News

This section provides news about PASCAL together with significant developments in policy and research relating to the areas of interest to PASCAL. It is based on regular scanning of policy, practice and academic literature, including web-based sources.

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Adult education and place: a vital link for learning cities - Policy Briefing 5 from PASCAL International Observatory

The importance of adult education has been affirmed in recent policy documents in several countries, justified in terms of its benefits to individuals and the wider benefits society draws from having a better educated population. Rarely is policy on adult education tied in to policies on the development of place, especially to current interest in the development of learning cities. This paper identifies policy drivers essential for embedding learning in the processes of learning cities.

Final eBook release of Cities Learning Together Precedings

The Cities Learning Together conference was convened in Hong Kong in November 2013, by the EU Centre at RMIT in conjunction with PASCAL International Observatory and the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Together with seven other partners, the conference was designed to focus on major challenges facing cities and communities within cities, and to explore the ways in which learning can assist in addressing those challenges. The concept of ‘learning cities’ has been the focus of this kind of thinking for some time, initially in Europe, with strong support from the OECD and the European Union, and more recently in Asia. The PASCAL International Exchanges (PIE) program has been one site where these ideas have been explored directly, while UNESCO conducted the International Conference on Learning Cities in October 2013 in Beijing, China.

Call for Contributions - Cities Learning Together - 11th PASCAL International Observatory Conference

A set of Conference Readings or Precedings will be prepared to support the work of this Conference. The Planning Group invites short Contributions relevant to the main themes and panel sessions. These will be distributed electronically to participants in advance of the Conference, and also made available for use at registration.

New Project - Innovation in Higher Education

LSE Enterprise, the consulting arm of the London School of Economics, and Panteia, a policy research group based in the Netherlands, are conducting a study on Innovation in Higher Education on behalf of the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. 

Stakeholder consultation on Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes COM(2012) 699

This PASCAL Policy Insight paper has been submitted in response to a stakeholder consultation by the EU Committee of the Regions  on an EU policy paper on Rethinking Education:

Abstract: Whilst there are unresolved debates about the best way of calculating levels of youth unemployment, there is general consensus that rates are rising, and particularly so in those countries seriously affected by the current financial crisis, to the point where a ‘lost generation’ is at risk of being denied access to employment  and to other aspects of adulthood and citizenship .   There is no clear policy response from national governments beyond the extension of the repertoire of measures which have been tried with little success to date.  Nor is there a clear perspective from research about ‘what works’ among the approaches currently on offer.

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14th PASCAL International Observatory Conference - South Africa

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