Innovation of HE within European Universities alliances – focus on open learning

Tuesday, November 8, 2022, 13:00 (CET)

Format: Presentations and discussions

Description:

In this session we will discuss how European Universities alliances are supporting the innovation of Higher Education with a focus on open learning. The ‘European Universities’ initiative is part of the ‘Partnerships for Excellence’ support provided in the framework of the 2021-2027 Erasmus+ Programme. This initiative has an ambitious mandate aimed to trigger and deepen unprecedented levels of institutional cooperation between higher education institutions, making it systemic, structural and sustainable. It aims to encourage the emergence of bottom-up transnational alliances of higher education institutions across Europe, taking transnational cooperation to a new level of intensity and scope and offering students opportunities to combine studies in several countries.  By pooling their resources, capacity and strengths together, higher education institutions will reinforce their quality, performance, attractiveness and international competitiveness on all their missions – education, research, innovation, and service to society, for the benefit of students, staff and communities.

The speakers invited for this session have experience both in the building of strategies for alliances, and also in implemented them. They will talk about how the alliance they are part of has influenced their higher education institutions and what are the expected outcomes in the next years. By inviting also one of the students involved in the Student Board of such an alliance, we want to also give voice to students in expressing what such an alliance means for them.

Moderator

Vlad Mihaescu has a Ph.D. in educational and technological models of MOOCs and has more than 15 years of experience as a trainer and teacher in areas like multimedia technologies, social media, e-tourism, e-learning, usability, entrepreneurship, programming, soft skills, leadership, and project management. Author of over 35 scientific papers and book chapters published in international conferences and journals, Vlad is involved in several European research projects in the field of eLearning, digital culture, and digital entrepreneurship. He is also a lecturer for UPT. For over 10 years, Vlad has been part of the technical support team of the UPT Virtual Campus (Moodle). Since 2020, Vlad has served in the position of Chair of the Steering Committee of EDEN’s NAP (Network of Academics and Professionals) and a member of the Executive Board of EDEN. Vlad is also the director of the Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer at UPT.


Speakers

Radu Vasiu is the President of the Senate of the Politehnica University of Timișoara and the Director of the Multimedia Research Center. He is also a professor at the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technologies of the Politehnica University of Timișoara. His recent research focuses on e-learning, multimedia, web technologies, open data, and smart cities. He has published 12 books and presented over 100 papers at various international conferences. He has participated in 28 international research and cooperation projects and is part of 7 international professional associations. He is also an EDEN Fellow.


Hannes Raffaseder is a member of the Executive Board as Chief Research & Innovation Officer of St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences and leading coordinator of E³UDRES², the Engaged and Entrepreneurial European University as Driver for European Smart and Sustainable Regions and a member of the Board of EURASHE. He was founding director of the Institute for Creative\Media/Technology, academic director of the master in Digital Media Technology and professor for media technology and audio design.


Marta Denisova is studying Bachelor in Communications and Public Relations at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia. In parallel with her studies Marta works at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences as Digital Marketing Specialist and also she works as an assistant in the European University alliance E³UDRES² Communication Work package. Excluding work Marta is active in E³UDRES² student board, participating there as a student executive board vice-chair. Since she is studying at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, she has participated in different projects and student activities but the most valuable has been E³UDRES², because here she has gained experience as an assistant in work packages, as a vice-chair in student board and as a student who represents Vidzeme University in E³UDRES².