Information about the Partner 

EURASHE is the European association of Higher Education Institutions that offer professionally oriented programs and are engaged in applied and profession-related research within the Bologna cycles’. Currently, more than 1200 higher education institutions are affiliated to EURASHE. EURASHE is present in a great number of countries within and outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), mostly through National Associations of Higher Education Institutions and individual institutions (HEIs), such as Universities, (University) Colleges and Universities of Applied Sciences, as well as through other professional associations and stakeholder organizations active in the field of higher education. EURASHE’s mission is to represent the views of professionally oriented institutions and programmes in the Higher Education systems in EHEA countries, whether these are binary (professional or vocational higher education) or unitary ‘university’ systems, professional and/or academic; to promote the interests of professional higher education in the EHEA and to contribute to the progressive development of the Area of Higher Education and Research (EHERA), and to continuously enhance the importance and the quality of professional higher education in Europe. In addition to offering professionally oriented programmes, EURASHE members are specifically engaged in applied and profession-related research, and its technological applications.
Seven of the ten national associations, members of EURASHE (Danish Rectors’ Conference – University Colleges Denmark, Estonian Rectors’ Conference, Association of Directors of University Institutes of Technology, Portuguese Coordinating Council for Poly-technical Institutions, Lithuanian Colleges Directors’ Conference, Flemish Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, Institutes of Technology Ireland) are now part of the informal UASNet, after signing a memorandum of cooperation in 2010.

Why did we join the IDEAS project

As an umbrella organisation representing higher education institutions from across the European Higher Education area, social dimension is one of our core responsabilities. We see this project as a great way to identify the best examples of supporting equity in higher education and further on reah higher visibility of those. This will indeed boost the multiplication of these results, empowering institutions across the continent to carry on those examples and further stimulate equity.
EURASHE is as well a member of the working group on social dimension and lifelong learning of the Bologna Follow-up Group.

Our role in the project

EURASHE as umbrella representative organisation of higher education institutions that offers professional programmes, will take the lead in managing the first part of the project – work package 1. In this step, EURASHE will cordinate the collection of case studies, general analyses of the collected material and ensure and equal European representation as well as involvement of a wide range of under-represented groups in the case studies.
In the later stage, EURASHE will as a partner join the expert group in deciding on the strongest cases, evaluate the grids, and further on take a strong role in dissemination and promotion of projects in various European countries. Our strong link with Institutions across Europe will be of a big value for disseminating the results and giving visibility to the best case examples discovered throughout the project.

Our project team

Stefan Delplace became the Secretary General of EURASHE (European Association of Institutions in Higher Education) in 2004, which he represents in the Bologna Follow up Group and several of its working and coordination groups, such as of the ‘Transparency tools”, “International Openness of the Bologna Process”. Mr Delplace is currently one of the main participants of EURASHE Working Groups on National Qualification Frameworks; Mobility; Quality Assurance and Transparency Tool; Internal decision making, political coordination and organisational development which aim at monitoring, execution and implementation of the work programme under all 7 EURASHE Priorities. He is also the representative of EURASHE in the ‘E4’ Group (with ENQA, EUA, ESU), which received mandates from the ‘Bologna ministers’ to harmonise Quality Assurance through the creation of European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance, and has been a member of various Advisory and Expert groups of the European Commission and of stakeholders organizations in higher education (Cooperation with Enterprises, Innovation, the construction of the Integrated Lifelong Learning Programme, and the reform of the Jean Monnet programme, and the AHELO project of OECD). Stefan Delplace has invaluable expertise of managing projects in the field of HE. He has also been involved in the evaluation of projects in both the Tempus and Socrates programmes. Mr. Delplace is a graduate of the University of Ghent (Languages and Business studies), and spent some time teaching (in-service training for companies, continuous education). He has run an international office of a University College for over 15 years, before specializing in policy towards and activities with partner countries of the EU (Tempus-Tacis & MEDA), and more recently in the implementation of the Bologna Process. Mr. Delplace is fluent in French, Dutch, English and German.

Marko Grdošić is the Project Manager at EURASHE coordinating running projects as well as working on funding of future ones. He is following the thematic agenda of Lifelong Learning and Employability and supports the external representation of the Association, as well as assisting the EURASHE Secretary General in drafting of policy documents and statements. Marko as well coordinates the main events and conferences organised by EURASHE.
Previously, Marko was the President of the European Students’ Forum / AEGEE-Europe representing voice of students towards the main European and international institutions. His experience is based on development of policies and lobbying for student rights, particularly in the field of active citizenship, youth participation, human rights and education with a focus on non-formal learning. Marko obtained the bachelor degree in Finances and Audit from the University of Zagreb, after which he moved to Stockholm, Sweden for the Masters’ in Macroeconomics, Economic development in particular.