The purpose of STUNED project is to support Universities to enrich their curricula by developing and integrating into them innovative educational modules in the area of standardization and application of selected set of international standards of the International Organization for Standardization /ISO/, some of which are adopted also as European standards. The provision of STUNED standardization training courses for lecturers and the development of training modules focused on the selected ISO standards and intended to be integrated into the relevant university courses for students by the trained lecturers will contribute to meet common challenges such as the digital shift and the need of encouragement regarding the standards' usage as well as the improvement of the trainees’ ability for practical application of different standards and competences which is a valuable asset to any professional qualification. The STUNED beneficiaries are categorized as: Internal beneficiaries: - University lecturers from partner HE organizations who are not involved in the direct implementation of the project's activities and outputs; - University lecturers from partner HE organizations who are trained in the selected standards; - Students from the educational organisations, participating in the partnership, who are trained in modernized curricula. External beneficiaries: - Lecturers from other HE institutions not involved in the STUNED partnership; - Professional networks, employers' unions, and associations which are not involved in the partnership. The STUNED aim and objectives will be achieved by the following activities: - selecting appropriate standard for training of University lecturers and afterwards for University curricula modernization; - development of e-learning courses to the university lecturers to be trained; - development training modules for selected standards - modernizing selected curricula with developed modules and piloting with involvement of students. The main expected results are: - Research analysis and selection of ISO standards and university specialties / curricula to be modernized via integration of training modules focused on standardization (development of a Map table curricula-standard); -Training courses on standards for university lecturers – development and lecturers’ training; - Development of training modules for students on standards for selected subjects; - Modernizing the University curricula and their approbation (piloting); The direct impact on the participating organizations shall be as follows: On the educational organizations: - The elaboration of courses for university lecturers; - The elaboration of modules regarding standardization addressed to student. - Modernization of educational programmes and curricula On the Standardization organizations: - Promotion the knowledge on standards and standardization The indirect impact will be in the following forms: - Other standardization and HE institutions which are not directly involved in the project will get ready-to-use products; - A better quality of the labor force.
At a time when employability is a focal point in all of Europe and the need for innovating and creating business opportunities is the key for the future of Europe, it is crucial to raise knowledge about standards as a powerful tool to create growth, support employability and economic stability and drive future businesses.The main objective of the project was to support the development and implementation of innovative practices for online standards training in university education at the European level through cooperation between European universities and bodies of standards. The achievement of this objective was achieved by modernizing university curricula with online standards training modules for students and academics, which were piloted in the universities participating in the present project. The project produced two innovative outputs, which were the result in the delivery of two new products – standards training for academics and standards training curricula for students. These two innovative outputs were the subject of dissemination and encouragement of future transfer and exploitation to other fields of university education.
Given the facts that a) the European institutions have shown their support to education about standards, b) the European Commission has recognized that the standards play an important role on the internal market and internationally, for boosting the competitiveness of the economy and applying innovations, and c) the elaboration of educational path in standardization is in line with the European strategy, we took the initiative to apply for this project. This European discussion and conclusions became the trigger that provoked the idea of the present project, which were carried out transnationally to meet the needs of the European university curricula. The needs addressed in this project at the European level are the following: a) Lack of proper university infrastructure and standardization trainings for students at European universities; b) Lack of recognition by university lecturers of the importance of standards training for the future university graduates; c) Lack of interest of young professionals to participate in the standardization process both at European and international level; d) Lack of skills by university graduates to use standards in their work.