"Efforts to curb the outbreak of COVID-19 led to the closure of education and training buildings, campuses and other sites and a forced shift to emergency modes of digital education. In many Member States, most institutional leaders, in particular those in mid-level positions, had little if any experience of organising teaching and learning online or the different infrastructural, human resource and administrative challenges associated with it. The gulf between responses of different institutions to the crisis has shown that leadership is one of the most important enabling factors for a successful move-to-digital. Institutions that had previously invested in building the digital capacity of their management were better prepared to adapt teaching approaches, keep learners engaged, and continue the education and training process. In defining how to move beyond the unplanned and emergency phase imposed on education providers, institutional leaders need to acknowledge that the shift to digital has been permanently accelerated and that institutions that do not embrace it will exacerbate a digital divide in education and the labour market. Students expect institutions to exist within a digital society and recognise that collaboration, socialisation and learning already happen in a variety of physical and digital environments, and to prepare them to thrive in a digital-first economy and society.StrategyHack supports the priorities of the Digital Education Plan, focuses on capacity building on mid-level institutional leaders since a resilient transformation requires strengthening the connecting tissue between the high-level management strategy level and the digital-pedagogy level which these personnel provide. We intend to:• accelerate digital transformation of staff, programmes and institutional processes within Higher Education;• promote and nourish high quality self-directed personalised learning environments with a strong digital component;• lock in gains made to perceptions of digital learning during the COVID crisis, and using these to promote more sustainable models of digital educationOur consortium consisting of 3 Higher Education Institutions with expertise in the topic, two associations of Higher Education and a digital learning consultancy, will work together to take a European Approach to these challenges by creating:Capacity Building Course on Digital Education StrategiesThis will be designed around a set of 15-20 digital management skills, grouped around 5 dimensions of change', namely pedagogical, organisational, technological, economic & political and institutional change. with a micro-module being designed to acquire each skill by following a challenge-based approach that will instruct participants by giving the opportunity to practice and develop the required skill. The course will take a self-directed free flowing approach, to allow participants to personalise their own learning pathways based on their specific needs.Peer-learning methodology for Digitisation Strategy ImprovementWe will describe a problem-based methodology for institutional leaders to cooperate within and across institutions to solve specific strategy problems. Inspired by coaching, design-methodologies and hackathon events, we will design intensive online events, with participants over several sessions identifying a problem, sharing best practice on potential solutions, and then working in small groups to propose solutions. Each event will address a challenge such as ""How do I conduct assessment remotely and securely for my institution?; How do I map staff's digital competence? How do I address accessibility challenges in my department online?"" and aim for institutional leaders to leave the event with a set of concrete ideas to try and implement within their institution. We will:· develop the methodological handbook to run these digital leadership development events;· run six events, focusing on different areas of priority· publish the 'hacked' institutional strategy proposals via the project's website, to inform other actors on insights gainedModel Management System for digital educationThis will consist of a strategy-guidance document, that will give institutional leaders a map to build their institutional strategies and cover:• Leadership documents to integrate digital learning into the institution's identity• Strategic approaches to manage risk and sustainability• Methodologies to manage resources efficiently• Tools and techniques to tackle the most challenging operational activities in digital educationOver the course of the project we intend to reach between 150-250 institutional leaders, each of which will gain additionally capacity to deploy digital within their institutions and communities. We will further carry policy recommendations to regional, national and European levels to inform policies within the Commission and the Bologna Process."

The main attribute of professional higher education (PHE) is their relationship to the world of work through apprenticeships that represent a substantial part of their curricula. When of high quality, apprenticeships promote a smoother student transition from PHE institution (PHEI) to work, enabling a good start to working careers by providing a good mix of basic competences and job-specific skills and valuable work experience. Employers benefit by identifying and training students adding to their productive capacity and forming their future employees but struggle with the bureaucratic burden, lack of direction and support from PHE institutions (PHEI). The key innovation of Apprentice Track (AppT) lies in the unique 360-degree approach to apprenticeship management by creating a quality framework (IO1) developed into a transparent and comparative response and data driven digital tool (IO2), upgraded by a supportive training raising the pedagogical and digital capacity of mentors (IO3).The Apprentice Track (AppT) project:Strengthened cooperation between students, HEIs and SMEs during the apprenticeships through improved efficiency of cooperation thanks to the provision of the AppT Prototype (IO2) as an online digital tool available on any type of devices (smartphone, tablet, and computer) with all information accessible to all stakeholders with just a few clicks anywhere at any time; offering a collection of relevant data on institutional and national level which allows the identification of labour market needs and gaps to improve curricula and policies. The course for mentors (IO3) was implemented to support employers in integrating apprenticeships into their strategic planning, recruiting, management, and cooperation with PHEIs.Gained a quick, easy, and efficient way to track the progress of students and ensured that learning outcomes which should be achieved through work-based learning (WBL) are attained by providing students and mentors with a list of learning outcomes to be achieved (IO1), enabling transparent progress assessment supported with assessment criteria and showing an overall apprenticeship progress grade accessible and visible at any time to each student and their PHEI in the AppT Prototype (IO2).Obtained a good overview of the role of the student in the apprenticeships for mentors by providing mentors with the insight to all agreed documents at any time and place. For each individual student’s agreement, clear description of agreed role, responsibility, and obligations of the student during their apprenticeship is provided. Gained a quick and easy ongoing evaluation of student progress at apprenticeships for mentors by enabling the mentor the instant insight to student’s competences to be achieved, prepared workplan, assessment of progress and at the end of the apprenticeship the compilation and translation into a final student’s apprenticeship grade and report from the mentor in the AppT Prototype (IO2).Enabled the possibility of a quick and effective response of organizers to lack of students' progression through improved responsiveness of apprenticeships in PHE by the AppT Prototype (IO2) requiring adequate input to each procedure, assuring relevance, consistency, and timely insight into the progress of achievement facilitating the PHE supervisor to follow the students’ progress or lack of progress which enables them to act efficiently when identifying student’s poor or no progress during the apprenticeship contributing to timely problem resolution.Involved students into quality assessment of the apprenticeships by providing student direct access to the regular periodic assessment of their progress in the AppT Prototype (IO2) student can react to assessment, discuss it with mentor and understand or object assessment if it is not aligned with the assessment criteria. The opportunity to follow their own progress assessment motivates the student to even better achievements.Kept the whole process of apprenticeship progression transparent, comparative, and paperless through improved quality by defining a transparent, comparable quality framework (IO1) which was set to offer all actors insight into apprenticeship management at any time anywhere in the AppT Prototype (IO2), by collecting periodically relevant statistical data per country and compare results, by enabling the use of the AppT Prototype (IO2) cross boarders providing transparent and comparable apprenticeship management to Erasmus+ students due to its multilingual approach.Met the needs of employers, students and PHEIs in the field of ICT supporting tools and increased the attractiveness of PHE by creating a use-friendly, efficient, and accessible digital tool for paperless apprenticeship management (IO2) and providing supporting training (IO3), the project enabled apprenticeships to be an easy manageable, meaningful, and pleasant experience making its attributes more evident contributing to the attractiveness of PHE.

Accessibility and Design for All are the base for the independent living and full participation of persons with disabilities in society and its all domains such as education, work, politics, administration, culture, leisure/sports, entertainment. To achieve that - Accessibility and Design for All must become an integral part of mainstream curricula of Higher Education (HE) to educate professionals at all levels and in all areas like IT, Design and Arts, Architecture, Civil Engineering, Audiovisual, Teacher Education, Care and Social Sciences, Politics, Administration, Business, Economics and Management. Those professionals must be aware of and have knowledge of guidelines, standards, techniques and tools in Accessibility and Design for All and can design, implement, procure, set-up, integrate, use and maintain accessible services and accessible products in order to benefit individuals with disabilities, their communities and society as a whole. The ATHENA project we will develop a set of recommendations on how to integrate Accessibility and Design for All into the Higher Education curricula. This will be a huge step forward in promoting equal opportunities and social inclusion of persons with disabilities. The partnership of European Disability Forum representing over 100 million persons with disability in Europe, 4 universities having expertise in accessibility and EURASHE, one of the key stakeholders in the European Higher Education Area will create the recommendations through exchange and development of new practices and methods. The last year of the project will be dedicated to reaching out to HE institutions and influencing them to take on the guidelines developed in the project.With ATHENA we want to transform the HE sector and to offer students education that will include the knowledge on accessibility. This will lead to new approaches in a variety of professions what will build more inclusive society.

The project aimed to increase the quality of the connection of Professional Higher Education (PHE) with the World of Work (WoW). The main objectives were to encourage Professional Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) to analyze their internal policies for cooperation between education, research and business, implement improvements and reforms to policies and practices as regards cooperation with the WoW, support the sharing of best practices for strengthening the knowledge triangle, design a set of supporting tools, such as framework policies and implementation guides, to strengthen active cooperation between HEIs and external stakeholders.The project consortium consisted of two PHEIs (PWSZTAR, (PL) and TTK (EE)), three national associations of PHE (AZVO (HR), CASPHE (CZ) and VIVIS (SI)), EURASHE as the European umbrella organization for PHE and Knowledge Innovation Centre (MT). All partners were involved in former EURASHE projects and initiatives. Besides PWSZTAR and TTK, thirteen other PHE institutions from PL, CZ, HR, SI and EE were also involved in piloting. PHE associations from PL and EE were taking part in dissemination activities.Two sets of activities were running in parallel during the project and informing each other:1: Development of self-assessment and improvement methodology for PHEIs (data-collection framework, methodology for identifying improvement strategies to policies for cooperation with the WoW) and running self-assessment and improvement processes within pilot PHEIs (self-improvement cycles, creation of self-assessment reports and improvement plans). 2: Collection of best practices, and design of tools to stimulate best practice. The framework policies were created in the form of a checklist which can be used by institutional leaders to assess their compliance with each of the criteria of the PHE Quality Framework. An online self-assessment and benchmarking tool was developed and made available at https://buildphe.eu/assessment/. The main results of the project are: Methodological framework and set of self-assessment tools, Database of best practice cases, Publication “Tools to Support Quality in Professional Higher Education“. Additionally, on the basis of project outputs, Self-Assessment Reports were produced by pilot and Implementation Plans describing proposed improvements to policies and strategies to better cooperate with the world of work were formulated. The most important immaterial output are new competences of staff acquired during a peer-learning training event and later developed in the framework of project activities: an international group of “PHE agents of change” was created. At local and regional level, the project fostered collaboration between PHEIs and enterprises, strengthening 'dual' options involving a mixture of studies and work experience such as apprenticeships, contributed towards addressing skill-shortages in key technical areas of employment and enhanced the quality of the 'professional' experiences offered by PHEIs.At national level, the project made recommendations to policy-makers as to measures to improve and enhance cooperation between academia and enterprises. At EU level, the project facilitated exchange of practice and increased cooperation between Institutions and Associations of PHE, with EURASHE WG Quality as a platform to support such cooperation.The project promoted a holistic approach to considering quality of all activities and processes within PHE institutions and from this perspective fed into a strategic priorities of EURASHE. The findings and experience from the project served also for policy discussion on the development of PHE across Europe, its quality assurance and enhancement as reflected in EURASHE contributions to EC policies or EHEA documents. From this view a synergy effect with the EQUIP project, mapping implementation of European Standards and Guidelines was quite beneficial.The most important longer-term benefit of the project is the possibility to use optimized tools and methodology in self-assessment processes by a wide range of PHEIs in Europe and beyond. HEIs from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Latin America have already expressed their interest in adopting BuildPHE tools in their national environments and two EPP CB projects were just submitted. The fact that the master version of tools is elaborated in English brings supplementary added value to institutions in non-English speaking countries – international dimension of internal QA (possibilities of comparison and benchmarking) and thus better preparation for external QA (in many national regulations international dimension of QA is appreciated by accreditation bodies). The international experience will likely enhance readiness of PHEIs to engage in cross-border activities, should it be joint programmes or benefitting from cross-border QA, both being strongly supported by European policies as a tool of strengthening European added-value and identity.

"The past 20 years have seen significant investments in Quality Assurance infrastructure across Europe, thanks largely to the focus on quality assurance provided by the Bologna Process. Starting with the ESGs and EQAVET, a multitude of standards provide guidance as to what constitutes quality. Quality approaches in institutions vary widely, and despite efforts to the contrary, often quality assurance is reduced to a ""commitment to quality culture"" supported by a bureaucratic and time-consuming set of checks, often in the form of evaluation questionnaire of various kinds.In fact, according to analysis from the European Commission contained in the Modernisation Agenda for Education, educational institutions are not:- equipping enough people with the right skills for modern society- doing enough to tackle social divisions, in particular with regards to people from low socio-economic and migrant backgrounds- contributing enough to innovation in the places they are located, and- organized and funded in a way that allows them to work well.Quality assurance policy in Europe has either been unable to detect or unable to resolve these issues. It is our hypothesis that this is due to quality assurance which is applied nearly exclusively a course/programme level rather than at institutional-strategy level, where it can be a lever for organizational transformation. In analysing this phenomenon, we have identified a lack of formalised expertise in quality management amongst institutional top management as a key barrier limiting uptake. Often institutional leaders will have never received any formal training in QA-management, and thus, while having significant expertise as to what constitutes quality education, will have limited expertise in how to translate that mission and vision into a management system based on clear quality objectives, backed up by steady processes that will assure the adequate planning and realization of activities leading to the achievement of those objectives, as well as monitoring and analysing processes that will enable continual improvement.The project is broadly divided into 5 phases:Phase 1: Overview of Institutional Leaders’ Views to QA and barriers to proper implementation of QAThis phase, will set the scope of the project by using a survey of 70 institutional leaders, followed by focus groups to identify the problems institutional leaders have with QA processes, the reasons QA processes fail to promote positive change to their full potential, and the elements of these which might be solved through training of institutional leaders.Phase 2: Creation of a Quality Competence Framework for Institutional Leaders and Associated Learning OutcomesThe competence framework will take the form of a grid mapping required learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, autonomy and responsibility against levels of seniority in management. Authoring will take place via meetings of an expert group, whose results will be validated by a 20-member panel of experts in QA.Phase 3: Design of Curricular Materials for Institutional LeadersThe methodology for course production will follow a standard ADDIE instructional design model. It will be structured as a set of online micro-learning modules (bite-sized modules), since studies show that this format can strengthen knowledge inputs including process, curriculum, form and time, and that is particularly effective in promoting the acquisition of finely defined competencies. The short-format paired with the online availability also makes it easy for senior staff to find time to integrate the learning into their schedules.Phase 4: Delivery of TrainingThis will involve the organization of multiplier events aimed at promoting the online training, as well as the organization of an advanced 4-day intensive training event on specific QA techniques and methodologies. The face to face training will make heavy use of simulation techniques to model an institutional environment.Phase 5: Provision of Model StrategiesSo as to allow institutional leaders to quickly implement what they learn in the training, the project will also design a set of model strategies for implementing techniques such as issue management, kai-zen, and holistic-course review. The model strategies designed by the consortium will be piloted via dry-testing in a set of HVET institutions before being proposed to leaders in the course, to ensure that they can be efficiently applied in these contexts. A properly implemented quality management system allows an institution to understand the requirements of all its stakeholders, including students, industry and society, and then to design a mission, vision and strategy that addresses those requirements. Thus, the main intended impact from QALead is to change attitudes towards quality assurance from a compliance-focused mindset that focus on the needs of learners, enterprise and society."