News

VUB education conference 2026 amplifies the impact of the SPACE project

On 26 May 2026, Vrije Universiteit Brussel welcomed more than 200 academics, educational support staff, and university leaders to its annual Education Conference. For the Erasmus+ SPACE project, the event served as a significant local multiplier event — an opportunity to share curriculum redesign experiences with a large institutional audience and to stimulate broader dialogue about the future of community-engaged higher education.

European university alliances advancing community engagement

Three European university alliances — EMERGE, EUNICoast and YUFE — are actively working with tools and approaches developed through the community-engagement.eu platform to strengthen their community engagement strategies.

New UNESCO framework names community engagement as core mission of higher education

Community engagement in higher education is gaining growing recognition at both policy and institutional levels. A major milestone came with UNESCO’s 2026 roadmap Transforming Higher Education, which explicitly places community engagement alongside teaching and research as a way for higher education institutions to respond to major societal challenges.

EngageComp: making student civic engagement competences visible

The new EngageComp framework responds to this challenge by offering a structured way to identify and recognise the competences students acquire through civic engagement. Developed within the Erasmus+ EngageAll project, the framework is designed as a practical resource for educators, higher education institutions, civic partners and students themselves.

SPACE webinar: making community-engaged practices sustainable in higher education

Community-engaged teaching, learning and research are taking place in universities across Europe. Academics and students are working with external partners through service-learning, challenge-based learning, collaborative research, citizen science, patient and public involvement, and many other forms of engagement.

ECEM Project Concludes with Key Open-Access Research Publications

A new European resource kit, Partnerships that Work, has been launched to help universities and communities build stronger, more equitable and sustainable partnerships. Developed through the Erasmus+ project SPACE – Supporting Professionals and Academics for Community Engagement in Higher Education, the kit provides four practical tools to help universities and community organisations plan, assess and improve their collaboration. These tools guide users through partnership planning, joint reflection and dialogue, and can be adapted for use at the individual, partnership or institutional level.

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