There is an urgent need to address the social dimension of higher education more forcefully and coherently, particularly in view of the economic downturn across Europe. This is the conclusion of the new Eurydice report, which looks at national policies on access to higher education, funding and student support. The report, covering eu Member States, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey, suggests that countries are struggling to adapt their higher education systems to meet the challenges brought about by rapid societal change in recent years. In particular, they need to open up opportunities for more people to benefit from higher education, matching this objective with coherent measures, funding and monitoring to evaluate their impact. European leaders have agreed a headline target that 40% of 30-34 year olds should have a higher education qualification by 2020--an increase from just over 33% today. The study focuses on three key topics: policies to widen participation in higher education; funding trends; and the impact of student fee and support systems. It reveals that approaches to meet shared European objectives vary greatly between countries and have different impacts on the performance of higher education. For example, there seems to be an East-West divide regarding routes to higher education for non-traditional candidates such as adult learners and people entering university on the basis of skills gained in the workplace rather than school qualifications. The report highlights changes in higher education spending in response to the crisis. Over the past academic year (2010/11 compared to 2009/10) budgets were most increased in Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Austria, France, Finland and Malta, while the deepest cuts were made in Greece, Ireland, Iceland, (8-10% decrease), as well as in Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (up to 3% decrease). A glossary is included. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 26 figures.).

This report examines the EU's contribution to the modernisation of European higher education, including the role of the separate Bologna Process. It calls on the Government to overcome the UK's lack of mobility culture, including by making language learning compulsory in primary and secondary schools. Coupled with financial, socioeconomic and cultural barriers, the Social Policies and Consumer Protection EU Sub-Committee warns that the UK's future participation in mobility programmes, such as the EU's Erasmus scheme, cannot be assured. The Committee also calls on the Government to ensure the continuation of the domestic Erasmus fee waiver scheme and support the proposed development of the EU Masters-level student loan guarantee facility. Both of these measures will help more students, and those who are disadvantaged in particular. Other recommendations made by the Committee include: encouraging the Government and universities to take full advantage of the opportunities provided through engagement with the EU and Bologna Process, including greater university-business collaboration and widening participation; allocating a bigger proportion of EU funds to research, innovation and education in order to assist the EU's long-term economic recovery; encouraging the Government to "remain vigilant" about retaining the UK's higher education sector's competitive position as a destination of choice for many students from other parts of Europe and beyond, particularly following the increase in tuition fees; and not making the Commission's proposal for the introduction of the new university ranking system, U-Multirank, a priority.

The higher education landscape is undergoing significant change as a result of technological innovations. We are witnessing changes in the way higher education is taught and in the way students learn. While the conventional setting of the lecture hall will continue to form the bedrock of higher education systems, it will be enhanced by the integration of new tools and pedagogies, and it will be complemented by many more online learning opportunities and a greater variety of providers in higher education. These new technologies and approaches to education are already having a clear and positive impact on higher education provision. They can support efforts within the Bologna Process and the European Union Modernisation Agenda to enhance the quality and extend the reach of higher education across Europe. And they are already starting to facilitate better quality learning and teaching for both on-campus and online provision, as educational resources from around the globe become more freely accessible and more interactive media for learning are employed. Methods of teaching can be better tailored to individual students' needs and advances in learning analytics are enabling quicker feedback on students' performance.

"With this report, we put quality of teaching and learning centre stage and show examples that can be applied elsewhere. To us it seems research as one important mission of higher education has often overshadowed the other core mission of higher education: teaching and learning."--Page 7.

On the occasion of Mary Henkel’s seventieth birthday a group of her colleagues have come together to write this volume of articles as a tribute to her work and a token of gratitude for contributions to higher education research. The authors analyse these developments leading up to and possibly beyond the present in a tribute to Mary Henkel’s work using her birthday as an occasion to focus attention on her contributions to higher education research – something she would normally seek to avoid. This book is also a contribute to understanding how research in higher education has developed since its origins as Mary Henkel was one of its founding scholars together with other well-known researchers such as Maurice Kogan, Guy Neave, Ulrich Teichler, Martin Trow, Burton Clark, etc. The book will be useful to all researchers in areas related to higher education, namely governance, academic work, academic identities and quality.

The book sets out to offer a national perspective on the complex changes occurring in European higher education systems. The Lisbon European Council (2000) set an ambitious target for the Union to become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world" with important ramifications for higher education systems and institutions, because of the key role they play in driving innovation and producing knowledge. How this objective at the European Union (EU) level has been understood and implemented at Member State level will be the focus of this book. Higher education in several countries is at a crossroads, at both macro (system structure) and micro (institutional) levels. Several EU Member States have already embarked on major reforms pertaining to organisational and structural issues (Germany, 2005-2007; Finland, 2010; France, 2008; Ireland, 2011). A striking feature is the number of reforms happening across Europe, as well as the use of common priorities and policies within European countries' reform agendas, including differentiation. The system level will be the primary angle for an in-depth study of documentary evidence for preserving a diversity of higher education institutions and the latter's implications for the organisation of the Irish higher education system. However, the institutional level cannot be disassociated from the system level, of which it is an inherent part. Higher education institutions are the building blocks of a higher education system and therefore this study will examine the perspectives of both policy-makers and institutional representatives. The evidence provided indicates that the centre of gravity of decision-making in relation to higher education policy is shifting and can no longer be understood without looking to the European Commission's "modernisation" agenda for higher education, and to research funding opportunities under the current Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (Horizon 2020): both crucial tools for working towards achieving the Europe 2020 goals.