Annual Report 2005, Dublin

Network 22, again, experienced a very successful Conference programme at the ECER Conference in Dublin earlier this month.   

There were approximately 90 presentations in the Network programme this ye

• ‘The Idea of the University in the 21st Century: Parts 1, 2 and 3´

This series worked as a Symposium that began to consider the future of universities in Europe through higher education lenses of the past.  The presentations were very well received and generated valuable debate that continued throughout the week.   

There were also two very different but equally interesting Roundtables:  

• ‘Common European Principles for the Identification and validation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning: Implications for Higher Education’ (7 presentations)
• ‘Reflective Engagement as Professional Development’ (6 presentations)  

The other presentations and papers were grouped under the following themes:  

• Students first and/or early experiences in higher education
• Supporting the learner in higher education
• Higher education and widening participation
• Higher education and employability
• Higher education and lifelong learning
• Higher education: transitions and tensions
• Teaching and learning in higher education
• The higher education curriculum and citizenship/ the individual learner
• Academic and Staff Development in higher education
• Higher education and Europe: the Bologna Process
• Internationalisation of higher education
• Higher education and equality studies
• Methodological approaches in higher education research  

 A small change from the balance of themes represented last year was the increasing emphasis this year on teaching and learning, changing curricula, how best to support students in their first year or early experiences and academic and staff development.
As in previous years, we experienced and benefited from a nice balance between presentations of large projects – some of them pan-European – and some fascinating and insightful case studies.
Additionally, both presenters and delegates (although many of us were both) found projects, research and people with similar interests to connect with in the future.
We would like to thank very much the people who Chaired the sessions.
As well as myself, Elinor and Jani, we need to thank Charles Anderson, Kate Day, Rosemary Deem, Dan Yngve Jacobsen, John Konrad, Nona Mary Lyons, Francis Mudge, Kari Smith, Mary Thornton, and Monne Wihlborg.  As usual, the sessions were very well Chaired.

Network 22 held a Network Meeting during the Conference on Friday at 18.30.

The news/areas discussed were: 
New Network Co-convenor: Jani Ursin, from Jyvaskyla University in Finland, was kind enough to agree to become a Network 22 Co-Convenor from this year. 
Co-Convenor Baric Marentic-Pozarnik has now retired.  We thank her very much for her past enthusiasm and support, and are delighted to welcome Jani in her stead.     

The new EERA Network 22 website
Jani has been working on designing an EERA Network 22 website, and this went live a few months ago. 
Network members were sent the web address at the time, but this has now been changed and shortened.
The new address is: <link http: ktl.jyu.fi ktl eeranetwork22>ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/eeranetwork22 
The meeting discussed what further information and functions to include in the website, and Jani has already made some changes.
People new to the Network e-mail list will be able to find previous years’ Network Reports if they wish to see areas and issues covered in the past. Also, people who will receive this e-mail do not need to subscribe to the list as Jani will do this on your behalf. 
Do please visit this website.  We would like to make it as useful as possible and would welcome feedback comments or further ideas for the website.  Any individual information people would like to have posted on the ‘Research Interests’ page, can be sent either directly to Jani via his e-mail address (<link>jani.ursin@ktl.jyu.fi) or put on the website Discussion Board.

Planning for next year
We discussed the different kinds of presentations we currently receive and decided that we wish to continue with papers that offer a range of approaches (for example, empirical research, information and research on evolving legislation, policy, innovation and governance in higher education, or theoretical papers).  Equally, we value the different forms, and would welcome more Symposia, Roundtables and Posters next year.   
Although we wish to keep the Network open for presentations on all aspects of HE, a number of specific themes were identified for our Network to concentrate on next year:

• The Bologna Process – development and implications for policy and practice. 
• Changing HE policy and governance.
• Teaching and Learning.
• The development of Skills and Competence in the HE curriculum.  

We would welcome indications of interest from people who would like to be involved in Symposia and/or Roundtables on any of these themes.    

Conference Call:
Imelda Elliott, from the Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (ULCO), Boulogne sur Mer Cedex in France has put out a call for papers for an international Conference ‘Higher Education Policy: Europe and/or global influences’ 20 –22nd November 2006. Details of this Conference (in French and English) can be found on the Network website. EERA Network 22 supports this Conference.
Details of other relevant Conferences can also be found on the Network website.

Publishing ECER presentations/papers
A reminder to everyone that EERA encourages ECER participants to submit their full papers to the Euducationline website.  
Full papers can be mounted on Educationline before, during or after the Conference.  All papers on Educationline are listed in the British Education Index (BEI) and guidelines for submission can be found at: <link http: www.leeds.ac.uk educol confser.htm>www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/confser.htm  

Thinking ahead - ECER 2006 
ECER 2006 is planned to take place in Geneva on the 13 – 16th September 2006.  A ‘Poster’ with details of this conference can be found on both the EERA website <link http: www.eera.ac.uk>www.eera.ac.uk and the Network website.

Barbara Zamorski (<link>b.zamorski@uea.ac.uk)
Elinor Edvardsson Stiwne (<link>elied@ibv.liu.se)
Jani Ursin (<link>jani.ursin@ktl.jyu.fi)