Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

TRANSFORMING THE UNIVERSITY INTO A LIFELONG LEARNING UNIVERSITY.

Rationale

University Lifelong Learning (ULLL) and University Continuing Education are emerging concepts and realities in European countries. As reported by the BeFlex report, the development of ULLL is slow: even if 56% of universities have a LLL policy or strategy, the implementation and the practice are complex and diverse.

How is it possible to change the current European universities into real Lifelong Learning Universities? How is it possible to evolve while keeping the main current strong points, like the research responsibility, the social and democratic roles?

Objectives

The main objectives of the conference are to design the future LLL University, to validate prospective views, to discuss the change strategy and to promote some emerging practices. The conference will disseminate the results of BeFlex Plus http://www.eucen.org/BeFlexPlus/index.html and discuss recommendations in the formulation, development and implementation of LLL at the European level, but also at the university level.

The conference, which is being held just before the meeting of the Bologna ministers in Leuven-Louvain in April 2009, is seeking to answer some of the many questions posed by the implementation of LLL universities. Recommendations and proposals will be formulated to the Ministers’ conference.

Content

The programme comprises presentations, workshops and a roundtable on how to transform our universities into LLL institutions, concerning 3 topics:

• the strategy: possible approaches, economic models, values, organising and financing the transition process;
  
• impacts on the structural, organisational and pedagogical aspects of the university;
• the roles, needs and requirements of external stakeholders.

The results and recommendations from the BeFlex Plus project will be integrated into these discussions and validated by the conference participants.

Call for papers