La función de la educación superior en la sociedad del conocimiento europea

119 p.Libro ElectrónicoEn este libro presentamos los resultados de la investigación realizada por el equipo español del proyecto multi-disciplinario NESOR: Nuevos riesgos sociales en la sociedad del conocimiento europeo y la educación superior [New Social Risks in the European Knowledge society and Higher education. Este proyecto ha sido co-financiado por la Unión Europea dentro del programa Socrates.INDICE 0. Introducción 1 1. La función social de la educación superior: un marco conceptual 5 2. Educación superior en el modelo social de la sociedad del conocimiento europeo 15 3. La educación superior en los modelos sociales europeos: ¿mitigar riesgos sociales? 24 4. Similitudes y diferencias entre sistemas de educación euperior 34 4.1. La performance del aprendizaje 34 4.2. La educación superior en la construcción de la sociedad del conocimiento europea 39 4.3. Educación superior y nuevos riesgos sociales en la era del conocimiento 56 4.4. La dimensión europea y la internacionalización de la educación superior 73 5. Comentarios concluyentes 79 6. Anexo 86 7. Bibliografía 90 7.1. Publicaciones producidas por el proyecto NESOR 90 7.2. Bibliografía utilizada en el curso del proyecto NESOR 96Ilustración de la cubierta: La tregua de José Manuel Taboada Lopez (2011) Este libro contiene gráficas y cuadros relacionales

The relevance of university adult education for labour market policies

Lifelong learning plays a key role in labor market policies in the EU. In the context of the increasing rate of people with higher education and changes in markets for skilled jobs, universities have begun to engage in adult education and active labor market policies. The article presents the results of studies of unrepresentative cases of university adult education programs conducted in seven European countries with special focus on middle-aged people, who are increasingly vulnerable socially. One of the salient features of the case studies was the social effectiveness of university adult education programs from the point of view of access to jobs and the quality of work / life. The results of the case studies along with analysis of the results of other European projects permitted a continuous training scheme the essential dimensions of universities in adult education for socially effective

Multi-objective optimisation of bio-based thermal insulation materials in building envelopes considering condensation risk

The reduction in energy demand for heating and cooling with insulation materials increases the material related environmental impact. Thus, implementing low embodied energy materials may equilibrate this trade-off. Actual trends in passive house postulate bio-based materials as an alternative to conventional ones. Despite that, the implementation of those insulators should be carried out with a deeper analysis due to their hygroscopic properties. The moisture transfer, the associated condensation risk and the energy consumption for seven biobased materials and polyurethane for a building-like cubicle are analysed. The performance is evaluated combining a software application to model the cubicle (EnergyPlus) and a tool to optimize its performance (jEPlus). The novelty of this optimization approach is to include and evaluate the effects of moisture in these insulation materials, taking into account the mass transfer through the different layers and the evaporation of the different materials. This methodology helps optimise the insulation type and thickness verifying the condensation risk, preventing the deterioration of the materials. The total cost of the different solutions is quantified, and the environmental impact is determined using the life cycle assessment methodology. The effect of climate conditions and the envelope configuration, as well as the risk of condensation, are quantified. The results show that cost and environmental impact can be reduced if bio-based materials are used instead of conventional ones, especially in semiarid climates. Condensation risk occurs for large thicknesses and in humid climates. In our case studies, hemp offered the most balanced solution.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Government (CTQ2016-77968-C3-1-P, ENE2015-64117-C5-1-R, ENE2015-64117-C5-3-R, MINECO/FEDER, UE). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE). This project has received funding the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement No 657466 (INPATH-TES). This article has been possible with the support of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) (FJCI-2016-28789). Authors would like to acknowledge the Brazilian Government for their support by the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development). M.P. would like to thank the Brazilian Education Ministry for the financial support received under the PNPD/Capes fellowship. L.F.C. would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to her research group GREA (2014 SGR 123)

COOPERATION IN WORK-ORIENTED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The paper reports on preliminary findings from an EU funded project on collaboration and partnership between external stakeholders and universities to deliver work-related learning to adults with existing labour market experience in order to increase skills and competences for the knowledge economy as envisaged in Agenda 2020. The paper engages with debates on the professionalization of vocational education and consequently the vocationalisation of university education. It reports relevant data for the six partner countries of the LETAE project and EU averages to provide some context to debates about relative levels of attainment and labour market position. It briefly introduces some data drawn from cases studies of work-related learning in higher education delivered in partnership or collaboration with external stakeholders including local authorities, trade unions, and individual enterprises. Finally, it compares in detail the cases from the UK and Spain as illustrative of specific national responses to work-related learning initiatives

MILP models for objective reduction in multi-objective optimization: Error measurement considerations and non-redundancy ratio

A common approach in multi-objective optimization (MOO) consists of removing redundant objectives or reducing the set of objectives minimizing some metrics related with the loss of the dominance structure. In this paper, we comment some weakness related to the usual minimization of the maximum error (infinity norm or δ-error) and the convenience of using a norm 1 instead. Besides, a new model accounting for the minimum number of Pareto solutions that are lost when reducing objectives is provided, which helps to further describe the effects of the objective reduction in the system. A comparison of the performance of these algorithms and its usefulness in objective reduction against principal component analysis + Deb & Saxena's algorithm (Deb & Saxena Kumar, 2005) is provided, and the ability of combining it with a principal component analysis in order to reduce the dimensionality of a system is also studied and commented.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish “Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad” (CTQ2016-77968-C3-2-P, AEI/FEDER, UE)

Comparing biofuels through the lens of sustainability: A data envelopment analysis approach

Liquid biofuels can facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable transportation sector by curbing carbon emissions while maintaining most of the current vehicle fleet. Today, a myriad of alternatives are available to produce biofuels, where different decisions for the fuel type, blend, conversion process and carbon source will affect the final cost and environmental impact of the product. In this contribution, we analyze the performance of 72 different biofuels routes based on 12 indicators that cover the three sustainability dimensions: economic, environmental and social. The proposed multi-criteria approach combines Data Envelopment Analysis with Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate biofuels from a cradle-to-wheel perspective, that is, considering the production chain spanning from biomass production to the combustion of the biofuel in the engine. Results reveal that there are 35 biofuels routes performing better than the rest, with renewable diesel being a better option than ethanol-based blends or biodiesel, and waste biomass preferred over cellulosic biomass or bio-oils. The selection of the carbon source proofed to be the most important decision, highlighting the need to consider regional aspects related to soil and climate before promoting a certain biofuel. Overall, our results can help to derive effective policies for the adoption of biofuels attaining the best performance at minimum cost and environmental risks.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Self-consumption possibilities by rooftop PV and building retrofit requirements for a regional building stock: The case of Catalonia

European Union policies are encouraging the implementation of renewable energies to reduce fossil fuels dependency. This is further motivated by the effects of global warming and the relevant temperature rise in large cities. Thus, it is increasingly important to analyze the large-scale potential of solar energy, making use of the roof availability for renewable energy generation in cities. Furthermore, it is important to couple this analysis with the energy demand of the buildings analyzing the self-consumption possibilities and help in the decision-making process in regional investments. The proposed methodology estimates and matches the roof potential for electricity generation by PV and the building's energy demand, including the building characteristics as a novelty. As a result, we calculate the self-consumption possibilities and the retrofit requirements of a selected housing stock. Our methodology starts with the quantification and classification of the residential stock. This includes the characterization of the types of dwellings in the regional residential stock, taking into account the size of the municipalities. Then the energy demand of the dwellings, depending on the characteristics of the buildings and the roof generation potential, is compared. Catalonia region (Spain), including the city of Barcelona is studied to show the contributions of this methodology to the energy transition. Results indicate that between 8 and 30% of the residential electricity demand of the municipalities can be covered by rooftop PV. Important energy retrofits (reductions of 80% of the energy demand) are required to approach the feasibility of self-consumption. Nevertheless, there is a limited potential impact in larger cities due to the reduced available roof area per habitant.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Circular economy in the building and construction sector: A scientific evolution analysis

The building industry is responsible for considerable environmental impacts due to its consumption of resources and energy, and the production of wastes. Circular Economy (CE), a new paradigm can significantly improve the sustainability of this sector. This paper performs a quantitative scientific evolution analysis of the application of CE in the building sector to detect new trends and highlight the evolvement of this research topic. Around 7000 documents published 2005 to 2020 at Web of Science and Scopus were collected and analyzed. The bibliometric indicators, network citation, and multivariate statistical analysis were obtained using Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer. The co-occurrence analysis showed five keyword-clusters, in which the three main ones are: (i) energy and energy efficiency in buildings; (ii) recycling, waste management and alternative construction materials; (iii) sustainable development. The analysis showed that researchers pay close attention to 'sustainability', 'energy efficiency', 'life cycle assessment', 'renewable energy', and 'recycling' in the past five years. This paper highlights that (i) the development and use of alternative construction materials; (ii) the development of circular business models; (iii) smart cities, Industry 4.0 and their relations with CE, are the current research hotspots that may be considered as potential future research topics.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness RTI2018-093849-B-C33 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), RTI2018-093849-B-C31 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and CTQ2016-77968-C3-1-P (MINECO/FEDER) and thank the Catalan Government (2017-SGR-1409, 2017-SGR-1537, and 2019 FI-B-00762). This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme