HERC-ulean effort yields three wins

The Higher Education Research Centre (HERC) at DCU has this month been successful in three EU project funding applications, and is now calling for expressions of interest.

The projects (each of 3 years’ duration, and commencing in September/October 2018) link HERC with European centres of excellence in research and development investigating and supporting higher education engagement with the wider community and lifelong learning.

Supported under Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices (KA203 - Strategic Partnerships for higher education), the projects are:

1. EUSRExcel (Towards a European University Social Responsibility Excellence Award) is coordinated by Conexx Europe, a research and development centre of the Free University of Brussels. In this project, higher education institutions and research organisations will work together to develop a framework of criteria and indicators of Social Responsibility in Higher Education. The aim is to create a network of universities with a USR ‘quality certification’ while conducting research and training to raise awareness among higher education leadership and staff of the importance and potential of a focus on social responsibility.
   
   
2. ENGAGE STUDENTS is an outreach project coordinated by University Politehnica of Bucharest, involving universities from six countries researching the ways in which higher education institutions engage with their local communities (local associations, NGOs etc.). Building on a previous EU project in which HERC was involved, ENGAGE will work with teachers, students and the community to promote social responsibility of students, embedding service learning within the curricula of higher education institutions. 
   
   
3.  INTALL (International and Comparative Studies for Students and Practitioners in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning) is coordinated by the Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg, Germany. This project will build a network between the two largest European adult education associations and eight European universities, for the first time bringing professionalization activities in adult education and lifelong learning from universities and practice systematically together – educating students together with practitioners in international and comparative studies in adult education and lifelong learning.

Expressions of interest in any or all of these projects are welcome. Please contact maria.slowey@dcu.ie.