Posted: by Verity Hilton in Higher Education
UALL Members go East to Turkey to participate in Research Council Seminar
A delegation led by Professor Peter Neil, UALL Chair, recently participated in a seminar and workshop funded by TUBITAC, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. The workshop was hosted by The Turkish Universities Council for Continuing Education, Ege University Continuing Education Centre and the University Centre for Women's Studies. Ege University is one of the key research universities in Turkey with more than 50,000 students.
The focus of the workshop was Promoting Knowledge-based regional development: strategies for lifelong learning in universities.
The keynotes were given by Dr Catherine Lido, Glasgow Big Data Centre, Dr Muir Houston, Social Justice, Place and Lifelong Education Research Centre, Nadira Mirza, Director of Student Success, University of Bradford and Dr Rob Mark, UALL Honorary Secretary. The keynote addresses on widening access and regional development brought together participants from all over Turkey. The seminar was also addressed by Professor Dr Mustafa Balci, Sector Manager Education and Training, EU delegation to Turkey, who spoke about regional development in an EU context. The two day workshop examined practical strategies for promoting regional development through lifelong learning which could be applied to the Turkish context.
Dr Rob Mark, UALL Secretary commented “the seminar and workshop has proved an excellent opportunity for UALL members to engage in dialogue with colleagues from Turkish Universities, to share good practice from the UK on how lifelong learning is supporting regional development. Through examining practices in the UK we have been able to share our knowledge about what works in engaging learners and in promoting skills development for regional and economic development”.
The seminar, which was delivered in English, was attended by more than 40 delegates from Universities and agencies whose role is to promote economic development across Turkey. It is hoped that this will be the beginning of a partnership which will promote further follow-up activities and joint working together to promote new ways of learning and access to lifelong learning in universities.

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