COMMIT Project Building Up the Social Dimension of Higher Education in Spain

Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) is a member of Talloires network in Spain, currently participating in the “COMMIT project: Committing to the social dimension in universities.” This project will help the URV to develop socially responsible strategies.

COMMIT is an LLP Erasmus Multilateral project funded by the European Commission, taking place from October 2013 to May 2016 with the participation of 12 European Universities and coordinated by EUCEN.

EUCEN, the European Association for University Lifelong Learning, is the largest European multidisciplinary Association in University Lifelong Learning, aimed at:

• contributing to the economic and cultural life of Europe through the promotion and advancement of lifelong learning within higher education institutions in Europe and elsewhere;
• fostering universities’ influence in the development of lifelong learning knowledge and policies throughout Europe.

COMMIT intends to increase commitment to the social dimension of higher education (HE). The project builds on the work of a previous project – ALLUME – which developed 3 self-evaluation tools for universities to review their strategy for implementation of a comprehensive and coherent LLL university. COMMIT will:

• review those 3 tools, refining and adapting them and adding new features which take on board a wider and clearer idea of the social dimension of HE
• design and develop a new tool for monitoring attainment in HE and integrate these tools in HEIs management systems
• carry out an experts training event to prepare partners to visit and counsel other universities
• use these 4 tools in 12 universities of 12 different countries to conduct a self-evaluation, supported with documents, which will form the starting point for a collective learning process including a visit from one of the other partners
• undertake a transversal analysis of the visit reports and the completed tools

The final phase of valorisation and exploitation will include: 12 national active learning workshops each hosted by one of the partners and a European event again with an active learning approach.   

Where are we now?

Between September 2014 and April 2015, the 12 academic partners of the project have all carried out the peer learning visits foreseen by the project. The approach has been, from the beginning, to have a team of different people involved in each partner institution, with the aim of training not only an isolated person, but a group of people from the management team (in charge of LLL/CE/Outreach/Social Services), in order to generate organisational learning and reinforce commitment to change at institutional and organisational level.

Soon a new phase of work will begin, consisting in a comprehensive analysis of the reports produced by partners after each visit. The transversal analysis will be finalized by October 2015. An executive summary, a policy paper including recommendations, and a technical report covering the methodology and results of the data collection and analysis will be written and published.

Find more information about what COMMIT is doing now and what is coming next in the 2nd project Newsletter! If you want to have more information on COMMIT project, contact commit@eucen.eu.