The 31st EURASHE Annual Conference ‘Next Generation PHE: Skills relevance, Inclusion, Digitalisation, Innovation’ took place on the 23-24 May 2022 in Brussels at the EPHEC campus.

The conference discussed the most pressing issues in Europe in relation to COVID-19 and the role of professional higher education (PHE) to recovery and resilience summarized in four key words: skills relevance, innovation, digitalisation and inclusion. The conference had its particular focus on European Commission’s policy priorities and addressed the EU key initiatives, such as Future of European Universities, the New Skills Agenda, Mission orientated R&I and Smart Specialisation. In the European Year of Youth students were put at the center of discussions. 10 students from all around Europe came to the EURASHE31 Annual Conference and shared their insights about the Next Generation PHE.

Welcoming words were given by Pierre-Yves Jeholet – Minister-President of the Government of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, Armando Pires – EURASHE President, Emmanuelle Havrenne – Vice-Chancellor and Managing Director, Haute École EPHEC, Laurent Despy – Administrator, Academy for Research and Higher Education – ARES, Mariya Gabriel (video message) – European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
Keynote speeches were delivered by Antoine Kasel – Head of Cabinet of European Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, Luciana Vaccaro – Rector, Haute École spécialisée de Suisse occidentale, Chair UAS4Europe, and Victoria Kis – Policy Analyst, OECD.

Panel discussions on the topics of Future Skills for the European Green Deal and Implementing the Digital Education Action Plan were conducted along with the discussion on the challenges to Alliances within the European Education Area, as well as a policy roundtable about research and innovation.
Representatives of all five INVEST partner universities participated in these events and presented the good practices of the consortium as a new model of a transnational alliance enhancing competitiveness and high quality of education and research, incl. with a separate session prepared by Nicholas Samaras and Pandelis Ipsilandis from University of Thessaly, Greece.

A special breakout session, prepared by INVEST alliance and moderated by Konstantinos Kokkinos from University of Thessaly, Greece and Andrean Lazarov from University of agribusiness and rural development, Bulgaria, raised a huge interest with the theme ‘European universities alliances: Deepening cooperation and building the universities of the future’. The session provided opportunities of discussing European Universities Initiative of the European Commission as addressing modern challenges to educational systems in Europe strengthening strategic partnerships and establishing new models in networking, with a special accent on PHE. The expectations to European universities by 2025 were be presented through examples in: shared, integrated and long-term strategies for education with links to research and innovation and society as a whole; establishment of interuniversity campuses, new joint and flexible curricula and approaches in teaching and learning; and capacity building, followed by team work in new cooperation models and activities in driving sustainability, excellence and European values in EHEA. Special considerations were put on demand for new skills is constantly increasing and on the digital transformations in HEIs, especially imposed by COVID-19 pandemics, incl. inclusion and flexible teaching and learning approaches.

Three posters of INVEST and INVEST4EXCELLENCE projects were also presented:

- Invest for Excellence in Regional Sustainability: developing an integrated and long-term joint strategy on research and innovation in European universities by Drahoslav Lancaric, vide-rector of Slovak university of agriculture in Nitra and Martin Valach from Slovak university of agriculture in Nitra,

- INVEST European university alliance: what does the modern European university look like? by Denise Lapoutre from Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, the Nertherlands and Liisa Timonen, Karelia University of Applied Science,

- INVEST Regional Living Labs: Geographical Indications as a tool for the further development of the agrifood sector in South Central Region of Bulgaria by Mariana Ivanova, rector or University of agribusiness and rural development, Bulgaria and Nazan Arifoglu Sen from Canakkale Onzekiz Mart University, Turkey.

INVEST participants had the opportunity to discuss the future of European Universities Alliances with representatives of the European Commission, EURASHE and other universities and stakeholders’ organizations.