SASICE: Safety and sustainability in civil engineering

The performance of the built environment and the construction sector are of major importance in Europe’s long term goals of sustainable development in a changing climate. At the same time, the quality of life of all European citizens needs to be improved and the safety of the built environment with respect to man-made and natural hazards, such as flooding and earthquakes, needs to be ensured. Education has a central role to play in the transformation of a construction sector required to meet increasing demands with regard to safety and sustainability. In this work, the SASICE project is presented. The aim of this project is to promote the integration of safety and sustainability in civil engineering education. The project is organised in the context of the Lifelong Learning Programme, funded by the European Community. The coordinator organisation is the University of Bologna. Nine partner universities from different countries are involved in this transnational project. The universities participating to the project constitute a network of high level competences in the civil engineering area, with several opportunities to improve lifelong learning adopting different media: joint curricula, teaching modules and professor and student exchanges. As a response to the challenge regarding new educational methods in sustainable engineering, teaching modules are developed in 4 thematic areas: (1) Safety in construction, (2) Risk induced by Natural Hazards Assessment, (3) Sustainability in construction, and (4) Sustainability at the territorial level. The development of the teaching modules is based on an extensive analysis of the need for highly qualified education on Safety and Sustainability involving all relevant stakeholders (European and national authorities, companies, research institutes, professional organizations, and universities).The main target is enabling students to introduce these advanced topics in their study plans and curricula and reach, at the end of their studies, a specific skill and expertise in safety and sustainability in Civil Engineering. With our natural resources fading away and our infrastructure in dire need of repair, new trends and challenges in civil engineering education in the concept of “Sustainable Development” are needed to be adressed.<br/

A New Direction in University. Teaching between Solidarity, Complexity and Media Education

At the time of an abundance of media o ers and the reduced prestige of the institutions, teaching became strategic to maintaining and rede ning the authority and professional recognition of teachers. It has therefore become advisable to activate a process of self-re ection on the part of universities on the dimensions of didactic innovation and new demands placed on university professors, starting from the reformulation of the mission of the University of the ird Millennium. Areas in need of consideration include: educating to educate (old and new trends in the mode of transmission of knowledge, considering the continuous access to the contents and the new media and cultural behaviours of the students); educating towards an interdisciplinary perspective; educating towards internationalization; educating for integration and solidarity; educating to divulge the results of scienti c research, national and global problems and evolutions in terms of technology and human value; educating with and about the digital media. All these dimensions are explored in the paper, with particular a ention given to the multiple dimensions of Media Literacy for university teachers with regard to overcoming physical, cultural and generational barriers between teachers and students and to up-to-date and democratize the quality university education

A changing world : the internationalisation experiences of staff and students, home and international, in UK higher education

This is a selection of internationalisation resources produced by ESCalate to support the project A Changing World: the internationalisation experiences of staff and students (home and international) in UK Higher Education. Fifteen focus groups were run with staff and with students, both home and international, to listen to their views on what internationalisation meant to them, how it had influenced teaching and learning, and what challenges and successes they had experienced. Participants came from a range of disciplines and from across the UK. Staff in particular showed great awareness of the issues surrounding internationalisation with an appreciation of some of the complexities. Topics raised by participants included recruitment strategies, entry requirements for non-native speakers, PMI, fees, the British degree, higher education institutions (HEIs) competition for students in the global marketplace, and internationalising the curriculum. Staff and students described various techniques and strategies for creating inclusive learning environments. Many said how students and staff from across the world had enriched their lives, both personally and professionally. Staff discussed the difficulties of meeting the needs of culturally diverse groups, and both students and staff talked about how far we still have to go in encouraging some students to break out of their familiar cultural groups to socialise cross-culturally. Home students were the hardest group to recruit for this project. Given that they have so much to gain from learning in a culturally diverse environment it is suggested that more work needs to be done in the research area of Internationalisation at Home (Teekens, 2006, Joris, van den Berg &amp;amp; van Ryssen, 2003), and within institutions, to engage not only staff but also home students so that all students and staff can gain maximum benefit from the changing higher education landscape. A Changing World: the internationalisation experiences of staff and students (home and international) in UK Higher Education is a report produced by ESCalate and LLAS, that is made available as a PDF file of some 40 page

Examining barriers to internationalisation created by diverse systems and structures in vocational education and training

In a global society, all educational sectors need to recognise internationalism as a core, foundational principle. Whilst most educational sectors are taking up that challenge, vocational education and training (VET) is still being pulled towards the national agenda in terms of its structures and systems, and the policies driving it, disadvantaging those who graduate from VET, those who teach in it, and the businesses and countries that connect with it. This paper poses questions about the future of internationalisation in the sector. It examines whether there is a way to create a VET system that meets its primary point of value, to produce skilled workers for the local labour market, while still benefitting those graduates by providing international skills and knowledge, gained from VET institutions that are international in their outlook. The paper examines some of the key barriers created by systems and structures in VET to internationalisation and suggests that the efforts which have been made to address the problem have had limited success. It suggests that only a model which gives freedom to those with a direct vested interest, students, teachers, trainers and employers, to pursue international co-operation and liaison will have the opportunity to succeed

Preparing MIS Students for a Global Economy

Most Management Information Systems (MIS) careers in the future are likely to involve systems that operate internationally. Systems will be globally integrated, and many of today\u27s students will have opportunities to participate in projects in other countries. Even those who remain in one country throughout their careers, however, will need to be aware of the differences in language and culture between areas of the world. The MIS curriculum is already overcrowded, so it is difficult for developers to include sufficient international content. This paper describes some techniques for embedding international content within existing courses in contrast to treating international information systems as a separate topic

Internationalizing Geography in Higher Education: Initiatives of the Association of American Geographers

L'ensenyament global implica uns aprenentatges sobre problemes i temes que creuen les fronteres nacionals així com interconnecten diversos sistemes ?culturals, ecològics, econòmics, polítics i tecnològics. L'ensenyament global també suposa aprendre a entendre i apreciar als nostres veïns que tenen un rerefons cultural diferent al nostre; a veure el món utilitzant els ulls i els pensaments dels altres; i entendre que les altres persones del món necessiten i volen el mateix que nosaltres.La enseñanza global implica unos aprendizajes sobre problemas y temas que cruzan las fronteras nacionales así como interconectan diversos sistemas ?culturales, ecológicos, económicos, políticos y tecnológicos. La enseñanza global también suponr aprender a entender y apreciar a nuestros vecinos que tienen un trasfondo cultural diferente al nuestro; a ver el mundo utilizando los ojos y los pensamientos de los otros; y entender que las otras personas del mundo necesitan y quieren lo mismo que nosotros.Global education involves learning about those problems and issues which cut across national boundaries and about the inter-connectedness of systems ? cultural, ecological, economic, political, and technological. Global education also involves learning to understand and appreciate our neighbors who have different cultural backgrounds from ours; to see the world through the eyes and minds of others; and to realize that other people of the world need and want much the same things

The realities of postmodern internationalization: The experience of the ukrainian vocational education

The topical problems of increasing country's competitiveness considering world experience should be solved only in accordance with modern requirements of rapidly changing information society, where competitive advantages largely depend on the quality of human resources and investments in human capital. The article describes the practical aspects of the development of internationalization of vocational education in Ukraine on the experience of Berdyansk State Pedagogical University; clarifies the current opportunities for improving the quality of education in the light of international practice on the example of the Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla (Mexico), and identifies the ways to realize the potential of partnership in vocational education in Ukraine. The experience of Ukraine, Poland and Mexico, where the main condition for integration into the global university of knowledge is the quality of higher education institutions in accordance with international standards of curricula, has been analyzed. The practical experience of international scientific activities of Berdyansk State Pedagogical University and Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla is described. The article concludes about the effectiveness of international cooperation in science, which&nbsp;determines the status and prestige of the university, examines the European integration process of higher education system of Ukraine and the existing international training technologies