Switzerland assumes a fundamental role in the development of the European Education Area

News – Press release of 29 September 2009

On October 6, 2009 a Swiss will take up for the first time a seat on the Executive Committee of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities. The 8-person committee leads the efforts of the Association and its members from 24 European countries to strengthen lifelong, open and flexible learning at university level and to invigorate the European Education Area in accordance with the Bologna Declaration.

This was a great honour for Switzerland: In the person of Professor Paul Volken, a Swiss became a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities EADTU for the first time. Volken, the Rector of Distance Learning University Switzerland, was elected to the 8-person EADTU Executive Committee by the General Board. The first meeting with Swiss participation took place on October 6, 2009.

European-wide commitment to modern university continuing education
The EADTU, founded in 1987, today has 29 members from 24 European countries – including 10 Distance Learning universities and 13 national consortia representing 200 conventional universities. The EADTU propagates open and flexible learning. This term refers to self-defined study for which the individual is personally responsible. By combining e-Learning and learning communities, the studies are extremely flexible and so permit lifelong learning in parallel with a job.

The EADTU aims to help implement the European Learning Space as proposed by the Bologna Declaration. It finds the still nationally-dominated education policies practised in Europe to be very obstructive. The EADTU generally tries to play a prominent role in European university policy, because it finds that the conventional universities are somewhat inactive in the areas of "lifelong learning" and "flexible learning".

In 2010, the EADTU conference will take place in Zermatt
The 2010 annual conference of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities will be held in Switzerland. The EADTU members will meet in Zermatt from 27 to 29 September to discuss the future development of lifelong learning at university level and to examine new associations between (distance) universities and companies.

Distance Learning University Switzerland – the only distance university in Switzerland
Since 1992, the Distance Learning University Switzerland Foundation has been offering university-level teaching and learning independent of distance. Its program includes approximately 40 study courses in German and French – the vast majority of which are conducted in co-operation with partner European or overseas universities. Distance Learning University Switzerland has three study centres in German and French-speaking Switzerland (Brig, Pfäffikon SZ and Sierre).

Further information: Website of the EADTU Conference in Zermatt