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Erasmus mobility has become an important feature of higher education in Europe and beyond, with the potential to generate significant changes at individual, institutional and systemic levels. More than three decades after the foundation of this successful program, evaluations reveal that, despite notable progress, several aspects of the Erasmus student experience can be further improved. Based on the lived experiences of Erasmus alumni, in this article, we explore recurrent challenges that emerge in educational mobility and how they could be better addressed. Three key dimensions are identified in the qualitative accounts of former Erasmus students and analyzed in light of previous research: mobility preparation, institutional support for integration, and recognition of study abroad.

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

Invasive plant species can impede the establishment and growth of native plants and affect several ecosystem properties. These properties include soil cover, nutrient cycling, fire regimes, and hydrology. Controlling invasive plants is therefore a necessary, but usually expensive, step in restoring an ecosystem. The sustainability of materials with an emphasis on the use of local resources plays an important role in the circular economy. The use of alternative fibers from invasive plants promotes local production in smaller paper mills that offer the protection of local species and the reduction of waste and invasive plants. A synthesis of the literature is needed to understand the various impacts of invasive plants and their practical control in the context of papermaking applications and to identify associated knowledge gaps. To improve our understanding of the practical application of invasive species in the paper industry, we reviewed the existing literature on invasive plant species in the area of fiber production, printability, coating solution production, dyes, and extracts, and collected information on the major invasive plant species in Europe and the methods used for various applications.

Adapting teacher education programs to societal changes is a current issue, especially when viewed through the European frameworks driving transformative reforms. The paper reports how European frameworks and other initiatives in higher education and teacher education aim to support the transformation of teacher education programmes. Multiple European-level interventions have engendered shifts in the conceptual understanding and orientation of initial teacher education programmes across numerous contexts within Europe. The purpose of this paper was to examine the shift of teacher education programmes into competence-based in Kosovo, the youngest country in Europe, in the context of European frameworks as an impetus for transition. This qualitative research is a part of a broader study that involves analysing study programmes, conducting interviews with teacher educators and management staff, and holding focus groups with student-teachers. The goal is to explore the path of contextualizing European-inspired programme reforms in more detail. The findings show that Kosovo is shifting to a competence-based approach to align with EU integration, incorporating European principles for programme improvement. However, the study reveals a notable focus on maintaining programmes' tradition. This leads to tensions and contradictions regarding programme tradition, EU integration goals, and actual implementation.The results provide valuable insights into the significance of educational context and the tacit knowledge of teacher educators and other stakeholders during programme reforms within the context of European initiatives.

The importance of enhancing social and emotional skills in educational settings has gained prominence, with many countries and organizations embracing the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework to equip individuals with the tools needed for shaping a self-identity, emotional regulation, goal achievement, empathy, nurturing relationships, and responsible decision-making and overall well-being. In this paper, we aim to connect the globally acknowledged Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning SEL framework with international policies that underscore the importance of social and emotional skills in the school context. To accomplish this goal, we first provide a brief overview of the key components of the SEL framework. Subsequently, we explore two significant educational policies within the European context. The first policy is the World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools initiative. We present its objectives, a WHO-affiliated program example, the promoted and assessed competencies of students, and its results, connecting its framework with the CASEL SEL approach. The second focus is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Study on Social and Emotional Skills, describing its developmental process and the assessment framework. Finally, we describe the alignment of SEL with these European educational policies and illustrate their role in advancing and improving the evaluation of SEL initiatives in educational environments.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing literature concerning the domains of accreditation and quality assurance in various sectors. Accreditation and quality assurance play vital roles in ensuring the credibility, transparency, and effectiveness of educational institutions, healthcare facilities, industries, and other domains. This paper synthesizes the findings of numerous studies, focusing on the conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and outcomes associated with accreditation and quality assurance processes. The review encompasses a wide range of perspectives, including historical context, best practices, challenges, and advancements in accreditation and quality assurance. Through a systematic analysis of these scholarly works, this paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of accreditation and quality assurance across diverse sectors and shed light on potential future research directions.

The Bologna Process represents the most significant extensive reform of higher education in Europe. The particular aspects of the Bologna Process still incite critical evaluations as regards the successfulness of its implementation. The theoretical part of the paper analyzes the fundamental principles defined in the Bologna Declaration, requirements and critical views of the Bologna Process, as well as the relevant research conducted on this issue used for the comparative analysis. The introduction of the Bologna Process into the Serbian university education has initiated numerous changes, the increase of the student mobility being the most striking one. The empirical part of the paper focuses on the study of the following problem: the manner in which students of social sciences and humanities perceive the Bologna Process fifteen years after its implementation into the Serbian university education. Consequently, the subject matter of the research is the observation and description of students' attitudes to this phenomenon with the purpose of acquiring relevant information "firsthand." The achievable objective of the presented research reviews the context and condition of the Bologna Process during 2019/2020 academic year and its feasible improvements, which can contribute to comparative study of similar researches in the time of the pandemics. The specific research tasks include the study of the Bologna requirements, attitudes to the Bologna Process, benefits and restrictions of this reform, and particularly the attempt to suggest the improvement of the Bologna Process realization from the perspective of students of social sciences and humanities. The research sample consisted of the Bachelor students of social sciences and humanities from the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš (N=150). The survey technique and the scaling technique with a rating scale questionnaire were used (BOL-JM-JOZ). The questionnaire had five closed-ended questions, while the Likert scale was comprised of 23 items. The test of the instrument consistency proved its reliability. The obtained results were shown by the chi square test, which proved a statistically significant difference in the respondents' answers as regards the year of study, p<0.05. The main factors were extracted from the assessment scale by the application of the factor analysis. These factors examined the students' perceptions of the Bologna Process, comparing the answers provided by the students of the first, second, third and fourth year of study of social sciences and humanities, p<0.05.

Applying qualitative methods, this paper examines the burgeoning of quality assurance databases, processes and networks of actors in the field of higher education in Europe. Our main argument is that there has been a move from the Bologna Process being the near singular focus for European-level coordination and harmonisation of higher education, towards the making of a much more diverse and complex quality assurance and evaluation infrastructure. This infrastructure involves a range of distinct but interdependent actors and processes and contains explicit and implicit interlinkages with the production of wider policy agendas, such as the rise of the European Education Area. The aim of this paper is to analyse the growth and complexity of Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education (HE) in Europe, as a way of understanding the multifaceted and continuously developing process of Europeanisation.

This paper analyses the role of libraries in the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) and, more specifically, the impact and level of implementation of UNESCO's (2019) OER Recommendation in Higher Education libraries. This study, the result of a joint undertaking between a national R&D project and SPARC Europe, is based on an online survey, disseminated amongst the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL) and uses a descriptive research methodology. The results highlight the implementation actions being taken by university libraries (n = 136) in each of the five areas of action of UNESCO's Recommendation. We find that the main contributions are being made in the areas of capacity building and Open Education policies, but that considerable work has yet to be done in terms of promoting inclusiveness and the sustainability of OER. Thus, the full implementation of UNESCO's recommendation requires a greater commitment on the part of librarians to joint actions undertaken via international networks and projects, as well as greater institutional commitment and the building of interdepartmental alliances.

This paper analyses the potential of micro-credentials in adult education through upcoming EU policies and initiatives, bearing in mind the increasing use of online learning platforms globally. Understanding national and international approaches to micro-credentials allows undergraduate programmes and teaching practices to flourish in economically less developed countries. The Republic of Serbia welcomes new approaches in the search for acceptable models of distance learning and equality in the labour market.

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

In this paper, we present an activity to introduce the idea of public-key cryptography and to make pre-service STEM teachers explore fundamental informatics and mathematical concepts and methods. We follow the Theory of Didactical Situations within the Didactical Engineering methodology (both widely used in mathematics education research) to design and analyse a didactical situation about asymmetric cryptography using graphs. Following the phases of Didactical Engineering, after the preliminary analysis of the content, the constraints and conditions of the teaching context, we conceived and analysed the situation a priori, with a particular focus on the milieu (the set of elements students can interact with) and on the choices for the didactical variables. We discuss their impact on the problem-solving strategies the participants need to elaborate to decrypt an encrypted message. We implemented our situation and collected qualitative data. We then analysed a posteriori the different strategies that participants used. The comparison of the a posteriori analysis with the a priori analysis showed the learning potential of the activity. To elaborate on different problem-solving strategies, the participants need to explore and understand several concepts and methods from mathematics, informatics, and the frontier of the two disciplines, also moving between different semiotic registers.

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components of this interplay, and a special attention is given to the use of arts to promoting creativity and meaningful learning. We then propose the Empowering Creative Education Model (ECEM), which aims to provide a practical framework for employing artistic tools in each of the model's four developmental circles: I, Us, Educational and Community. Each of the four circles includes unique aspects of personal development.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has been suggested as a potentially beneficial addition to modern doctoral education. However, there is little research outlining the specificities of WIL aimed at PhD students. This paper explores the range of WIL opportunities available to PhD students through a review of secondary data. The findings indicate that WIL opportunities are non-homogenous and vary widely across their structure and implementation. Patterns emerge to indicate that WIL opportunities tend to be optional, paid, short-term, focused on horizontal learning development, and provide opportunities for boundary crossing outside of academia. These findings imply that WIL has the potential to complement doctoral education by providing opportunities to experience cross-sector or cross-discipline learning and development. However, higher education institutes might consider becoming more involved in the design and implementation of WIL for PhD students. Additional research is required to understand how WIL opportunities fit into doctoral education and to evaluate existing WIL opportunities.

Governments, businesses, and educational institutions need to collaborate and make significant investments in order to address the growing digital skills crisis. In Europe, hundreds of digital skills initiatives have been launched with different forms of government and private industry support in the last five years alone. Consequently, digital skills initiatives have come to encompass a wide array of interventions. In this context, this paper proposes a typology of digital skills initiatives that was developed based on the analysis of over 300 initiatives listed in the European Commission's repository of best digital skills initiatives. The proposed typology consists of four categories: target group, digital skills, learning format, and sponsoring organization. In terms of target group, digital skills initiatives tend to target one or more of five distinct groups: the general public, educators, adults, seniors and youth. In terms of digital skills, digital skills initiatives tend to focus on general digital skills or specialized digital skills. In terms of learning format, digital skills initiatives tend to offer training and/or a learning resource. In terms of sponsoring organization, the initiatives tend to be sponsored by organizations that are either affiliated or unaffiliated with a technology vendor. The typology is followed by a presentation of mini cases, which highlight different archetypes of the proposed typology. The paper closes with a discussion of practical implications for policy makers, administrators, and scholars interested in digital skills initiatives and the future of work.

Invasive plant species can impede the establishment and growth of native plants and affect several ecosystem properties. These properties include soil cover, nutrient cycling, fire regimes, and hydrology. Controlling invasive plants is therefore a necessary, but usually expensive, step in restoring an ecosystem. The sustainability of materials with an emphasis on the use of local resources plays an important role in the circular economy. The use of alternative fibers from invasive plants promotes local production in smaller paper mills that offer the protection of local species and the reduction of waste and invasive plants. A synthesis of the literature is needed to understand the various impacts of invasive plants and their practical control in the context of papermaking applications and to identify associated knowledge gaps. To improve our understanding of the practical application of invasive species in the paper industry, we reviewed the existing literature on invasive plant species in the area of fiber production, printability, coating solution production, dyes, and extracts, and collected information on the major invasive plant species in Europe and the methods used for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was inspired by empirical encounters with students and teacher-administrators who engaged with an online European education initiative, which raised questions about whether and how their practices were situated as local, transnational, or national(ist) endeavors. The conceptual, theoretical, and methodological resources of social topology and critical border studies guided our inquiry by a focus on bordering practices and how these generate spatiotemporal forms and movements, and evoked a "typical national form" which is characterized as a singular, stable, linear, and flat "topography." An innovative methodology is deployed to scrutinize how practices with this online, European initiative continue, challenge or complement that typical national form. The findings demonstrate how the use of topographical indexes and tropes (re-)materialized characteristics of these typical national forms, while the combination with topological relations introduced multiplicities and "levels" in these forms. Moreover, spherical forms, bouncing movements, and tunneling movements challenged the singularity, stability, linearity, and flatness of the typical national form. Building on these findings, the paper sets forth the argument that this online European education initiative mainly challenges the enactment of nationalism in classrooms by encouraging learning and thinking through "translocalities," which accentuates distances and differences that are being crossed without appealing to the typical imaginary of the "nation" with linear, stable, flat borders.

This research was carried out to add to the current literature on learning styles by explaining various understandings of the topic and the previous research on it. Studies and information on learning styles and strategies are abundant, and the need for more research stems from the recent move towards student-centered classes. This paper is an attempt to do more specific research on the subject and answer the question of what the correlations are between learning styles and different factors such as gender and learner's cultural background. This study was conducted at the University of Nottingham. Seventy students have participated in the survey, 34 males and 36 females. The participants' nationalities were mixed, which was essential for the study; Kurdish (20%), British (40%), European States (10%) and Asian (17.1%). The questionnaire results were analysed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software. Frequency tests, Correlation analysis, T-Tests, and One-way ANOVA test of the available data were studied. The findings show that Kurdish learners are auditory learners compared to other nationalities. Also, the study showed that language learners are more visually inclined learners than learners from the other majors. Finally, future researchers may expand on the findings of this paper by getting a larger sample.

This paper analyzes the key determinants of the quality of preschool education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on the analysis of recent data, the paper indicates the status and development trends in this regard in the last decade. Although preschool education in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a long tradition, it is facing a number of challenges, mostly arising from the arrangement of the state system and post-war transition processes which have significantly impoverished this level of education. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to point out the recent public policy efforts made in the attempt to ensure the quality of preschool education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the effects that are being achieved in this regard. Since quality can be approached from the aspects of structure and process, the elementary structural and process dimensions of preschool education will be taken as units of this analysis. Conceptualizing the results of this analysis, the status and quality of preschool education in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be positioned through an orientation towards the European framework for the quality and development trends of preschool education in Europe.

Drawing on communities of practice and social cognitive learning theories, this paper explores language teachers' beliefs, knowledge and practices concerning the provision of high-quality education to learners with specific learning difficulties in various educational settings around the world. The data sample for this paper comprises qualitative data (videorecorded interviews and teaching resources) collected from six teachers working across various educational settings (primary, secondary, college and university) across several geographical areas (Europe, Middle East, and Southeast Asia). Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data. The findings suggest that teachers continue to experience challenges in educating learners with specific learning difficulties regardless of the educational setting. Limited opportunities for receiving specialised training in this area have been identified by several teachers as one of the key factors affecting the quality of their practice. The change in the mode of instruction from face-to-face to online was not always reported as negatively affecting the quality of educational provision to learners with specific learning difficulties. Technology-assisted online lesson delivery was seen as being advantageous to learners with some types of learning difficulties. Findings from this paper can be useful to teacher-practitioners and teacher-educators who are interested in improving the quality of language education for learners with specific learning difficulties.

Since the mid 1990s vocational and education and training systems across Europe have had to respond to a number of external factors which have transformed the demand for skills. This paper examines the way in which VET systems have responded to the external factors and increase their resilience in the face of external shocks of one kind or another. The paper also reveals the way in which VET increasing established itself as a mainstream option for young people over the same period because of its capacity to deliver skills which the labour market demands.

The principal objective of this study was to profile qualitative research in social sciences through a comprehensive examination of 10,637 documents. An analysis on how scholars from central/peripheral countries included in the qualitative research citations/publications is presented. Central/peripheral distinction is used to determine the trends in the globalization of qualitative research. With the comprehensive examination, this paper will shed light on the discussion of the patterns of globalization in qualitative research. Science mapping technique among bibliometric methods was employed. This paper is based on studies that published in journals that use the English word/term "qualitative" in their titles. The data for this study encompassed 10,637 documents published between 1995 and 2019 by 16,884 authors. Our findings reveal that qualitative research continue to be mostly North America- and Europe-centered initiatives. A similar situation is also observed for the most cited publications and the affiliated institutes of their authors. The studies focus primarily on the individuals' self and social experiences, social psychology, and their knowledge, attitude, and behaviors in education. The most cited publications and the institutions with the highest number of publications are all North America- and Europe-centered. Another finding is that six of every 10 qualitative research are about medical sciences.