The European Consortium of Liberal Arts and Sciences, or ECOLAS, is a

non-governmental A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

educational

consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

group based in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, that proposes to address key issues associated with

undergraduate education Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

as a consequence of the reforms initiated by the Bologna Process. It was founded by three international educators, Samuel Abraham, President and Rector of the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

), Hans Adriaansens, Dean of

Roosevelt Academy University College Roosevelt (UCR), formerly known as Roosevelt Academy (RA), is a small, honors undergraduate liberal arts and science college located in Middelburg in the Netherlands and the sole university in Zeeland. It offers a residenti ...

(

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

), and Laurent Boetsch, President

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of European College of Liberal Arts,

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

(

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

Mission

The mission of ECOLAS is to work within the sphere of European undergraduate education to foster and disseminate good practices essential to nurturing the ideals and skills necessary for lifelong learning and good citizenship that are embedded in the educational tradition of the

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

Organization

The consortium is a voluntary association headed by an ''

Executive Board A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

'' formed by the three founders and Jochen Fried of the

Salzburg Global Seminar Salzburg Global Seminar is a non-profit organization that challenges current and future leaders to shape a better world. It convenes programs on health care, education, culture, finance, technology, public policy, media, human rights, corporate g ...

. The Board is responsible for the overall supervision, implementation and evaluation of projects undertaken. ''ECOLAS Associates'' are a team of international educational experts who work in association with the consortium and who are assigned to projects depending on their particular areas.

Current projects

ECOLAS has recently received a grant form the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

as an Erasmus Multilateral ProjectEU's Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency: list of successful Erasmus Multilateral Projects in selection 2007
/ref> within its Modernisation of Higher Education initiative in Lifelong Learning Programme. Those funds are expected to meet three-quarters of the costs of operation for the first two-years of the consortium. Projects planned within the course of the grant funding include: the preparation of a comprehensive information manual on the history, values, and methodology of the liberal arts and their potential for

in Europe; a major conference for associates, institutional partners, and interested parties to focus on the practical aspects of establishing a liberal arts programme; a "flying advisors" initiative to provide expert advice to partner institutions and newly established liberal arts programmes; the creation of a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

of information concerning current initiatives in the liberal arts; the establishment of a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikip ...

detailing consortial activities and providing a central source of information about liberal arts education in Europe; an outline of a quality assurance framework with criteria and procedures for current and emerging programmes in the

References

External links

Official website of ECOLAS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecolas Associations of schools Consortia in Europe Higher education organisations based in Europe