Report to the European Commission on improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe's higher education institutions

This report by the European Union [EU] High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education attempts to do three things: (1) to provoke a broader discussion in all EU Member States about the quality of teaching and learning in every single university and college; (2) to identify a range of initiatives which can be applied taking account of the varied starting points of different countries and institutions, to shift higher education teaching culture into a new and energetic gear; and (3) to propose ways in which the EU can support national governments and stakeholders in implementing new, more challenging and better models of teaching and learning. The report puts quality of teaching and learning centre stage and show examples that can be applied elsewhere.

The work of the group is built around the guiding principles: that teaching and learning are fundamental core missions of universities and colleges; that active student involvement is essential in governance, curricular design, development and review, quality assurance and review procedures; that the preference of research over teaching in defining academic merit needs re-balancing; that academic staff are employed not just to teach, but to teach well, to a high professional standard; that it is a key responsibility of institutions to ensure their academic staff are well trained and qualified as professional teachers and not just qualified in a particular academic subject; that this responsibility extends to ensuring new staff have a teaching qualification or equivalent on entry or have access to credible teacher training courses in the early years of their career; that this responsibility extends to providing opportunities for continuous professional career development as a professional teacher and not just as a subject/discipline specific academic; that it is a key responsibility of academic staff to ensure they are qualified to teach and able to teach well; and that this responsibility extends over their entire career from start to finish so that they remain up-to-date and proficient in the very best pedagogical practices and all that excellence in teaching requires.

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