<< Background >>Professional engineers need to continuously update and up-skill their competencies, to keep pace with the changing technology and shifting requirements of the labour market (European Commission 2019, OECD 2019). The reduction of the half-life time of knowledge requires more than ever that societies, employers and employees co-invest in lifelong learning (LLL) to maintain and improve the employability (Employer's statement 2019). By continuously investing in LLL, engineers evolve and more diverse teams of engineers can be set up, which will increase productivity and innovation (SEFI 2018). Educating resilient students requires a university setting that makes them aware of their professional identity and trains them in continuously re-inventing themselves (Knapper and Cropley 2000). As stated by Kamp (2016) LLL is a key aspect for future (engineering) education. The challenge is not only to prepare students for a specific career, but also to build foundations for a lifetime of learning (Kamp 2016). Higher education institutions (HEIs) recognize their responsibility and are aware of the existing gaps. First, industry not only reports difficulties in finding engineers, but also in finding engineers with the right (level of) skills (McKinsey report 2014). Creating awareness among engineering students about the nature and importance of LLL skills and facilitating the development of such skills, can be done with the help of tools such as a portfolio, which facilitates personal development (Heinrich et al. 2007). Students thus need to be more and explicitly engaged in their personal development process in order (1) to develop and sustain a LLL attitude and (2) to have better insights in their competencies. Second, although teaching staff acknowledge the importance of LLL competencies, they are not considered the primary teaching goals (Nesterova 2019) nor do they feel adequately prepared to support students in developing a LLL attitude nor the PDP itself. A shift in the lecturers’ traditional mindset is required (Kamp 2016), since lecturers are a vital key partner in supporting students’ PDP process (Patel et al. 2013, Amiet et al. 2020). Lecturers thus need to be more and explicitly engaged in the students' personal development process in order to support students and prepare them adequately for a life of LLL. In addition, SEFI (2016) formulates a number of common issues within the formation and education of engineers, namely (1) educate graduates who have the ability to adapt, (2) focus on broadening the engineer on top of teaching technical knowledge, (3) embrace diversity, (4) support academic staff, and (5) adopt learning for life as the standard. TRAINeng-PDP will address these needs as formulated in the objectives below.<< Objectives >>As academic staff, we wish to prepare students for a life full of learning in their future career. The aim of this project is therefore to engage and support students in their personal development process. Based on the aim of the project, three objectives are formulated. We will engage and motivate engineering students in their personal development process (objective 1). We aim to motivate and support students to develop the competencies that are needed in engineering practice throughout their study career and, by doing so, build the foundations for a lifelong learning attitude (LLL). For the latter, reflection and other self-regulating skills are crucial (Aerts et al. 2020, Kirby et al. 2010). Students thus need to learn to reflect, but in order to trigger this reflection, other steps need to be introduced: identify, prepare, act, monitor. Combining these five steps results in the personal development process. TRAINeng-PDP goes beyond the more static idea of a personal development plan towards a more dynamic and interactive personal development process. By focusing on triggering reflection and engagement in the personal development process (PDP) we stimulate student-centred learning. Thanks to TRAINeng-PDP, students will be supported in their personal development process. More specifically they will be able to explore, train and reflect on the range of competencies during their study programme. The hypothesis is that students will be better prepared, more self-aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses, more confident about their professional identity when entering the labour market, and will be trained with the much-needed LLL attitude. Second, in order to realise students’ engagement in their PDP, we need to support lecturers in this journey too. Some of them feel highly uncomfortable in training or giving feedback on non-technical skills. Thus, not only students will be motivated and engaged, but we will also motivate and train lecturers to engage in the students' personal development process (objective 2). In order to achieve this, we will define what the lecturers need to understand their role in the students’ personal development process, identify what they need in order to support students’ personal development process and develop the required training materials. In addition, engagement in this process will also contribute to their own professional development as lecturers in engineering education, resulting in lecturers who are more confident in training non-technical skills and providing feedback. As a third, and final objective we aim to increase the awareness among students and lecturers of the range of competencies required in engineering (objective 3). With this project we strive to move away from the existing conceptions about engineering, by creating a culture that integrates a more holistic view of competencies in engineering practice. By doing so, this project aims to break through the stereotypical image of engineering which might increase the attractiveness of STEM education, especially for underrepresented groups, such as female students. We foresee that engagement in the personal development process will enable an increased awareness of the range of competencies required in engineering practice, which will be a first important step towards a holistic view. In general, this project will realise an innovative approach of learning, teaching and skills development by co-creating an eco-system which facilitates collaborative working between lecturers and students. Innovation is evidenced by a future thinking perspective that goes beyond teaching students the skills associated with personal development planning. It will allow students to practice an innovative way to do things which will serve them well in life as they develop their engineering career.<< Implementation >>To achieve the objectives, five work packages are identified, all contributing to the overall aim. First, we will identify engineering students’ and academics perceptions of competencies in engineering practice (WP1). Second, we will develop a Personal Development Process (PDP) model (WP2), which will (1) provide an inventory and in-depth examination of different methods and tools that can be used by lecturers to focus on the different phases of the student’s personal development process (i.e., identifying, preparing, acting, monitoring, and reflection) and (2) take into account different criteria, preconditions, and the context (as identified in WP1). Third, based on the PDP model, pilots to engage students in their personal development process will be developed, implemented, evaluated and optimized (WP3). Fourth, lecturers, being indispensable in the students’ PDP, will be supported in the understanding of their role in students’ personal development process and will be motivated to engage with students. Therefore, a theorical training scheme will be developed and translated into a pilot training programme and the co-creation of a toolkit with involved lecturers (WP4). Finally, the impact of engaging students and lecturers in the students’ personal development process will be measured (WP5). Through both qualitative (e.g., focus group discussions, reflection logs, and LLL essay) and quantitative (e.g., survey regarding perceived usefulness and perceptions) measurements the effectiveness of the different pilots, organised in WP3 and WP4, will be investigated. These measurements and a pre and post-test pilot set-up will allow us to assess the difference in awareness in the range of competencies required in engineering practice of both students and lecturers, in addition to the students’ LLL attitude. Two additional WPs focusing on project management (WP6) and dissemination and sustainability (WP7) are envisaged in order to ensure the smooth running of the project and impactful outcomes. In the project management work package, we include the transnational meetings, WP meetings (including quality assurance of production of project results), and project management meetings (including quality assurance, time management and proper budget control). In the dissemination and sustainability work package, we will implement a detailed dissemination & impact plan, which includes among others: press releases, events/trainings/seminars/webinars, active conference contributions, scientific publications, project website, and a social media plan.<< Results >>TRAINeng-PDP will achieve three outcomes, closely linked to the work packages and therefore to the objectives, are foreseen: (1) A Model that supports the personal development process of future engineers and takes into account the engineering context and perceptions (WP1-2-3), (2) A Toolkit for Professional Development to support and train faculty staff in providing feedback and career development learning in engineering education (WP4)​, and (3) An increased awareness among students and lecturers of the range of competencies needed in engineering practice and a corresponding LLL attitude (WP5).​ Based on the three outcomes, a diverse set of project results are produced. The most important are (1) a methodological PDP model ready for implementation, (2) best practice guidelines based on the outcomes of the pilots, (3) a PDP toolkit for lecturers including learning materials and training schemes, and (4) a set of PDP policy recommendations and guidelines based on the study examining the effectiveness of engaging students and lecturers in the personal development process. The two additional WPs focusing on project management (WP6) and dissemination and sustainability (WP7) result in two more project results: (1) a project website (including dissemination & impact plan) and (2) scientific publications. We also envisage some intangible outcomes such as (1) an improved cultural awareness and understanding of competencies in engineering practice, (2) knowledge of alternative approaches and implementation of innovative practices, (3) promotion of cocreation of curriculum elements and a student-centred approach and (4) enhancing the understanding and thus attractiveness of the engineering profession to underrepresented groups.

"Dialogue around Internationalisation at Home (IaH) has gathered momentum as the values, purposes and means of higher education (HE) internationalisation are re-examined. The rationale behind the Approaches and Tools for Internationalisation at Home (ATIAH) Project is that the benefits of an internationalised HE experience should not be limited to the mobile minority. If we are to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive European HE, as set out in the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy and its Flagship Initiatives, internationalising the experiences and mind-sets of the non-mobile majority is an important priority. The prime aim of the ATIAH Project was to improve the relevance and quality of European HE by developing tools for HE institutions to review IaH practices, to address one of the Key Priority Areas of the European Commission’s Communication ""European HE in the World"": ‘Promoting internationalisation at home and digital learning’ (COM/2013/499). The Project brought together a partnership consisting of three leading European HE institutions: Newcastle University (P1, UK), University of Bologna (P2, Italy), and KU Leuven (P3, Belgium). The partnership addressed how HE students and staff could be supported to experience and appreciate the wider benefits of HE internationalisation. P1 brought expertise in teaching and learning in HE; internationalisation of HE; and cross-cultural communication. P1 also brought experience of leading a range of projects and networks on Internationalisation of HE. P2 colleagues from the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures contributed expertise in languages and intercultural learning and intercultural competence development. P3 colleagues provided expertise in intercultural communication and interactions. Both P2 and P3 also brought expertise in the development of resources for HE students and staff from their participation in the IEREST Project (Intercultural Education Resources for Erasmus Students and their Teachers). The activities undertaken during the Project began with data collection activities including: (a) a baseline audit of existing IaH practices at the Partnership institutions and identification of effective practices to be shared (25 stakeholders); (b) 6 focus group sessions with students and staff (49 participants); and (c) an online survey for students and staff at partner institutions and other European HE institutions (n=342 surveys). The findings contributed to our understanding of how IaH can enable students who pursue HE in their home countries to learn foreign languages, and gain valuable intercultural knowledge through having access to staff with international experience, learning with peers from other countries and cultures, and engaging in international collaboration via online learning. Findings also illustrated the need for HE staff who successfully incorporate a global or intercultural dimension into their practice to be recognised and rewarded for their contribution to HE internationalisation. These data, together with a literature review, informed the development of materials to assist HE institutions to review and develop IaH practices, leading to wider engagement with IaH and internal quality improvement. The Project achieved the following objectives: (1) To audit current IaH practices in the Partnership institutions, leading to the development of a Self- audit Tool for other HE institutions seeking to review and develop their policies and practices for IaH; (2) To develop a multilingual web-available Curriculum Framework for 'internationalising your university experience'; (3) To develop a multilingual web-available professional Evidence Framework for evidencing innovative IaH practices. The primary target groups for these materials were staff development units at HE institutions and/or academic service units responsible for professional development, HE staff at all levels (i.e. academic, research, administrative), HE students (internationally-mobile and non-mobile), and leaders in HE institutions (pro-vice chancellors, department heads, programme directors, heads of school etc.). All resources were disseminated in multiplier events (E1-E6) across England, Italy and Belgium and in the Project final conference in Italy. The multiplier events (E1-E6) and further dissemination activities provided opportunities for primary target group members at the Partnership institutions and beyond to engage with the resources. The feedback received led to further refinement of the resources which can be downloaded in English, Dutch and Italian from the Project website https://research.ncl.ac.uk/atiah/outputs/. The resources provide the basis for a common framework for IaH as a values-based and socially responsible approach to HE internationalisation across European HE institutions, so that all students and staff (mobile and non-mobile) can be supported to experience and appreciate the wider benefits of HE internationalisation."

The ABLE Project (2015-2018) focused on the challenge of using learning analytics to support student transition into, during and beyond the first year of university. There is a significant body of research taking place in universities across the sector, but that relatively few had fully embedded that learning into institutional support systems. It is important to note that the national contexts profoundly influenced the way that learning analytics was used to support first year students. In the UK, the emphasis was upon supporting first year student retention, in Belgium and the Netherlands, the focus was on study efficiency: ensuring that students were on the right programme. However, in practice the tools were used in similar ways, either by staff members (study advisers or personal tutors) using the learning analytics dashboards with first year students or by students using them independently.ObjectivesThe ABLE Project worked on four key priorities1. The development of learning analytics to support the first year experience2. Identifying strategies for integrating institutional support around the data generated by learning analytics3. Strengthening research into the issues associated with students in transition and integrate these to learning analytics resources4. Providing recommendations and resources for the sectorNumber and profile of participating organisationsThere are three partners:Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is the project lead. During the lifecycle of project NTU has won the following UK awards THE University of the Year, Times/ Sunday Times Modern University of the Year (in which the Dashboard was cited extensively), TEF gold for teaching quality and the Queen’s Anniversary award for Research. KU Leuven (KUL) is a general large research-intensive university and also the oldest and highest ranked in Flanders, Belgium, ranked 14 in the 2018 THE European ranking.University of Leiden (UL) is the oldest university in the Netherlands, it has a significant research interest hosting over 40 national and international research institutes.Description of main activities undertakenThe project team produced 20 intellectual outputs. These can be grouped into the following:- Reports into the realities of transition into HE and learning analytics- Case studies into our institutional experiences using learning analytics with first year students - Workshops, papers and online resources to engage peers across the sector- Open source learning analytics resource for the sector to download and use- Recommendations for the sector about using learning analytics to support the transition processResults and impact attainedThe objectives of the ABLE project were met during the project lifespan. Due to the initial set-up of the project, the majority of results can be found in the range of written outputs of the project, hosted on the project website: www.ABLEproject.eu. We would direct the interested reader to Output O17: Summarizing report on learning analytics for the transition from secondary to higher education, for further details. This output contains a model developed during the ABLE project to help those considering implementing learning analytics understand key considerations for effectively embedding the tool into institutional practices.In the project bid, we sought different types of impact for different stakeholders: students, participating organisations, external organisations, and local and national policy makers. The impact varied from providing relevant tools and associated resources/advice for informed usage at an institutional level to awareness raising and best-practice sharing on a wider scale. The project team was able to realise this impact by completing the planned outputs and by disseminated widely through a mix of internal events, local workshops, conferences and digital media (Twitter, online blogs). Perhaps even more so than originally envisaged, the project team managed to secure platforms for disseminating results to a range of high profile individuals and organisations.If relevant, longer-term benefitsThe project has significantly contributed to the development of learning analytics at the partner institutions, with each institution committing to continue with learning analytics after the end of the project. The participating institutions have gained a far greater understanding of the problems associated with embedding learning analytics, the learnings from which we believe will be transferrable across the implementation of other initiatives. The team has attempted to convey these learnings within the written outputs so other institutions can gain long term benefits from the findings.

The Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Public Sector Innovation and eGovernance (PIONEER) has as a common and integrated objective to provide students with specialised knowledge about public sector innovation and the role of ICT and technological evolutions in the innovation process, with an ultimate aim to build a better public sector. To respond to the challenge of digitalisation, PIONEER offers a truly unique transdisciplinary international programme in a field where most offerings are still largely organized within traditional disciplines, and with a focus on national public sectors only. It provides new competences that are highly needed in a digitalising European and international labour market.PIONEER is a joint programme aimed at addressing actual topics in Public Administration, Information Systems Sciences and eGovernance and building bridges between the fields. It is a 120 ECTS programme (two years) and has as target group students from various disciplines who already obtained an academic bachelor’s degree in informatics, computer science, information science, engineering, social or political science, criminology, business, or law. Three universities, KU Leuven, the University of Münster, and Tallinn University of Technology combine and integrate their complementary expertise. KU Leuven is worldwide recognized for its expertise in public administration and public management. The University of Münster has leading experts in information management and information systems. Tallinn University of Technology is worldwide recognized as a leading expert in digital government and eGovernance. They are supported byAssociated Partner organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sector who offer guest lectures, organise field visits, and host students during an internship or project work.

There are two fundamental challenges in converting scientific discovery into societal value. First the (European) knowledge paradox (EKP) stipulates that academia and knowledge institutes are generating high quality knowledge and basic discovery outputs, yet there is a relative inability to convert such knowledge into economic value and benefit (Dosi, 2006). Second, the Valley of Death (VOD), a phase in research and development defined by a lack of funds where government funding declines and private sector funds are not available, presents a serious innovation barrier (Markham et al., 2012). Aiming to address these challenges, a solution needs to cover a complex assembly of factors.The project developed a Business and Innovation module for bachelor science programmes. In particular, 12 credits of the minor Business & Innovation which is available to all science students at the KU Leuven served as an initial model for the creation of this module. Workshops ‘Innovation in Practice’ have been developed as well as a MOOC ‘Principles of Economics for Scientists’ which both help bridge the gap between economics, business and entrepreneurship on the one hand and science on the other. The online course ‘Principles of Economics for Scientists' is delivered on the MOOC platform, provided by IMC. The Learning Analytics Framework and the Evaluation Tool were developed to support the learning process and the assessment of the online course. The IBIS project is a consortium of four organisations. The coordinating organisation is the Faculty of Science of the KU Leuven, Belgium. Partner organisations are the Faculty of Science of Stichting VU, Amsterdam, and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and a private partner, imc information multimedia communication AG.Partners in this project have enhanced and developed cross disciplinary diversity and entrepreneurial skills in science and technology teaching and learning at the university level. University students majoring in various science disciplines are increasingly requesting the introduction of business context in their programmes. Traditionally, science study programmes tend to focus on domain specific subjects including some multidisciplinarity. By producing an online course Business and Innovation with emphasis on the role of curiosity driven fundamental research, this project tackles the challenges of how to convert fundamental knowledge into a business value and can thus improve the quality and the relevance of higher education science curricula. The entrepreneurial skills, acquired by the students who take the online course ‘Principles of Economics for Scientists’ or follow the Workshops: Innovation in Practice, will increase the relevance of these students on the labour market.The pedagogy used allows openness and flexibility in learning space (blended learning), flexibility in time and place of learning including mobility of students. This gives students a full responsibility for their own learning process in which they experience creation of scientific knowledge and its capitalization in a triple helix of university, industry and government institutional sphere. To support students in learning and gaining insight into the online learning process, a learning analytics framework was developed to analyse learner behaviour data and enhance the learning process, for example by predicting success in learning (Ferguson, 2012, Verbert 2013).References:Dosi, G, et al., The relationship between science, technologies and their industrial exploitation: An illustration through the myths and realities of the so-called ‘European Paradox’., Research Policy, vol. 35, Issue 10, dec . 2006.Ferguson, R. (2012) Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(5-6),304–317,Markham, Stephen K. et al., The valley of death as context for role theory in product innovation. The Jrn of Product Innovation, Vol 27, Issue 3, May 2012.Verbert, K., Duval, E., Klerkx, J., Govaerts, S., & Santos, J. L. (2013). Learning Analytics Dashboard Applications. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10), 1500–1509.