18.03.2014

The presentation of the project “Professional Higher Education in European Higher Education Area: outcomes, institutions and operating framework in 2020” took place in Paide on March, 18. Enno Lend, rector of TTK UAS and Krista Tuulik, rector of Estonian Entrepreneurship UAS presented the results of the project.
The project focuses on the emergence, development and possible future trends of the binary education system in Europe, focusing on the emergence, current situation and future of Estonian professional higher education institutions. The purpose of this research was to analyse the current situation of the member organizations of the Estonian Rectors’ Conference of Universities of Applied Sciences (RCUAS), and to predict their future based on the institutions’ key performance indicators and on the interviews conducted with higher education experts.
Based on the findings of the research, it may be concluded that the implementation of a binary higher education system is caused by the societal, economic and research-oriented needs, the emergence of professional higher education institutions in Estonia is quite similar to the situation in many other EU countries, the main development goals of Estonian professional higher education institutions for the upcoming years are to improve the integration of academic and R&D activities with applied research, and to increase the cooperation of students and teachers for improving international mobility. Considering the developments in the EU, it is likely that today’s model of RCUAS will evolve to a federation of universities of applied sciences.
The project is funded by the programme Primus.