Students Achieving Valuable Energy Savings 2 (SAVES2) will catalyse sustainable energy behaviours among over 219,000 university students in seven countries to help them reduce their exposure to fuel poverty. It incorporates two strands that engage with students living in university accommodation (Student Switch Off) and in the private-rented sector (SAVES). Student Switch Off is an energy-saving competition that will reach 38,000 students living in 144 dormitories in 14 universities of the partner countries in each academic year from 2017/18 to 2019/20. By identifying and training student ambassadors in each dormitory, and by motivating the ambassadors to encourage their peers to save energy, we will create a race between students in dormitories, each competing to save the most energy and win prizes. It will tap into online student communities through social media, using engaging digital communications (quizzes, photo competitions) to raise awareness of how students can save energy in a fun way. The centrepiece of each competition will be an energy dashboard that updates students in near-real time on the performance and position of their dormitory in the competition – providing feedback and encouraging further action. The private-rented sector engagement work (SAVES) will reach over 100,000 students when they are looking for, moving into and living in the private-rented sector. It will enable students to make better informed decisions at the point at which they are selecting a rental property – thereby routing purchase decisions towards higher efficiency properties. SAVES2 will incorporate national-level partnerships with smart meter delivery agencies to develop student-focused communication materials highlighting the benefits of smart meters. It will provide ongoing advice and support to students via energy-efficiency and bill management training, peer-to-peer advice sharing via video blogs and regular e-mail and social media communications.

Uzbekistan’s sector of higher education (HE) was in the transformation phase initiated by a government decree in the late 2012. The soviet style system of doctoral education (DrEd) was being replaced by a EHEA and ERA oriented system. At the time of initiating the reforms, Uzbek HE stakeholders turned to the European colleagues for assistance and expertise to implement planned changes in doctoral education. UZDOC, the first European project focused solely on the reform of doctoral education in Uzbekistan, was started under the coordination of UNICA, supported by the Uzbek Ministry of Higher Education eager to accelerate the reforms. We believe that after three years of successful project implementation, Uzbek sector of DrEd is prepared to push the reform in the next phase. UZDOC 2.0 structural project, in which the Uzbek Ministry of Higher Education is a partner, had the overall goal of furthering the quality of doctoral education in Uzbekistan higher education institutions (HEIs), building on the results of the 1st UZDOC project coordinated by UNICA. The Project consisted of four elements crucial for a successful reform of DrEd in Uzbekistan : institutional and structural support, integration of quality assurance elements and mechanisms, building and increasing the capacity for human resources, and creating better connections with the business and industry sector in Uzbekistan by reducing the skills gap between doctorate holders and the sector. UZDOC 2.0 had substantial impact on the capacity of participating Uzbek HEIs for development and modernisation of the quality of DrEd. The consortium was composed to provide best coverage of expertise from European institutions, to offer good geographical coverage, dissemination and exploitation potential, and involvement of diverse and mutually complementing Uzbek partners and stakeholders.We believe that by implementing the UZDOC 2.0 project, Uzbek DrEd sector became familiar with the latest European trends, integrated good practices and methodologies, and able to better respond to the challenges facing the Uzbek research and economy sectors.

The demand for the quality increase in higher education institutions is a current issue. The need for innovative teaching methods is declared as the Ministerial Goals by the European University Association (EUA). In the Ministerial Conference 2020, it is also planned for the presentation of these principles and best practice examples. Similarly, the need for enhancement in learning and teaching by revealing poor teaching performance of academic staff had been underlined in Trends 2015: Learning and Teaching in European Universities report published by EUA. Existing literature showed that the main indicator of students’ learning is effective classroom management skills of teachers (Emmer & Sabornie, 2015; Kunter et al. 2013; Seidel&Shavelson, 2007; Wang, Hartel, & Wahlberg, 1993). Controlling a classroom can be overwhelming also for academicians (Sherer, 1991). Especially, academicians that don’t have necessary teaching experience before starting teaching in the university, suffer from lack of experience in the first years of their careers. However, most of the studies focused on classroom management issues are at the pre-collegiate level (Luo, Bellows, & Grady, 2000). There is a knowledge gap in classroom management strategies for higher education classrooms. Therefore, Teaching in Higher education Effectively via Eye-tracking -THEE- project aims to explore in-class interactions in university classrooms to present classroom management strategies by using eye-tracking technology with a holistic perspective. It is expected that THEE project will answer the necessity of new teaching strategies announced by EUA. THEE project will also contribute to technology integration attempts to university classrooms. It is obvious that academicians are stakeholders of successful technology integration and understanding how they use technology in classrooms is necessary to create innovative teaching strategies. Interactions between academicians and technology will be also analyzed and a set of strategies to enhance technology integration into higher education classrooms will be presented within this project. The project has four intellectual outputs and five multiplier events. During the first three intellectual outputs, eye movement data about classroom interactions from three different Europe (Turkey, Italia, Lithuania) countries will be collected and analyzed in collaboration with P1 and P2. The last output O4 contains the preparation of e-learning contents and pilot test of the project with P5. In the pilot study, the e-learning contents will be used for the education of academicians. The pilot study of output O4 which are the results of A18 will be used for the education of academicians from P5- Atatürk University- Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement. After being educated; the academicians’ eye movements, and behaviors (jests and mimics) before the activity will be compared with their eye movements after the activity. This will also be the evaluation of the overall project outputs. The last output O4 of the project will be disseminated by multiplier events in every participating country. Further dissemination will be realized from the project web site on the Internet. The development of the digital learning contents, project web site and hosting of those materials are in the Applicant’s responsibility. The outputs of the project; on-line course contents will be hosted on Bilgeis MOOC platform. Bilgeis.net is co-funded by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey. To reach a wider audience in Turkey, We conduct an association with The Council of Higher Education (YÖK). YÖK will have a role to the dissemination of the intellectual outputs of the project although it will not be formally partner of this project. Our Partner P6 UNICA is an institutional network of European universities and it has 51 university members from 31 different capitals of Europe combining over 160,000 university staff and 1.900,000 students. UNICA as a partner of this project will share outputs of this project with its members. At the end of the project, it is expected that the results of the project will be easily published in high impact journals and presented in high-quality conferences and on the Erasmus+ dissemination platform. Since the project is innovative in terms of several ways. First, the analysis of in-class interactions with eye-tracking technology is a novel practice in educational researches and practices (Yamamoto & Imai-Matsumura; 2013) and there is very limited research on this area. Second, the project differs from existing eye-tracking studies used to examine classroom- dynamics in terms of the varieties of interaction types that will be explored within the project. Third, exploring classrooms from different countries is another innovative way of this project. As a result, the project is innovative in overall it offers practical solutions to existing problems.(PS: References are given as a separate file)

MappED! is a social project which aims at improving the everyday life of students with disability by creating an online platform where they will easily:- find an interactive online map indicating the accessibility level of European Higher Education Institutions, campuses around Europe, city centers and much more- be able to map the accessibility level of their University, their favourite shop in town or their usual coffee shop in few clicks only- interact with the platform via a mobile application for smartphone and participate to the social experiment anywhere, anytime! - find all the information about mobility programmes, supplementary grants, support services and procedures for students with disability how to apply for a mobility period abroadMappED! will also create a serie of training events and conferences to encourage students with disability to go abroad, foster the cooperation between Disability Office - International Relation Office - Students with disability who are the three key actors to finally raise the percentage of students with disability taking part in the Erasmus+ Programme.

The Academic Refuge project improved the capacity of European universities to assist refugees and threatened academics, through linking the urgent responses of European universities to the “refugee crisis” to the pressing need for broader efforts to promote academic freedom. The project was launched in 2016 at a time when record numbers of refugee students and academics were reaching out to Europe. Through staff training, improved networking and the production of guidance materials, the project worked to increase the effectiveness of institutional responses to the crisis, to increase the number of individuals assisted and to inspire more institutions to do their part. Alongside increasing the capacity of European universities to support those who were forced to flee, the project highlighted the importance for European universities to work together with refugees and threatened academics to look to the longer-term. Through workshops, publications and a free online course, Academic Refuge promoted greater awareness of the importance of academic freedom to a healthy higher education sector, the consequences for society at large when such freedom is repressed, and the steps we can take as a sector to protect higher education values.The project drew on experience and expertise existing in the partner networks, and drew on new knowledge produced in the project based on the needs communicated by higher education institutions and by refugees and threatened academics hosted at European universities. The project included 4 partners and 4 associate partners. The partners included 2 large comprehensive universities; the University of Oslo and the University of Ljubljana, and two university networks; the Scholars at Risk network (510 members in 39 countries) and the UNICA Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe (51 members). The associate partners included two higher education associations; The European University Association (EUA, 850 members across 47 countries) and the European Association for International Education (EAIE- ca 3,000 individual members), and two media partners; University World News and Al Fanar Media. In addition, Academic Refuge project cooperated with other EU-funded projects such as SUCRE and GREET through participation in events, sharing ideas and dissemination of project results. For the massive open online course produced, Academic Refuge cooperated with the learning platform Futurelearn, where the MOOC is available and open to all. The primary target group for the project included refugees and threatened academics in Europe. The secondary target group included academic and administrative university staff in Europe and around the world, especially those with (a) a role in welcoming refugees and threatened academics to campus and (b) involved in developing international higher education partnerships. More specifically Academic Refuge project activities included:- Development and implementation of a staff training on ‘Welcoming Refugees and Threatened Academics to European Campuses’. - Staff training week with 55 participants- Development and implementation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on academic freedom and higher education values- Development of an electronic handbook on putting higher education values into practice (June 2019): Promoting Higher Education Values; Perspectives from the Field (PDF)- Three multiplier events with a total of 400 participants- Numerous dissemination activities and productsProject activities reached thousands of people through face-to-face and online activities. The staff training curriculum provided users with greater expertise and deeper understanding of good practices for welcoming threatened academics and refugees to campus. Participants in the staff training and the MOOC, increased their understanding of the importance of core values in higher education, and how these can be strengthened and developed. Participants reported that they continue to network and develop new activities based on their participation in project activities. Resources developed with support from the Erasmus+ are available on partner websites and will continue to be used in training activities well beyond the project lifetime. Project impact is already observed, but the full impact will be realized in the years to come. Within the global migration “crisis”, the Academic Refuge project saw an academic crisis of two dimensions. In the immediate time frame, a generation of talent is at risk of being lost. Secondly, each scholar and student that we lose now, deepens the challenge of restoring a conflict region when the violence eventually subsides. By increasing the capacity to help refugees and threatened academics to continue their work in safety, this project increased their opportunities to keep working and keep advancing their scholarship. Hopefully, the project has planted seeds of capacity and hope for restoring the war-torn regions in the years to come.