EUA conference holds education conference

About 350 university leaders and representatives from the higher education sector gathered in Brussels for the European University Association (EUA) Annual Conference, hosted by the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). The theme of this year’s conference was “Changing Landscapes in Learning and Teaching”.

Discussions highlighted that the importance of the core university mission of learning and teaching has been rising in recent years, and is likely to grow in the future. Participation in higher education, which has already increased substantially, is set to rise further. In addition, Europe is facing demographic and economic changes, and higher education is expected to play a critical role in lifelong learning.

Plenary session presentations demonstrated that diverse student populations provide an opportunity to mix different groups of learners so they benefit from ‘cross-learning’. There was also discussion of combining traditional research-based learning with practical and experiential learning.

A number of speakers pointed to the fact that while today’s students, with exposure to new technologies, have different approaches to learning that need to be taken into account, this does not mean that at the same time they do not benefit from more traditional approaches of knowledge generation and presentation, which studies have shown are particularly appreciated by students.

The potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning was a central theme throughout the event, with new technologies transforming environments for students, teachers and universities.