Abstract
European higher education institutions will need significant reforms, in order to guarantee their leading role in a globalized knowledge economy. These reforms can be enhanced by improving the way in which traditional universities integrate new technologies both in their educational activities and throughout their strategic and operational processes. The UNIQUe institutional accreditation scheme, analyzed and described in this chapter, intends to support this process of integrating the use of new technologies in higher education. With its specific open approach to quality in e-Learning, UNIQUe emphasizes innovation and creativity in a process that includes self-assessment and constructive dialog with peers and stakeholders involved. UNIQUe intends to use the institutional quality label as a catalyst for continuous improvement and change while setting up collaborative bench learning processes among universities for the adoption and integration of e-Learning.
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Notes
- 1.
UNIQUe – eUropean uNIversity QUality in e-Learning project, supported by the Socrates Program of the European Commission, October 2006–August 2008.
- 2.
The Bologna process: http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher-education/doc1290_en.htm
- 3.
EC eLearning Action Plan.
- 4.
SEEQUEL – Sustainable Environment of the Evaluation of Quality in eLearning, http://www.education-observatories.net/seequel/index.
- 5.
MASSIVE – Modeling Advice and Support Services to Integrate the Virtual component in higher Education, http://cevug.ugr.es/massive/.
- 6.
European Foundation for Quality in eLearning www.
- 7.
EuroPACE www.europace.org.
- 8.
Scienter.
- 9.
EFMD.
- 10.
EFMD CEL, Program accreditation for teChnology-Enhanced Learning, organized by EFMD, http://www.efmd.org/index.php/component/efmd/?cmsid=040929dygl.
Acknowledgments
Contributing authors to this article are Wim Van Petegem and Ilse Op de Beeck. UNIQUe was created by a consortium of the following four partners:
• MENON Network EIG (Coordinator): MENON is a European innovation and research network providing information and advice to policy makers and authorities, education communities, and the ICT and media industry on issues related to innovation and changes in Education and Training, Lifelong Learning, and Knowledge Society developments in Europe and worldwide.
• EuroPACE ivzw: EuroPACE is a European network fostering collaboration in e-Learning. Its members and partners are higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and other educational networks and companies.
• European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning (EFQUEL): EFQUEL is a new initiative from three successful European e-Learning projects (EQO, Seel, and Seequel). They approach quality in e-Learning from different and complementary perspectives and develop full-scale services for all educational fields, regional contexts, and target groups.
• European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD): EFMD is an international membership organization, with more than 600 member organizations from academia, business, public service and consultancy in 65 countries
UNIQUe is now run by the European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning in cooperation with the initial project partners.
Projects on which the findings of this article are partially based are as follows:
• UNIQUe. The UNIQUe project – European University Quality in e-Learning (2006–2008) – was carried out with the support of the European Commission Directorate General Education and Culture, Socrates, Higher Education Reform. Project partners were EuroPACE ivzw; EFQUEL – European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning; EFMD – European Foundation for Management Development a.i.s.b.l.
• MASSIVE. The MASSIVE project (Modeling Advice and Support Services to Integrate the Virtual Component in Higher Education) was carried out with the support of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture, under the e-Learning Program. Project partners were the University of Granada, Fim New Learning, Tavistock Institute, EuroPACE ivzw, Scienter España, Scienter, University of Barcelona, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, University of Edinburgh, University of Bergen, ESIB, and Grupo SGAE. More information on the project is available at http://cevug.ugr.es/massive
• SEEQUEL (Sustainable Environment for the Evaluation of Quality in e-Learning) is a project carried out with the support of the European Commission in the framework of the e-Learning Action Plan. Project partners were MENON Network, ELIG, CEDEFOP, EDEN, EIfEL, EuroPACE ivzw, ESIB, University of Reading, and University of Edinburgh.
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Boonen, A., Bijnens, H. (2010). The UNIQUe Label: Supporting a Culture of Innovation and Quality in Higher Education. In: Ehlers, UD., Schneckenberg, D. (eds) Changing Cultures in Higher Education. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03582-1_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03582-1_36
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