"From rhetoric to reality: The Charter on Lifelong Learning two years after"

In 2008, the European Universities Association (EUA) drafted a Charter on LLL for European universities and governments. This Charter was adopted by European universities as a basis for further development and implementation of European strategies and presented to the ministers responsible for HE in November 2008, in Bordeaux. This new preoccupation of EUA extends what EUCEN has tried to promote actively for years. But currently, as Lifelong Learning is becoming a “fashionable issue” and a reference for national and European policies on education and training, the problem is that the concept of LLL is becoming progressively confusing.

EUCEN thinks that it is now time, on the basis of our common experience, our initiatives and actions and the results of our projects, to contribute more concretely to the implementation of LLL strategies in HEIs. That is the main objective of the EUCEN’s Conference in Lille in November: to move “from rhetoric to reality”. Our intention, is to provide to all HE actors working on LLL a space for:

• exchanges and discussions on propositions and recommendations for further developments;
• preparation of new projects for concrete actions to start/accelerate/deepen processes at work.

Our intention is to demonstrate that in this moving landscape, EUCEN, thanks to its membership, can become the main contributor to making this powerful perspective a reality. Thus, with such an interesting and important background, with the forthcoming discussion and debate, we recommend that you book the dates in your dairy and make sure that you do not to miss this important event.

The conference website and on-line registration will be available in the coming weeks on the EUCEN website.