Fresh faces at EUA Learning & Teaching Steering Committee
08 March 2022
EUA welcomed three new members to the EUA Learning & Teaching Steering Committee on 1 March.
Manuel João Costa from the University of Minho in Portugal, Stephanie Marshall from Queen Mary University of London in the United Kingdom and Anne Lequy from Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences in Germany joined the committee that guides the work of EUA on learning and teaching after answering a call for applications.
Manuel João Costa has a “strong interest in introducing systemic and creative reforms to learning and teaching with an immediate impact on student experiences in higher education”. He has been a leading figure behind the development of an inter-institutional strategy of the Universities of Minho and Aveiro to stimulate transformation in learning and teaching at the national level. “In a country with no guiding framework for teaching enhancement and few incentives to invest in higher education teaching, it has been remarkable to see more than 3,000 participations from 17 institutions in seminars on pedagogical innovation and strong interest from the communities of the universities of Minho and Aveiro,” says Professor Costa on the success of the strategy and related activities.
Stephanie Marshall is “passionate about higher education enabling an inclusive society which supports an absolute commitment to equality, diversity and the public good”. One achievement she is particularly proud of is Queen Mary’s mixed mode education (MME) initiative which integrates technology and pedagogy to create a more inclusive and interactive learning environment: “This has been the result of impressive efforts across the university to quickly build an infrastructure that simultaneously offers students flexibility and equity of experience – whether they are learning in person or online. It is a pedagogically-led initiative, and one which exemplifies the commitment in our 2030 strategy to ‘opening the doors of opportunity’.”
Anne Lequy believes in “communities of practice where faculty members share a passion for innovation and a concern about quality teaching”. She has put this into practice as project manager of the Quality Pact for Teaching at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences from 2011 to 2020: “This project has raised the university’s profile over the last decade, since it has increased the visibility of teaching and learning inside and outside the institution, improved the working conditions of students and faculty members and promoted innovative teaching methods and learner-centred education. The Quality Pact for Teaching has been a decisive step at my university towards parity of esteem between teaching and research.” She took over as chair of the Steering Committee from EUA President Michael Murphy, who has held this position for the past four years and to whom “teachers are the shapers of minds and there is no more sacred mission in furthering societal sustainability and harmony”.
Together with fellow members Ian Dunn from Coventry University in the United Kingdom and Kornelia Freitag from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, Michael Murphy represented the Steering Committee at the 2022 European Learning & Teaching Forum, held online on 17-18 February. EUA would like to thank them for their commitment and invaluable contribution over the last few years.
The three new Steering Committee members joined Romita Iucu from the University of Bucharest in Romania, Manel Jiménez-Morales from Pompeu Fabra University – Barcelona in Spain, Marja Sutela from Tampere University in Finland, Marta Žuvić from the University of Rijeka in Croatia and Ruben Janssens from the European Students’ Union in providing oversight and guidance to EUA’s Learning & Teaching activities, including the 2022 EUA Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Groups.
