RHEA
[Redesigning of Higher Education and Academy]
-a Series of Conferences at the University of Gdańsk
This initiative of the University of Gdańsk is to assist in attaining academic objectives and contribute to the development of the University. The full name of the initiative is: RHEA (Redesigning of Higher Education and Academy).
Lets us start the information about the conferences with a brief reference to the ancient times. Rea (or Latin: Rhea) is a mythological Titanide, mother of gods, inter alia, Zeus and Hera, the so called “Great Mother”.
The acronym referring to her name links the title of the initiative with its objectives and the expected results. As it is about enabling a certain birth. Maybe RHEA, as a series of conferences, will be a solution and – supporting dealing with the everyday problems of academic life – will both produce generalities in thinking about higher education in the years to come and set directions for the development of education at the University of Gdańsk and other schools of higher education.
RHEA conferences are to provide an opportunity for creative redesigning of the existing reality and to contribute to creating such conditions of work for academic staff and students in which both groups will be able to develop freely, serving people (as the oath they take says) wherever they are.
This pointing out to the place is not insignificant in describing the objectives of RHEA conferences. It can constitute a kind of direct reference to the Bologna Process and the idea of learning without borders it implements; borders of any kind – cultural, age, economic, social or geographical.
According to the directions set Bologna, within RHEA conferences we want to enable coherent and fruitful scientific research and educational work of our academics and fully satisfactory, promising in terms of future, learning of our students in Europe. We want to make their development plans realistic and their dreams come true. We want to create a learning academic community.
Its European dimension is reflected by one of the powerful slogans of the Bologna Process: European Higher Education Area.
The tasks described here are also dealt with by the Polish Bologna Experts Team [1], which supports Polish academic community and – inter alia, through RHEA conferences, in cooperation with the University of Gdańsk – performs its functions.
They concentrate on providing conditions in which the quality of life of the Europeans – through all their lives long – will be able to improve due to education, and the borders between the countries eliminated by the system of studies will make studying a really independent, long-lasting, wonderful intellectual adventure.
RHEA conferences involve academic staff (research-teaching employees of various Polish schools of higher education, form the University of Gdańsk, in particular) and visitors – in the role of experts, discussion participants and speakers – invited, depending on the subject matter of the conference, from Poland and abroad. They started from the debate about the problems at the meeting point of school and academic education, participated by the Minister of Education -Katarzyna Hall and GraŜyna Prawelska-Skrzypek (Ministry of Science and Higher Education).
[1] Teams of Bologna Experts appointed in individual countries by the minister responsible for higher education. With the funds allocated by the European Commission under the programme “Lifelong learning” they promote the solutions developed under the Bologna Process and help introduce them to programme and structural solutions in national higher educational systems. Foundation for the Development of Educational System, playing the role of National Agency for “Lifelong learning” programme, is an organizational support for the Polish Team of Bologna Experts. All the conferences of RHEA series are co-organized by that Foundation and the University of Gdańsk and have the status of the conferences approved by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the so called Bologna Conferences.
The themes of the seven RHEA conferences held so far:
I. “School and Academic Education in Poland. Flexibility and Rigidity of the Educational System in the
Light of Lifelong Learning and Availability of Higher Education”, 28 November, 2008
II. “Significance of Internal Quality Assurance Systems in the Light of New Approach to Accrediting
Study Programmes”, 13 March 2009.
III. “Effects of Learning – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education in Poland”, 26 June 2009
IV. “History of Life Is a History of Learning. Open University and Non-Traditional Students in Polish
Higher Education System”, 11 December 2009.
V. “EducationalObligations of University in a Society without Elites”, 25 June 2010
VI. “Problem Based Learning(PBL) vs. Qualifications Framework”, 25 March 2011
VII. “ Recognition of prior learning and validation of non-formal and informal learning.
A challenge for polish higer education system” , 9 December 2011
The international speakers included, inter alia: professor Håkan Hult (Linköping University, Sweden), professor Pierre Dominicé (University of Geneva, Switzerland), Ülle Kesli (University of Tartu, Estonia), Peter Lassey, PhD (University of Bradford, UK), Jean-Marie Filloque, PhD, (University of West Britany –Brest, France)
Ostatnio modyfikowane:
20.12.2011
