IWE 2014 at 21, 22 and 23 of May.

PÁGINA OFICIAL

The higher education system, being a group of different but complementary institutions, is one of the most important guarantees of human progress: either by its ability to think about the future, either by permanent search of solutions for the human challenges. The higher education system is, based on a humanist and democratic position, considered a space of freedom where academic community and the several areas of civil society could think together. The higher education system main goal is the academic training but it is expected a wide range of activities: scientific research looking for new solutions and new perspectives; new ideas; discussion of different points of view in all areas; and provide services for the worldwide community.

One of the most important features of higher education systems is look for new intervention areas aiming to face the new world challenges.

The higher education system is, currently, facing several challenges we all acknowledge. We mainly discuss the decrease of public investment. However, our main goal in this IWE is rethink the main purpose of higher education, specially its core activity: students training in order to obtain specific results, based on global outcomes, preparing students for the real world, after each study cycle.

Apart from the main theme of the 11th IWE: Higher Education: Rethinking Challenges, it is our intention to explore the themes associated to the UN and UNESCO commemorations:

Sub-themes:

• 2014: European Year of the Brain
• 2014: International Year of Family Farming
• 2011-2020: Decade of Action for Road Safety
• 2011-2020: United Nations Decade on Biodiversity
• 2010-2020: United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification
• 2008-2017: Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty
• 2006-2016: Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development of the Affected Regions
• 2005-2015: International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”
• 2005-2014: United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
• 2005-2014: Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People

The Deadline for the submission of papers is May 11th 2014. Accepted papers are to be published in the online proceedings book. Contributions should have one of the following formats: Academic paper (30 minutes); Lecture (1-2 hours); Seminar/colloquium sessions (90 min-2 hours); workshop (1-4 hours).

The 11th IWE will soon be available online and an email will be sent to all applicants containing detailed information on the event.