Who are we?

EURASHE is the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education that offer professionally-orientated programmes and are engaged in applied and profession-related research within the Bologna cycles. Currently about 600 higher education institutions in 40 countries within and outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are affiliated to EURASHE.

Members of EURASHE are national associations of higher education institutions and individual institutions, such as universities, (university) colleges and universities of applied sciences (UAS), as well as other professional associations and stakeholder organisations active in the field of higher education.

EURASHE’s mission is to promote the interests of professional higher education in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). EURASHE aims to position professional higher education in the higher education spectrum and by this contribute to the recognition of its qualifications throughout the EHEA; provide a platform for institutions for an exchange of good practice and capacity building on
the priorities in higher education reform, including internships and work-based learning; enhance cooperation of professional higher education and members of EURASHE with other stakeholders in higher education and in particular with the world of work; diversify the profile of membership to span all relevant levels of the overarching qualifications framework of the EHEA, from higher vocational education to universities of applied sciences; guarantee the quality of education provision by our members and ensure that this contributes to the employability of their graduates at levels 5 through 8 of the European Qualifications Framework.

Why we are Participating in the Project

EURASHE is one of the key stakeholders in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and is the main voice for professional higher education in different agendas. In particular, EURASHE is working, among others, on the topic of enhancing the students’ engagement in different aspects of professional higher education. EURASHE reflects in-depth expertise in the field of professional education from policy and practice perspective and its large network of members and partners, as well as its political influence in the EHEA, will ensure a strong and effective dissemination of the project outputs, presenting it to 35 countries within and outside the EHEA and more than 600 higher education institutions.

The issue of student engagement, and civic and democratic competences was highlighted in the recent years reflecting the increased attention to social dimension and key values and principles of higher education within European policies. One of the EURASHE UAS Leadership Forum meetings, an informal platform for exchange among the top institutional leaders, was devoted to the topic, also bringing in representatives of ESU and UCLL. EURASHE organised an event on role of HE in civic and democratic competences and academic values in the European Parliament. The importance was reflected in EURASHE policy statement for the ministerial conference in 2018. Still, the topic of student engagement and participation is one of the key priorities which needs to be reflected in more concrete dimension.

EURASHE members all have a direct interest in making student engagement and participation a more inclusive student experience, in line with their own institutional missions, requirements set by national regulators and expectations from their own students.

Our Role in the Project

EURASHE will:
• Set up a European level focus group together with ESU to complement the surveys and student and staff focus groups conducted by the institutional partners, and support the research process during the mapping phase of the project
• Together with MCAST, lead the topic of student engagement and participation as one of the key priorities to the EURASHE members
• Collect and share the good practices in student engagement and participation in the EURASHE network
• Disseminate the outcomes and tools from the project with the 600+ EURASHE-affiliated higher education institutions

Our Team