ESU’s projects: Concluding 2012 and continuing in 2013

BRUSSELS – This year has been eventful in terms of project activities in ESU. The three main projects; FinSt, QUEST and SAGE, have kept the organisation busy, with five major events taking place throughout the year.

FinSt

A training seminar on the financing higher education (FinSt) arranged in April contributed to the capacity building of national unions of students as well as to a tool-kit for the use of the NUSes. FinSt will be coming to an end in the beginning of 2013. The final conference will take place in January, where the results of the three year long project and a new publication will be distributed.

SAGE
SAGE, or Student Advancement of Graduates’ Employability, is a project that looks into different aspects that contribute to the employability of graduates and the initiatives on employability that are led by the European Union; resulting in the EU2020 Student Review, Study on Employability and a Handbook by 2014. A launching events and a consultation seminar took place in 2012 gathering inputs from the national unions to develop the project further. A survey will be launched in the beginning of 2013 along with a training taking place in April in Hungary, to continue the SAGE project.

QUEST
QUEST, short for Quest for Quality for Students, concluded the year with a consultation seminar arranged in Valletta, Malta (that you can read more about here). In the end of November students’ representatives from all over Europe, policy makers and experts gathered to discuss developments in the area of higher education and quality assurance. The participants discussed the first outcomes of the project that aims at developing a student-based concept for quality of higher education. The event turned out to be a great success providing the possibility to stakeholders to exchange their views on the topic. In 2013, the focus of QUEST will be on developing a website on quality assurance and students’ involvement in the process. The project’s results will also be wrapped up and presented to students, as will be described in further detail in the upcoming publication called the ‘Quality Handbook’.

From a roundtable meeting organised on the SAGE project.

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For more information, please contact:

Taina Moisander, ESU Vice-chairperson: +32/479.591.499 // taina@esu-online.org or Robert Hlynur Baldursson, ESU Communications Manager: +32/473.669.894 // robert@esu-online.org