. Therefor...
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Towards a cultural shift in learning and teaching: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
15 March 2019Universities across Europe are calling for a more student-centred, inclusive university environment ...
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Evaluation of learning and teaching: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
24 January 2019The evaluation of learning and teaching is one central activity through which universities monitor t...
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Continuous Development of Teaching Competences: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
16 January 2019Higher education stakeholders are increasingly aware of the need for systematic continuous professio...
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Career paths in teaching: Thematic Peer Group Report
Report
14 January 2019Attention to career paths in teaching and staff development, in order to enhance learning and teachi...
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EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - Adam Gajek, European Student’s Union
Video
14 June 2018 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - Grace Neville, University College Cork, Ireland
Video
14 June 2018 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - Henk Dekker, Centre of Education and Learning, Netherlands
Video
13 April 2018 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - Jacques Lanarès, former Vice-Rector of the Lausanne University
Video
13 April 2018 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - István Vilmos Kovács, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Video
13 April 2018 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - Pedro Teixeira, University of Porto, Portugal
Video
06 April 2018 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative - Cecilia Christersson, Malmö University, Sweden
Video
04 April 2018 view more -
Learning and Teaching in Europe’s Universities - An EUA position paper
Position
29 January 2018Based on the work of the EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative and the outcomes of the 1st European...
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EUA webinar: Lessons learnt from the thematic peer groups on learning and teaching
Video
29 November 2017 view more -
EUA’s Learning and Teaching Initiative: Report from the 2017 Thematic Peer Groups
Report
27 November 2017This report aims to provide the reader with an insight into the discussions and conclusions of the t...
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EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative – Martin Erikson, University of Borås, Sweden
Video
29 September 2017 view more -
Learning & Teaching Forum - Thematic Peer Group 1
Video
26 September 2017 view more -
Learning & Teaching Forum - Thematic Peer Group 3
Video
22 September 2017 view more -
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative – Ann De Schepper, University of Antwerp
Video
17 June 2017 view more
Events
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The European Learning & Teaching Forum is an EUA event that provides an opportunity for participants to meet and discuss developments in learning and teaching at European universities. The Forum builds on EUA’s work with its member universities on this topic. Alongside the bottom-up approach, ... Read more
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EUA has taken the decision to hold this year’s European Learning & Teaching Forum as an online event. Staff at the University of Deusto and EUA had been looking forward to an opportunity to meet in person and connect with both old and new colleagues and acquaintances; however, in view of the c... Read more
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Embedding and facilitating sustainability The European Learning & Teaching Forum is an EUA event that provides an opportunity for participants to meet and discuss developments in learning and teaching at European universities. The Forum builds on EUA’s work with its member universities on t... Read more
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University education has changed significantly in recent decades, and continues to do so, as the expectations of students, stakeholders and society towards universities evolve. This process is further influenced by universities’ diverse historical, disciplinary and regional backgrounds. The 2020 E... Read more
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The 2019 European Learning & Teaching Forum ‘Towards successful learning: Controversies and common ground’ builds on the recognition that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for successful learning and teaching. Photos of the forum are now available! (MirosÅ‚aw Kaźmierczak, â... Read more
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The European Learning & Teaching Forum facilitated the exchange of experience on learning and teaching in changing learning landscapes. The European Learning & Teaching Forum was EUA’s new event that aimed to provide an opportunity for institutional representatives to meet and discuss dev... Read more
Expert voices
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Establishing a framework for a shared culture of well-being
06 January 2023The Covid-19 pandemic presented significant challenges for higher education institutions, not least in terms of the additional burden for staff and students. Indeed, this crisis demonstrated the great...
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Collaborative teaching across borders: Breaking down barriers with Virtual Exchange
14 December 2022Collaborative teaching is not yet common within many European universities, and even less so across borders. However, it appears to be gaining momentum. We have seen this up close through the experien...
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Beyond snapshots of student performance: how to promote institutional assessment literacy
20 January 2022Current assessment practices draw from long traditions, values and beliefs that are well rooted in higher education and, by default, mainly include summative, test-type final exams. This leads to a si...
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Education with and despite Covid-19: insights from the Hagen Manifesto on New Learning
06 December 2021Universities must fundamentally address how they want to shape learning in the digital transformation. It is indisputable: digitisation is changing the way educational content is created, the formats ...
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Curriculum and assessment: it takes the two to tango
15 November 2021High quality education subsumes a combination of well-designed curricula and learning assessment that is fit for purpose. Both are crucial to ensure student success. Institutions commonly invest signi...
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Acting for inclusion in digital learning
11 January 2021When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Italy at the very beginning of the second semester of the 2019-2020 academic year, we faced the emergency of teaching under lockdown. The University of Modena a...
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Reimagining employability
11 December 2020While higher education plays a crucial role in preparing students for future careers, employability extends beyond a narrow focus on jobs to the development of student attributes and skills that make ...
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Digital and green transitions: promoting sustainability in higher education
10 December 2020The digital and environmental revolutions are sparking fundamental societal challenges – as well as opportunities. In the current Covid-19 context, the digitalisation of higher education has become ...
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Internationalisation: The challenge for teachers and students at home
06 February 2020Within the dynamic international context of higher education, where the pressure of international rankings, increasing student numbers and the demand for globally employable graduates are prioritised,...
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Improving learning and teaching through mid-semester course feedback
09 December 2019Universities collect a wide range of data to improve the quality of their learning and teaching. A large-scale Likert-type survey is a common method of data collection to inform changes at the institu...
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Developing the quality of student assessment systems
18 November 2019The question of student assessment is an integral part of quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area. Standard 1.3 of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Hi...
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Enhancing Learning and Teaching Beyond Good Intentions
21 February 2019In Europe, attention to higher education learning and teaching has been growing in recent years, both in policy and in practice.The 2018 Bologna Process Paris Communiqué devotes a whole section...
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Re-thinking language and communication skills in curriculum development
18 February 2019In academia, we tend to agree that the purpose of higher education is to educate academic professionals who are prominent experts in their fields and disciplines. When looking at recent research one c...
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The need to re-think research-based education
15 February 2019European universities have a proud heritage, not least inspired by the Humboldtian ideas of unity between research and education. For many universities in Europe, it is still a fact that research has ...
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Common ground in European learning and teaching
14 February 2019For the past twenty years, the Bologna Process has provided a framework for European collaboration in higher education by promoting common degree structures and approaches to quality assurance, recogn...
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Keeping universities relevant through active learning
14 February 2019All universities face challenges such as widening participation, more diverse student populations, and digitalisation, which all lead to the need to further develop pedagogical methods and ways of und...
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Evaluation of learning and teaching: the path to quality graduates, the change-makers of society
05 February 2019Inspired by the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area, universities across the continent have been increasingly participating in international exchange programmes, developing and orga...
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The new professionalisation of the academic career in the context of the European Higher Education Area
01 February 2019In today’s Europe, education systems are expected to be accountable and have tangible and transparent outcomes. They are also required to be in line with economic development, the labour market,...
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Valorising teaching, beyond our own higher education institution
17 January 2019In the first minutes of his welcome speech in October 2018 for newly-appointed faculty members, KU Leuven Rector Luc Sels stated that “teaching and research are equally valued at KU Leuven.&rdqu...
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The first steps towards the continuous professional development of university teaching staff
16 January 2019There are several reasons why teaching is not treated in the same way as research in the portfolios of teaching staff across European universities. While we perfect scientific research throughout our ...
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Building European networks to explore the evaluation of learning and teaching
12 December 2018Towards the end of 2017 the Centre for Educational Development (CED) at Queen’s University in Belfast received funding from the university to support an assessment through a partnership project....
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‘Be the person who makes the difference’: an Irish-French reflection on strong learning and teaching practice
27 September 2017This fourth interview on learning and teaching practice is with Grace Neville, who will chair the closing plenary session capturing the outcomes and next steps after the European University Associatio...
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