Quality and excellence are requirements that Society demands from universities. However, several questions arise in the real-world application of these concepts: How can they be incorporated into the classrooms or laboratories? What is the proper way to create a quality and innovation culture in daily teaching? In order to answer to these…

Distance Education (DE) provides a means for which people, who are unable to attend on-campus courses for any of various reasons, to receive a college education. While there are many benefits cited for DE and many students show a partiality towards DE (Guthrie, 2009; Kelsey, Lindner, & Moore, 2002; Koch, Townsend, & Dooley, 2005; Mink…

Digital badges are electronic icons used to recognize learning or participation in activities. Open digital badges offer the additional affordance of embedded metadata that can link to the criteria for earning the badge, evidence of the skill, and other information including issuer details. Badge systems have prompted instructional designers to…

This "Guide" describes the macro need for [technical and vocational education and training] (TVET) reform in conformity with the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and other United Nations, UNESCO and national initiatives. The "Guide" also provides…

This paper reports on research into the operation of English further/higher education, with a focus on the role of partnerships in supporting the massification of higher education. The research draws on the bottom-up policy implementation tradition to provide analysis of the effects on partnerships of a quasi-marketised environment. The rationale…

Strategic planning can be broadly defined as a process used by organizations to define strategy and provide direction regarding future decisions. Grounded in the organization's mission and vision, it is widely recognized as fundamental to an organization's success over time. A growing number of higher education institutions are incorporating…

Traditional education has benefited millions of students--preparing them for college, jobs and careers--and it continues to do so. However, in recent years, there has been a growing trend of higher education institutions considering an alternative, competency-based education (CBE), to serve the needs of nontraditional or underserved adult…

The vast majority of studies concerning the implementation of quality assurance in higher education institutions have been conducted from a national perspective, with few cross-national studies. This study aimed to explore the implementation of quality assurance standards in Europe from a comparative perspective. A questionnaire based on…

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has triggered serious disruption in economic, social and cultural dynamics around the globe. Higher education has also suffered undeniable challenges as a result of the pandemic, with thousands of university students all over the world experiencing displacement, disconnect and disengagement from formal learning. In…

This chapter is based on a workshop at IVEC 2020 which presented a model of Virtual Exchange (VE) facilitated by interactive, digital, and cultural artefacts created using a progressive web app developed by the EU-funded ENACT project team. The model offers an innovative approach to online intercultural exchange through the opportunity to create,…

The adoption of a system based on cycles has been one of the core action lines in the Bologna Process. It represents the base for promoting student mobility, employability, and international competitiveness. The implementation of the degree-cycle system -- conditioned by the achievement of other policy objectives (i.e. ECTS) -- started hot debates…

The National Bilingual Programme was launched in order to promote English learning in Colombia. The failure of this programme and subsequent iterations is well-documented, and research has also examined some of its negative effects for different societal groups. However, a comprehensive study of the social justice implications of Colombia's…

There is increasing pressure on universities in the United States to meet the needs of diverse learners. This fact increases the urgency for implementation and scaling up of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in higher education. This qualitative study draws two major insights from interviews with six faculty members from universities and…

In 2012, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education launched a new quality assurance policy entitled 'self-accreditation', aimed at enhancing institutional autonomy, as well as establishing its internal quality review mechanism. In the self-accreditation policy, higher education institutions are encouraged to develop their own quality assurance…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunities and limitations of computer-mediated internships (CMIs) for higher education providers (HEPs) and to outline how HEPs may maximize the benefits that arise from CMIs through strategic choices. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides a systematic assessment of the benefits,…