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CommFABnet is a European Commission-funded project aimed at significantly improving the information flow between European research projects in the fields of food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology (the so-called bioeconomy) and stakeholders, such as businesses, policy makers and European citizens. This includes children and young people, who are the target group of an educational toolkit that is being developed by the British Nutrition Foundation, a partner of the CommFABnet project, for use in classrooms across Europe. This paper focuses on the development of the educational toolkit, and in addition outlines the role of educating and inspiring young people in the science communication process, and how other networks or projects can learn from the CommFABnet model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pedagogická Orientace is the property of Pedagogicka Orientace and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Growing ethnic and cultural diversity within Europe has brought increased attention to the impact and inclusion of immigrant populations and has also presented societies with valuable opportunities for intercultural learning between diverse groups. Using the International Civic and Citizenship Study data from 24 European education systems, in this paper we explore whether fostering an atmosphere of inclusion in schools relates to select attitudes and behaviours typically associated with an inclusive society, particularly among immigrant students. Our study is able to tease out some of the differences related to social class among immigrant students, opening up important avenues for discussion and future research. According to our findings, first generation immigrant students from higher socio-economic status backgrounds tended to have significantly more negative attitudes toward their resident country. Findings also collectively suggest that local-level practices, such as improving immigrant student participation in schools and positive relations between immigrant students and teachers, could be significant factors in fostering an inclusive society. Based on these results, we describe several education policies and practices that can promote greater inclusion, such as encouraging increased civic participation within the school and community, and providing a forum where students can contribute to school governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The governance of higher education has been changing across Europe, most notably in response to the reform agenda that has been pervading many higher education systems. This wave of reforms has given enhanced visibility to external stakeholders, which has been often received with contrasting views. Some regarded it as a factor that would undermine institutions' mission, while others viewed it as a rhetorical change, which would hardly have an impact on institutional life. In this paper, we analyse the introduction of external stakeholders in governance and quality assessment processes by looking at the Portuguese experience, and more specifically at their contribution to the implementation of internal quality assurance systems. We use empirical data collected from four higher education institutions under the framework of the IBAR project, subsumed in the form of barriers to and good practices for the implementation of policies and procedures for quality assurance. The results suggest that although the presence of external stakeholders has become more visible, it is yet to be fully reflected in the way institutions are governed or the way in which they manage their internal quality assurance processes and mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the models of the intercultural curriculum in Europe, today; it points out that explicit intercultural curricula are not part of the mainstream European educations systems. The author denounces also the attack to multiculturalism done by some European governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of job satisfaction determinants of higher education graduates across six selected study domains. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the theoretical considerations, derived from human capital theory and signalling theory, the authors formulate the model explaining job satisfaction as a broad measure of labour market success. Explanatory variables include various socio-demographic characteristics as well as market environment and process of learning, modes of teaching and study programme characteristics. Data used in the analysis comes from two special surveys of European research projects REFLEX and HEGESCO. Principal component analysis method and OLS regression were used to estimate model parameters. Findings – The results of our research show the important role of characteristics of educational process, as well as individual graduates’ early work-related experience in predicting job satisfaction. Differences in job satisfaction determinants across domains may be to some extent explained by the differences in the labour market characteristics for graduates in given discipline. Variety of education-related characteristics taken into account in the empirical analysis of determinants of job satisfaction is a key valuable contribution to the research in the field. Originality/value – Research findings indicate the areas of potential actions aimed at improving future job satisfaction which can be undertaken by higher education institutions’ management bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of the history of Spanish as a Foreign Language, from its beginnings in the late fifteenth century to the twentieth century. It is the first survey of its kind published in English. It shows that we are well informed about the broad lines of development, but that much remains to be done in some areas, particularly in analysing the materials used to teach Spanish and their connection to the European pedagogical tradition. Much less is known about who the learners of Spanish were throughout Europe. It seems that the students of Spanish in Northern Europe, for example, had specific learning goals which were probably not the same as the learners of Spanish in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is increasingly developing towards complex and chaotic behaviour. Enterprises are challenged to establish flexible but trustworthy structures of doing business within global instability. We need to educate our students today for coping with such chaotic patterns in their professional future. As an example, the student-run Europe-wide organisation ESTIEM is offering the 2-week Summer Academy (SAC) to develop the communication skills corresponding. It also means among other aims to strengthen mutual trust through interaction of the students. In 2011, one of the SAC took place in Serbia. About 15 students attended it from all over Europe. In the paper, three of these students report on their experiences as a set of suggestions of how to develop further engineering and economics teaching towards international trust and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades regional agreements have become more significant in educational and training. This paper situates and analyses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy and explores their influence on the integration of higher education systems in Mercosur (the Southern Common Market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Mercosur is still a customs union, and the project of integrating higher education is at an early stage. Lacking organically established regional bodies, coordination of integration in Mercosur has focused on summits and meetings of officials. However, in a context of unequal maturity in regional integration, there is emerging evidence that the EHEA project is influencing the reforms of national systems of higher education and even Mercosur’s model for a regional area of higher education. A nascent Europeanization of higher education systems in the Mercosur region is emerging, by-passing Mercosur’s regional structures. The formulation of policies has been permeated by policy transfer from Europe to national territories within Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We analyse the gender training gap (i.e. the disadvantage of women in receiving work-related continuing training) based on individual data from the first wave of the Adult Education Survey (AES). The interaction of gender and education, we argue, has been overlooked in previous work. For only one of 22 European countries do we find a statistically significant training gap for women with a university degree—but in six countries, we find a statistically significant and sizeable training gap for women without a university degree. Multilevel analysis supports the results and shows that institutions are linked to the chances of training. In particular, a system of vocational education and training geared towards firm-specific skills enhances the female training gap. Overall, our paper shows that the widespread perception of a disappearing gender training gap is premature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In Europe, energy and climate policies started to take shape from the 1990s onwards culminating with the ambitious 20–20–20 climate goals and the Low-Carbon Europe roadmap 2050. The European Commission empower the importance of achieving the objective of the recast Directive on energy performance of buildings (EPBD) that new buildings built from 2021 onwards will have to be nearly zero-energy buildings. The general belief is that the energy performance optimization of buildings requires an integrated design approach and cross-disciplinary teamwork to optimize the building's energy use and quality of indoor environment while satisfying the occupants' needs. In this context, there is a substantial need for professionals such as architects and engineers specifically trained and educated in integrated design approach and trained to work in cross-disciplinary teams. To be able to push forward the development, it is essential that educational institutions foster professionals with such knowledge, skills and competences. An initiative toward this direction is the EU-project of IDES-EDU: “Master and Post-Graduate education and training in multi-disciplinary teams”. The paper describes the necessity of more integrated and cross-disciplinary approaches to building design through state-of-the-art of the building sector and educational initiatives in the participating countries in the project, and through theory of design processes. The paper also communicates the results of newly developed cross-disciplinary education established by fifteen different educational institutions in Europe. Finally, the paper explains and discusses the challenges encountered during development and implementation of the education across different professions and countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present paper-from a vantage in Bulgaria, and focusing in significant part on this country as an iconic example of the 'post-socialist freefall' and its dystopia on European capitalism's neocolonial 'new periphery'-is a revised version of an earlier chapter in Hill (2013). It was originally written as a 'post-socialist' supplement to perspectives on austerity capitalism, education and fightback as analyzed in that volume. The revamped paper comprises an Introduction and six main sections, the first three contained in installment 1 of the article here, Sections 4-6 in a second installment to appear in the next issue of JCEPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Latgale National Economy Research is the property of City Unity College Nicosia, Rezekne Academy of Technologies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper discusses the components of language teachers' awareness, which should differ qualitatively and quantitatively from that of language learners and users. It is argued that especially teachers of English, the European lingua franca, should develop plurilingual awareness to train learners to become multilingual citizens. This awareness involves crosslinguistic, metalinguistic and psycholinguistic knowledge concerning multiple language acquisition. Apart from that, teachers should ideally be multilingual themselves. The paper reports on a survey carried out on over 230 pre-service and in-service Polish teachers of English. It compares their levels of plurilingual awareness relative to their teaching experience, bilingualism/multilingualism factors and the level of L3-Ln languages known. Their awareness seems to be linked with both teaching experience and multilingualism, but it is higher for multilingual teachers proficient in several languages. The paper also presents a qualitative study in the form of a guided interview on a focus group of five in-service teachers. This provides in-depth insight into how they understand plurilingual language teaching. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning changes in teacher training that would enable teachers to promote plurilingual approaches in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper it is presented the evolution of schooling and education process in Europe from Antiquity to modern times. Education is one of the most important elements of social life, and it has a great impact on it. The article presents the main sociological theories of education which are the functionalist theory (Emile Durkheim) and the social conflict theory (Max Weber). The following chapter presents the historical evolution of educational systems in Europe from Antiquity till the modern times emphasizing on the most important stages and reforms. In this article there are presented the strong links between the process of education and the other aspects of social life and the way they influence each other. The emergence of public schooling systems and its evolution is presented along with the main reforms and public policies. The steps taken for the massification of education and the reforms that led to the increased access to schooling is presented in a strong relation with the social classes that had existed in different historical periods. The foundation and the evolution of higher education institutions - namely the Universities, are presented along with their impact on the social life in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: At the present time, higher education institutions dealing with education for public health in Europe and beyond are faced with a complex and comprehensive task of responding to global health challenges. Review: Literature reviews in public health and global health and exploration of internet presentations of regional and global organisations dealing with education for public health were the main methods employed in the work presented in this paper. Higher academic institutions are searching for appropriate strategies in competences-based education, which will increase the global attractiveness of their academic programmes and courses for continuous professional development. Academic professionals are taking advantage of blended learning and new web technologies. In Europe and beyond they are opening up debates about the scope of public health and global health. Nevertheless, global health is bringing revitalisation of public health education, which is recognised as one of the core components by many other academic institutions involved in global health work. More than ever, higher academic institutions for public health are recognising the importance of institutional partnerships with various organisations and efficient modes of cooperation in regional and global networks. Networking in a global setting is bringing new opportunities, but also opening debates about global harmonisation of competence-based education to achieve functional knowledge, increase mobility of public health professionals, better employability and affordable performance. Conclusions: As public health opportunities and threats are increasingly global, higher education institutions in Europe and in other regions have to look beyond national boundaries and participate in networks for education, research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers is presented on the relationship between education and young people.

Over the past decade, educational programmes have been the main focus of the activities of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX). The IUTOX educational programmes are dynamic and have been growing in scope and frequency each year. It is envisaged that this growth will continue with guidance from our member societies and the continuing support of our sponsors. Presently, IUTOX is engaged in the following educational programmes: (1) International congresses that provide the opportunity for direct communication of current toxicological information. Fellowships are sponsored to facilitate attendance at these congresses for toxicologists in need. (2) Workshops that permit interaction on a more localised level of topics of more regional interest. Workshops have served to help stimulate formation of toxicology societies by bringing together sufficient scientists to facilitate these discussions. (3) Continuing educational (CE) programmes at member society meetings. Topics are prioritized based on input received from the local societies. Programmes often are those from CE courses given at meetings, such as conferences of the US Society of Toxicology (US SOT) and EUROTOX from the previous year. (4) Biennial Risk Assessment Summer School (RASS), an intensive week-long interaction between senior toxicologists who serve as faculty with attendees providing individual training. (5) Dissemination of donated printed toxicological books from publishers and syllabi from continuing education courses to regional locations. (6) Web-based interactive training programmes in regions where formal toxicological educational programmes are limited or lacking. (7) Preparation and distribution of monographs on selected topics of very current interest. Monographs on environmental oestrogens and genetically-modified foods have been published. The recent activities in each of these programmes are reviewed in this paper.

The European Science Foundation (ESF) has adopted a position paper on the use of animals in research. In this document, the ESF sets out its view on conditions that must be met to make the use of animals morally acceptable. The ESF explicitly states that laboratory animals have an intrinsic value that must be respected. The consequences of recognising the intrinsic value have been elaborated in the position paper and include, among others, that ESF Member Organisations are encouraged to endorse the reduction, refinement and replacement principles. Prior to the performance of an animal experiment, the protocol should be subjected to independent expert review, including the weighing of the likely benefit versus the likely animal suffering. Also, the development and organisation of accredited courses on laboratory animal science, including information on animal alternatives, welfare and ethics, are encouraged. The Council of Europe and the Federation of Laboratory Animal Science Associations have issued recommendations as to the education and training of persons involved in animal-based research. The ESF guidelines are in line with these recommendations. The recommendations are explained, and some details on the implementation in The Netherlands are presented.

This paper investigates how children of immigrants from Turkey are integrated into Swedish society. The educational achievements and labour market outcomes of this group are compared with the performance of the offspring of native-born parents. The aim of the study is to explore whether we can observe a tendency towards ‘downward mobility’ among young people of immigrant background in Sweden and thereby provide reflections on the existing formulation of the ‘segmented assimilation’ theory. Findings show that descendants of immigrants seemnotto be in the process of downward assimilation, that is, social exclusion and therefore formation of a distinct ‘underclass’ in Sweden. The concept of ‘subordinate inclusion’ is a more appropriate description of the experiences of children of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective To assess the participation of European urology residents in urological laparoscopy, their training patterns and facilities available in European Urology Departments., Materials and Methods A survey, consisting of 23 questions concerning laparoscopic training, was published online as well as distributed on paper, during the Annual European Association of Urology Congress in 2012., Exposure to laparoscopic procedures, acquired laparoscopic experience, training patterns, training facilities and motivation were evaluated., Data was analysed with descriptive statistics., Results In all, 219 European urology residents answered the survey., Conventional laparoscopy was available in 74% of the respondents' departments, while robotic surgery was available in 17% of the departments., Of the respondents, 27% were first surgeons and 43% were assistants in conventional laparoscopic procedures. Only 23% of the residents rated their laparoscopic experience as at least 'satisfactory'; 32% of the residents did not attend any course or fellowship on laparoscopy., Dry laboratory was the most frequent setting for training (33%), although 42% of the respondents did not have access to any type of laparoscopic laboratory., The motivation to perform laparoscopy was rated as 'high' or 'very high' by 77% of the respondents, and 81% considered a post-residency fellowship in laparoscopy., Conclusions Urological laparoscopy is available in most European training institutions, with residents playing an active role in the procedure. However, most of them consider their laparoscopic experience to be poor., Moreover, the availability of training facilities and participation in laparoscopy courses and fellowships are low and should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at presenting a new intergenerational mobility index that (a) combines the intergenerational elasticity and the R-squared of the intergenerational regression and (b) enables the expression of the total degree of mobility as the weighted sum of mobility with respect to both parents. As a case study, we apply our proposal to investigate the intergenerational mobility of education in several European countries and its changes across birth cohorts. The results derived from the proposed index indicate that Nordic countries display higher levels of educational mobility than Southern countries, whereas continental countries are in an intermediate position. Moreover, it appears that the degree of mobility increases over time only in those countries with low initial levels and remains stable for the most mobile countries. Finally, for most of the countries the proposed methodology can prove that the degree of educational mobility with respect to each parent tends to converge to the same level over the course of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and discusses findings from a European project concerning strengthening the teacher’s voice in defining professional quality. In the project tools were developed and evaluated to help teachers reflect on their professional quality. Twelve countries participated and twelve tools were tested with help of student teachers, teachers, teacher educators, school leaders and policy makers. Evaluations were completed by the tool testers and the test leaders through questionnaires and, in the case of the tool designers, through reflective journals on their experiences. Findings showed that the tool design was a success in aiding professional development via discussion about teacher quality amongst the participants. Even though the result was mainly positive, findings also showed that the tools can be further developed. Overall, the findings demonstrate that there are other ways of encouraging teachers to consider what constitutes good quality in teaching rather than imposing external standards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper the quality of education for students with disabilities in EU countries (Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Spain) and non-EU (Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia) has been investigated and compared. In the framework of iLearn project supported by EU Commission the survey in participating in which participated students with disabilities and their parents or caretakers was realized. The data was collected with questionnaire containing 16 questions covering following topic use of computer, satisfaction with educational process, use of free time and interviews made with selected members of target group. The collected data have been statistically processed. It was found that there is significant difference in evaluation of quality of education between EU and non-EU countries. However the participants from non-EU countries gave better marks for educational process then EU members. This need more analysis and is probable caused by different culture, tradition and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-medieval archaeology in Flanders (Belgium) is a comparatively young archaeological discipline, even in an historically important region with centres such as Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent. Originating in the slipstream of Flemish urban archaeology during the 1970s, the discipline has struggled for recognition ever since. As a result of more than 40 years of fieldwork, the material record of early-modern and modern history has changed drastically. Yet post-medieval archaeology has not reached its apogee. A framework with its own methods, teaching, research questions and theoretical approaches is still under construction. This paper aims not only at historiographical analysis of the field, but chiefly at defining a clear framework for positioning post-medieval archaeology in one of the most important regions in early-modern and modern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Promoting excellence in manufacturing emerges as a strategic goal for the years to come, both for industry and society; manufacturing education has been identified as a major driver to achieving this goal. However, the pace of economic, social and technological change has increased the gap between the competences needed by industry and those provided by the universities' curricula. This requires an increasingly integrated approach by academia and industry in order to afford the problem of engineering competences' obsolescence. Framed in the above premises, the aim of this paper is to present the results of a two year postgraduate training program aimed at developing a new archetype of human capital to face the requirements of Intelligent and Sustainable Manufacturing. The case study presented in the paper addresses the needs for providing manufacturing education to meet the challenges in terms of "who"--the profile for the next generation of manufacturing engineer; "what'--the new system for education and its contents, and "bow'--innovative learning approaches and strategy to incentive the development of competence. The findings demonstrate the radical innovation in developing the next generation of engineers for Intelligent and Sustainable Manufacturing and the importance of a learning environment that is strictly based on virtuous industry-university partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authoress deals with the state of university education nowadays. Starting from theory of miseducation, she discusses the phenomena that have appeared within education as a consequence of European educational politics and developmental movements of contemporary civilization. In this context, special critical attention is paid to the notion of "learning society" and the related terms: IT society, knowledge management and knowledge economization. The antique idea of education, humanistic concept of education and the character of today's education are compared in the paper. The course of movement of the idea of educatedness is analysed that headed towards obliterating of the paradigms that had been established by educational tradition and which have experienced its negation through the form of modern semi-educatedness and today's miseducatedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that affect progression to university education across Europe. Design/methodology/approach – The data used are obtained from the fourth round of the European Social Survey (2008). Findings – Findings point to interesting age by gender and age by parental education interactions affecting the entrance to university. It demonstrates the disparity that exists across Europe whereby in some countries progression has been a smooth process for the past few decades while in others widening participation to higher education has only been a recent phenomenon. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study are discussed with reference to social reproduction theories and have implications for wider European educational policies for enhancing access to university education. Originality/value – In a globalised education market inequalities may be observed within countries but also between countries making the outcomes of policies for offering equal opportunities a complex one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of European-style education in Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as Egyptian reformers and governments, in their desire to create relevant and effective educational institutions, began looking to Europe for inspiration. The resulting institutions utilized modern methods while preserving the local character of education, often straddling the line between the strictly European and Egyptian. With these compromises and negotiations, ultimately, one of the most influential legacies of European education was the belief in education as a "cure" for all the ills of modern Egyptian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper introduces a tool, which simplifies the description of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) applications by means of a visual language and automatic generation of executable code. The tool has been used to provide non-experienced students with a practical introduction to WSN concepts in a short period of time. Using the tool allowed students to quickly develop their own applications and test with them, focusing on their functional aspects rather than on programming and platform-dependent matters. This has yielded good results in the adaptation to the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA) envisaged by the Bologna Process, promoting an increased role of students in education as well as improving their motivation. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 20: 692-701, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at making an analysis of the erudite Dimitrie Cantemir from the perspective of contemporary sociology. The ideas brought forth by this paper can be summarized as follows: The erudite prince, whom Nicolae Iorga characterised as "raised among books of wisdom", managed to be a forerunner in the field of the future-to-be science of sociology. His fundamental work in this direction is Descriptio Moldaviae [Description of Moldavia], written upon request of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Being written in Latin, as the philosopher-prince wrote this book of reference as foundation for the European sociology, allowed it to be studied by all European learners interested in aspects of a science that was to be defined. Moreover, arguments in support of the assertion that Dimitrie Cantemir is a forerunner of the science of sociology can also be found in other reference works, studies and monographs. A significant example is his work Hronicul vechimei a romano-moldo-vlahilor [Chronicle of the old history of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs] in which, as a true sociologist, Cantemir makes a comprehensive analysis of the way in which the Romanians had lived in Dacia, their organization, customs, social hierarchy and their cultural-social relations with other European peoples, considering them a "bridge between the Orient and the West". Historia incrementorum atque decrementorum Aulae Othomanicae [The History of the Ascent and Descent of the Ottoman Court], although claimed by historians, is a reference work for the encyclopaedic mind of Dimitrie Cantemir, and a fundamental one for the European sociology. This book, existing in the Library of the American Congress, describes true sociologic investigations about the Turkish society and about the other European states of that time, which coexisted with the Ottoman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: The paper explains how bioenergy education and training is growing in Europe. Employment estimates are included for renewable energy in general, and bioenergy in particular, to highlight the need for a broadly based education and training programme that is essential to build a knowledgeable workforce that can drive Europe’s growing bioenergy sector. The paper reviews current provisions in bioenergy at Masters and PhD levels across the 27 members of the EU (EU27) plus Norway and Switzerland. This identifies a very active and expanding bioenergy education provision. 65 English-language Masters Courses in bioenergy (either focussing completely on bioenergy or with significant bioenergy content or specialisation) were identified. 231 providers of PhD studies in bioenergy were found. Masters Course offerings have grown rapidly across Europe during the last five years, but where data is available, enrolment has been quite low suggesting that there is an oversupply of courses and that course organisers are being optimistic in their projections. Existing provisions in Europe at Masters and PhD levels are clearly more than sufficient for short term needs, but further work is needed to evaluate the take-up rate and the content and focus of the provisions. To ensure talented graduates are attracted to these programmes, better promotion, stronger links with the research community and industry, and increased collaboration among course providers are needed. Short Courses of two to five days are an excellent way of meeting post-experience training needs but require further growth and development to serve the needs of the bioenergy community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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Introduction: Selection to dental school is the point at which there is the potential to assess a wide range of candidate attributes and select those most likely to learn, train and work within the profession. Despite this, little is known in terms of what works and what does not work in dental selection in terms of predicting future performance accurately and fairly. Given this, our aim was to synthesise the last 30 years of research investigating the predictive validity of dental school selection methods. Methods: A search of the electronic databases SCOPUS, Pubmed and Embase was conducted. Results were limited to English language studies published between January 1987 and January 2017. Results: Twenty‐one studies were included. Selection tools fell into five broad categories: tests of personal qualities; cognitive ability; academic attainment; psychomotor skills and combined ability tests. Most were retrospective, single‐site studies limited to early years of dental school. Weak correlations were reported, but in most cases, these were between small sections of the selection tool and/or the outcome measure. Discussion: There was a notable dearth of published research examining dental schools selection processes across Europe over the last 30 years. Current literature was limited by weak study design and lack of long‐term follow‐up. Conclusion: There is insufficient high‐quality evidence from which to draw any conclusions as to the best selection methods to use in dental school selection. Without this, designing selection frameworks for dentistry which are appropriately weighted, reliable and valid remains a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine educational inequalities in the risk of non-employment among people with illnesses and how they vary between European countries with different welfare state characteristics. In doing so, the paper adds to the growing literature on welfare states and social inequalities in health by studying the often overlooked ‘sickness’-dimension of health, namely employment behaviour among people with illnesses. We use European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data from 2005 covering 26 European countries linked to country characteristics derived from Eurostat and OECD that include spending on active labour market policies, benefit generosity, income inequality, and employment protection. Using multilevel techniques we find that comprehensive welfare states have lower absolute and relative social inequalities in sickness, as well as more favourable general rates of non-employment. Hence, regarding sickness, welfare resources appear to trump welfare disincentives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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The geography of education, especially at subnational level, is a huge black box. Little is known about the distribution of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by mapping educational attainment and inequality in 102 regions in Western Europe, using data extracted from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) covering more than 100,000 individuals over the period 1995–2000. The results of this Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) reveal a strong correlation between levels of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe. Regions with similar educational conditions tend to cluster, often within national borders. In addition, a North–South and an urban–rural dimension are evident. Northern regions and large European metropoli have not only the most-educated labour force but also the lowest levels of inequality. Educational inequality seems to be, in any case, a fundamentally within-region phenomenon: 90 percent of the educational inequality in Europe occurs among individuals living in the same region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose - It is generally agreed that carers in mental health care play a vital role in helping people to maintain their place in the community and reducing the time clients spend in hospital or residential settings. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual approach to involving carers in higher education by acknowledging their contribution to improving practice and identify the impact upon student learning in mental health and social care professions.Design/methodology/approach - A brief review of the policy and literature on involving carers in mental health services and education explored the historical and current influences upon practice. This was then applied to the experience of the authors when teaching nursing and social work students in a higher educational setting and evaluated as developing outcomes in carer involvement practice.Findings - Relationships between carers and students in health and social care may be created in higher education settings that can develop supportive, informative and recovery-focused care in practice. Creating such relationships in the higher educational setting helps students to prepare for developing relationships with carers in practice.Originality/value - Involving carers in education may improve outcomes in recovery for the client and carer experience and the development of professional and self awareness skills in students. Developing involvement practices in higher education begins the process early in the experience of health and social care students, providing a safe environment in which to master such skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the consequences, in Denmark between 1984 and 2006, of the implementation of the European EU Eighth Directive on the qualification of statutory auditors. Although the Eighth Directive envisaged one group of statutory auditors in each Member State, there were two groups of auditors in Denmark, and the implementation of the Directive triggered a long conflict between the two groups about the education of the second-tier auditors. The analysis is based on the work of Abbott ((1988)) on professional jurisdictional disputes and shows how the local implementation of the Eighth Directive on auditor qualifications disturbed the balance of the 'system of professions' in Denmark and gave rise to an intra-professional conflict over the statutory audit jurisdiction. The jurisdictional dispute dragged on for two decades because of the complexity of the Danish regulatory system, where audit regulation takes place in overlapping committees between the profession, the state and the educational institutions. It was finally settled by educational differentiation of the two groups, and we discuss the implications of this settlement for the process of audit harmonisation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the employment of practice firm in the vocational and technical education at the "Transilvania" Economic College of Tîrgu Mureş. The practical implications, the European and national framework for practice firms are analysed. The development of a practice firm called Ultimate Driving Cars is presented, together with the company overview. The object of activity is trade of motor vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is to report on the music education partnership formation and activities of the University of Botswana, the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) and other partners in Africa. The University of Botswana has been in this partnership for quiet a short period from 2008 to date. However, since the beginning of the partnership, some activities in the form of student exchange, staff exchange and intensive workshops have continuously been taking place. The paper will also highlight the readers on the funding of the exchange programme for both staff and student exchange. All these will help consolidate the beginnings of this exchange programme whose memorandum of understanding was signed by both universities (University of Botswana and University of Jyvaskyla) in July 2008. Issues and activities on how staff and students benefit from this partnership will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From international comparisons we know that the German education system is more socially selective than many European or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and has only been slowly catching up during the last several years. At the same time, German higher education (HE) has consisted mostly of public institutions that were not allowed to charge tuition fees. Only since 2005 have some of the Länder allowed for a modest tuition fee of €500 maximum.While the German higher education system seems to be struggling with the task of including disadvantaged students and those with a non-German, non-academic background, the country faces an unprecedented demographic change that will make young people a rare good and education even more valuable than it is today.This paper explains the German discussion on tuition fees and the background to this discussion of lurking demographic change. It describes the challenges that demographic change poses for German higher education institutions (HEIs) and the strategies to deal with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and Development represents the priority for the smart growth of Europe 2020 Strategy. Performances in education, research and innovation are important for building the digital society. The paper presents the dynamics recorded during the last two decades. There are compared the changes in the countries' position using a certain type of chart built for the statistic indicators: R&D expenditure as percentage in GDP and the R&D development potential. The conclusions are based on the analysis of these indicators for the European countries in the period preceding the beginning of the economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces the launching of the "Education for Chemical Engineers" (ECE), an online journal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), with the aim of becoming the principal international journal for chemical, process and biomolecular engineering education. ECE has been declared the official journal of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. Doctor David Shallcross of the University of Melbourne, Australia, is the editor of the journal supported by an international editorial board. The journal has already established a global subscriber base and published papers from Europe, Australasia, and North America.