This study explores the establishment of communities of practice within teaching and learning centres (TLC) as strategies for advancing faculty development in higher education, examining their implementation in the US and Europe, with a specific focus on Italy. Utilising organisational benchmarking, we employed an explanatory, comparative, and…

This study examines the critical aspects of remote STEM education in the post-pandemic period, from the perspectives of students and faculty at four European universities. This research was conducted approximately four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, aiming to evaluate the effectiveness and challenges of remote learning alongside…

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, higher education institutions around the world adjusted their activities to an emergency online mode in the first half of 2020. As institutions have the main responsibility for the quality assurance of their provision, this sudden shift has raised questions around the effectiveness, relevance and flexibility of…

With the growing trend of globalisation and the internationalisation of higher education, China actively recruits more international students to study at Chinese universities. Notably, international doctoral students are a significant cohort in this trend. Although many studies have investigated international students' learning experiences in…

This volume addresses the conceptions of actors and actorhood in higher education research. It explores the range of actors that are (or should be) recognized and theorized in higher education research, the processes that shape actorhood in the higher education reforms and explores the relations between the actors and higher education reforms.…

Drawing on communities of practice and social cognitive learning theories, this paper explores language teachers' beliefs, knowledge and practices concerning the provision of high-quality education to learners with specific learning difficulties in various educational settings around the world. The data sample for this paper comprises qualitative…

In recent years, the enhancement of learning and teaching has become a priority, not only for higher education institutions, but also for national governments, the European Union and the Bologna Process. This report aims to map the learning and teaching landscape in 28 higher education systems and to provide insight into how teaching enhancement…

Purpose: Standards should provide a means for transparently comparing academic programmes delivered by higher education providers and the research activities they carry out. The purpose of this study is to investigate the different sets of standards related to the quality assurance of academic programmes in four countries with regard to the…

Since (higher) education is more important than ever in knowledge societies, high priority should be ascribed to quality management in higher education institutions and its effectiveness. However, there is still a lack of systematic evaluation of the latter, particularly analyses which are not restricted to ex-post gathered data and expert…

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…

Based on the work of the European University Association (EUA) Learning & Teaching Initiative and the outcomes of the 1st European Learning & Teaching Forum, this paper underlines the importance of learning and teaching (L&T) as a core mission and responsibility of universities. Student learning needs and success must remain at the…

The article deals with the features of promoting and organizing professional pedagogical mobility of educators in the European context. Therefore, theoretical framework of the current research includes relevant documents of the Bologna Process (the Sorbonne Declaration, the Bologna Declaration (1999), the Prague Communiqué (2001), The Berlin…

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is an international organisation dedicated to building a better world through higher education. With over 500 member universities across 50 countries, our international network spans more than 10 million students and over a million academic and professional staff. In May 2020, the ACU undertook a…

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) conducted a digital engagement survey in May 2020, designed to capture the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the working habits of staff, students, and university leaders. Results provide a snapshot of individual levels of digital engagement, changing attitudes and behaviours, and the…

Internationalisation have recently featured in discussions and initiatives related to various fields of higher education. Educational leaders, institutions and national policy-makers, but also international actors, such as the European Union and UNESCO, have promoted the internationalisation of higher education. Increasing emphasis on…