Forum on the Future of Learning
31 January 2019
The Chair of the Executive Board, Prof. Ludovic Thilly was invited by Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and by DG EAC to speak at the Forum on the Future of Learning in Brussels on 24 January 2019. The event was organised to provide an open platform for exchanges between education, training and youth stakeholders and policymakers. The main discussions focused on key issues that education and training will be facing in Europe and beyond until 2030, including the challenges associated with demographics; inclusion and citizenship; technological change and the future of work; digitalisation of society; environmental concerns; and investments, reforms and governance.
The Forum was based on the work of the European Education and Training Expert Panel, which consists of independent experts from across Europe.
The Panel members presented their findings on the identified challenges as well as the advanced drafts of the six issue papers that will be published after the Forum. These draft strategic papers are available on the Coimbra Group intranet (CG members only): they present the challenges and opportunities for education and training, looking towards 2030, and suggest priority areas of action.
The Forum also highlighted some of the European Union’s main initiatives towards future education and training, including non-formal and informal learning, in particular via the Erasmus+ Programme. It is in this context that Ludovic Thilly was invited to speak about the European Universities initiative, on behalf of the Coimbra Group Universities.
To prepare this presentation, the Rectors of Coimbra Group Universities have been consulted on their participation in Alliances: the resulting presentation has been sent to Rectors.
Ludovic Thilly emphasised the complexity of this highly ambitious initiative with respect to the available budget and the timeline. He also questioned the long-term perspective scale of the initiative and recommended stronger support from Member States and the European Commission to the future implementation of the selected projects. In his conclusions, Ludovic Thilly emphasised, once again, the necessity to transform this initiative into a multiplier and not a divider of the historical cooperation existing between universities across Europe in the form of university networks such as the Coimbra Group.