Ageing populations and rising skill demands have heightened expectations that higher education systems will widen their offer of continuing education and training (CET) for adults aiming to renew or augment their skills at an advanced level. CET is becoming increasingly important for maintaining a highly skilled workforce also in Germany, and particularly in the state of Brandenburg.
Brandenburg’s economy is undergoing structural change, which opens exciting new prospects for highly skilled workers. The state has intensified efforts to diversify the economy towards cleaner and more knowledge-intensive industries, including the development of advanced manufacturing, spill-over effects from the start-up scene in Berlin, fostering entrepreneurial activities at its own higher education institutions, promoting innovative places for working and living, and phasing out of coal production in favour of next-generation technologies.
Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.
The second ‘green skills’ forum organised by Cedefop and the OECD-LEED in February 2014 provided an open space for discussion between researchers, policy-makers, social partners and international organisations on skills development and training needs for a greener economy. The focus of this ...
Bridging the gap between higher education research and policy making was always a challenge, but the recent calls for more evidence-based policies have opened a window of unprecedented opportunity for researchers to bring more contributions to shaping the future of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Encouraged by the success of the 2011 first edition, Romania and Armenia have organised a 2nd edition of the Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference (FOHE-BPRC) in November 2014, with the support of the Italian Presidency of the European Union and as part of the official EHEA agenda. Reuniting over 170 researchers from more than 30 countries, the event was a forum to debate the trends and challenges faced by higher education today and look at the future of European cooperation in higher education. The research volumes offer unique insights regarding the state of affairs of European higher education and research, as well as forward-looking policy proposals. More than 50 articles focus on essential themes in higher education: Internationalization of higher education; Financing and governance; Excellence and the diversification of missions; Teaching, learning and student engagement; Equity and the social dimension of higher education; Education, research and innovation; Quality assurance, The impacts of the Bologna Process on the EHEA and beyond and Evidence-based policies in higher education. "The Bologna process was launched at a time of great optimism about the future of the European project – to which, of course, the reform of higher education across the continent has made a major contribution. Today, for the present, that optimism has faded as economic troubles have accumulated in the Euro-zone, political tensions have been increased on issues such as immigration and armed conflict has broken out in Ukraine. There is clearly a risk that, against this troubled background, the Bologna process itself may falter. There are already signs that it has been downgraded in some countries with evidence of political withdrawal. All the more reason for the voice of higher education researchers to be heard. Since the first conference they have established themselves as powerful stakeholders in the development of the EHEA, who are helping to maintain the momentum of the Bologna process. Their pivotal role has been strengthened by the second Bucharest conference." Peter Scott, Institute of Education, London (General Rapporteur of the FOHE-BPRC first edition)
While there may be consensus on the broader issues of the core objectives of the health care system, expectations differ between EU countries, and European national policy-makers. This book seeks firstly to assess the impact of the enlargement process and then to analyse the challenges that lie ahead in the field of health and health policy.
This book is a timely insight into the internationalization of higher education institutions. The internationalization of higher education is a global phenomenon, but with substantial variation in how it is made operational in individual institutions. Comprehensive Internationalization focuses on desirable practices in institutions and their actual approaches to implement a more integrated, strategic, or comprehensive global engagement across their core missions: teaching, research, and service. Part I of the book investigates a wide range of issues governing the internationalization of institutions: Outlining the origins, meaning and evolution toward more strategic and comprehensive forms of internationalization; building an understanding of the meanings of comprehensive internationalization, as well as common aspirations, when linked to different types of institutions; understanding the rationales and motivations for internationalization and intended results; creating an institutional vision and culture to support comprehensive internationalization; and implementing key strategies for successful internationalization in terms of practical actions and programs and results, including identifying and ameliorating barriers, engaging organizational change, assessing outcomes, and obtaining resources. Part II of the book offers case stories from institutions across the globe which describe varying pathways toward more comprehensive internationalization. Institutions were chosen to reflect the diversity of higher education and approaches to internationalization. An analysis of the cases uncovers similarities and differences, as well as common lessons to be learned. With contributions from mainland Europe, Australia, the USA, the UK, Latin America, Singapore and South Africa, the global application of the book is unparalleled. Comprehensive Internationalization will be of vital interest to a wide variety of higher education institutional leaders and managers as they address the problems and solutions for institutional internationalization available to them in a rapidly changing educational world and a 21st Century global environment.
This book analyses the recent modernisation of EU State aid law from various perspectives, and considers both substantive and procedural aspects. It also discusses the reasons for, and the goals and future implications of the modernisation programme, including the evolution of the concept of State aid. The ambitious reform programme was launched in 2012 and has now been almost fully implemented by virtue of the adoption of new rules of procedure in July 2013, and exemption in June 2014. The book highlights the main aspects of this sector reform, which include the Commission’s change of attitude towards so-called positive aid, i.e. those able to promote economic growth, and the intention to focus on matters of greater systematic extent. These objectives also imply a third aspect: increasing the intensity of the control powers conferred on the Commission with regard to that aid that prove to be harmful to competition and the internal market. The book also examines the greater responsibility given to States for self-assessment of their economic policy measures, and explores the resulting impact on, and challenges posed to the administrations of the Member States. The book’s second part is devoted to the application State aid rules in the area of services of general economic interest, with a special focus on aid in the field of social health and infrastructure.
This open access volume provides insight into how organizations change through the adoption of digital technologies. Opportunities and challenges for individuals as well as the organization are addressed. It features four major themes: 1. Current research exploring the theoretical underpinnings of digital transformation of organizations. 2. Insights into available digital technologies as well as organizational requirements for technology adoption. 3. Issues and challenges for designing and implementing digital transformation in learning organizations. 4. Case studies, empirical research findings, and examples from organizations which successfully adopted digital workplace learning.
