EU University systems differ on the mechanisms to tackle underachieving students and drop outs; rates of underachievers and drop-outs are a concern in all Member States. INSTALL will develop and validate a methodology to enhance the Learning To Learn competence of disadvantaged students by enabling Universities to flexibly provide support services to students. The answer to a EU wide issues represents an element of EU dimension of the project. The objective of the INSTALL project is to develop a support system to students to be integrated into current services offered by each University, with a concrete long term approach.
INSTALL concretely enhances L2L competence of a clearly indentified target group, raising completion rates while empowering tertiary education institutions to developing flexible learning paths for disadvantaged students. In this context, the EU added value of INSTALL is manifold as it:
a) clearly addresses a Europe-wide target group of disadvantaged students who can benefit from project results regardless of country of origin. Disadvantaged students are an increasingly EU relevant phenomenon regardless of educational domain and country;
b) provides EU relevant solutions: INSTALL develops innovative methodologies and tools that can be flexibly applied across EU tertiary education system;
c) sustains implementation of EU policies in the field of tertiary educationand LL: INSTALL supports development/enhancement of Key Competences as identified in "Key Competences for LL - A EU Reference Framework", 2006. In addition to KC5 Learning to Learn - the specific focus of the proposal-INSTALL supports acquisition of 7. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; and 8. Cultural awareness and expression. INSTALL promotes strategic objective of "equity, social cohesion and active citizenship" of Council Conclusions, "Strategic Frame for EU Cooperation in Education and Training (ET2020), 2009. INSTALL is instrumental in ensuring that "vulnerable groups [..are not..] excluded from knowledge" (EU2020);
d) leverages EU excellence to advance research in this field: composition of consortium, its technical relevance and expertise, and its geographical distribution is instrumental to generating positive spillover effects across EU.
The development of multilingual content, deliverables and methodologies in five language versions also serves the purpose of multilingualism in the EU.
INSTALL indirectly impacts any EU policy and strategy for education and LL as it responds, with multidisciplinary methodology, to multifaceted issue of academic achievement and L2L key competence of the specific target group of disadvantaged students.