The Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliances (KAs) online consultation meeting on Higher Education Transformation was held online on 3 June 2021, between 09hr30 and 13hr30.

There were over 200 participants from across the KAs, and the event focused on collecting views from the KAs on practical and sustainable solutions to address some of the key challenges facing Europe’s higher education systems. These inputs will be used by the Commission to feed the preparation of a European Strategy driving the transformation of Higher Education Institutions, in which university-business cooperation will feature as one of the central pillars for building resilient and innovative higher education systems.

 

During the event participants were informed of the policy context for the consultation, the current status of KAs, and the new Erasmus Programme 2021-2027 and its Partnerships for Innovation. A broader context of sustainable university-business collaboration in the long-term was provided by Professor Guido Van Oost, Ghent University, who detailed the history of the “Erasmus Mundus Masters FUSION-EP” in the context of the objective of achieving energy through nuclear fusion.

Five KAs briefly presented their focus on the main themes that participants were asked to consider: Sustainability; Promoting new forms of teaching and learning; Digitalisation of Higher Education; Meeting the demands of the changing labour market; Supporting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education and research. Following the presentations participants took part in 10 break-out groups to consider the themes and respond to three questions:

• What are the key issues as they are being experienced in your institutions and (local, regional) innovation ecosystems?
• What are the success factors in how your institutions (administrators, researchers, teachers) that enable university-business cooperation, and innovation (including social innovation)?
• What are the priority actions at the European (added value) level that will accelerate the challenges of building back better?

A full report of the event and the findings of the break-out groups will be made available towards the end of June. Overall, the participants highlighted clearly that Commission priorities such as sustainability, health, energy, resources, and green are global challenges requiring major investments in the long-term. Sustainability is linked strongly to resilience – hence the importance of the EU strategy on recovery and resilience. 

The challenges need a strong flowline of human capital and expertise, through innovative teaching and learning where curricula therefore need to be dynamically sensitive to innovations and research developments. In that context micro-credentials are significant developments, and it has been clear that EU recognition tools have been vital in motivating change in recognition.