Fostering Student Engagement through AI-driven Qualitative Quality Assurance Practices Erasmus Project

Project Title

Fostering Student Engagement through AI-driven Qualitative Quality Assurance Practices

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Research and innovation; Quality Assurance

Project Summary

Qual-AI-ty Engagement is forward-looking project aimed at disrupting the higher education through artificial intelligence (AI) and genuine commitment to quality as derived from student engagement with society. It aims to do so by empowering key actors in higher education: namely quality assurance (QA) staff through comprehensive training and cooperation in the project and students, who are a major contributing factor to the entire project through their co-creation and participation in piloting activities.

Student engagement in general, and with society in particular has been only recently the topic of academic/policy circles in Europe, despite its multi-faceted benefits. The concept of education-promoted engagement with society in general has been noted in 2015 Paris “Declaration on promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education” where “ensuring that children and young people acquire social, civic and intercultural competencies, by promoting democratic values and fundamental rights, social inclusion and non-discrimination as well as active citizenship” (European Commission, 2016) has been identified as one of the quintessential objectives amongst the EU Member States, especially in the light of various events in the second decade of 21st century. Going into fine-grained particularities, student engagement with societal challenges holds a rich potential in i) fostering active citizenship and preparing students for more active engagement in democratic societies; ii) cultivating their personal development through early civic engagement; iii) making significant contribution to coming up with innovative solutions for societal problems and affecting their communities, and immediate and larger social surroundings, iv) taking control over their educational trajectories as ‘producers of knowledge’ rather than just ‘consumers’.

Universities have been often perceived as not taking a proactive role in engaging more with the society-related issues, and when they did it would be narrowed down to a specific domain only (e.g. environment). (GUNi, 2019) Following the remarks of Europe 2030 Agenda, it is blatantly clear that a plethora of societal problems can and should be addressed via HEI involvement to ensure participatory politics, multilateral, innovative & resilient societies, sustainable production chains, collaborative low carbon circular economy and social economy ecosystems. (Europe 2030 Agenda, 2019).

While student engagement with society carries a lot of potential, it needs to be enshrined in structures of the HE to truly be exploited to its full capacity, rather than posing as a constellation of isolated (program-specific) interventions. This is where quality assurance staff can play a pivotal role. According to The Communication on Improving and Modernising Education “quality education for all is a foundation for social cohesion and an open society” (European Commission, 2016).

However, quality assurance is oftentimes a neglected aspect of higher education. Majority of quality assurance mechanisms and instruments are based on quantitative data collection and interpretation. This approach often can case valuable insights to fall “through the cracks”. Very often quality assurance processes have been reduced to mechanical, “tick-the-box” behaviour. (Nair et al., 2010) Qual-AI-ty Engagement project aims at breaking the old tradition and enforcing a new approach to assessing the quality of education offering by predominantly focusing on qualitative approach and maximising on the efficiency of data provision by leveraging AI/machine learning possibilities.

This project aims to empower quality assurance staff to take more proactive role in leveraging student engagement as a means of maximising the quality of the educational provision on the institutional level. By empowering quality assurance staff more to engage more actively with students and their endeavours within society, the aim is to create a nurturing space where society engagement on the part of students is actively promoted, visible and rewarded in the higher education landscapes.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 217094 Eur

Project Coordinator

RIGAS TEHNISKA UNIVERSITATE & Country: LV

Project Partners

• ACEEU GmbH
• EUROPEAN CONSORTIUM FOR ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
• UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE
• MALTA COLLEGE OF ARTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY