Learning & Teaching

In recent decades, notable progress towards quality education has been made through the implementation of structural reforms under the Bologna process. In addition, the European Union is working towards creating a European Education Area. However, there is still a need to be more attentive to the process of learning and teaching itself.

Universities must drive developments in learning and teaching, as outlined by EUA. This requires close collaboration with all major stakeholder groups, including national and European policy makers. To support this endeavour, EUA is conducting several initiatives aimed at establishing a European dimension on learning and teaching in higher education. This includes knowledge-building activities and studies, institutional development and peer learning, as well as related policy statements and recommendations.

EUA’s activities aim to enhance the quality and relevance of higher education provision, underline the importance of learning and teaching as a core mission and advocate for learning and teaching activities to be geared towards student learning and success.

The EUA Learning & Teaching Steering Committee guides this work, in particular by providing oversight for EUA’s Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Groups and the European Learning & Teaching Forum.

Call for contributions: 2024 European Learning & Teaching Forum

Deadline: 2 October

The call for contributions for the 2024 European Learning & Teaching Forum is now open.

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  • Institutional strategies

    As demonstrated in EUA’s Trends 2018 report, learning and teaching enhancement has become an institutional priority, generating dedicated strategies and structures.

    Through work with its membership, EUA explores institutional approaches to education provision and provides recommendations on institutional strategies. Such approaches can underpin university communities’ efforts in learning and teaching and support staff, students and leadership in their roles and responsibilities.

    In the framework of the EFFECT project, EUA, together with partner universities and organisations, also issued a set of 10 “Ten European Principles for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching”. These support the need to re-emphasise the education mission of the university, and to service institutional leaders working with staff, students and external stakeholders.

    The EUA-led LOTUS project (2020-2022) focused on capacity building and strategic change management for learning and teaching at higher education institutions across Europe. The project included a Leadership Development Programme to address processes and conditions for the implementation of institutional learning and teaching strategies, while also exploring, through a Policy Dialogue, how learning and teaching can be best supported by national and European policies.

  • Teaching enhancement and career development

    The input, engagement and competence of academic staff is crucial to enhance learning and teaching. Teaching must be fully recognised as central to the academic profession and considered in assessment practices and career development.

    To raise the status of teaching in higher education, EUA’s work explores incentives and policies for academic staff to invest in teaching, develop their teaching competences, better balance their teaching and research workload and progress in their careers in teaching. EUA’s EFFECT project (2015-2019) also addressed teaching enhancement, notably with a feasibility study on teaching enhancement in European higher education.

    In addition, two reports, published in 2018 and 2021, map national developments in learning and teaching in several European Higher Education Area (EHEA) countries, with a focus on teaching enhancement.

  • Digitalisation

    Digitalisation is transforming the way students learn, as well as the ways institutions deliver education. While blended forms of online-learning currently appear as the most common route for including digital learning at European higher education institutions, the Trends 2018 report shows that digital learning is reinforcing its presence and that universities want to use it more strategically.

    EUA has followed the development and effects of digitalisation in higher education since Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) first captured attention in 2012, issuing two papers on what was then an emerging phenomenon in 2013 and in 2014. The Association also provided a knowledge base for the topic with a survey of European universities on e-learning.

    Currently, EUA is coordinating the DIGI-HE project (2020-2023), which aims to encourage self-reflection on digitally enhanced learning and teaching at European higher education institutions and strengthen strategic approaches to digitally enhanced learning and teaching and capacity building.

    As digitalisation remains high on European, national and institutional agendas, EUA continues to monitor developments and actively contribute to discussions in this area.

  • European Learning & Teaching Forum

    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 topics span from good practice in teaching enhancement and institutional strategies to national and European policies. The Forum builds on EUA’s work with its member universities on this topic. Alongside the bottom-up approach, the Forum makes use of EUA’s extensive policy work in European higher education.

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Resources

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Expert voices

Projects

  • LOTUS

    Leadership and Organisation for Teaching and Learning at European Universities – LOTUS The LOTUS project aims to contribute to capacity building and strategic change management for...

  • DIGI-HE

    Supporting European universities in their strategic approaches to digital learning The DIGI-HE project explores different ways higher education institutions can boost their...

  • Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Groups

    The EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Groups gather a selected group of EUA member...

  • EFFECT

    European Forum for Enhanced Collaboration in Teaching The EFFECT project aims to facilitate the exchange of experience and effective methods in terms of...

  • HERE

    Centralised Support for Higher Education Reform Experts The University of Barcelona (Coordinator) and the European University Association (EUA) comprise...

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Events

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