Peer Review Visit: COMMIT _ 20-21 October 2014
The Higher Education Research Centre (HERC) at Dublin City University is a partner of the EC funded project COMMIT: Committing to the Social Dimension of Universities. A key deliverable of the project involves peer-review visits between the 12 partner institutions. HERC had the pleasure to welcome Professor Francoise de Viron, University of Louvain and Mrs. Carme Royo Director of EUCEN (European University Continuing Education Network) on the 20th-22nd of October for a peer review visit to DCU. The visit involved several meetings with senior members of staff, including Trevor Holmes, Vice-President External Relations and key DCU stakeholders in the field of lifelong learning and civic and community engagement. One session focussed on a COMMIT tool (questionnaire) which requires institutions to carry out a benchmarking exercise against the EU’s Charter on Lifelong Learning. The visit also included a meeting with adult learners involved with the Intergenerational Learning Programme and a site visit to DCU in the Community.
At the wrap-up session, Professor de Viron said that she was impressed with DCU’s commitment to civic and community engagement and to lifelong learning and expressed her delight with the passion and enthusiasm that DCU staff showed during her visit. She felt that the self-assessment scores were in fact rather low, suggesting that DCU participants were reflecting on what their institution could improve on, rather that the excellent achievements already made. The next stage in the process will be to revise the self-evaluation based on feedback and further engagement with all interested parties.
For further information on COMMIT see: