HERC participates in new EC Project, Opening Higher Education to Adults (HEAD)

A new EC supported project- HEAD (Opening Higher Education to Adults) was launched in Berlin in February 2012. This project is led by the German Institute for Adult Education, Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning and the Department Higher Education Research at the Institute for Educational Science, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin with HERC as one of three major partners from 14 participating countries. The overall objective of the project is to investigate the extent of adult participation in higher education with a view to feeding in to policy and practice. The project will scope the area, extend the available knowledge on provision for adults in higher education in order to assist the European Commission to plan future activities to open higher education to those who have not been previously engaged.

This study will assess:
•    the important factors that facilitate or inhibit the participation of adults in higher education
•    models from higher education institutions (HEIs) in European countries which are engaged in adult education
•    types of flexible learning, including open and distance learning which are conducive for good adult learner performance,
•    examples of good practice, from selected European and non-European countries

Professor Maria Slowey, Director of HERC is one of three external members of the Advisory Board with particular responsibility for Internationalisation. With Professor Slowey, Dr Ekaterina Kozina, Postdoctoral Researcher in HERC will be responsible for the North-West European regional studies and for conducting a case study in Russia.