Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

This article draws on a case study of an international master's degree programme in educational quality and leadership for senior professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. It reflects the experience of adapting a blended learning approach to a purely online format in response to pandemic-induced lockdowns and travel bans in 2020-2021. Based on this…

As higher education quality assurance in many countries in Europe has become a mature activity, some agencies carrying out external quality assurance are developing beyond their core tasks and missions. The current study identifies new tasks taken up within quality assurance agencies and analyses the drivers behind such development. Based on an…

Teaching online requires different skills, roles and competencies for online instructors compared to teaching in traditional learning environments. Universities should offer ongoing support in various forms to help academic staff through their online journey. This paper provides insights into a multinational faculty development program for…

Creating critical mass has become a cornerstorne of science policy on both national and transnational levels. It suggests that once a certain size is reached, exponential growth or accelerated change will occur. In reconstructing theories, policies and practices associated with critical mass, the paper traces the image of critical mass as a size…

This contribution introduces the general principles of doctoral education in Germany first and then describes and discusses four key drivers of change: the increase in numbers, the diversification of degree models, the impact of the Bologna reforms on doctoral education, and changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the conclusions the…

The technical institutions Institut Mines Télécom in Albi, France (IMT) and Trier University for Applied Sciences at the Environmental Campus of Birkenfeld, Germany (UCB) have been running Virtual Exchange (VE) projects since 2013. These projects allow the French and German students to use the vocabulary learned in class in a real context and to…

The article presents research findings on the professional growth of three in-service EFL teachers from Germany who took part in a teacher education programme centred on technology-mediated plurilingual education. The study investigated how the programme influenced the development of the teachers' pedagogical and digital skills in creating and…

The professional competencies pre-service geography teachers acquire in university influence their contribution to education for sustainable development (ESD) in their future school careers. We assessed pre-service geography teachers' (n = 100) competencies and attitudes towards the official, German ESD orientation framework to determine the…

The pathways and trajectories for foreign doctoral candidates to enter the host country can differ considerably. These trajectories are not completely embedded in the higher education systems, they also include factors outside of work and academia. Our comparative study reconstructs the perspective and trajectories of doctoral candidates from…

Within a learning family, every member is a lifelong learner. A family literacy and learning approach is more likely to break the intergenerational cycle of low education and inadequate literacy skills, particularly among disadvantaged families and communities. The selection of case studies presented in this compilation show that for an…

This paper presents a review of twelve studies on the effectiveness of international service-learning projects. The purpose of this review is to analyze, through the use of themes, the goals and issues affecting outcomes of such programs in order to evaluate the current uses of international service-learning within multiple fields. International…

The present article analyzes the service-learning experiences of US students during a short-term study-abroad trip to Germany in July 2017. The study identified a key, overarching challenge: the gap between students' expectations and the actual study-abroad outcome. The overall service-learning study-abroad experience was deemed very positive for…

Nowadays cyberbullying prevention programs such as Surf-Fair can significantly reduce cyberbullying but little is known about necessary and sufficient conditions of their effectiveness. Case Study 1 followed three successive waves of implementation of Surf-Fair in one German highest-track secondary school in a pre-post design. Results show no…