During recent years, universities in the participant countries of this project, have set internationalisation goals, both to compensate declining populations (especially in Estonia and Hungary) as well as to stay competitive. Together with a wave of migration, which also affects these countries at different intensity, the four participating countries have faced a new demographic situation. Although the number of immigrants, whether foreign students or other, may be not significant, there are debates in the society about the immigration, on one hand, and on the other hand schools and universities have to adapt to a changing student profile. Issues can raise when there are students from different backgrounds in the classroom whose views may be conflicting between each other or with those expressed by the teacher. But even without a diverse classroom, certain topics can be controversial, like pay gap, political conflicts or ethnic issues. So far, universities in this project countries have paid little attention on how to address these issues neutrally without creating unnecessary conflicts, and it has been up to the teacher to find the most suitable method.The objective of this project is to gather the expertise of four countries facing similar challenges, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Estonia, involving experts from the associated partner from Sweden, and to develop guidance material for educators from universities and general education. This material will discuss the nature of issues related to ethnicity, gender, religion or political behaviour and, the most importantly, introduce didactics to teach awareness, develop empathy and respond to controversy, handle offensive comments, create safe environment as a prerequisite for inclusion. These didactical tools will be developed jointly, in English and later adapted to local needs and translated into local languages for reaching a wider audience. The participants of the project are firstly around 30 teachers of the participating institutions. The target of around 300 people will be outreached by multiplier events, organised by every partner at the end of the project and gathering educators, education ministries and relevant NGOs. Meanwhile, at least 800 people during the last year of the project is expected to be affected by the project results due to the use of didactic material and MOOCs developed in the course of the project. As the materials will be publicly available and promoted to social and youth workers, the numbers can be even higher.The main output of the project is a didactic material adapted into an e-course for universities and school teachers. This e-course will be run in local language (except in Hungary) at least once a year. Three MOOCs on Islam, gender issues and radicalisation will be developed for a larger audience and run at least once a year. In addition to that, a methodological toolbox for teachers will be developed and publicly available. In addition to intellectual outputs, the consortium will organise two in-service trainings for teachers on addressing sensitive issues in the classroom, and multiplier events for a larger audience tailored for specific needs in every partner country.In order to reach the objectives, experts from the partner universities as well as the associated partner will contribute with their expertise both to building the content and developing the methodology. Each partner university is responsible for each intellectual output, which will be tested and assessed through trainings. The e-courses and MOOCs launched during the third year of the project will provide valuable feedback meant to improve the materials.At the end of this project, teachers will possess necessary skills and tools for creating meaningful and academically relevant discussions on sensitive issues in well-rounded and inclusive environment. The universities overall will benefit from being able to tackle and respond to challenges that internationalisation may originate. The materials developed during the project can be easily adapted to other contexts where it might be used, i.e. social work, youth work, NGOs, local communities, etc.In a long term benefit, the project consortium believes to contribute to calm, balanced and constructive discussions on sensitive issues in the multicultural modern society.

<< Objectives >>Our global goal is to increase the number of people in adult learning, in line with EU targets.In order to increase the number of participants, the immediate objective of the project is to model and test an AI-based data system for personalised training funding based on the concept of the Individual Learning Account.Knowledge sharing is a key project objective, which will allow the target group to directly test the validated data model in practice and further develop it as needed.<< Implementation >>In order to achieve the project objectives, we will prepare a feasibility study summarising EU theory and practice on funding personalised training.We will build a data model based on the Individual Learning Account, which will be populated with structured data. All elements of the data model will be validated with external partners and through AI-based testing.A wide dissemination of the project will ensure not only the dissemination of the project results but also their practical applicability<< Results >>The main outputs of the project will be a validated data model and a methodological guide for its practical application, in line with the objectives and activities.It is expected that the outputs and their wide dissemination will increase the popularity of the concept of the Individual Learning Account and empower target group members to test and further develop the Individual Learning Account in practice.Our project will also raise awareness of AI-based testing solutions.

‘Navigating Social Worlds: Toolbox for Social Inquiry’ (NaviSoW) project highlights the importance of 1) first hand data; 2) inquiry (which also promotes critical thinking) and 3) mobilizes digital tools for the purposes of education. It is developed by a consortium of 5 research institutions from countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Romania). These countries share a knowledge- rather than skills-oriented approach in education and lag below the EU-28 in the individual digital skills assessment. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to incorporate digital skills in teaching culture. Making sustainable changes to the education system is an imperative so that in the future, during similar crises, education systems will be more resilient.The objectives of the project are therefore:1. To equip teachers and lecturers with innovative tools that can be used for social inquiry.2. To equip the learners with knowledge, skills and competences that will enable them to make small scale social research projects.3. To make the learners aware and critical to how data can be interpreted in public discourses and narratives.4. To map existing practices and solutions in online teaching and learning at HEIs in selected CEE countries.5. To assist the „catching up” of the region in terms of digital skills and to reduce the digital gap.Working at intersection of higher education and high school education, as well as teaching both students and teachers, gives us an opportunity to use many synergies that occur at the cross-roads of this diverse target groups. The toolbox will comprise materials that will be fit for different categories of end-users – from students (secondary school and higher education) through teachers, and lecturers. Another direct group of beneficiaries are researchers, policy-makers and HEI authorities who can use the scientific output, country reports and recommendations.There project will produce the following outputs: • The Toolbox for Social Inquiry – the most significant project output. It will be an online resource for teachers and lecturers who teach social sciences to introduce social research methods and social inquiry in their classrooms. The toolbox will be useful beyond subject-specific classes and will contain general resources that will promote critical thinking and inspire curiosity among students, supporting various projects in social inquiry with digital tools. Students will learn what a social research project is and receive guidance on how they can design their own. The modules of the Toolbox will comprise handouts, templates, working sheets or other materials that teachers and/or lecturers can use in their classrooms. The Toolbox will be produced initially in English, but in order to make it accessible for local teachers and lecturers, it will be translated into the 5 languages of partner HEIs.• 5 country reports which will identify, analyse and compare policies and strategies implemented on the country level in regard to teaching online as an emergency response to Covid-19.• Small scale cross-sectional survey on students' and teachers’ perceptions of teaching online.• Recommendations for implementing digital tools for social inquiry – this output will comprise recommendations for quality implementation of research methods classes in higher education. It will be a set of policy and teaching recommendations, and a collection of best practices identified while implementing the toolbox.• at least 3 scientific articles.• a 2-day international conference on using digital tools for teaching social studies online (~70 pax)• 1 workshop for teachers on using digital skills in social sciences in classroom (~40 pax)By developing the toolbox we are delivering ready-made resources adapted to CEE context that can be implemented in schools and HEIs in order to promote both, digital skills and social research skills. The toolbox will be available for university students and also shared with secondary schools. By delivering the toolbox in national languages, we hope to have methods of social inquiry included into teaching practice at high school level (except for Estonia, where it is present in the curriculum already). This project provides a narrative for a different way of looking at education. In a climate of frontal education and Prussian teaching culture, initiatives such as ours help set the tone and provide a glimpse into a different way of teaching and thinking about knowledge. The key lasting effect of our project will be introducing this perception about education, which has taken root in much of Western Europe, but still lags behind in CEE.The project will be carried out by a consortium of 5 partner HEIs (SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Babeș-Bolyai University, Public Policy and Management Institute, University of Latvia, and University of Tartu) supported by 4 associated partners – 3 high schools and University of Warsaw.

The context of the DASCHE project was created mostly by the Bologna Process. The framework of the 2018-2020 perspective of the Bologna Process was formulated in the Paris Communiqué of 2018 and the Rome Communique expected in 2020. In the previous perspective educating students for the needs of the labour market was particularly emphasized. The last Communiqués are focused on social responsibility of universities and shaping social competences of students, also referring to the sustainable development goals formulated by the United Nations (UN). The European Qualifications Framework comprised the pillar of “competences: autonomy and responsibility” containing the social competences descriptors.The challenges posed by social life, related to a continuous change, demographic processes and social exclusion, threats to democracy, expected drop in demand for labour and the ongoing digitalisation, migrations and terrorism, and, last but not least, to climate change, require an adequate response from the systems of education; they should shape the competences enabling to face those challenges. Including social competences into curricula and teaching/learning process is difficult. They are multidimensional, involving a variety of learning outcomes concerning ethical, cultural, group and civic- oriented attitudes of learners; they often seem to be meta-competences, which cannot be seen as independent from knowledge and skills. Higher education institutions and national level policy makers need assistance in designing, delivering and validating social competences of students. The systems of internal and external quality evaluation and assurance face the same difficulty, the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) do not provide sufficient guidance. The main objective of DASCHE project was to support national and European learning policy and by it to provide assistance to HEIs in shaping social competences of students.This main objective was divided into two sub-aims: •A detailed analysis of way of forming the social competences by 26 HEIs from 6 countries including: social competences inclusion into the HE qualifications and curricula, teaching/learning methods, responsibilities of HEIs and other institutions for shaping social competences of students, standards and criteria of external and internal quality assurance, ongoing debate on development of social competences. •Based on this analysis identification of ways of introducing and assessing social competences in the formal HE qualifications – teaching/learning process which resulted with the DASCHE recommendations on institutional, national and European levels. Therefore, the purpose of DASCHE was not only to provide a better understanding of the social competences issues but also to gather sets of good practices in shaping and assessing these competences within HE programmes – providing an inspiration or guidance for decision makers, universities and QA agencies, teachers, students and the others. The DASCHE participants were divided into three beneficiary groups of the project results. Group 1 consists of project target group: policy-makers at the national and EU levels, accreditation agencies, HEIs, higher education councils and rector’s conferences involved directly in development and assessment of social competences in HE. Group 2 involves researchers, academicians, learners and other groups interested in HE policies. Indirect beneficiaries formed the group 3 containing the HE learners who could benefit from better HE and LLL policies. The project results are be of interest to participants in other countries. In total the number of participants can be evaluated for about 20 million of people. The project was implemented in partnership of University of Bremen (Germany), Academic Information Centre (Latvia), Centre for Higher Education Studies (Czech Republic), University of Durham (United Kingdom), University of Twente (the Netherlands), SGH Warsaw School of Economic (Poland, leader). Associated partners of the project were: National Unions of Students in Europe (Belgium), European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Belgium), Council of Higher Education of Latvia (Latvia), University of Cologne (Germany), Czech Rectors Conference (Czech Republic), Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland (Poland), Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (Poland), Polish Accreditation Committee (Poland), National Representation of PhD Candidates (Poland), National Council for Science and Higher Education (Poland) and the Polish Rectors Foundation – Institute of Knowledge Society (Poland).The activities of DASCHE project were divided into 5 working packages devoted to: methodology of country reports, the country reports themselves, elaboration of results of country reports delivering guidance for development of social competences in HEIs practice, dissemination and exploitation of results and project management. Due to them DASCHE achieved 8 major Intellectual Outputs (IO1 – methodology report, IO2-7 – country reports, IO8 – model solutions. The DASCHE methodological approach based on qualitative case studies method run by the following principles: collecting reliable data, involving participants, applying tailor made dissemination and exploitation strategy to achieve relevant impact and project sustainability, involving associated partners, effective management and QA solutions. As a result of the project 26 case studies given in the country reports were analyzed and resulted with the IO8 – model solution. Since social competences were specific to institutional missions, national contexts and needs of students; a one-size-for-all approach was not beneficiary and not recommended. Also one standardized common definition of social competences has not been adopted in the DASCHE project - the variety of national and institutional social competences characteristics, which were determined both by the tradition in higher education and legislative context was noticed. Nevertheless all of them recognize social competences as an overall meta-competence, built over knowledge and skills, enriched by axiological reflection, enabling an independent and responsible application of social competences, aimed at common social good.In conclusions, the diagnosis of the state of play in domain of shaping social competencies of students expressed by the project associated partners and participants are as follows:−Shaping social competences of graduates is one of the crucial goals of higher education; −There is too little attention paid to what the social competences are and by mean of what didactic methods they are to be shaped; −This situation should be changed starting with a debate on conceptualization of social competences on institutional and national levels; such debates were carried on in chosen countries only; −Higher education institutions are getting too less support from legislation and from decision makers of different levels to implement effective process of designing and implementing the social competences into teaching and learning process; −Only in chosen higher education institutions and countries the activities devoted directly and intentionally for shaping social competences were undertaken. More often it is understood as a side-effect of the teaching and learning process and left to the teachers’ personal engagement; −But teachers are not sufficiently prepared to integrate effectively social competences into study courses; −Achievement of social competences is not well recognized and evaluated by quality assurance agencies. The impact of DASCHE was multidimensional – referring to formulation and implementation of EU policies as well as activities focused on social competences on national and institutional levelsTwo main recommendations of the DASCHE project were formulated:1.To create room to reflect on designing, developing and assessing social competences of students in higher education institutions (HEIs).2.To run continuous debate among HEIs, HEIs Associations, Quality Assurance Agencies, Students’ Associations, employers, NGOs, national and European policy makers about social competences in higher education. The number of selected recommendations addressed to institutional decision makers and academic teachers as well as to national decision makers such as government ministries or quality assurance agencies and to institutions and organizations responsible for EHEA were formulated. Methods of dissemination adopted in the project should ensure both the project’s results availability and that they will be suitable for the project target groups. The project gave the free access to the main intellectual outputs at the project’s webpage on SGH portal including scientific papers and articles. The results of the project were printed in synthetic way in the brochure and discussed during two international conferences: in Bremen and in Warsaw.