Policy approaches to Open Education : case Studies from 28 EU Member States (OpenEdu Policies)
Date: 2018-01-04
Institutions: Joint Research Centre
Subjects: Community support framework, case study, cooperation in the field of education, digital literacy, digital technology, impact of information technology, information technology, learning technique, new educational methods, new technology, research report

Policy Approaches to Open 
Education  

Case Studies from 28 
EU Member States 
(OpenEdu Policies) 

Andreia Inamorato dos Santos, Fabio 
Nascimbeni, Paul Bacsich, Javiera 
Atenas, Stefania Aceto, Daniel Burgos, 
Yves Punie 

                   JRC 

                   2017

EUR 28776 EN 
xx 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This  publication  is  a  Technical  report  by  the  Joint Research  Centre  (JRC),  the  European  Commission’s  science 
and  knowledge  service.  It  aims  to  provide  evidence-based  scientific  support  to  the  European  policymaking 
process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither 
the  European  Commission  nor  any  person  acting  on  behalf  of  the  Commission  is  responsible  for  the  use  that 
might be made of this publication. 

Contact information 

Name: Andreia Inamorato dos Santos / Yves Punie 
Address: Calle Inca Garcilaso, 3 Edificio Expo, Sevilla, Spain 
Email: andreia-inamorato-dos.santos@ec.europa.eu / yves.punie@ec.europa.eu 

JRC Science Hub 
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc 

JRC107713 

EUR 28776 EN 

PDF 

ISBN 978-92-79-73495-3 

ISSN 1831-9424 

doi:10.2760/283135 

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017 

© European Union, 2017 

Reproduction and reuse is authorised provided the original source is acknowledged and the original meaning or 
message  of  the  documents  is  not  distorted.  The  European  Commission  shall  not  be  held  liable  for  any 
consequence 
see 
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/open-education/legal-notice  

recommendations, 

information  and 

reuse.  For 

stemming 

further 

from 

the 

How to cite this report: Inamorato dos Santos, A., Nascimbeni, F., Bacsich, P., Atenas, J., Aceto, S. Burgos, D., 
Punie, Y. (2017) Policy Approaches to Open Education – Case Studies from 28 EU Member States (OpenEdu 
Policies). EUR 28776 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2017, ISBN 978-92-79-73495-3, 
doi:10.2760/283135, JRC107713

All images © European Union 2017 

Title Policy Approaches to Open Education – Case Studies from 28 EU Member States (OpenEdu Policies) 

Abstract 

This  study  provides  the  first-ever  EU-wide  overview  of  the  state  of  play  with  policies  on  open  education 
involving  all  the  28  Member  States.  For  each  Member  State,  a  full  account  of  their  understanding  of  open 
education and strategic policy approach is given.  

Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Contents 

1  Introduction .................................................................................................... 12 

2  Methodology ................................................................................................... 15 

2.1  Approach to the selection of policies ............................................................. 15 

2.2  Approach to interviews ............................................................................... 16 

2.3  Approach to integration and analysis ............................................................ 17 

3  Countries’ desk Research, Analysis and Summary of the Interviews ....................... 18 

3.1  Austria (AT) .............................................................................................. 19 

3.2 Belgium (BE) ............................................................................................. 23 

3.3 Bulgaria (BG) ............................................................................................ 26 

3.4 Croatia (HR) .............................................................................................. 30 

3.5 Cyprus (CY) ............................................................................................... 33 

3.6 Czech Republic (CZ) ................................................................................... 37 

3.7 Denmark (DK) ........................................................................................... 41 

3.8 Estonia (EE) .............................................................................................. 45 

3.9 Finland (FI) ............................................................................................... 48 

3.10 France (FR) ............................................................................................. 54 

3.11 Germany (DE).......................................................................................... 60 

3.12 Greece (EL) ............................................................................................. 67 

3.13 Hungary (HU) .......................................................................................... 71 

3.14 Ireland (IE) ............................................................................................. 74 

3.15 Italy (IT) ................................................................................................. 78 

3.16 Latvia (LV) .............................................................................................. 82 

3.17 Lithuania (LT) .......................................................................................... 85 

3.18 Luxembourg (LU) ..................................................................................... 89 

3.19 Malta (MT) ............................................................................................... 92 

3.20 Netherlands (NL) ...................................................................................... 95 

3.21 Poland (PL) .............................................................................................. 99 

3.22 Portugal (PT) ......................................................................................... 105 

3.23 Romania (RO) ........................................................................................ 109 

3.24 Slovakia (SK) ......................................................................................... 115 

3.25 Slovenia (SI) ......................................................................................... 118 

3.26 Spain (ES) ............................................................................................. 123 

3.27 Sweden (SE) .......................................................................................... 127 

3.28 United Kingdom (UK) .............................................................................. 131 

4  Analysis ........................................................................................................ 138 

iii 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

4.1  Introduction ............................................................................................ 138 

4.2  Limitations of the Study ............................................................................ 138 

4.3  Emerging approaches to policy for opening up education .............................. 138 

4.4  Correspondence between policies and the OpenEdu Framework ..................... 139 

4.5  Policy implementation and impact to date ................................................... 140 

4.6  Key barriers and enablers during implementation ........................................ 143 

4.7  Relation between policy and EU-level developments ..................................... 145 

5  Suggestions by interviewees for Future Open Education Policies .......................... 147 

5.1  Suggestions for the European Union ........................................................... 147 

5.2  Suggestions for Member States ................................................................. 150 

6  Suggestions for Further Research .................................................................... 153 

7  Conclusion .................................................................................................... 154 

iv 

 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Foreword 

The purpose of this document is to present a state-of-the-art on policies for open education 
in  the  European  Union, with  case  studies  from  all  28  Member  States. The  diversity  of 
polices  and  approaches  presented  herein  reflect  the  diversity  that  is  intrinsic  to  the 
European Union. Each Member State has specific goals for education and priority areas to 
address  when  formulating  its  policies.  However,  this  research  shows  that  Member 
States are  aware  of  open  education  issues and  that  in  one  way  or  another  nearly  all of 
them have implemented some sort of initiative or action plan in relation to open education, 
even though that goal is not explicit in some cases. 

The case studies presented in this report suggest that the European Commission is one of 
the  key  players  in  supporting and  promoting  open  education  in  Europe.   To  this  end, 
although  the  European  Commission  has  limited  scope  for  requesting  action  from  Member 
States,  it  has  been  taking  a  proactive  approach  in  advising  on  the  importance  of  open 
education  for  the  modernisation  of  education  systems  in  Europe.  The  European 
Commission  has  also  been  providing  tools  to  support  stakeholders  in  the  development  of 
their  own  open  educational  strategies  (e.g.  OpenEdu  Framework,  Digital  Competences 
Frameworks, open science, open access). 

Besides  arguing  for  and  supporting  open  education  in  the  2013  Communication  on  open 
education  and  in  the  most  recent  Communications  on  school  and  higher  education,  the 
European Commission has also funded various projects on open education via the Horizon 
2020 and other  research and innovation programmes (e.g.  European Open Science Cloud 
Declaration). Therefore,  supporting  a  Europe-wide  research  project  such  as  OpenEdu 
Policies,  with  the  goal  of  finding  out  what  policies  are  in  place  (and  if  there  are  none, 
enquiring  as  to  why),  is  another  initiative  aimed  at  equipping  Member  States  with  a 
knowledge  base  on  open  education.  It  showcases  ideas,  frameworks  and  practices,  and 
highlights  opportunities  for  partnerships  and  knowledge-sharing  in  the  pursuit  of 
supporting an open education ecosystem via policy-making. 

This report is therefore another step taken by the European Commission (DG EAC and JRC) 
to meet Members States’ requirements for more research and evidence on open education 
in  support  of  policy-making  in  Europe. The  case  study  report  forms  the  basis  –  together 
with  additional  research  and  expert  consultations  –  for  another  JRC  report  entitled  Going 
Open:  Policy  Recommendations  on  Open  Education  in  Europe  (OpenEdu  Policies),  which 
highlights  policy  options  to  further  open  up  education  in  Europe.  In  addition,  earlier 
published  studies  such  as  the  OpenEdu  Framework  and  related  reports  can  be  found 
at https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/open-education 

information  on  all  our  studies  can  be 

More 
hub: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/learning-and-skills. 

found  on 

the 

JRC  Science 

Yves Punie 
Deputy Head of Unit  
DG JRC Unit Human Capital and Employment 
European Commission 

5 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Acknowledgements 

We  would  like  to  thank  all  the  interviewees  and  informants  to  the  case  studies,  hereby 
listed in the alphabetical order of their respective countries: 

1.  Dr.  Helga  Posset,  Staff  member  of  the  expert  unit  on  higher  education  development, 

Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Economy, Austria 

2.  Noel  Vercruysse,  Senior  Project  Leader  for  the  internationalisation  of  HE,  Flemish    

Ministry of Education, Belgium 

3.  Eliza  Stefanova,  Vice-rector  of 

Information  Activities,  Academic  Staff  and 

Administration, Sofia University, Bulgaria 

4.  Sandra Kučina Softić, Assistant Director for Education and User Support, University of 

Zagreb Computing Centre SRCE, Croatia 

5.  Anastasia  Economou,  Head  of  the  Educational  Technology  Department,  Pedagogical 

Institute, Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus 

6.  Tamara  Kovacova,  Manager  of  the  Open  Education  project,  EDUpoint  programme, 

EDUin (Advising institution to the Ministry of Education), Czech Republic 

7.  Line Bækgaard-Fuldmægtig, Danish Agency for Higher Education, Denmark 

8.  Ene  Koitla,  Head,  Innovation  Centre,  and  Inga  Kõue,  Head  of  Content  Development, 

Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education, Estonia 

9.  Ilmari  Hyvönen,  Senior  advisor,  Ministry  of  Education  and  Culture,  Department  of 

Higher Education and Science Policy, Finland 

10. Catherine  Mongenet,  CEO  of  FUN  MOOC;  Mehdi  Gharsallah,  Strategic  Adviser  at  the 

Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France 

11. Ida  Stamm,  Senior  Consultant,  VDI/VDE  Innovation,  Technik  GmbH  on  behalf  of 
BMBF,  Germany;  Barbara  Getto  and  Richard  Heinen,  University  of  Duisburg-Essen, 
Heads  of  Mainstreaming  OER  programme  for  North  Rhine  Westphalia,  Germany; 
Charlotte Echterhoff, Scientific Officer, DLR Project Management Agency, on behalf of 
BMBF and Dr. Stephan Pfisterer, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany 

12. John  Vrettaros,  Unit  of  Digital  systems  in  LLL,  Directorate  of  Digital  Governance, 

Ministry of Education, Research & Religious Affairs, Greece 

13. András  Benedek,  Professor,  Head  of  Open  Content  Development  Research  Group, 

Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary 

14. Terry  Maguire,  Director,  National  Forum  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching  and 

Learning in Higher Education, Ireland 

15. Donatella  Solda,  Executive  Director,  Cabinet  of  the  Minister,  Ministry  of  Education, 

University and Research, Italy 

16. Ilmārs Slaidiņš, Professor and OER expert, Riga Technical University, Latvia 

17. Giedrius  Vaidelis,  Director  of  Education  Development  Centre,  and  Vaino  Brazdeikis, 
Director  of  Centre  of  Information  Technologies  in  Education  under  the  Ministry  of 
Education and Science, Lithuania 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

18. Serge  LINCKELS,  Professor,  Ministère  de  l’Éducation  Nationale,  de  l’Enfance  et  de  la 
Jeunesse, Service de Coordination de la Recherche et de l’Innovation pédagogiques et 
technologiques, Luxembourg 

19.  Emanuel  Zammit  and  Jeffrey  Zammit,  Ministry  of  Education  and  Employment; 
Alexander Grech, Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Education and Employment, Malta 

20. Ruud Nauts, Policy officer; Juurian van Kan, Senior Policy Officer, Ministry of Education, 
Culture and Science, Netherlands 

21. João Carlos Martins de Sousa, Directorate General of Education, Ministry of 
Education, Portugal  

22. Beata Pojawa, Department of Education and Health, Department of European 
Structural Fund, Ministry of Development; Alek Tarkowski, Director, Centrum Cyfrowe; 
and staff at the Department of Innovation and Development, Ministry of Science and 
Higher Education, Poland 

23.  Radu  Puchiu,  Secretary  of  State,  Office  of  the  Prime  Minister,  and  Diana  Andone, 
Director, eLearning Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania 

24. Iveta Ferčíková, State advisor at the Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Development 
of the Civil Society, Slovakia 

25. Borut Čampelj, Secretary,  Education and Development Office, Ministry of Education, 
Science  and  Sport;  Davor  Orlic,  COO,  Knowledge  for  All  Foundation,  Co-founder  of 
videolectures.net  and  Project  officer  at  Opening  Up  Slovenia;  and  Mitja  Jermol,  Head  of 
Centre  for  Knowlegde  Transfer  at  Jožef  Stefan  Institute  and  UNESCO  chair  in  open 
technologies for OER and open learning, Slovenia 

26. Felix Serrano Delgado, Director of National Institute of Educational Technologies and 
Teacher-training (INTEF), Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport;  Miguel Ángel 
Pereira Baz, director of CEDEC and Cristina Valdera López, head of service of CEDEC. 

27. Per Rosenblad, Ministry Secretary, Ministry of Education and Research, Sweden 

28.  Pete  Cannell,  Project  co-director,  OEPS,  Open  University  in  Scotland,  Scotland;  and 
David Kernohan, Senior co-design manager, Jisc, UK 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Executive Summary 

The research on open education carried out by the JRC (OpenEdu Framework and OpenEdu 
Policies)  is  a  contribution  to  the  European  Commission’s  Communication  Opening  up 
Education:  Innovative  Teaching  and  Learning  for  All  through  New  Technologies  and  Open 
Educational Resources1 (European Commission, 2013). It also contributes to the two most 
recent  Communications,  Renewed  Agenda  for  Higher  Education  and  School  Development 
and Excellent Teaching for a Great Start in Life (European Commission, 2017). In addition, 
OpenEdu  Policies  aims  to  contribute  to  the  Education  and  Training  2020  agenda,  which 
includes open education as one of its new priorities2.  

All these policies aim to stimulate open and flexible learning in order to provide  European 
citizens  with  the  skills  needed  in  the  21st-century  economy  and  society,  and  to  raise  the 
profile of innovative ways of learning and teaching through ICT, stressing that embedding 
ICT  and  OER  in  education  will  increase  both  the  efficiency  and  fairness  of  education  and 
training in Europe. 

In  order  to  achieve  these  ambitious  goals,  effective  open  education  policies  are 
needed. Taking into account the different understandings of the concept of open education 
that  exist  in  the  different  European  Member  States,  and  recognising  the  different 
approaches in place, this study shows the types of policies that are in place across the EU.  

This  study  was  run  by  the  European  Commission’s  Joint  Research  Centre  (JRC)  in 
collaboration  with  the  Research  Institute  for  Innovation  &  Technology  in  Education  (UNIR 
iTED3)  at  the  Universidad  Internacional  de  la  Rioja  (UNIR4).  It  is  part  of  the  OpenEdu 
Policies  project5  and  accompanies  the  JRC  Science  for  Policy  report  Going  Open  –  Policy 
Recommendations  on  Open  Education  in  Europe  (JRC  2017).  This  report  covers  the  28 
Member  States6    of  the  EU:  Austria,  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Cyprus,  Czech  Republic, 
Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland,  France,  Germany,  Greece,  Hungary,  Ireland,  Italy,  Latvia, 
Lithuania,  Luxembourg,  Malta,  Netherlands,  Poland,  Portugal,  Slovenia,  Spain,  Romania, 
Slovakia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. 

The study: 

 

Identifies  and  analyses,  through  desk  research,  national-level  policies  which  focus 
on  open  education,  or  which  contribute  to  opening  up  education  by  making  a 
specific  contribution  to  one  or  more  of  the  10  dimensions  of  open  education  from 
the OpenEdu framework7; 

  Explores,  through  a  number  of  interviews  with  policymakers  and  experts, 
perceptions of what national and EU policies are needed and of possible barriers and 
enablers to national and EU policies on open education; 

1 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm  
2 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5568_en.htm  
3 http://ited.unir.net  
4 http://www.unir.net  
5 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/open-education  
6 We are of course aware that there is OER activity and indeed policy work in some non-EU European countries in 
the  European  Higher  Education  Area,  with  Norway  and  Switzerland  the  most  obvious  examples.  For  other 
examples see http://education.okfn.org/world/ – but non-EU European countries were not in scope for this study. 
7 Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening up Education: A Support Framework for 
Higher Education Institutions (pp.24-30). JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN; doi:10.2791/293408. 

8 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

  Presents  the  analysis  of  the  results  of  both  the  desk  and  field  research,  making 
reference  to  issues  faced  by  decision-makers  when  planning  policies  on  open 
education; 

  Brings  a  set  of  topics  for  policy  suggestions  at  the  EU  and  at  the  Member  State 

levels, elicited by research participants. 

The study provides the first-ever EU-wide overview of the state of play with policies related 
to  opening  up  education  in  the  28  Member  States  (MS).  For  each  MS  a  brief  overview  is 
given of the  open  education situation in the country,  one or two  relevant policies (and in 
most  MS  they  do  exist),  and  finally  an  interview  with  one  or  two  policymakers  or  policy-
aware experts from the country, ideally chosen from the most relevant ministry or national 
agency. 

The  country  section  is  followed  by  a  section  of  analyses  and  tabulations  looking  at  the 
correspondence between policies and the OpenEdu Framework, policy implementation and 
impact to date, key barriers and enablers during implementation,  and the relation between 
the policy and the EU-level developments.  

The  work  has  covered  the  28  countries  of  the  European  Union  (EU):  Austria,  Belgium, 
Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Cyprus,  Czech  Republic,  Denmark,  Estonia,  France,  Finland,  Germany, 
Greece,  Hungary,  Ireland,  Italy,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Luxembourg,  Malta,  Netherlands, 
Poland,  Portugal,  Romania,  Slovakia,  Slovenia,  Spain,  Sweden,  and  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  selected  policies  range  across  all  educational  sectors  (school,  higher  education,  VET 
and adult learning). 

Based on the study results, we identified four types of policies: 

  Policies  focusing  specifically  on  opening  up  education  through  the  promotion  of 

open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP);  

  Policies relating to general ICT  (Information and Communication Technologies) for 

learning with some open education component;  

  Comprehensive  strategic  educational  policies  with  some  open  education 

component;  

  Polices  designed  as  National  Open  Government  Plans  with  some  open  education 

component.  

The  identified  policies  have  been  analysed  using  the  OpenEdu  Framework  produced  by 
JRC8, which identifies six core dimensions  of  open education (Access, Content, Pedagogy, 
Recognition,  Collaboration  and  Research)  and  four  transversal  dimensions  (Strategy, 
Technology,  Quality,  Leadership).  The  great  majority  of  the  policies  analysed  target  a 
number  of  these  openness  dimensions,  including  in  many  cases  some  of  the  transversal 
dimensions, showing that the understanding of open education on the part of the majority 
of  European  policymakers  –  though  not  all  of  them  –  extends  far  beyond  OER  and  open 
content. The collaboration dimension, for example, was referred to as being very important 
in a number of interviews (e.g. by Finland, Italy, Romania and Scotland), showing a certain 
degree of maturity in the understanding of the process of opening up education. 

8 Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening up Education: A Support Framework for 
Higher Education Institutions. JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN; doi:10.2791/293408. 

9 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy  impact  was  a  focus  of  the  study.  In  general  terms  most  of  the  policies  are  too 
recent to have had much evidence-based impact. In addition, some countries like Germany 
and the Netherlands had substantial activity before there was a relevant policy in place and 
it is difficult to disentangle the effect of the policy from the general volume of activity. In 
each  case,  when  evidence-based  impact  was  reported,  this  is  recorded  in  the  interview 
reports. 

Another  major  interest  of  the  study  were  the  main  barriers  that  can  prevent  open 
education  policies  (or,  for  countries  where  there  is  no  policy,  open  education  initiatives) 
from  fully  succeeding,  as  well  as  the  potential  enablers  for  open  education.  The  research 
team believes in fact  that understanding the barriers and enablers to open education can 
help policymakers who are both currently running policies and planning future initiatives in 
the field to better steer their actions. The main barriers identified by the interviewees are: 
low  ICT-readiness,  low  policy  priority  assigned  to  open  education,  fragmentation  of 
initiatives,  lack  of  institutional  support,  resistance  to  cultural  change,  lack  of  awareness 
about open education, low open education capacity within the teaching population, and the 
absence  of  an  open  licenses  national  recognition  scheme.  The  main  enablers  for  open 
education to thrive, in the eyes of the interviewees, are: a clear policy priority assigned to 
open education, both at Member State and EU level; awareness-raising on open education, 
targeting  leaders  and  educators;  capacity-building  on  open  education  for  educators  and 
other  stakeholders;  measures  to  empower  educators;  and  online  platforms  and  advocacy 
communities. 

In terms of relations between the national and EU level, all Member States considered 
that  their  policies  and  initiatives  are  in  line  with  EU  education  policy  priorities.  However, 
even  if  most  of  the  interviews  stated  that  coherence  exists  between  their  national  policy 
and the EU agenda in the field, further dissemination of the European Commission’s 
policies and investments in open education was described as an essential action 
to be taken. This would motivate MS representatives to make more visible their activities 
on open education.  

Finally,  the  various  lessons  learned  and  suggestions  made  by  the  interviewees  in  the 
country reports have been analysed and grouped in a way informed by the dimensions of 
the OpenEdu Framework, and discussed to include the usual dimensions of EU action such 
as research, dissemination and funding.  

Key conclusions 

Most  MS  have  implemented  some  kind  of  initiative  with  regard  to  open  education,  but 
there  is  still  a  long  way  to  go.  In  most  MS  the  vision  of  open  education  is  rather  broad, 
going  beyond  OER  and  open  content  –  even  if  in  a  number  of  MS,  when  this  vision  is 
applied  to  actual  policy,  the  approach  is  still  limited  to  OER.  Specifically,  most  of  the 
analysed  policies  and  initiatives  cover  many  of  the  dimensions  from  the  OpenEdu 
Framework,  with  an  important  role  for  the  collaboration  dimension  (this  finding  is 
corroborated  by  the  fact  that  a  good  number  of  policies  result  from  open  stakeholders’ 
consultations and provide a rather active role for stakeholders). 

In addition, if MS and the EU wish for greater progress – and in a more uniform way – in 
the  open  education  field,  then  steps  will  have  to  be  taken  by  the  EU  to  both  increase 
awareness  of  open  education  and  increase  the  frequency  of  studies  and  peer-learning 
activities among MS. What emerged from the study is in fact that, due to the vagaries of 
project-based funding, rather a large number of MS had not looked at such issues for many 

10 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

years.  A  more  systematic  approach,  such  as  a  kind  of  regular  “open  education  census”, 
would be needed, preferably carried out in some kind of MS-EU partnership. 

Actions  aiming at opening  up  education can be found in  four  typologies  of  policies:  a) 
policies  focusing  specifically  on  opening  up  education  through  the  promotion  of  OER  and 
OEP; b) policies relating to general ICT for learning with some open education component; 
c) comprehensive strategic educational policies with some open education component; and 
d)  polices  built  up  as  National  Open  Government  Plans  with  some  open  education 
component.  

Quick guide 

This  report  accompanies  the  Science  for  Policy  report  Going  Open:    Policy 
Recommendations  on  Open  Education  in  Europe  (OpenEdu  Policies),  which  sets  out 
focus  groups  with  Member  States.  For  policy 
policy  suggestions  elicited  via 
recommendations  at  an  institutional  level  (e.g.  universities),  see  the  report  Opening  Up 
Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions (JRC, 2016).  

Policy context 

research  on  open  education  supports 

The  JRC 
the  European  Commission’s 
Communication Opening Up Education: Innovative Teaching and Learning for All through 
New  Technologies  and  Open  Educational  Resources9  (EAC,  2013)  along  with  the  most 
recent  Communications  Renewed  Agenda  for  Higher  Education  and  School  Development 
and  Excellent  Teaching  for  a  Great  Start  in  Life  (EAC,  2017).  OpenEdu  Policies  is  also 
framed  in  support  of  the  Education  and  Training  2020  agenda,  which  includes  open 
education among its new priorities10. 

9 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm  
10 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5568_en.htm  

11 

 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

1  Introduction 

The goal of the study  Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe:  Case Studies from 
28  Member  States  (OpenEdu  Policies)  was  to  find  out  which  specific  policies  on  open 
education  are  in  place  in  European  countries.  At  the  same  time,  by  eliciting  the  different 
perspectives,  barriers  and  challenges  to  having  such  specific  policies,  the  study  aims  to 
provide  evidence  that  will  contribute  to  a  greater  understanding  of  the  development  of 
open education in Europe. This report accompanies the JRC Science for Policy Report Going 
Open: Policy Recommendations on Open Education in Europe (OpenEdu Policies).  

The study: 

 

Identifies  and  analyses,  through  desk  research,  national-level  policies  which  focus 
on open education or which contribute to opening up education by making a specific 
contribution to one or more of the 10 dimensions of open education11; 

  Explores,  through  a  number  of  interviews  with  policymakers  and  experts, 
perceptions  of  what  national  and  EU  policies  are  needed  and  of  possible  barriers 
and enablers to national and EU policies on open education; 

  Presents  the  analysis  of  the  results  of  both  the  desk  and  field  research,  making 
reference  to  issues  faced  by  decision-makers  when  planning  policies  on  open 
education; 

  Brings  a  set  of  topics  for  policy  suggestions  at  the  EU  and  at  the  Member  State 

level, elicited by research participants. 

The  study  covers  the  28  countries  of  the  European  Union:  Austria  (AT),  Belgium  (BE), 
Bulgaria  (BG),  Croatia  (HR),  Cyprus  (CY),  Czech  Republic  (CZ),  Denmark  (DK),  Estonia 
(EE),  Finland  (FI),  France  (FR),  Germany  (DE),  Greece  (EL),  Hungary  (HU),  Ireland  (IE), 
Italy  (IT),  Latvia  (LV),  Lithuania  (LT),  Luxembourg  (LU),  Malta  (MT),  Netherlands  (NL), 
Poland  (PL),  Portugal  (PT),  Romania  (RO),  Slovakia  (SK),  Slovenia  (SI),  Spain  (ES), 
Sweden (SE), and the United Kingdom (UK). 

This study contains: 

  A  summary  of  the  interview  (occasionally,  more  than  one  interview)  for  each 
country,  preceded  by  relevant  overview  information  on  the  country  that  arose 
during desk research and discussions with experts; 

  An analysis of the desk research and of the interview results; 

  A set of topics for policy suggestions at the EU and Member State level. 

11 Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening Up Education: A Support Framework for 
Higher Education Institutions. JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN; doi:10.2791/293408. 

12 

 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

The study has identified 18 policies, presented below12: 

Table 1. Overview of the identified policies 

Country 

Name of policy 

Croatia 

Strategy of Education, 
Science and Technology 

Cyprus 

Digital Strategy for Cyprus 

Czech 
Republic 

Estonia 

France 

France 

Germany 

Strategy for Education Policy 
until 2020 
Estonian Lifelong Learning 
Strategy 2020 

FUN MOOC 

PIX 

Advancement through 
Education: Open Universities 
2011-2020 

Germany 

OER Info 

Greece 

Ireland 

Italy 

Lithuania 

3rd National Action Plan on 
Open Government 2016-
2018 
National Forum for the 
Advancement of Teaching 
and Learning in Higher 
Education 
National Plan for Digital 
School 
Activity Plan for ICT 
Implementation in General 
and Vocational Education 
2014–2016 

Type of 
policy13 
General 
education policy 
Policy for ICT in 
education 
General 
education policy 
General 
education policy 
Specific open 
education policy 
Policy for ICT in 
Education 

Specific open 
education policy 

Specific open 
education policy 
Open 
Government 
Action Plan 

Sector 

Level 

Status 

All sectors 

National  Ongoing 

School 
education 
School and 
Adult Ed 
School and 
Higher Ed 
Higher 
education 

National  Ongoing 

National  Ongoing 

National  Ongoing 

National  Ongoing 

All sectors 

National  Ongoing 

Higher Ed 
and Adult 
Ed 
School and 
Higher Ed 

National  Ongoing 

National & 
Regional 

Ongoing 

All sectors 

National  Ongoing 

General 
education policy 

Higher 
Education 

National  Ongoing 

Policy for ICT in 
education 

School 
education 

National  Ongoing 

Policy for ICT in 
education 

School 
education 
and VET 

Post-
secondary 
education  

National 

Closed 

National  Ongoing 

Malta 

National Lifelong Learning 
Strategy 2014-2020 

General 
Education Policy 

Netherlands 

Poland 

HO2025, de waarde(n) van 
weten – The value of 
knowing 
OP KED – Operational 
Programme for Knowledge 
Education Development 

Portugal 

Tell us a story 

Romania 

National Open Government 
Plan (Virtual School Library 
and OER) 

Slovakia 

Open Government 
Partnership Action Plan 2015 

Slovenia 

Opening Up Slovenia 

Spain  

Plan de Cultura Digital en la 

General 
education policy 

Higher 
education 

National  Ongoing 

General 
education policy 

Policy for ICT in 
Education 
Open 
Government 
Action Plan 
Open 
Government 
Action Plan 
Specific open 
education policy 
Policy for ICT in 

All sectors 

National  Ongoing 

School 
education 

School 
Education 

School 
Education 

National  Ongoing 

National  Ongoing 

National  Ongoing 

All sectors 

National  Ongoing 

School 

National  Ongoing 

12 For Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Sweden, the study 
could  not  identify  any  specific  policy  aimed  at  to  opening  up  education;  the  absence  of  such  a  policy  has  been 
discussed during the interviews. 
13 This classification is presented in Section 4.2. 

13 

 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Country 

Name of policy 

UK 
(England) 

UK 
(Scotland) 

Escuela 
Higher Education Funding 
Council national OER 
programmes 2009-15 
Open Educational Practices 
in Scotland (OEPS) 

Type of 
policy13 
Education 

Sector 

Level 

Status 

Education 

Specific open 
education policy 

Higher 
Education 

Specific open 
education policy 

Higher 
Education 

Regional 

Closed 

Regional  Ongoing 

Interviews have been carried out in 28 countries: in the cases of countries where it was not 
possible to identify a relevant policy, the interview focused on the reasons for the absence 
of such a policy and on the general state of the art of open education in the country.  

Although the ultimate goal was to interview representatives from the national authorities, 
and every effort was made towards that end, in some cases the interview was carried out 
with experts or advisors to the ministries. This was due mainly to the low rate of response 
to  the  interview  invitation  on  the  part  of  the  targeted  stakeholders  at  the  ministries.  The 
list of interviewees is presented in the acknowledgments section.  

14 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

2  Methodology 

The following data collection and analyses have been carried out: 

  Desk research: review of existing reports14, contact and interaction with experts15, 
further  research  for  each  country  in  order  to  select  the  most  relevant  policy  (in 
those cases where there were several) or justify their absence; 

  Field  research:  identification  of  one  or  more  potential  interviewees  per  MS  and 
carrying  out  of  online  interviews  with  a  reference  person  involved  in  the  design, 
implementation  or  assessment  of  the  policies  identified  (or,  in  a  few  cases,  senior 
experts, for example in universities, with in-depth knowledge of such policies); 

  Results integration: analysis of desk and field research results, further searches 

for information (when needed), and conclusions from the data gathered. 

Existing  reports  (as  recent  as  could  be  found)  were  used  to  understand  the  historical 
situation in relation to open education in each MS. That situation was then updated by new 
desk  research  and  discussions  with  experts  in  the  MS.  The  main  value  of  the  existing 
reports  was  mainly  to  indicate  projects,  policies  and  experts;  no  use  was  made  of  any 
conclusions  from  these  reports.  Ongoing  data  collection  projects  such  as  the  OER  World 
Map16,  OpenDOAR17  and  the  Distance  Learning  Portal18  were  used  to  gather  up-to-date 
quantitative  information.  However,  the  degree  to  which  stakeholders  in  MS  inform  these 
projects  about  changes  and  updates  is  very  variable  –  thus,  as  with  many  other  studies, 
the qualitative research carried out in this case was able to identify more information than 
the quantitative data suggested. 

2.1  Approach to the selection of policies 

The  working  definition  of  open  education  for  this  study  is  the  one  presented  in  the 
OpenEdu  study  by  the  JRC-EAC:  “Open  education  is  as  a  way  of  carrying  out  education, 
often using digital technologies. Its aim is to widen access and participation to everyone by 
removing  barriers  and  making  learning  accessible,  abundant,  and  customisable  for  all.  It 
offers  multiple  ways  of  teaching  and  learning,  building  and  sharing  knowledge.  It  also 
provides a variety of access routes to formal and non-formal education, and connects the 
two.”  In  line  with  this  definition,  the  selected  policies  for  analysis  have  some  of  the 
following characteristics: a) they aim to widen access to and participation in education, b) 
they  promote  multiple  ways  of  teaching  and  learning,  c)  they  explore  access  routes  to 
formal  and  non-formal  education,  and  connect  the  two,  or  d)  they  support  recognition  of 
non-formal learning. 

In terms of priority: first are policies fostering Open Educational Content (OER) and Open 
Educational Practices (OEP); second, policies for ICT in education, which contain elements 
of  openness;  third,  policies  for  Lifelong  Learning  with  elements  of  Recognition  of  Prior 

14 See Chapter 8 for a list of references. 
15 See Annex 2 for the list of experts. 
16 https://oerworldmap.org/  
17 http://www.opendoar.org/ 
18 https://www.distancelearningportal.com/ 

15 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Learning;  and  fourth,  policies  for  open  access  and  open  government,  when  they  affect 
education. 

In terms of timescale and maturity, the focus has been on policies running concurrently 
with  the  study,  or  the  ones  launched  in  the  previous  3-5  years.  If  they  are  particularly 
relevant,  policies  have  also  been  included  that:  a)  are  no  longer  running  (if  there  were 
interesting elements in the reasons for their closure) or b) are present in approved policy 
documents but have not been formally launched yet. 

In terms of coverage, all the 28 target countries were addressed. For countries where it 
was  not  possible  to  find  a  policy  fitting  the  above  description,  this  was  explained  in  the 
respective  country  section,  with  the  lack  of  open  education  policies  being  a  relevant 
indicator  in  the  frame  of  the  study.  For  the  few  countries  with  more  than  one  policy  on 
open education, two policies were selected. 

2.2  Approach to interviews 

The following considerations have been taken into account in the design and carrying out 
of the interviews. First, open education policies, whatever their scope, are to be considered 
in relation to wider educational and socio-economic policy aims. Second, initiatives at the 
local  level  often  respond  to  context-specific  needs  but  might  be  able  to  scale  up  if  they 
respond  effectively  to  wider  educational  and  socio-economic  priorities.  Third,  the  level  of 
autonomy/centralisation  of  education  and  training  systems  strongly  influences  the 
dynamics  and  features  of  decision-making,  implementation  and  evaluation  of  policies. 
Fourth,  the  political  actors  involved  in  the  process  tend  to  strongly  influence  the  policy 
cycle  evolution,  based  mostly  on  their  own  personal  vision  of  the  world.  Last,  the 
stakeholders  (trade  unions,  students’  associations,  etc.)  and  beneficiaries  (teachers, 
students) often play a key role in determining how successful the policy is. 

During the interviews, the perceptions of policymakers were also relevant, especially with 
regard to: 

  Current initiatives and plans for future initiatives; 

  Challenges and barriers encountered in existing policies; 

  Key  enablers  for  implementation,  the  actors  involved,  and  the  role  played  by 
beneficiaries and stakeholders in enhancing (or not) the effectiveness of the policy;  

  Actual and potential role of European policies and funding schemes; 

  Feasibility  of  inter-country  policies  that  foster  open  education  (mainly  between 

countries where the same language is spoken); 

  Relationship between national policies and EU frameworks; 

  Unexpected developments associated with the implementation of the policy; 

  Lessons learned from implementation and evaluation of the policy. 

16 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

2.3  Approach to integration and analysis 

The  case  studies  look  into  the  details  of  what  policies  are  needed  and  how  best  to 
formulate  them.  Therefore  the  aim  of  the  topics  for  policy  suggestions  contained  in  this 
report is to provide  evidence-based suggestions on policies and measures aiming to open 
up education.  

The  focus  on  topics  for  policy  suggestions  has  been  a  concrete  and  pragmatic  exercise, 
based on the findings emerging from the analysis of actual policies and especially from the 
critical  analysis  of  issues  emerging  during  the  interviews.  Furthermore,  the  identified 
policies have been analysed in accordance with the dimensions of the OpenEdu Framework 
produced by JRC19, to allow an appreciation of the richness of open education approaches 
beyond the promotion of OER. 

19 Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening Up Education: A Support Framework for 
Higher Education Institutions. JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN; doi:10.2791/293408. 

17 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3  Countries’ desk Research, Analysis and Summary of the 

Interviews  

This  chapter  presents  a  country-by-country  overview  of  open  education  policies.  Each 
country case is organised as follows: 

  an overview on the state of the art of open education in the country (as emerging 

from desk research and consultation with national experts); 

  a presentation of the selected policy for the country, outlining its main features; 

  a summary of the interview(s) results for policymakers and/or experts. 

It  should  be  highlighted  that  for  some  countries  (Austria,  Bulgaria,  Denmark,  Finland, 
Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Sweden) no policy was found that met the criteria specified 
in the methodology  chapter.  In those  cases, therefore, the policy ID  card is missing,  and 
the interview focused on the general state-of-the-art of open education in the country and 
on possible future policies and initiatives in the field. 

18 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.1  Austria (AT) 

Open education in the country 

Austria  has  some  activity  in  ICT  in  schools  and  in  higher  education,  in  particular  with 
distance  learning  delivered  from  Danube  University  Krems20  and  some  other  providers, 
though most are blended rather than fully online21. However, the country is not particularly 
active  in  OER  or  MOOCs.  On  the  other  hand,  open  access  development  (related  to  the 
research  dimension  of  the  OpenEdu  Framework)  is  substantial  –  the  OpenDOAR  portal 
reports22 28 open access repositories from Austria. 

The  overall  context  for  education  reform  is  set  by  the  National  Reform  Programme 
document23  of  2015.  It  cites  EU  recommendations  to  work  on  “recognition  of  migrants’ 
qualifications”, and at the school level to: 

Improve educational outcomes in particular for disadvantaged young people including those with 
a migrant background, by enhancing early childhood education and reducing the negative effects 
of early tracking. 

And at university level to: 

Further  improve  strategic  planning  in  higher  education  and  enhance  measures  to  reduce 
dropouts. 

The  OECD  Review  of  Policies  to  Improve  the  Effectiveness  of  Resource  Use  in  Schools 
reported  in  2015  on  Austria24,  but  made  no  mention  of  OER,  open  education  or  MOOCs. 
The ENIC-NARIC 2015 report25 Higher Education in Austria similarly makes no mention of 
such features but does contain material on distance education, noting in a specific section 
(3.2.7) on distance learning that (p.29): 

The  use  of  new  media  is  of  central  significance  in  this  connection.  The  University  of  Linz,  for 
example,  has  been  offering  law  studies  with  multimedia  support  as  a  distance-learning 
programme since the winter semester of 2001. 

It also makes specific reference (p. 11) to DU Krems (and then notes cross-border activity 
with the FernUniversität26 in Germany): 

The University for Continuing Education Krems (Danube University Krems) is a university facility 
of  a  special  kind,  having  its  own  legal  basis  (Act  on  the  Danube  University  Krems),  adopted  in 
1994.  It  is  a  corporation  under  public  law  with  far-reaching  self-administration  and  serves  the 
goal of post-graduate training and further training. 

There  is  relevant  policy-driven  activity  in  ICT  in  schools  (efit21)  and  relevant  policy 
formulation underway for the university sector. 

efit21 – digitale Bildung (digital education for schools) 

The  policy-driven  activity  with  a  focus  on  ICT  in  schools  originates  from  the  Federal 
Ministry for Education27 (Bundesministerium für Bildung, BMB). The policy started in 2012 
and is called Efit21 – digitale Bildung (digital education). 

20 http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/en/  
21 But see the University of Salzburg offering at http://salzburg.unigis.net  
22 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=15&title=Austria  
23 http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/csr2015/nrp2015_austria_en.pdf  
24 https://www.oecd.org/edu/school/2016%2006%2014%20OECD_Country%20Background%20Report%20AT%2
0FINAL.pdf  
25 http://wissenschaft.bmwfw.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/wissenschaft/naric/The_Austrian_System_of_Higher_E
ducation2015_engl.pdf  
26 https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/regionalzentren/ausland.shtml  
27 https://www.bmb.gv.at  

19 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

This  policy28  puts  the  focus  on  the  integration  and  use  of  new  information  and 
communication technologies in Austrian education facilities. In doing so, the following goals 
are being pursued. 

  Through the use of ICT, the quality of teaching and learning should be improved in 

a targeted manner. 

  Young  people  and  adults  should  be  taught  the  necessary  digital  competences  for 

personal, professional and social success. 

 

ICT  training  in  schools  should  impart  labour-market-relevant  skills  and  education- 
or job-related e-skills. 

  The use of ICT in educational administration should improve efficiency and promote 

sustainable modern organisation. 

  The further integration of society should be facilitated. To that end it proposes that 
barriers  to  the  use  of  ICT  should  be  removed  in  order  to  make  their  potential 
accessible  to  everyone,  and  thus 
integration  and 
participation. 

improve  overall  social 

As  it  turned  out,  however,  due  it  seems  to  a  process  of  reorganisation  in  the  Ministry,  it 
was not possible to find a relevant person to talk “on the record” about this policy. 

ICT in higher education 

Fortunately, conversations with experts had indicated that the Federal Ministry for Science 
and Research wished to set up a framework that encourages higher education institutions 
to develop their own materials and make them available to all students. An interview was 
organised with the relevant person. 

Interviewee 

Mag.  Helga  Posset,  member  of  staff  of  the  expert  unit  on  higher  education  development, 
Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Economy 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The development of a strategic paper concerning digitisation and Open Education, the so-
called  Digital  Roadmap  Austria,  is  a  task  undertaken  by  the  Federal  Government, 
coordinated by the Secretary of State in the Federal Chancellery and the Secretary of State 
of  the  Federal  Ministry  of  Science,  Research  and  Economy29  together  with  the  Federal 
Ministry  of  Education  (bmb).  This  paper  is  still  under  development30,  and  includes  a 
chapter  on  higher  education  for  which  the  Ministry  of  Science,  Research  and  Economy  is 
responsible.  In  Higher  Education,  open  education  is  seen  as  a  very  important  topic,  not 
only  because  of  technological  challenges  but  also  because  of  challenges  in  teaching, 
curricula design, and the inclusion of “new learners”. A number of departments within the 
Ministry  are  connected  with  open  education,  dealing  with  public  universities31,  private 

28 http://www.efit21.at/en/  
29 http://www.en.bmwfw.gv.at/Seiten/default.aspx – it is a new Ministry –
http://www.en.bmwfw.gv.at/Ministry/Seiten/TheMinistry.aspx 
30 See https://www.digitalroadmap.gv.at/de 
31 http://wissenschaft.bmwfw.gv.at/home/science-higher-education/universities/  

20 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

universities32, and universities of applied sciences33, or  focusing  on teaching, in particular 
digitisation,  blended  learning  and  OER.  In  2016  the  Forum  Neue  Medien  in  der  Lehre 
Austria (New Media Forum in Teaching Austria) published a study examining the Austrian 
E-learning  Landscape  in  Higher  Education.  It  describes  the  status  quo  but  also  gives 
concrete suggestions for further policy measures34.  

Policy design and stakeholders involved 

At  the  moment  a  new  strategy  to  increase  access  and  participation  in  higher  education, 
namely  the  Austrian  National  Strategy  for  the  Social  Dimension  in  Higher  Education  – 
Widening  Access  and  Participation,  is  being  written,  with  open  education  having  been 
identified as a possible tool to support the widening of access and participation. During the 
development  of  the  strategy,  the  ICTs  in  HE,  open  education  and  open  educational 
resources were (among many other issues) examined and identified as potential tools and 
areas for policy measures in order to support the social dimension in higher education. 

This  strategy,  which  resulted  from  a  consultation  that  took  place  from  February  to 
December 2016, was made public as a White Paper in the spring of 2017.  Independently 
from  the  possibility  of  funding,  the  Ministry  will  implement  a  number  of  measures  that 
have  emerged  as  important  from  the  consultation,  such  as  services  for  student 
information,  student  counselling,  curriculum  design,  and  identification  of  and  support  for 
problematic target groups. 

A first implementation workshop (called “Bologna Day”, 23rd March 2017, at the University 
of  Linz)  was  organised  with  a  number  of  higher  education  stakeholders  to  plan  detailed 
activities,  set  priorities,  raise  awareness,  and  mainstream  actions  in  line  with  the  social 
dimension  of  higher  education.  This  included  an  international  peer-learning  activity35  to 
which  representatives  were  invited  from  other  countries  that  are  preparing  similar 
strategies. 

Expected challenges and enablers for open education 

A first expected challenge to be overcome is the fragmentation of existing initiatives. There 
are quite a few open education initiatives in Austrian universities that function in their local 
context,  but  there  is  nothing  that  works  on  a  national  scale  where  multiple  players  are 
involved.  To  move  up  to  the  national  scale,  more  funding  and  a  more  strategic  approach 
would be needed. Capacity- building for professors is also a challenge: lecturers need to be 
trained,  and  for  that  purpose  better  institutional  and  inter-institutional  coordination  is 
necessary  since  it  is  not  always  clear  who  is  in  charge  of  supporting  professors  when  it 
comes to OER and open education. 

In terms of enablers, seven policy measures for higher education are recommended in the 
study mentioned above36: 

  Strategic planning of e-learning; 

  Establish incentives;  

  Further training of the teaching staff; 

32 http://wissenschaft.bmwfw.gv.at/home/science-higher-education/private-universities/  
33 http://wissenschaft.bmwfw.gv.at/home/science-higher-education/universities-of-applied-sciences/  
34 http://www.fnm-austria.at/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Buecher/2016_fnma-OER-Empfehlungen_final.pdf 
35 This is one of the few situations where cross-border activity has been flagged in the interviews 
36 http://www.fnm-austria.at/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Buecher/2016_fnma-OER-
Empfehlungen_final.pdf, p. 14. 

21 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

  Support innovative concepts of teaching and learning; 

  Support inter-institutional cooperation between higher education institutions; 

  Provide funding. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  unit  in  charge  of  open  education  within  the  Ministry  follows  the  initiatives  at  the  EU 
level, trying to guarantee coherence between actions at the national level and those at the 
EU level. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

First, the interviewee argued that for Austria to properly  establish a policy in the field of 
open education, further desk research will be needed because a lot of things are happening 
institutionally, nationally and internationally. 

Second,  the  interviewee  stated  that  it  is  important  to  look  into  “who  is  doing  what”  at 
institutional  level  and  nationally,  and  who  can  be  brought  together  in  order  to  facilitate 
decisions  and  to  understand  the  areas  that  need  to  be  focused  on.  This  would  help 
establish an understanding of which structures are needed, and at what level, in order to 
guarantee implementation of the policy measures that have been agreed upon. 

Third,  policymakers  must  be  open  to  different  perspectives  when  they  are  planning 
strategies and measures. Different stakeholders need to be involved, and there has to be 
the necessary boldness to take something of a visionary approach. All the different topics, 
areas of development and actors in higher education have to be taken into consideration, 
e.g. the relevance of digitisation for the social dimension in higher education. 

22 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.2 Belgium (BE) 

Open education in the country 

Belgium comprises three communities: Flemish-speaking (covering Flanders and Brussels), 
French-speaking (Wallonia and Brussels) and German-speaking (a small area in the east of 
the country). This case study focuses only on the Flemish community (Flanders). 

Open  and  online  education  are  not  in  themselves  a  policy  objective  in  Flanders;  instead 
they are approached in the context of other HE policy objectives with regard to accessibility 
and  flexibility,  lifelong  learning  and  innovation,  where  they  are  seen  as  a  tool  that 
contributes  to  improving  flexibility  and innovation.  Open  and  online  education  in  Flanders 
are also aimed at developing learning paths for mature students and for students who are 
studying and working. 

The Flemish regulations with regard to open and online education are highly flexible. HEIs 
can offer open and online degree programmes entirely online or as a blended provision on 
the  condition that the  HEIs develop appropriate teaching and learning materials. There is 
also the possibility of extra funding for students who are combining work and learning.  

The Royal Academy of Sciences produced a report37 on blended learning in 2015, based on 
the  work  of  two  “thinkers  in  residence”:  Diana  Laurillard  (Institute  of  Education  London) 
and Pierre Dillenbourg (ETH Lausanne). Both authors made recommendations and defined 
some  concrete  actions  for  the  further  development  of  open  and  online  education  in 
Flanders.  

These  recommendations  were  addressed  at  government  level  and  discussed  with 
institutions.  Currently  Flanders  is  in  the  process  of  initiating  a  dialogue  between  the 
institutions and the public authorities on the basis these recommendations.  

Some HEIs, meanwhile, have developed their own approach to open and online education, 
mainly as way to better accommodate the teaching and learning needs of mature students 
and students who are working while studying. One university has been developing MOOCs.  

As  for  access,  that  is  understood  as  meaning  entry  to  a  “traditional”  HE  course,  which 
would usually be offered face-to-face.  Every student who has been awarded the secondary 
education  certificate  has  access  to  higher  education  in  any  institution  of  their  choosing 
(with  the  exceptions  of  medicine  and  dentistry,  fine  arts,  performing  arts,  and  music). 
There  is  a  fee  of  906  euros  per  academic  year.  Those  students  who  are  entitled  to  a 
scholarship  pay  107  euros  per  academic  year,  independently  of  the  course  they  choose 
(fees  applicable  for  the  academic  year  2017-2018).  Another  entry  opportunity  to  higher 
education  is  the  close  collaboration  Flanders  maintains  with  the  Open  University  of  the 
Netherlands  (OUNL).  The  Flemish  government  provides  funding  to  five  Open  University 
study centres in Flanders, connected to the five universities. This is because Flanders does 
not  have  an  open  university  of  its  own.  Flemish  students  can  study  at  OUNL  and  their 
degree will be automatically recognised in Flanders.  

Interviewee 

Noel  Vercruysse,  Flemish  Ministry  of  Education,  former  Senior  Project  Leader  for  the 
internationalisation of HE.  

37 http://www.kvab.be/sites/default/rest/blobs/104/DP_BlendedLearning_No-time-to-lose.pdf  

23 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country 

OE means education that is accessible, with open access for everyone, without restrictions. 
Openness implies flexibility and the provision of flexible HE learning paths. Openness also 
means students have access to the materials at home, wherever they are, whenever they 
want.  It  also  means  easy  electronic  access  to  research  papers  and  journals.  Students 
would  also  have  opportunities  to  study  in  their  own  pace,  at  home,  and  earn  a  degree 
afterwards. 

However, the interviewee explains that there is neither a strategic policy document related 
specifically  to  open  online  higher  education,  nor  a  policy  document  focusing  on  ICT  for 
learning  with  respect  to  higher  education  in  Flanders.  Instead  there  is  legislation  on  HE 
that  covers  many  different  areas,  including  some  aspects  of  open  (and  online)  education 
such as  recognition of prior learning  – RPL (formal, non-formal and informal learning).  In 
Flanders,  therefore,  policies  on  open  education  (RPL  specifically)  are  embedded  into 
higher-level policies. 

It  is  stated  in  Flemish  law  that  universities  have  to  comply  with  recognition  conventions 
when dealing with students’ applications for recognition – every applicant has the right to 
fair  judgement  and  treatment  of  their  demand,  whatever  that  might  be  (e.g.  work 
experience,  MOOC,  foreign  study  experience).  There  is  a  CODEX38  (Codex  Hoger 
Onderwijs) of HE, which is a collection of all HE legislation. It was released in 2013 and is a 
post-factum collection of all the legislation that existed up until then. RPL was introduced in 
the legislation in 2004.  

In  theory  (i.e.  according  to  the  legislation)  there  are  no  barriers  to  HE  institutions 
recognising MOOCs in Flanders, either via formal or non-formal learning,  and yet there is 
no  evidence of it happening  so far. There is a framework for recognition of prior learning 
but it is mostly applied to work and other experiences, focusing on mature students. Every 
five  years there is an  evaluation of practices  within universities and university colleges in 
relation to recognition of prior learning, also mostly related to work experience. RPL is an 
academic responsibility and relates to the autonomy of the institutions.  

Key barriers and enablers  

The interviewee argues that the main challenge is to develop innovative pedagogies in HE, 
such as new teaching and learning methods and modes based on problem-based learning 
and project-based learning. He also says that institutions face challenges when it comes to 
involving  international  students.  Overall,  there  is  room  for  improvement  in  the  system. 
Sometimes  university  colleges  are  ahead  of  universities  with  regard  to  innovation  in  HE. 
More collaboration between teachers and community of practice could be developed, but it 
is difficult if it is content-related. The digitisation of HE is a broad concept and relates also 
to  the  digitisation  of  administrative  processes  regarding  the  students  and  their  study 
career.  The  Ministry  is  in  dialogue  with  the  initiators  of  the  Groningen  Declaration.  The 
Declaration is about cross-border connecting students’ databases so that degrees could be 
more  easily  recognised,  as  well  as  study  periods  when  students  are  moving  from  one 
country to another. There are more European initiatives and projects in this area. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

38 http://data-onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/edulex/document.aspx?docid=14650#13 

24 

 
 
                                           
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

The interviewee argues that the government should dialogue with HE institutions to further 
develop the digitisation of higher education. But there are major challenges in that respect. 
For instance the transfer and recognition of MOOC credits is not easily achieved, he says. 
MOOC providers would have to provide transparent and compatible information about the 
learning outcomes and the level of the MOOC (e.g. whether it fits in a Bachelor or Master’s 
degree  programme;  whether  it  represents  an  introductory  course  or  a  specialisation 
course;  the  number  of  credits  that  could  be  allocated  to  it,  etc.).  Governments,  in  close 
collaboration with HEIs, should also work towards the development of a global system for 
copyright  and  intellectual  property  in  order  to  eliminate  any  ambiguity  in  this  regard, 
especially  from  the  perspective  that  most  MOOCs  and  OER  are  developed  with  public 
money and also from the perspective of open access, open innovation and open learning. 

According to the interviewee, open and online higher education, as well as MOOCs, should 
be addressed in the national higher education policy documents (not as an end in itself but 
rather  as  a  tool  for  achieving  better  HE  policy  objectives)  and  in  the  strategy  of  each 
institution. 

25 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.3 Bulgaria (BG) 

Open education in the country 

Bulgaria is rarely the focus of EU projects in the area of open education, and there is little 
published  information  on  open  education  in  the  country.  Desk  research,  including  earlier 
reports or sections (usually very short) in overview reports, has not revealed any relevant 
recent policies. 

The Eurydice report Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe 201439 states that: 

With  the  help  of  European  funding,  Bulgaria  was  able  to  put  in  place  a  number  of  initiatives  to 
support  distance  learning  in  higher  education.  For  instance,  within  the  project  “Raising 
qualification of academic teachers” (2008-2011), more than 250 academic teachers were trained 
on the use of e-learning and distance learning methods in their specific discipline. Furthermore, a 
project  entitled  “Development  of  electronic  forms  of  distance  learning  in  higher  education”  is 
being implemented during 2013-2014. 

Bulgarian  distance  learning  activity  is  now  recorded  in  standard  portals40  –  in  particular 
Varna  Free  University  “Chernorizets  Hrabar”  (a  private  university41  founded  in  1991)  as 
offering two  online Bachelor programmes in Business and Computer Science  respectively, 
and there are several blended learning offerings including those of D.A. Tsenov Academy of 
Economics42, a public institution founded in 1936.43 

There is no record of OER repositories or related activity (by POERUP44 or the  OER World 
Map45).  

There is little activity in MOOCs. However, the first Bulgarian MOOC was registered in the 
Open  Education  Europa  portal  in  the  second  half  of  2015,  but  it  was  noted  that  this  “is 
more  than  3  years  after  the  majority  of  the  other  EU  countries”  in  a  useful  in-country 
analytic  report  on  MOOCs46  from  a  researcher  at  Burgas  Free  University47,  a  private 
university). 

The OpenDOAR portal records48 eight open access repositories in Bulgaria. 

Bulgaria has been active in ICT initiatives in schools in the last decade. There have been 
several university and virtual schools initiatives, such as the Bulgarian Virtual University49 
launched in 200450 and the First Bulgarian Online School51 launched in 2005.  

Bulgaria  faces  many  challenges  in  education.  The  Education  and  Training  Monitor  2015 
country report52 states that: 

39  http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/165en.pdf  – and  repeated  in  other 
reports  including  Adult  Education  and  Open  Education  Resources  (European  Parliament,  2015,  p.  132, 
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)563397_EN.pdf) 
40 Search for “Bulgaria” at http://www.distancelearningportal.com  
41 http://vfu.bg/en/about_us/  
42 http://www.mastersportal.eu/studies/54560/financial-management.html and https://www.uni-
svishtov.bg/?page=page&id=184  
43 https://www.uni-svishtov.bg/?page=page&id=184  
44 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Open_Education_Initiatives_-_by_country – information collected up to mid-2014. 
45 https://oerworldmap.org/country/bg  
46 “THE EUROPEAN INITIATIVE FOR MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES /MOOCS/ AND THE CHALLENGES FOR ITS 
IMPLEMENTATION IN BULGARIA”, Business Research, 2016, http://www.bposoki.bg/uploads/posts/zeleva_en.pdf  
47 http://www.bfu.bg/en/za-bsu  
48 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=34&title=Bulgaria  
49 http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Bulgarian_Virtual_University  
50 http://www.bvu-bg.eu/index.php?Clip=proekt&lng=eng  
51 http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/First_Bulgarian_School and http://bulgarian-online-
school.com/?lang=en  
52 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/repository/education/tools/docs/2015/monitor2015-bulgaria_en.pdf  

26 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

It still needs to improve the overall quality and efficiency of its school education system and the 
capacity  of  higher  education  to  respond  to  labour-market  needs.  Access  to  education  for 
disadvantaged  children,  in  particular  Roma,  is  an  ongoing  challenge.  The  quality  of  VET  in 
Bulgaria is insufficient, including in terms of its integration into the general education system. The 
rate of adult participation in learning is among the lowest of the EU. 

Various measures have been undertaken, the report suggests. In particular (p.6): 

In  2014,  Bulgaria  adopted  its  2014-2020  strategy  for  the  effective  implementation  of  ICT  in 
education  and  science.  The  first  phase  of  the  strategy  (e-learning)  was  launched  in  May  2015. 
The strategy aims to create a unified system for ICT use in schools, higher education and science. 

Development of electronic forms of distance learning in higher education 

The material is paraphrased from the web page53. 

A  closing  meeting  of  the  project  Development  of  Electronic  Forms  for  Distance  Learning  and 
Setting  up  a  Virtual  Library  at  Todor  Kableshkov  University  of  Transport,  Sofia  was  held  in 
October,  2014.  The  project  was  developed  as  one  project  within  the  Operational  Programme 
BG051PO001-4.3.04 Development of Electronic Forms of Distance Learning in Higher Education. 
The  project  funding  amounted  to  BGN  530,995,54  financed  by  a  grant  under  Operational 
Programme  Human  Resources  Development  2007  –  2013,  co-funded  by  the  European  Social 
Fund. The project implementation period was 24 months.  

The  project  objective  was  to  promote  the  lifelong  learning  process  via  the  development  of 
electronic forms of distance learning at the university as an opportunity to improve professional 
skills and competences without prolonged absence from work. A total of 32 lecturers and experts 
participated  in  the  project.  A  number  of  activities,  the  overall  purpose  of  which  was  to  develop 
and modernise the Lifelong Learning Centre, were carried out during its implementation. 

Within  the  same  Operational  programme  at  Sofia  University  St.  Kliment  Ohridski,  eight 
projects were developed in different  scientific areas (Mathematics and Computer Science, 
Slavic  languages,  Classical  Languages,  Philosophy,  History,  Economic  and  Business, 
Pedagogy). During the course of these projects more than 400 university professors were 
trained  to  develop  and  deliver  online  distance  courses,  with  more  than  100  courses 
developed  in  ten  faculties.  As  a  visible  result  of  these  projects,  in  2016  Sofia  University 
received accreditation to deliver online distance education.  

Recent higher education reform measures 

The aforementioned Country Report states (p.8): 

In  February  2015,  Bulgaria’s  National  Assembly  approved  the  strategy  for  the  development  of 
higher education and accompanying action plan. The strategy identifies specific problematic areas 
relating to the quality and compatibility of Bulgarian higher education with other European higher 
education  systems.  The  strategy  provides  a  SWOT  analysis  of  the  Bulgarian  higher  education 
system and flags up a number of shortcomings, which include: an imbalance between university 
autonomy and state control; outdated syllabuses and curricula; a “supply and demand” mismatch 
between  higher  education  and  labour-market  needs;  a  low  level  of  research  output  in  some 
universities; insufficient outgoing and poor incoming mobility of students and university teachers. 

In May 2015  the Ministry  of Education  and  Science  published a draft  amendment of the Higher 
Education Act, proposing a number of changes including the identification of priority professional 
fields and protected specialisations (i.e. specialisations important for socioeconomic development 
but not very attractive for applicants). 

None of these have an explicit link to ICT in higher education. On the other hand, further 
down page 8 the Country Report states (our emphasis): 

Bulgaria  has  implemented  a  number  of  projects  using  funding  from  the  European  Social  Fund 
(Human  Resource  Development  Operational  Programme).  These  include  the  System  for 
qualification  and  career  development  of  the  academic  staff  in  higher  education  institutions 

53 https://old.vtu.bg/en/index.php?track=491  
54 €271,695 according to the exchange rate at the time of writing. 

27 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

project, aimed at the further development of the existing system for the qualification and career 
development  of  academic  staff,  providing  continuing  education  in  key  fields  such  as  foreign 
languages and using information and communication technology in the training process; 

Therefore  some  policy  “paths”  towards  ICT  and  open  education  do  exist,  if  the  country 
wishes to take them. 

Interviewee 

Eliza  Stefanova,  Vice-rector  of  Information  Activities, Academic  Staff  and  Administration, 
Sofia University 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country 

A  general  vision/policy  on  open  education  does  not  exist  in  Bulgaria,  but  a  number  of 
projects and a general bottom-up movement were mentioned. 

Three to four years ago, some operational programmes related to developing e-learning in 
order to make education more accessible for people in isolated regions were launched, and 
these  had  an  impact  on  access  to  higher  education.  Currently  there  is  an  initiative 
targeting  computer  scientists,  aiming  at  facilitating  capacity-building  to  allow  students  to 
produce  and  use  online  materials.  A  number  of  open  online  materials  have  been 
developed, mostly in Bulgarian. 

Some initiatives on OER exist. At Sofia University, for example, video lectures for a couple 
of courses were recorded and put on YouTube with transcripts. The students’ response was 
very positive and they are asking for more open materials. 

A bottom-up movement also exists, composed of NGOs and foundations and also students 
and professors, who are pushing to open up educational materials. 

Finally,  there  is  international  collaboration  with  institutions  in  other  EU  countries  (for 
example with the Netherlands, through the Open University of the Netherlands), mainly in 
Information Technology and pedagogy. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

A first important barrier has to do with language: most of the open materials produced in 
the  country  are  in  Bulgarian,  which  limits  access  by  students  from  other  countries;  and 
also some students have difficulties in accessing materials in English, especially those who 
have  not  studied  English  at  school.  Teachers  in  general  prefer  to  use  materials  in 
Bulgarian, although younger teachers are comfortable with English as well.  

Another  barrier  is  that  there  are  no  open  institutional  repositories  in  which  to  store  OER. 
Moodle is often used but it is only for students, and not open to the general public. 

Teachers’ attitudes are also an issue: they tend to resist openness because they are afraid 
that  if  they  open  their  lessons  it  would  decrease  the  importance  of  their  own  role  and 
hence also potentially reduce their salaries. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The interviewee stated that having an open education policy at the national level would be 
important since this would allow university leaders to push for change and would increase 

28 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

access to education in the country at different levels. The EC could increase the chances of 
this being adopted as a priority in the country by proposing examples from other countries, 
she argues. 

The  interviewee  also  noted  that  financial  resources  are  an  issue:  it  would  be  good  to 
allocate existing EU funds to ICT for learning and open education, as was done in the past. 

Finally,  she  mentioned  that  substantial  capacity-building  for  teachers  and  for  institutional 
policymakers would be needed in order to allow change to take place. 

29 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.4 Croatia (HR)  

Open education in the country 

As with Bulgaria, there is not much published information on developments in education in 
Croatia. There was a burst of education reform activity around ten years ago, and some of 
the  more  recent  initiatives  are  described  in  a  national  report55  from  2011.  Unlike  in  its 
neighbour  Slovenia,  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  specific  open  education  policy,  nor  is 
there  any  specific  ICT  in  education  policy.  There  is  no  distance-learning  programme56  for 
Croatia listed on the Distance Learning portal. 

OER  repositories  or  related  activity  are  not  recorded  (by  POERUP57  or  the  OER  World 
Map58). There is little known about activity in MOOCs. A Croatian academic recorded in her 
2016 report59 that “there are not many Open Educational Resources in Croatia and there is 
only one MOOC course in the Croatian language”. On the other hand, the OpenDOAR portal 
records60 21 open access repositories in Croatia. 

More generally, there is a new policy on lifelong learning to focus on: Nove boje znanja – 
Strategy of Education, Science and Technology. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sectors  

Policy/initiative overview 

Nove boje znanja 
Strategy of Education, Science and Technology  
https://vlada.gov.hr/highlights-15141/archives/strategy-of-education-
science-and-technology-nove-boje-znanja/17784  
The main goals of the Strategy are: 
•  Quality education available to everybody under equal conditions. 
• 
Lifelong learning as a principle on which education is based. 
•  Curriculum reform in pre-tertiary education. 
• 

In higher education, study programmes will be enhanced and the 
foundations of the Bologna reform will be consistently implemented 

•  Securing preconditions for the increased participation of adults in 

the lifelong learning processes. 

The Strategy is said also to emphasise the importance of using 
information and communication technologies in education, fostering the 
implementation of e-learning and other modern methods of teaching 
based on ICT and the development of open educational resources. 
Inter-ministerial committee 
2014 
Current 
English (for summary document) 
National 
School education, Higher education, VET, Adult learning 

Dimension of impact 

Core dimensions 
☐  Access 

Policy/initiative overview 

55 http://www.erisee.org/downloads/2013/2/b/2011%20NATIONAL%20REPORT%20OF%20THE%20REPUBLIC%2
0OF%20CROATIA%20-%20Contribution%20to%20the%20report%20on%20ET2020%202011%20ENG.pdf  
56 http://www.distancelearningportal.com  
57 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Open_Education_Initiatives_-_by_country – information collected up to mid 2014. 
58 https://oerworldmap.org/country/hr  
59 “Advantages and Limitations of Usage of Open Educational Resources in Small Countries”, International Journal 
of Research in Education and Science Vol. 2, Issue 1, Winter 2016 – 
https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/5000123134-5000259500-1-PB.pdf  
60 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=34&title=Bulgaria  

30 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

☐  Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
 Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 
☐  Technology 
  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewee 

Sandra  Kučina  Softić,  Assistant  Director  for  Education  and  User  Support,  University  of 
Zagreb University Computing Centre SRCE 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In the last few years there have been frequent changes of government in Croatia, and yet 
it  can  be  seen  that  there  is  some  understanding  at  ministerial  level  because  there  is  a 
vision  that  education  must  be  accessible  and  available  for  everyone.  Also  there  is  an 
understanding and a commitment to opening the resources produced with public funds. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  Strategy  of  Education,  Science  and  Technology  was  designed  to  improve  the 
education  system.  The  main  stakeholders  are  the  higher  educational  institutions61  (eight 
Croatian public universities), the Ministry of Education and Technology,  national agencies, 
the Council of Rectors, and other educational institutions. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The  main  dimensions  are  related  to  changes  taking  place  in  the  education  system  in 
pursuit  of  modernisation,  in  particular  the  shift  from  a  teacher-centred  to  a  student-
centred approach. 

The main objectives are to commit to the provision of lifelong learning across the country 
and to deploy blended learning approaches and e-learning platforms across the HE sector. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

So far the HE sector has adopted national e-learning platforms and in ICT the provision is 
quite  extensive.  Also,  after  the  implementation  of  the  Bologna  Process,  measures  have 
been implemented towards improving the quality of education and measuring the learning 
outcomes. Furthermore, the adoption of OER and repositories is now becoming a trend62 in 
the country. 

61 http://www.studyincroatia.hr/studying-in-croatia/croatian-higher-education-system  
62 There are 21 repositories listed in the standard OpenDOAR database – 
http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=55&title=Croatia  

31 

 
 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The main barriers in the HE sector are a lack of awareness about open education and open 
educational  resources,  and  also  a  lack  of  awareness  and  understanding  with  regard  to 
copyright63 and open licenses. 

As  for  the  challenges,  there  is  still  some  reluctance  among  academics  when  it  comes  to 
sharing  the  resources  they  produce  –  which  might  be  a  consequence  of  the  barriers 
described above. 

To  overcome these challenges, guidance notes  and training have been produced  with the 
aim of informing academics and educators about copyright and open licenses. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

It can be considered that the Croatian Strategy of Education, Science and Technology 
is in line with other education policies across the EU in relation to the modernisation of the 
education system. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

As  for  suggestions,  the  interviewee  said  it  is  important  to  resolve  the  current  copyright 
issues across Europe as it is sometimes quite difficult to share materials between countries 
due to the differences between their respective legislation, and she also said that there is a 
lack of clear common ground in relation to the use of open licenses. 

Also,  she  recommended  that  all  the  teaching  and  learning  resources  and  research 
outcomes should be published openly. 

Finally,  it  was  recommended  that  the  EU  should  provide  support  for  initiatives  from  EU 
countries to develop open educational platforms and resources for migrants and refugees, 
to help them learn the language of their host countries, become integrated into society and 
gain access to the education system. 

63 As an indication of the problem, the Creative Commons Croatia page is several years out of date – 
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Croatia  

32 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.5 Cyprus (CY)  

Open education in the country 

OER repositories or related activity are not recorded in Cyprus (by either POERUP64 or the 
OER  World  Map65).  However,  there  is  some  OER  activity,  as  became  clear  during  the 
interview.  The  Open  University  of  Cyprus66  is  involved  in  MOOC  activities67  and  the 
(private) University of Nicosia offers an MOOC68 on Digital Currency. The OpenDOAR portal 
records69  four  open  access  repositories  in  Cyprus  –  a  substantial  number  considering  the 
small population. 

As  noted  by  the  Education  and  Training  2016  Monitor  Report70,  early  school  leaving  has 
declined  steadily  in  Cyprus  in  recent  years  and  the  tertiary  education  attainment  rate  is 
one  of  the  highest  in  the  EU.  However,  Cyprus  also  has  one  of  the  lowest  employment 
rates of recent graduates in the EU, reflected in relatively poor student learning outcomes 
measured  in  international  surveys  (such  as  PISA)  and  low  levels  of  basic  digital  skills  on 
the  part  of  the  Cypriot  population.  The  country’s  participation  rate  in  VET  is  also  much 
lower  than  the  EU  average,  but  recent  reforms  and  new  initiatives  in  this  area  include  a 
gradually  expanding  VET  offer.  A  major  challenge  in  general  is  to  address  increased 
unemployment, particularly youth and long-term unemployment. 

In  terms  of  open  education,  while  there  are  several  institutional  initiatives  –  for  example 
within higher education institutions, which are quite active in online learning – there is no 
specific national policy. 

On the other hand, in the 2012 Digital Strategy for Cyprus71, “Objective 4 – Education and 
Learning” aims to promote digital education as a dynamic tool for upgrading, enriching and 
reforming of Cypriot educational process. Within this objective, “Measure 16 – eEducation” 
has  a  list  of  aims,  most  of  which  are  either  prerequisites  or  aspects  of  opening  up 
education through ICT. This was used as the focus for the interview. 

Policy title  Digital Strategy for Cyprus (Measure 16 – eEducation) 

Policy/initiative overview 

Policy URL 

Description 
of the 
policy 

http://www.mcw.gov.cy/mcw/dec/digital_cyprus/ict.nsf/3700071379D1C658C22
57A6F00376A80/$file/Digital%20Strategy%20for%20Cyprus-
Executive%20summary.pdf  
The strategy aims to boost the country’s digital development and includes a 
specific objective on Education and Learning: to promote digital education by 
using ICT as a dynamic tool for the upgrade, enrichment and reform of the 
educational process.   
The objectives related to education deal with ICT infrastructure, content, 
applications and teacher-training. One of the objectives of Measure 16 is to 
upgrade the infrastructure of public tertiary education (E-UNIVERSITY). Three 
projects have been approved with regard to the three public universities: the 
University of Cyprus, the Cyprus University of Technology, and the Open 

64 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Open_Education_Initiatives_-_by_country – information collected up to mid-2014 
65 https://oerworldmap.org/country/cy – however note that Eastern Mediterranean University in the Turkish-
occupied zone is a member of the Open Education Consortium – 
http://www.oeconsortium.org/members/view/549/ – although assigned to Turkey not Cyprus 
66 http://www.ouc.ac.cy/web/guest/home  
67 http://www.ouc.ac.cy/web/guest/dsdp/news/archive/15451?doAsUserId=wnqgtvlehimbtp%3F_bs_bookmarks_
azfilter%3DY*&  
68 http://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/free-introductory-mooc/  
69 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=57&title=Cyprus  
70 https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/monitor2016-cy_en.pdf 
71 http://www.mcw.gov.cy/mcw/dec/digital_cyprus/ict.nsf/3700071379D1C658C2257A6F00376A80/$file/Digital%
20Strategy%20for%20Cyprus-Executive%20summary.pdf. 

33 

 
 
  
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

University of Cyprus. The projects aim to upgrade and develop the technological 
infrastructure that will provide the tools for integrated, automated and quality 
services for students and for academic and administrative personnel.  

Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works 

English (for summary) 

2012 

Current 

National 

Policy 
institution 
Policy date 
Policy 
status 
Language 
Policy 
jurisdiction 
E&T sector   School education 
Core dimensions 
  Access 
  Content 
  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Dimension 
of impact 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
 Technology 
  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewee 

Anastasia  Economou,  Head  of  the  Educational  Technology  Department,  Pedagogical 
Institute, Ministry of Education and Culture72 

Interview results  

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The Ministry’s understanding of open education is quite broad, and includes both learners’ 
and  teachers’  perspectives.  The  Ministry  sees  open  education  not  just  as  open  resources 
but as a set of practices that – combined with certain platforms – can support and promote 
collaboration  between  educational  institutions,  educators,  learners  and  parents,  raising 
awareness of the potential of open education.  

During  the  Cypriot  presidency  of  the  Council  of  the  European  Union,  the  Ministry  of 
Education and Culture (MOEC) supported this vision by co-organising with Norway, in Oslo 
(December  9-11,  2012),  the  ministerial  conference  “Opening  Up  Education  through 
Technologies:  Towards  a  more  systemic  use  for  smart,  social  and  sustainable  growth  in 
Europe”.  

At ministerial level there is also a strong commitment to opening up not only teaching and 
learning but also cultural heritage, and therefore a partnership with Europeana73 has been 
established through the Ministry’s Cultural Services. 

72 Based on her experience in her Ministry role, Ms Economou elaborated on the theme of teaching and learning 
policies for opening up education. Infrastructure, higher education policies and reform policies were not discussed 
in her interview, and the information on those subjects in this report was taken directly from the Digital Strategy 
for Cyprus (2012) and the Cyprus National Reform Programme (2011). 
73 http://www.europeana.eu 

34 

 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  role  of  the  Ministry  is  to  support  and  raise  awareness  in  relation  to  open  education, 
promoting  collaboration  at  national  and  international  level  (starting  with  the  European 
Commission) as well as opportunities for the development of open education initiatives at 
school  and  at  higher  education  level  and  involving  the  cultural  heritage  sector.  Also, 
opening up access to research, teaching and learning materials are key objectives for the 
Ministry. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The  main  dimensions  of  the  policy  Digital  Strategy  for  Cyprus  –  as  described  in  the 
Digital Strategy for Cyprus (2012) – are related to improving connectivity in the education 
sector (Actions 16.1-.2 -.9), increasing the number of computers in each school in order to 
achieve  one  PC  per  student  (Action  16.3);  developing  digital  educational  content  for  the 
majority of primary and secondary schools (Action 16.7); and upgrading the infrastructure 
of the public tertiary education sector.  

In  the  recent  years,  school  pilot  interventions  include  developing  students’  and  teachers’ 
digital  and  transversal  skills,  the  use  of  online  learning  environments,  ePortfolios,  self-
assessment  online  tools,  technology-enhanced  teaching  and  learning,  collaborative 
approaches  using  digital  technologies,  and  online  OER  repositories.  These  projects  are 
aimed at opening up access and bringing greater opportunities into learning. 

As  regards  higher  education,  the  Digital  Strategy  for  Cyprus  (2012)  describes  three 
projects approved for the three74 public universities – the University of Cyprus, the Cyprus 
University  of  Technology  and  the  Open  University  of  Cyprus  –  which  aim  to  upgrade  and 
develop  the  technological  infrastructure  and  thereby  provide  the  tools  for  integrated, 
automated and quality services for students and for academic and administrative personnel 
(16.13).  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

A  few  projects  are  taking  place  in  schools  and  have  been  promoted  to  teachers  through 
national  and  international  collaborations.  These  include  Photodentro  CY75,  an  online 
repository  for  User-Generated  Content,  a  collaboration  with  the  Cyprus  Pedagogical 
Institute  and  the  CTI  Diophantus  Photodentro76  in  Greece.  A  second  example  is  Open 
Discovery Space77, a  European collaboration led  in Cyprus by the  Open  University, aimed 
at sharing resources and collaborating in open educational projects.  

Furthermore,  the  Cyprus  Pedagogical  Institute,  in  collaboration  with  the  University  of 
Cyprus,  introduced  Creative  Commons  licences  and  adapted  the  new  CC  licences  in  the 
Greek language and the Cypriot context, while following a road map for their promotion in 
the educational sector. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  interviewee  stated  that  some  of  the  barriers  mentioned  are  related  to  the  cultural 
change needed on the part of educational stakeholders so that they embrace openness in 
teaching and learning, and to the slowness with which the policy has been implemented.  

74  http://www.highereducation.ac.cy/en/che-introduction.html  –  for  a  more  thorough  but  older  document  see 
http://www.kysats.ac.cy/archeia/pdf/highereducation-vivliaraki.pdf  
75 http://photodentro.pi.ac.cy/ugc/ 
76 http://photodentro.edu.gr/aggregator 
77 http://opendiscoveryspace.eu/consortium 

35 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

However, she said it is important to bear in mind that Cyprus has been badly affected by 
the economic crisis in recent years and therefore the government has had other priorities. 
The  economic  crisis  can  be  also  perceived  as  an  enabler,  because  sharing  resources  has 
been a way of supporting teachers and students when other means were not available. 

She emphasised that a major enabler is the coherence of open education with the National 
Reform  Programme  of  Cyprus  EU202078,  under  point  5,  “Education”,  in which  guideline  8 
refers  to  “Developing  a  skilled  workforce  responding  to  labour  market  needs,  promoting 
job  quality  and  lifelong  learning”,  and  guideline  9  to  “Improving  the  performance  of 
education  and  training  systems  at  all  levels  and  increasing  participation  in  tertiary 
education”. Also she pointed out that point 6, “Digital Society”, aims at “Optimising support 
for  research,  development  and  innovation,  strengthening  the  knowledge  triangle  and 
unleashing the potential of the digital economy”. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  interviewee  affirmed  that  Cypriot  policies  are  fully  in  line  with  EU  development, 
agendas,  strategies  and  commitments.  She  noted  that  the  Ministry  of  Education  and 
Culture  is  represented  in  all  the  ET2020  working  groups  and  other  EU  bodies,  thus  being 
up  to  date  with  and  at  the  same  time  contributing  to  EU-level  policy  discussions  and 
developments. 

78 http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/nrp/nrp_cyprus_en.pdf 

36 

 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.6 Czech Republic (CZ) 

Open education in the country 

Although  there  is  no  official  government  policy  specifically  on  open  education,  the  RVP 
Metodický  portál  is  a  well-known  educational  portal79  collecting  Czech  Open  Educational 
Resources (OER) targeting teachers, all released with an open licence80.  It is an initiative 
funded by the Czech Republic and initially by the European Social Fund (at the beginning), 
and  is  run  as  part  of  a  research  project  by  the  Institute  of  Education  in  Prague  and  the 
National Institute of Vocational Education. The project aims to provide “systematic support 
for teachers in teaching methodology and didactics, development of learning communities” 
and more effective ways of learning.  

Apart from this, there are a growing number of free-of-charge or OER materials produced 
by  NGOs,  state  institutions,  individual  teachers,  etc.,  collected  by  EDUin81.  Furthermore, 
the  Alliance  for  Open  Education82  runs  a  website83  dedicated  to  open  education  in  the 
Czech  Republic,  and  it  shows  there  is  a  far  higher  level  of  OER  activity  in  the  Czech 
Republic  than  recorded  in  international  OER  databases  (such  as  the  OER  World  Map84  or 
the  earlier  POERUP  database85)  –  but  this  is  a  two-way  process  as  the  Alliance  for  Open 
Education  is  the  Czech  country  champion  for  the  OER  World  Map.  There  is  some  MOOC 
activity, for example the offer of free online courses by Masaryk University.86  

In terms of open access the OpenDOAR portal records87 16 open access repositories. As for 
Open  Government  policies,  The  Action  Plan  of  the  Czech  Republic  Open  Government 
Partnership  for  2016  to  201888,  proposed  by  the  Ministry  for  Human  Rights,  Equal 
Opportunities and Legislation, does not mention applications to education in general but it 
does  refer  to  creating  a  national  strategy  to  open  access  to  scientific  information.  The 
creation of a strategy is now in progress. 

In  2013  the  Czech  Ministry  of  Education,  in  cooperation  with  non-profit,  academic  and 
commercial sectors, carried out a nationwide public debate on future educational priorities. 
Its conclusions formed the basis for the country’s Strategy for Education Policy until 2020, 
an important document adopted in July 2014 that will serve as a general basis for policy-
making in the Czech Republic in the coming years. This is the policy selected for interview. 

79 http://rvp.cz  
80 http://autori.rvp.cz/obecne-informace/licence  
81 http://www.eduin.cz/ 
82 http://otevrenevzdelavani.cz  
83 http://otevrenevzdelavani.cz/otevrene-zdroje/  
84 https://oerworldmap.org/country/cz  
85 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Open_Education_Initiatives_-_by_country  
86 http://pozitivni-zpravy.cz/tag/moocs/ and http://pozitivni-zpravy.cz/masarykova-univerzita-spustila-
elektronicke-kurzy-pro-verejnost/  
87 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=58&title=Czech%20Republic  
88 http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Czech_ActionPlan2016-18_0.pdf  

37 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description  

Policy/initiative overview 

Strategie vzdělávací politiky české republiky do roku 2020 
Strategy for Education Policy of the Czech Republic 2020  
http://www.vzdelavani2020.cz/images_obsah/dokumenty/strategy_web_en.pdf  
In line with the Education & Training 2020 strategic framework, the policy is 
based on the concept of lifelong learning, aiming to contribute to the 
achievement of the main goals of education: personal development, improving 
the quality of human life, the maintenance and development of culture as a 
system of shared values, the development of active citizenship, creating 
conditions for a socially cohesive society and democratic governance, and 
preparation for employment. 
The priority points are: 
  Non-discriminatory approach to digital education resources 
  Development of pupils’ digital skills and computational thinking 
  Development of teachers’ digital skills and computational thinking 
  Development and modification of school infrastructure to facilitate digital 

education 

  Support for the development and distribution of innovations  
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, in collaboration with the National 
Institute for Education 
2014 
Current 
English 
National 
School education, Adult Education 
Core dimensions 
  Access 
  Content 
  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Institution 

Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Dimension of 
impact 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
  Technology 
☐  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewee 

Tamara Kovacova, EDUin (NGO), Open Education project  

38 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

Open  education  is  mentioned  in  some  of  the  strategic  documents  (National  Strategy  for 
Digital  Education  2020;  National  Strategy 
for  Digital  Literacy  2020),  but  the 
implementation  of  these  documents  has  been  very  slow.  The  Ministry’s  implementation 
capability (including in terms of personnel) is limited. Without systemic Ministry support it 
is possible that neither strategy will be implemented effectively. Currently the Ministry has 
very limited capacities and tools for any awareness-raising campaign. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The Strategy for Education Policy of the Czech Republic 2020 was designed to comply with 
the EU recommendations for enhancing education in EU Member States. The policy derives 
from  the  2015  strategy  for  digital  literacy,  targeting  education  for  16+  in  the  Czech 
Republic  2015-2020  (Strategie  digitální  gramotnosti  ČR  na  období  2015  až  202089) 
published90  by  the  Ministry  of  Social  Welfare:  this  mentions  open  materials  as  key 
resources for training on digital literacies. In line with this, the policy mentions, under point 
3.2, the importance of creating “an open area for lifelong learning, including recognition of 
the results of non-formal and informal learning”. An important stakeholder involved in the 
policy is EDUin91, an NGO that provides support to policymakers in implementing the open 
education  aspects  of  the  policies  and  promotes,  develops  and  creates  Open  Educational 
Resources and programmes.  

Another  strategy  targeting  schools  is  the  Strategy  for  digital  education  202092,  in  which 
opening up materials for education is addressed in point 1. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The policy’s main dimensions of action in relation to open education are related to lifelong 
learning and involve the development of tools for teachers to share resources, such as the 
Metodický portal93, and supporting the sustainability of projects in different areas of action 
–  schools,  universities,  further  education  and  lifelong  learning  –  in  order  to  develop  the 
competences of workers.  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

As the Strategy for Education Policy of the Czech Republic 2020 is still quite recent and in 
the  early  stages  of  being  implemented,  its  impact  is  difficult  to  measure.  However,  it  is 
remarkable that in supporting the use of open content, an official decision has been made 
to transversally adopt Creative Commons licenses for publications and digital resources in 
the Czech Republic94.  

89 http://www.vzdelavani2020.cz/images_obsah/dokumenty/strategie/digistrategie.pdf  
90 http://www.mpsv.cz/files/clanky/21499/Strategie_DG.pdf  
91 http://www.eduin.cz  
92 http://www.msmt.cz/file/34429/ 
93 http://rvp.cz 
94 There are very low ambitions – for example http://clanky.rvp.cz/wp-
content/upload/prilohy/21071/kriteria_kvality_digitalnich_vzdelavacich_zdroju.pdf  

39 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  main  barrier  the  interviewee  observed  is  the  fact  that  there  is  no  team  dedicated  to 
promoting,  supporting  and  advocating  for  open  and  digital  education  at  the  ministerial 
level. Such a team would enable policy to be implemented in a more effective way.  

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The interviewee affirmed that Czech policies are in line with EU recommendations as far as 
promoting  the  development  of  innovative  and  digital  skills,  including  open  education,  is 
concerned. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The  interviewee  felt  that  the  lessons  learned  are  not  yet  clear,  as  the  Strategy  for 
Education Policy of the Czech Republic 2020 is still at an early stage of development. But 
those lessons would be related to the involvement of different stakeholders so as to ensure 
that  implementation  is  effective  and  covers  all  the  aspects  of  the  initiative.  The 
stakeholders’  involvement  is  important  in  order  to  maintain  a  high  level  of  ambition  in 
terms of opening up education, promoting the need for OER, and promoting open access to 
scientific information95. 

In  terms  of  suggestions  for  future  open  education  policies,  the  interviewee  mentioned 
that it would be helpful to have resources developed by EU stakeholders that define and 
clarify open education and its associated concepts. In fact, even though the core principles 
are in place, the concept has not yet been widely promoted,  and therefore  even  when in 
principle  aspects  of  openness  are  present  in  policies  and  projects,  these  are  not  clearly 
stated and not easily identifiable in official documents. 

Finally, she stated that in order to ensure that openness-related good practices are known 
and  shared,  the  EU  should  monitor  to  ensure  that  all  the  documentation,  agendas  and 
policies  –  and  their  outcomes  such  as  guides,  materials  and  resources  produced  with  EU 
funding  –  are  published  under  open  licenses.  The  biggest  help,  specifically,  would  be  if 
Europe were to state that everything that is produced with EU funds has to have a CC BY 
licence. 

95 Kritéria kvality digitálních vzdělávacích zdrojů podpořených z veřejných rozpočtů (Criteria for quality of digital 
educational  resources  supported  from  public  budgets)  Version  1.0,  July  2016  –  http://clanky.rvp.cz/wp-
content/upload/prilohy/21071/kriteria_kvality_digitalnich_vzdelavacich_zdroju.pdf  

40 

 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.7 Denmark (DK) 

Open education in the country 

No relevant policies in Denmark emerged from desk research, either for schools or higher 
education,  for  OER,  MOOCs,  open  learning,  distance  education,  or  general  ICT-supported 
education.  However,  experts  indicated  (though  without  specific  examples)  that  Danish 
institutions  are  generally  incorporating  digitisation  and  ICT-supported  education  into  their 
strategies  –  even  if  one  paper  argues  that  such  activities  are  somewhat  unfocused96. 
Certainly no public examples of recent e-learning strategies (in English) were found, even 
though several leading universities97 had overall strategies published in English.  

Furthermore, open education has a long tradition in Denmark (as in Finland – see later), in 
the  traditional  sense  of  “open  and  distance  learning”.  Even  though  there  is  now  no  Open 
University  in  Denmark  (the  Jutland  Open  University  was  closed  in  1995),  the  Danish 
Association  of  Open  Universities  was  formed  as  a  “prolongation”  of  that  approach. 
Currently  there  are  claimed  to  be  29  study  programmes  at  university  level  in  distance  or 
blended  learning,  though  with  only  just  over  1,000  students  in  total  –  far  fewer  than  in 
Scotland or Ireland, for example. Unusually for an EU Member State nowadays, Denmark 
has no private universities at all98.  

There are some other factors possibly not conducive to openness, in either the traditional 
or  modern  (OER-oriented)  sense,  in  Danish  higher  education.  There  is  an  apparent 
oversupply  of  higher  education:  the  government  recently  cut  around  3,600  places99  in 
higher  education  institutions,  claiming  that  too  many  graduates  were  entering  non-
graduate employment roles. Opinions in Denmark vary100 on the wisdom of this approach 
to  “dimensioning”:  a  fuller  description  of  this  “cap  on  student  intake”  is  provided  below, 
thanks to one of our experts. There were also further significant HE budget cuts in 2016.101 

MOOC  activity  is  also  at  quite  a  low  level  by  European  standards.  In  contrast,  open 
access  activity  is  substantial,  with  the  OpenDOAR  portal  reporting102  12  open  access 
repositories. 

The  Danish  Technological  Institute103  used  to  be  active  in  e-learning,  with  government 
support,  but  it  now  has  a  private  research  and  development  role  and  is  not  active  in 
education. The government used to provide funding for EMU104, which was the main public 
portal for educational content in Denmark. It was sustained by UNI∙C and used to provide 
several portals with OER content.  

the 

for  ICT 

ideals  of 

the  national  strategy 

in  education  have  been 

96  “In  Denmark,  at  least,  university  IT-strategies  tend  to  be  quite  vague  about  the  goals  to  be  reached;  and 
criteria for determining success often are not clearly defined. It is generally recognised that there is a long way to 
go  before 
implemented.” 
(http://forskning.ruc.dk/site/files/57184128/Adopting_Elearning_in_Higher_Education_sh_ah.pdf, 2010). 
97 Including Aarhus, Aalborg and Copenhagen – though with little or nothing on open, online, OER etc. 
98 Though there is the occasional flurry of interest 
(http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20100123090613452) and Danish universities now 
charge fees to non-EU students, with some exceptions (http://studyindenmark.dk/study-options/tuition-fees-
scholarships)  
99  https://lifeinaalborg.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/danish-institutes-of-higher-education-to-see-significant-cuts-
in-student-places-from-next-academic-year/  
100 See for example http://monitor.icef.com/2014/10/danish-reforms-will-impact-domestic-international-students/ 
and https://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/ie_marapr15_looking_further.pdf  
101 http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160418210735400  
102 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=59&title=Denmark  
103 http://www.dti.dk  
104 http://www.emu.dk/modul/about-emu  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

In the Ministry it is not clear how much interest there is in such matters. Denmark has not 
updated  its  2013-14  Action  Plan  for  OGP  and  in  any  case  this  does  not  mention 
applications to education105 – there is a section on Open Data but the data in question are 
not oriented for use in, or support of, learning processes.  

One  expert  claimed the current government view is that  second-chance  education  should 
focus  on  basic  skills,  not  HE  –  but  of  course  second-chance  education  can  use  open 
education methods.106 

Cap on Student Intake model107 

As in most of Europe, there is no question that the main challenge facing higher education 
in  Denmark  today  is  to  ensure  students  are  equipped  with  the  skills  and  competences 
needed  in  the  labour  market.  In  Denmark  there  is  increasingly  a  mismatch,  with  some 
areas  of  the  labour  market  having  a  shortage  of  skilled  applicants  while  in  other  fields 
graduates  still  find  it  hard  to  find  appropriate  employment.  There  is  therefore  an  overall 
need  to  create  a  stronger  match  between  the  skills  graduates  obtain  as  part  of  their 
education  and  the  qualifications  required  by  the  labour  market.  To  meet  this  overarching 
challenge there are different related challenges that also need to be addressed. Therefore a 
model  to  adjust  student  intake  has  been  introduced  to  higher  education  programmes, 
aiming  to  encourage  intake  away  from  programmes  with  systematic  and  significant 
unemployment  and  towards  programmes  with  better  job  opportunities.  The  model 
encompasses  approximately  3,600  places  at  Bachelor  and  2,300  at  Master’s  level.  The 
unemployment  trend  of  each  study  programme  is  monitored  closely  and  the  underlying 
model  is  calculated  annually  so  that  “new”  programmes  associated  with  systematic  and 
significant unemployment can be identified. 

The  2015  Consolidation  Act  on  Open  Education108  must  also  be  mentioned,  as  it  aims  to 
“promote  the  availability  of  a  wide  range  of  vocational  training  programmes  for  the  adult 
population”  and  states  that:  “In  designing  training  programmes,  adults’  practical 
opportunities  for  combining  education  and  an  affiliation  with  the  labour  market  must  be 
taken  into  consideration,  either  by  1)  Organisation  on  a  part-time  basis  for  employed 
persons,  including  employed  persons  who  receive  State  Educational  Support  for  Adults 
(SVU) or compensation for participation in vocational post-secondary adult and continuing 
education,  or  by  2)  Organisation  on  a  full-time  basis  for  employed  persons,  including 
employed  persons  who  receive  State  Educational  Support 
for  Adults  (SVU)  or 
compensation  for  participation  in  vocational  post-secondary  adult  and  continuing 
education.  The  educational  activities  must  lie  within  the  scope  of  the  Danish  Ministry  of 
Education or the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science.” 

Within the Consolidation Act on Open Education, open education is defined as “vocational 
1) part-time training programmes, 2) full-time training programmes offered on a part-time 
basis,  3)  single  subject  courses,  4)  courses  in  specific  fields,  5)  short  courses  and  6) 
tailored courses.”  

105 http://www.opengovpartnership.org/files/denmarkopen-government-action-plan-2013-2014eng1-sidedprintpdf  
106 See Adult Education and Open Educational Resources, European Parliament, 2015 – 
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_STU(2015)563397  
107 For some public background see https://ec.europa.eu/education/compendium/plan-cap-student-intake_en and 
more generally 
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GAC/2014/WEF_GAC_Employment_MatchingSkillsLabourMarket_Report_2014.pdf  
108 Text extracted from 
http://www.au.dk/fileadmin/www.au.dk/Regelsamlingen/2015/Bekendtgoerelse_af_lov_om_aaben_uddannelse-
da-en_gb-C__1_.pdf  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interviewee 

Line Bækgaard-Fuldmægtig, Head, Danish Agency for Higher Education 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

From the Ministry’s point of view, open education is embedded in a broader plan related to 
education  digitisation.  The  aim  of  the  government  is  to  modernise  higher  education  by 
providing access to digital resources both at research and at teaching and learning level. 

The interviewee stressed that even if Denmark does not have a policy of open education or 
ICT  in  education,  there  is  an  explicit  commitment  on  the  part  of  the  government,  the 
Ministry  and  its  agencies,  and  in  the  HE  sector,  to  modernise  the  university  system  and 
indeed the whole education system. The role of the Ministry in relation to open education, 
as  part  of  its  digitisation  agenda,  includes  promoting  the  development  of  MOOCs  to  train 
educators  across  all  educational  sectors,  from  pre-school  to  post-secondary  level.  The 
initiative is left to higher education institutions (universities and others) that are developing 
institutional open education projects and initiatives, such as the OER portal109 developed by 
the VIA University College.  

Another  interesting  open  education  initiative  mentioned  by  the  interviewee  is  the 
Consolidation Act on Open Education110, focusing on adult vocational education, the aims of 
which can be understood as promoting a wide range of vocational training programmes for 
the  adult  population  and  designing  training  programmes  and  practical  opportunities  for 
adults to combine education with employment. There is clear focus on digital skills when it 
comes to continuing and further education. 

At  university  level,  the  Ministry  of  Higher  Education  and  Science  promotes  and  supports 
open access and open science via the open access policy111 for public-sector research. 

Open education state-of-the-art 

The  interviewee  noted  that  Denmark’s  commitment  to  open  education  is  part  of  the 
country’s  digitisation  and  modernisation  agenda  aimed  at  democratising  access  to 
education.  This  includes  the  provision  of  opportunities  for  adults  and  for  those  living  in 
remote  areas  to  access  higher  education,  since  online  and  blended  learning  courses  can 
facilitate  access  for  those  who  traditionally  do  not  consider  enrolling  in  higher  education 
programmes. 

She went on to say that, perhaps partly because the Danish university system is relatively 
accessible since EU and Danish students are exempted from paying fees, there has been a 
significant  uptake  of  digital  resources  for  teaching,  learning  and  research,  and  training  is 
being constantly provided for educators. Also, Danish universities are producing MOOCs to 
widen their educational offering – for example the Technical University of Denmark112 and 

109 http://openvia.dk 
110 http://www.au.dk/fileadmin/www.au.dk/Regelsamlingen/2015/Bekendtgoerelse_af_lov_om_aaben_uddannelse
-da-en_gb-C__1_.pdf – see the subsection at the end of this interview transcript 
111 http://ufm.dk/en/research-and-innovation/councils-and-commissions/the-danish-council-for-independent-
research/open-access-policy?searchterm=open%0Aaccess 
112 https://www.mooc-list.com/university-entity/technical-university-denmark-dtu 

43 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

University  of  Copenhagen113  offer  a  significant  number  of  MOOCs  both  in  English  and 
Danish.  

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The interviewee noted that as Denmark does not have a specific policy on open education, 
the challenges observed are in relation  to the digitisation agenda and  mainly  concern the 
reluctance of certain groups of educators to embrace change and adopt a digital culture for 
teaching and learning. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

As  far  as  digitisation  in  general  terms  is  concerned,  she  affirmed  that  Denmark  is  in  line 
with the Digital Agendas of the European Union. At the higher education level, and in terms 
of providing open access to research papers and research data, Denmark complies with the 
Open  Science  principles  for  research  and  innovation  in  accordance  with  the  guidelines  of 
the European Commission. 

113 https://www.class-central.com/university/ucph 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.8 Estonia (EE) 

Open education in the country 

In  Estonia  there  appears  to  be  no  national  policy  specifically  for  open  education  or  OER. 
The Open Government National Action Plan114 for 2016-18 includes, in Commitment 4, the 
“Development  of  social  and  ICT  know-how,  taking  into  account  the  opportunities  of  the 
information society and e-state”; and in Action 4.1, “Defining participatory democracy and 
development of digital competence in school education”. The details, however, reveal that 
the orientation is mainly towards aspects of participatory democracy (pp.25-26). 

On  the  other  hand,  the  country’s  Lifelong  Learning  Strategy,  presented  below,  contains 
important elements aimed at opening up education. It is a document that guides the most 
important developments in the area of education and was selected as the policy document 
for the basis of the interview. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description  

Institution 
Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Eesti elukestva õppe strateegia 2020 
Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020 
https://www.hm.ee/sites/default/files/estonian_lifelong_strategy.pdf  
The general goal of the Lifelong Learning Strategy is to provide all Estonian 
citizens with learning opportunities tailored to their needs and capabilities 
throughout their lives, in order for them to have maximum opportunities for 
dignified self-actualisation both at work and in their family lives.  
The strategic goals of the strategy (each one structured along Strategic 
Measures) are: a) A change in the approach to learning, b) Competent and 
motivated teachers and school leadership, c) The coordination of lifelong 
learning opportunities with the needs of the labour market, d) A digital focus 
on lifelong learning, and e) Equal opportunities and increased participation in 
lifelong learning. 
Strategic Measure 4.2 states that: “the availability of digital learning resources 
will be ensured, including e-textbooks, interactive exercises, open educational 
resources, teachers’ guides, and web-based assessment tools”. 
Ministry of Education and Research 
2014 
Current 
English 
National 
School education, Higher education 
Core dimensions 
  Access 
 Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
  Technology 
  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

114 http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Estonia_NAP3_2016.pdf  

45 

 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interviewees 

  Ene  Koitla,  Head,  Innovation  Centre,  Estonian  Information  Technology  Foundation 

for Education. 

 

Inga  Kõue,  Head  of  Content  Development,  Estonian  Information  Technology 
Foundation for Education. 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The  main  vision  of  open  education  in  Estonia  has  a  focus  on  lifelong  learning  towards 
enhancing the skills and competences of school teachers by producing training courses for 
them,  as  the  Ministry  has  a  plan  (“digital  focus”115)  to  support  them  in  embracing  digital 
technologies.  The  policy  also  supports  the  provision  of  platforms  for  teachers  to  share 
content – such as e-koolikott116, Koolielu117 and innovatsioonikeskus118 – and has designed 
guidelines and recommendations for the creation of OER.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

Apart from the Ministry of Education, schools and universities were also involved, together 
with two foundations that support the development of  open education in the country: the 
Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education119 and Innova Estonia120. These 
are  involved  in  providing  training  aimed  at  changing  the  teaching  and  learning  culture  in 
the country, including the development of a curriculum of digital competences for students 
and teachers.  

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The main areas of action in the Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020 are focused 
on  the  development  of  a  digital  culture  at  the  national  level,  promoting  resources, 
guidelines, training and curricula that can be of use in future for students and teachers by 
helping them embrace new technologies and acquire new digital competences.  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

Within  the  constraints  of  the  budget  available  for  a  five-year  period  (€67,000),  teachers 
are being trained in digital competences across the country and online platforms are being 
built to support the sharing and creation of resources, while guidance and support is being 
provided  to  teachers  and  students  to  help  them  use  these  platforms  effectively.  Also, 
universities are being encouraged to  adopt an  open approach to  the sharing of resources 
and to include digital literacies in their curricula. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

One major barrier is the lack of ICT devices for schools, students and teachers,  and poor 
access – especially in rural areas – to Wi-Fi and connectivity. Another significant obstacle is 
the  still  dominant  traditional  approach  to  teaching  and  learning.  It  was  noted  that  the 

115 https://www.hm.ee/en/activities/digital-focus  
116 https://e-koolikott.ee  
117 https://koolielu.ee – mentioned in the introduction 
118 http://www.innovatsioonikeskus.ee/en/digital-teaching-resources  
119 https://www.hitsa.ee/en  
120 http://eng.innovaestonia.ee  

46 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

preferred teaching materials are printed textbooks and that teachers lack the ability to use 
and  adopt  new  digital  technologies.  The  reluctance  of  parents  to  support  the  use  of 
electronic  devices  for  teaching  and  learning  is  also  a  concern,  and  therefore  training  and 
support for parents in understanding how their children use technologies has been included 
in the policy actions. 

As for the enablers, the role of the government has been key in supporting and promoting 
digital  technologies,  developing  platforms  to  share  open  educational  resources121,  and 
providing  training  and  guidance  across  the  educational  sector  for  the  benefit  of  students 
and teachers.  

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020 is consistent with EU policies and shares 
the general aim of developing an open and digital culture among educators.  

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The  interviewees  noted  that  when  developing  digital  skills  in  schools  and  when  adopting 
the  use  of  digital  devices  with  children,  it  is  important  to  consider  the  concerns  of  the 
parents and to provide them with guidance and support to ensure the resources are used 
effectively.  

The interviewees also observed that it is important to bear in mind that these digital skills 
need  to  prepare  students  for  higher  education,  as  they  can  be  an  effective  way  to 
democratise and widen access to universities.  

Finally, they both recommended that the EU could provide Member States not only with a 
framework  of  competences  and  skills  but  also  with  guidance  and  resources  to  develop 
those  skills, by providing accredited MOOCs for teachers’ training and more funds for the 
development of open education. 

121 See https://koolielu.ee/koolitus 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.9 Finland (FI) 

Open education in the country 

Although  Finland  has  a  long  tradition  of  openness,  there  is  no  single  national  policy  that 
specifically  mentions  OER  or  open  education.  Nor  are  there  many  signs  of  OER  activity  – 
only  a  few  are  noted  on  the  OER  World  Map122.  The  experts  who  were  consulted  say  the 
current  government  is  regarded  as  less  supportive  of  such  developments  than  its 
predecessors.  In  order  to  elucidate  this  apparent  shift,  this  section  is  considerably  longer 
than those for most other countries. 

Open education in the ODL sense 

In Finland, “open education” was a phrase originally used in the ODL (Open and Distance 
Learning)  and  Lifelong  Learning  movements  of  the  1980s  and  1990s.  Indeed  the  Finnish 
Universities Act123 558/2009, which is still in place, states (Chapter 1 Section 2 Paragraph 
1)  that  universities  “must  promote  lifelong  learning”  and  “interact  with  the  surrounding 
society and promote the impact  of  research  findings and artistic activities  on society”.  All 
this  gives  Finnish  universities  great  scope  to  also  engage  in  the  contemporary  version  of 
open  education.  However,  Chapter  2  Section  7  Paragraph  1  states  that  “the  universities 
may  also  provide  continuing  professional  education  and  open  university  education”  (our 
emphasis) – or in other words, a serious commitment on their part is optional. 

The Council for Lifelong Learning is an expert body124 within the Ministry of Education and 
Culture,  which  deals  with  issues  including  the  conditions  for  lifelong  learning  and  the 
development  of  adult  education.  The  council  comprises  14  members  and  their  deputy 
members, who collectively possess diverse expertise in the areas of education, the labour 
market and research. The council currently acknowledges that there is no specific Lifelong 
Learning Strategy in Finland, but is seeking to develop a new kind of strategy whose aims 
would include prolonging and improving Finnish citizens’ working lives.  From the council’s 
perspective, education, labour and innovation policies should be mutually supportive. 

The  Ministry  of  Education  and  Culture  has  established  a  process  to  review  the  Finnish 
higher  education  system125  in  order  to  analyse  its  strengths  and  weaknesses,  produce 
proposals  for  improvements,  and  strengthen  Finland’s  innovation  system.  Over  time  this 
might  produce  concrete  new  policies.  In  2015  the  Ministry  published,  in  English,  a 
consultative  document  (“Green  Paper”)126  entitled  Towards  a  future  proof  system  for 
higher education and research in Finland. 

The  paper  implies  that  despite  the  “must”  in  the  legislation  (and  perhaps  partly  as  a 
consequence  of  the  “may”),  Finland  is  now  starting  from  a  low  base  when  it  comes  to 
lifelong learning. Indeed the phrase “lifelong learning” is used only 11 times in the above 
report,  mostly  in  connection  with  other  countries,  and  there  is  the  forceful  conclusion 
(p.44) that (our italics): 

Almost none of the universities indicated that equal participation, support of lifelong learning, the 
support  of  strong  students  and  a  focus  on  Master  and  PhD  programmes  are  important  in  their 
educational strategy development. 

122 https://oerworldmap.org/country/fi  
123 Unofficial English translation – http://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2009/en20090558.pdf 
124 http://www.infonet-ae.eu/country-overviews/finland 
125 http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Julkaisut/2015/liitteet/okm11.pdf  
126 https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/75119  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Furthermore (p.92), 

The International Panel noted that no-one raised any issue about lifelong learning and continuing 
adult  education;  indeed,  remarkably,  the  topic  did  not  emerge  during  the  discussion  except  in 
response to prompting. 

Therefore,  not  surprisingly,  Finland’s  two  OGP  plans127  do  not  mention  open  education  – 
indeed they hardly mention education at all. 

Open University and Virtual University 

On the other hand there appears to be much more in terms of long-term policy continuity 
in  higher  education  in  Finland  than  in  many  other  Member  States.  The  Finnish  Open 
University  is  a  decentralised  system  whereby  most  Finnish  universities  offer  flexible 
learning  courses  to  adults,  many  now  via  online  methods.  It  origins  were  in  the  early 
1970s and it has existed in its current form for at least 20 years. Open University courses 
are open to all, regardless of age and educational background. The quality and standard of 
teaching is equivalent to teaching in the faculties/departments of each host university. At 
the national level the system  serves around  80,000  students per  year, with thousands  of 
study modules and study units in hundreds of subjects. After taking a certain number (60 
ECTS,  sometimes  fewer)  of  courses  an  Open  University  student  is  entitled,  outside  the 
normal entrance examination system, to apply for entry to university as a regular degree 
student.  The  Open  University  does  not  itself  award  degrees,  but  its  courses  are  part  of 
university  degree  programmes  and  may  therefore  be  incorporated  into  a  degree  if  the 
student  applies  and  is  admitted  to  a  university  at  a  later  stage.  Open  University  courses 
are  provided  in  cooperation  with  departments  and  faculties  of  universities,  and  in  some 
cases fully integrated so that degree students and open students study the same courses. 
In  addition,  many  of  the  courses  are  organised  in  cooperation  with  adult  education 
organisations: summer universities, folk high schools and adult education centres.  

Separately  from  the  Finnish  Open  University,  the  Finnish  Virtual  University128  was  set  up 
recently  via  a  series  of  government-funded  initiatives.  In  comparison  with  the  Open 
University  this  had  considerably  more  focus  on  online  learning.  There  is  also  a  Finnish 
Online University of Applied Sciences129. 

Open education initiatives in the contemporary sense 

There have been publicly-funded OER programmes in Finland for a number of years. 

  Avoimet  oppimateriaalit  ry130  (the  Finnish  Association  for  Open  Educational 
Resources)  was  founded  in  September  2012,  with  the  main  purpose  of  increasing 
the  recognition  and  adoption  of  open  educational  resources.  So  far  its  biggest 
initiative  has  been  the  Vapaa  matikka  series  of  grade  10-12  mathematics 
textbooks. The association is a strong advocate of Creative Commons licensing. Its 
primary working method has been  “hackathon” organising – as of July 2014 there 
had been 14 Vapaa matikka hackathons. Some previously written books have also 
been licensed under a CC license in partnership with the association. 

  The Code ABC project131 is largely volunteer-run but is now partly supported by the 
Finnish  National  Board  of  Education  (now  the  Finnish  National  Agency  for 

127 http://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/finland/action-plan  
128 http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Finnish_Virtual_University  
129 http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Finnish_Online_University_of_Applied_Sciences  
130 http://avoimetoppimateriaalit.fi/in-english/  
131 http://koodiaapinen.fi/en/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Education)132 and has also received some EU funding. It is a grassroots initiative by 
teachers  and  educational  researchers,  aimed  at  providing  free-of-charge  and 
tailored  MOOC  on  coding  for  Finnish  primary  school  teachers.  The  new  national 
curriculum framework for primary education in Finland (from 2016 onwards) states 
that  programming  (or  coding)  should  be  incorporated  into  all  levels  of  education. 
The  initiative  also  provides  an  open  library  of  content  (openly  licensed  under  CC 
BY). 

  Some  higher  education  institutions  were  interested  in  membership  of  the  Open 
Education Consortium but now only one133 is a member. It is felt that now the focus 
is more on MOOCs134, such as at the University of Jyväskylä135 and Turku AMK136. 

  Metropolia  University  of  Applied  Sciences,  the  Finnish  Innovation  Fund  Sitra  and 
others  are  offering  a  multidisciplinary  course  (MOOC)  on  climate  change137 
(“Climate  Now”)  that  was  launched  in  2016.  The  course  aims  to  offer  every  HEI 
student  in  Finland  the  opportunity  to  learn  the  basics  about  climate  change  and 
increase their understanding of how it might affect the student’s own field of study. 

  The  Finnish  Broadcasting  Corporation  (YLE)  offers  free-of-charge  educational  and 
informative content through YLE Learning Online138. YLE Teachers’ TV is also active 
as a section in YLE Learning Online139, even if an earlier site140 is not now available.  

 

Internetix is a portal of  Otava Folk  High School141 for conducting courses  at upper 
secondary level142. 

  As  expected,  Finnish  universities  are  active  in  open  access  repositories,  with  16 

reported by OpenDOAR.143 

 However, some initiatives seem no longer to be active:  

  EDU21 was documented in earlier reports as a portal set up and maintained by the 

Finnish National Board of Education, but no trace of it can now be found144 

  Le Mill was also a well-known OER site, which seems now not to have government 

funding: its former site145 is not operational. 

International  databases  also  mention  the  OpenScout146  project,  which  was  an  EU-funded 
project that finished in 2012, but its website is still active. 

Swedish-language education 

It should be remembered that Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. The 
Universities Act147 558/2009 makes it clear in Chapter 2 Section 12 Paragraph 1 that: 

132 http://www.oph.fi/english/education/overview_of_the_education_system  
133 Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences – http://www.metropolia.fi/en/ – this is documented in OER 
World Map and POERUP 
134 Informal communication, but confirmed by https://eadtu.eu/images/publicaties/Finland-
Comparing_Institutional_MOOC_strategies.pdf p.5 
135 https://www.avoin.jyu.fi/en/study/studies/MOOC_success_factors  
136 https://www.mooc-list.com/countries/finland – see http://www.tuas.fi/en/  
137 http://www.climatenow.fi/story.html  
138 http://yle.fi/aihe/oppiminen  
139 http://yle.fi/aihe/oppiminen/opettajalle  
140 http://opettaja.tv  
141 http://www.otavanopisto.fi/in_english  
142 http://opinnot.internetix.fi/fi/structure/etusivu  
143 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=73&title=Finland  
144 Perhaps it was confused with the edu21.dk portal in Denmark 
145 http://www.lemill.net  
146 http://learn.openscout.net  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Åbo Akademi University, Hanken School of Economics, the University of Helsinki, the University of 
Art  and  Design,  Sibelius  Academy,  the  Theatre  Academy  and  Aalto  University  148  shall  be 
responsible for educating a sufficient number of persons proficient in Swedish for the needs of the 
country. 

In more detail, Section 11 Paragraph 1 states that: 

The languages of instruction and examination in the University of Helsinki, the Academy of Fine 
Arts, Sibelius Academy and the Theatre Academy shall be Finnish and Swedish. The language of 
instruction  and  examination  in  Aalto  University  shall  be  governed  by  the  provisions  on  the 
language of instruction and examination of its constituent Schools in Section 9 of the Universities 
Act of 1997 (645/1997). The language of instruction and examination of Åbo Akademi University, 
Hanken  School  of  Economics,  and  the  Swedish  School  of  Social  Science  of  the  University  of 
Helsinki shall be Swedish. The language of instruction in other universities shall be Finnish. 

As one  example, the  Open University at Åbo Akademi University149 educates about 3,000 
students  per  year  and  awards  about  23,000  credits  (ECTS)  per  year,  spread  across  300 
courses of which about one-third are online. 

In  terms  of  OER,  Vetamix150  is  an  online  learning  resource  provided  by  the  Swedish 
department  of  YLE  (the  national  broadcasting  company)  in  collaboration  with  the  Finnish 
National Agency for Education and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland151. 

Interviewee 

Ilmari  Hyvönen,  Senior  advisor,  Ministry  of  Education  and  Culture,  Department  of  Higher 
Education and Science Policy 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In Finland there is no policy  with an official name that includes “open education”, despite 
the long tradition of open learning in the country since the 1970s and online learning since 
the late 1990s. The main reason for this is that openness in the broad sense is already to 
some extent embedded in ordinary higher education policy and the connected objectives of 
equity  and  flexibility  have  partially  been  achieved,  although  some  challenges  remain. 
Another  reason  is  that  in  recent  times  the  government  has  had  other  priorities  and  also 
budget cuts to contend with. 

On the other hand Finland has in place a policy on Open Science152, continuing until 2018 
and likely to be extended, which promotes openness with regard to research publications, 
data and methods. 

If we consider openness in its broad sense, including recognition and access to learning for 
everybody,  we  can  say  that  all  Finnish  universities  are  adopting  open  approaches.  A 
number  of  universities  are  also  providing  MOOCs  for  free,  charging  a  fee  only  for 
certification at the end of the course. 

147 Unofficial English translation – http://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2009/en20090558.pdf  
148 Åbo Akademi University (http://www.abo.fi/public/en); Hanken School of Economics 
(https://www.hanken.fi/en), University of Helsinki (https://www.helsinki.fi/en); University of Art and Design is 
now part of Aalto University (http://www.aalto.fi/en/); Sibelius Academy (Music) and the Theatre Academy are 
now part of the University of the Arts Helsinki (https://www.uniarts.fi/en)  
149 http://www.abo.fi/student/en/openuniversity  
150 https://svenska.yle.fi/vetamix  
151 http://www.kulturfonden.fi/in-english/  
152 http://openscience.fi  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

In  the  present  phase  the  Ministry  of  Education  and  Culture  is  working  to  expand  an 
important dimension of openness, namely institutional collaboration, so that the courses of 
one  university  can  be  used  by  other  institutions.  The  Ministry  intends  to  achieve  this  by 
rewarding with funding those universities that cooperate: in 2016 a general call for funding 
(€25  million)  was  launched,  in  which  university  consortia  will  be  funded.  Furthermore, 
since 2016 a part of public funding to universities has been based not only on ECTS taken 
in  the  university  where  students  are  enrolled  but  also  on  ECTS  taken  by  students  from 
other universities, based on collaboration agreements. 

Another  priority  is  to  improve  the  interoperability  of  universities’  information  and 
management systems so that students can take courses from any Finnish university within 
a  single  system.  The  Ministry  is  working  on  this  and  has  developed  a  shared  identity 
management solution and an ECTS single platform for every student. 

Stakeholders involved in open education 

In terms of open licensing and OER there are a number of civil society organisations that 
promote openness. At the moment the movement is stronger in the Open Science field but 
it will also probably be extended to education. There have been discussions and seminars 
on  MOOCs  and  OER  but  these  have  not  yet  produced  any  policy.  It  would  be  true  to  say 
that  an  underlying  discussion  has  been  going  on  in  Finland  for  some  time,  involving 
universities, trade unions and civil society stakeholders.  

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

For the Finnish style of openness, which is now based on cooperation among institutions, 
the main challenge is that independent institutions that wish to work together are obliged 
to modify and harmonise their timelines and priorities. To change this situation will require 
time and a great deal of commitment on the part of the individual institutions. 

Second, in order to foster cooperation, management processes related to students of other 
universities  should  be  further  simplified  in  terms  of  the  availability  of  information, 
interoperability,  and  the  recognition  of  credits.  Institutions  perceive  a  value  in  this  “open 
economy”  approach  –  for  example  in  the  last  few  years  universities  of  applied  sciences 
have opened all their summer courses to students from other universities. 

Third,  the  open  licensing  of  teaching  materials  presents  a  challenge  because  the  norm  is 
that  content  belongs  to  the  teachers.  To  change  that,  it  would  be  necessary  either  to 
change  teachers’  contracts  (a  sensitive  issue)  or  to  promote  voluntary  open  licensing  on 
their part. 

Fourth, teachers’ capacity for working with open approaches should be enhanced, while in 
Open Science there are also important capacity developments to undertake. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  interviewee  affirmed  that  the  Finnish  Ministry  of  Education  actively  participates  in 
European  activities  such  as  the  work  of  the  ET2020  Expert  Working  Groups,  even  if  the 
openness part of the work has not yet got underway in a meaningful sense. 

One  suggestion  for  European  institutions  is  that  they  could  promote  European  open 
standards  for  education  data,  allowing  institutions  from  different  countries  to  understand 
what is being done in other countries in terms of curricula, etc.  

52 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The interviewee stated that the basic steps for opening up education in Finland were taken 
a  long  time  ago,  and  nowadays  open  education  is  part  of  the  system,  as  universities 
normally take open approaches into account. 

Therefore,  in  a  case  such  as  that  of  Finland,  the  interviewee  felt  the  focus  should  be  on 
collaboration among institutions: universities need to see the value of this cooperation and 
the  Ministry  needs  to  reward  it,  while  also  working  on  practical  issues  such  as 
interoperability and information-sharing.  

He concluded that one of the biggest problems with the Finnish Virtual University, in fact, 
was that openness was merely added on top of the normal institutional processes, and that 
created problems. 

53 

 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.10 France (FR) 

Open education in the country 

France has been steadily evolving its efforts to open up education. Making education more 
open has been a goal for the past 15 years, although the term “open education”, at least 
inside the Ministry of Higher Education, has only been used more recently. Open education 
in France means, above all, providing access to education to everyone for free, regardless 
of their social or financial status. 

A  number  of  new  actions  on  open  education  have  been  developed  by  the  Ministry  since 
2013 with the launch of the Digital Agenda, a five-year plan to increase the availability of 
digital  resources  and  support  OER.  One  of  those  actions  is  France  Université  Numeriqué 
(FUN); and also FUN MOOC, which supports the creation of MOOCs in French.  The latter is 
often presented as a part of the FUN initiative but it is actually a separate action supporting 
the same objectives153, which include widening access to higher education, the facilitation 
of upskilling, and economic competitiveness. 

The  Ministry  of  Higher  Education  plays  an  important  role  in  supporting  open  education 
initiatives,  acting  as  a  strategist,  incubator  and  catalyst.  This  means  the  Ministry  is  often 
involved in “starting up” France’s open education initiatives, which are afterwards “handed 
over”  to  companies  created  by  the  Ministry  itself.  Although  those  companies  become 
responsible  for  administering  and  developing  the  initiatives,  the  Ministry  continues  to 
provide financial support and oversight, giving advice and determining the direction of the 
initiatives in collaboration with various other stakeholders.  

This  centralised  system  is  part  of  the  governmental  culture  of  France,  where  the  central 
authority  has  an  important  role  in  creating  the  conditions  for  innovation  to  take  place  in 
various areas such as health, transport and education. Part of the role of the ministries is 
to identify the strategy and lead the innovation processes.  

Two open education initiatives will be reported here, both of which are part of the country’s 
open education strategy in support of the Digital Agenda: FUN MOOC154 and PIX155. 

France –  FUN MOOC initiative 

Policy title 
Policy URL 
Description  

Policy/initiative overview 

FUN MOOC 
https://www.fun-mooc.fr/  

FUN  MOOC  is  a  public  organisation  that  receives  funding  from  the 
Ministry of Higher Education and Research.  It  works in partnership 
with the Ministry, under its supervision. The Ministry supports FUN 
MOOC  as  part  of  the  Digital  Agenda  for  Higher  Education  and 
Research. FUN MOOC was a start-up run by the Ministry in its early 
days, but the Ministry then decided it should not be in charge and a 
public  organisation  should  take  over.  FUN  MOOC  is  a  strongly 
public-oriented  project  giving  freedom  to  universities  to  develop 
activities such as MOOCs, lifelong learning, and certification.  

153 A full case study discussing the origins of FUN and Universités Numériques Thématiques (UNT) can be found in 
the OpenCases report by the JRC, 2016. Available at http://bit.ly/2eoR9Ii   
154 https://www.fun-mooc.fr/  
155 https://pix.beta.gouv.fr/ 

54 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Institution 

Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 
Dimension of 
impact 

FUN MOOC (under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher 
Education and Research) 
2013 
Current 
French and English 
National mostly 
Higher education (including vocational HE), Adult learning 
Core dimensions 
Access 
Content 
Pedagogy 
Recognition 
Collaboration 
Research 

Transversal dimensions 
Strategy 
Technology 
Quality 
Leadership 

Interviewee 

Catherine Mongenet, CEO of FUN MOOC (GIP - Groupement d'Intérêt Public) 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

Open  education  is  supported  by  the  Ministry  in  response  to  a  request  from  French 
universities back in 2013. They wanted to create MOOCs in a shared platform where they 
would be able to manage the  editorial policy themselves,  with  no rules to follow from a 
third-party  organisation.  The  Ministry  supported  this  idea  by  making  it  part  of  France’s 
Digital  Agenda.  Open  education  via  FUN  MOOC  is  seen  as  a  way  to  upskill  individuals, 
mediate  knowledge  transfer  and  connect  different  actors,  such  as  universities  with 
companies and workers with universities. It is based on an ethos of free education, with 
no  cost  to  the  learner  except  when  they  wish  to  pursue  a  verified  certificate  route.  The 
platform is used by a wide variety of learners, with young people, adults and retirees all 
involved.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

FUN MOOC is an important initiative in terms of raising the profile of French universities 
in the francophone world. It was a project developed alongside 20 others as part of the 
French Digital Strategy. This strategy has evolved over the past three years, having four 
committees  in  charge  in  total:  infrastructure,  information  system,  documentation  and 
resources, training, teaching and learning. In the HE ministry there is a long tradition of 
OER, starting with the so-called Université Numerique Thématique (UNT) created in early 
2000’s. 

Around  16%  of  FUN  MOOC  learners  come  from  Africa.  FUN  MOOC  has  three  main 
missions,  all  equally  important:  1)  to  provide  a  platform  and  technology  for  the 
development of MOOCs, 2) to be an intermediator between universities and the business 
world,  and  3)  to  create  and  animate  a  community  around  MOOCs  to  support  the 
transformation  of  education  in  universities  through  digital  technologies.  There  are  over 
1,300  people  in  the  FUN  MOOC  Network,  where  documents  and  good  practices  are 
shared and training is offered.  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

FUN  MOOC’s  design  is  based  on  a  membership  model  where  universities  become 
members  and  pay  an  annual  fee,  and  the  Ministry  contributes  50%  of  the  budget. 
Foreign  universities  can  also  join,  but  as  partners  rather  than  full  members.  They  can 
access the platform but must pay for the services there. The FUN MOOC budget was 2.5 
million euros in 2016, of which 48% came from the Ministry of HE and Research and 52% 
from its members and partners and their related activities on the platform. 

In FUN MOOC, the universities benefit from traffic, learners and visibility – three aspects 
known  to  be  very  important  for  a  successful  MOOC  strategy.  University  membership  of 
FUN MOOC is optional, but it is beneficial to universities to become members because  in 
addition to the advantages derived from traffic, learners and visibility, there are no costs 
arising  from  physical  infrastructure.  As  soon  as  they  become  members,  everything  is 
ready  and  available  for  universities  to  use  as  they  wish.  They  also  benefit  from  the 
platform’s  marketing  and  communication  strategies.  FUN  MOOC  has  29  members,  but 
under  the  umbrella  of  one  single  “member”  there  can  be  a  network  of  universities.  In 
fact, therefore, FUN MOOC has up to 200 institutions using the platform, plus around 40 
external partners. 

There are three membership fee levels in FUN MOOC:  

€5,000  a  year:  Universities  can  use  the  platform  and  offer  two  MOOCs.  This  is  the 

starting level for small institutions, which can be upgraded at a later date 

€20,000  a  year:  Universities  can  offer  up  to  10  MOOCs  and  these  can  also  be 
reused,  either  with  the  university’s  own  learners  or  by  selling  them  to  external 
parties.  When  the  lecturers  wish  to  use  an  MOOC  as  a  SPOC  with  their  own 
students, the content is duplicated in the FUN Campus platform. They can have up 
to two copies of each MOOC per year for SPOC purposes.  

€50,000 a year: There is no limit to the number of MOOCs a university can offer and 

they can have five SPOCs per MOOC, per year.  

MOOCs  can  also  be  used  for  corporate  training.  They  can  be  replicated  and  provided  to 
external organisations for a fee, from which FUN MOOC takes a percentage. The university 
is normally in charge of dealing with the client’s request but on a few occasions FUN MOOC 
starts the dialogue and then involves the university. FUN MOOC charges a fee  of  2.5K as 
an  initial  fee  to  set  it  up  for  an  external  organisation,  and  then  3  euros  per  student.  All 
other income generated goes to the university. 

There is also a “white label” option for public organisations that are not universities, such 
as  national  agencies,  and  wish  to  provide  training  on  new  regulations  and  the  like  to  a 
broad audience, often civil servants. Since these organisations are public, they can join as 
FUN MOOC members. Corporate use of the platform also allows for a white label should it 
be requested, in order to customise content and appearance. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

FUN  MOOC  incorporates  all  the  10  dimensions  of  open  education  of  the  OpenEdu 
Framework156. The platform is part of France’s overall Digital Strategy, being of strategic 
value both to the Ministry and to the universities that are members of FUN. It is based on 
open source technology and has a quality charter that everyone must adhere to before 
putting an MOOC up on the platform.  

In  terms  of  pedagogy,  creating  an  MOOC  requires  a  lot  of  effort.  It  has  therefore 
prompted new ways of teaching in which information exchange and constant professional 

156 http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC101436/jrc101436.pdf 

56 

 
 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

development  are  necessities.  Lecturers  are  not  used  to  teaching  with  MOOCs  so  they 
make the effort to learn new methodologies compatible with this teaching mode. Access 
is  also  very  important  in  FUN  MOOC.  The  platform  is  open  to  everyone  and  there  is  a 
project on accessibility that started in March 2016, making content in the platform more 
suitable to different audiences.  

FUN MOOC also has a strong research policy. The platform is for individual learners and 
the  data  is  protected,  not  being  used  by  third  parties.  However,  universities  that  are 
members can ask for the data, which is shared anonymously for research in teaching and 
learning.  Leadership  has  also  been  important  in  FUN  MOOC  since  the  beginning  of  the 
initiative,  being  played  via  different  actors  and  the  Ministry.  FUN  MOOC  has  a  common 
goal  for  French  HE  institutions,  which  is  also  shared  by  universities  elsewhere  in  the 
francophone world.  

MOOCs are more than OER, and therefore they offer a collaborative environment where 
people  can  gather  to  discuss  content  and  participate  in  peer-to-peer  learning.  To 
encourage the exchange and reuse of MOOCs between universities, FUN MOOC launched 
another platform called FUN Campus where only SPOCs are available. Finally, in terms of 
recognition of learning, FUN MOOC offers verified certificates and encourages universities 
to  recognise  each  other’s  certification.  Some  member  institutions  already  offer  ECTS  to 
the verified certificates.  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

FUN  MOOC  has  been  in  place  since  2013  and  is  constantly  growing  in  terms  of  new 
members and external partners. 

France – PIX initiative  

Policy title 
Policy URL 

Description of 
the policy 

Policy 
institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy 
jurisdiction 
E&T sector(s) 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

PIX  
https://pix.beta.gouv.fr/ 
PIX is a way of evaluating the digital skills of individuals by awarding them a 
score (based on DigComp157), and it is also a means to open up resources to 
society.   

Ministry of Higher Education and Research 

2016 
Current 
French 

National and regional 

School education, Higher education, Adult Education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
 Collaboration 
 Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
 Quality 
 Leadership 

157 http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=6359  

57 

 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interviewee 

Mehdi Gharsallah, strategic adviser for digital, Ministry of Higher Education and Research 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

Open  education  means  providing  access  to  education  for  all,  regardless  of  their  social  or 
financial status.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

France  has  a  diverse  model:  FUN  MOOC  is  part  of  it,  PIX  is  another,  and  Superior 
Numeriqué  (UNT)  encompasses  them  all.  FUN  MOOC  is  our  main  initiative  on  open 
education.  But  there  are  eight  UNTs  (Universités  Numériques  Thématiques  –  Thematics 
Digital Universities) that have produced around 34,000 OER to date. These resources are 
accessible through the www.sup.numerique.gouv.fr portal., which allows access to many 
of  the  resources  produced  by  French  HE  institutions.    Concerning  the  MOOCs,  they  are 
hosted  by  eight  different  platforms,  FUN  MOOC  being  the  biggest.  MOOCs  are  not  the 
only  field  of  investment  in  open  education.  PIX,  for  example,  offers  new  means  of 
evaluating the digital skills of individuals. It provides a score (based on DigComp158) and 
is also aimed at enhancing users digital culture and competences.  

PIX is in beta version at the time of writing, with its expected launch date in September 
2017.  The  principle  is  that  many  teachers  are  producing  tests  on  this  collaborative 
platform that learners can use to test themselves, and receive a score, in different areas 
of knowledge.  If the learner  submits a wrong answer they  will be  corrected and  receive 
an explanation. For the more complicated tests the evaluation is peer-based among the 
members  of  the  community.  The  business  model  is  the  same  as  for  FUN:  free  for 
individuals  and  academics,  and  paid  for  businesses.  The  start-up  was  incubated  by  the 
Ministry  until  the  launch  of  the  beta  version,  and  now  a  company  is  being  created  with 
academics as shareholders.  

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

PIX is a collaborative platform covering different dimensions of the OpenEdu Framework. 
At the moment there are 200 tests in the platform in terms of content, but the goal is to 
have  more  than  1K.  Most  tests  are  released  with  a  CC  license  and  can  be  reused,  with 
the option to have many different versions of the same test in the platform, created by 
different  users.  In  terms  of  access  the  beta  version  does  not  yet  take  accessibility into 
account  but  soon  it  will,  and  it  will  also  be  friendly  to  mobile  technologies.  In  terms  of 
pedagogy the model is “learn by testing” and can be used in the classroom or outside. 
At the moment there is no recognition of the learner in relation to the score they attain, 
in the sense that no certificate is issued, but this may change in the future. Technology, 
leadership,  quality  (there  is  no  central  control  of  quality  because  the  development  is 
still  in  its  early  stages)  and  strategy  are  all  part  of  the  French  Digital  Strategy  –  so 
strategy is the most important part.  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

It is too early to evaluate the policy impact of PIX because it is in Beta version and not all 
features have been launched.  

158  http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=6359 

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Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

PIX  has  a  strong  component  based  on  the  DigComp  framework  of  the  European 
Commission’s JRC.  

59 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.11 Germany (DE) 

Open education in the country 

With regard to OER and open education, Germany has been studied intensively in the last 
few  years  through  EU-funded  and  other  projects.  In  2014  there  was  a  POERUP  country 
report159 and tabular supplement160. Studies by ADOERUP (for the European Parliament)161 
and  Oerup!162  (covering  the  province  of  Baden-Württemberg)  followed  in  2015.  Also  in 
2015, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) commissioned a “Feasibility 
study  on  the  construction  and  operation  of  OER  infrastructures  in  education”,  published 
in early 2016.163 Later in 2016 the BMBF funded the project Mapping OER, conducted by 
Wikimedia  Germany,  and  the  latter  also  published  a  report  on  the  state-of-the-art  of 
OER.164  In  2016  the  OER  Map  project,  in  addition  to  its  ongoing  global  role,  published  a 
specific OER Atlas165 covering Germany and other German-speaking countries/regions. And 
in 2017 UNESCO published a study about OER in Germany in which the authors trace the 
development of OER and show that bottom-up OER activities have been complemented by 
a top-down process.166 

The move to open education 

Until  recently  Germany  had  often  raised  objections167  to  the  idea  of  OER,  but  in  the  past 
four years the general attitude has changed and some national policies have been enacted.  

In November 2013, OER was a topic in the CDU/CSU–SPD168 coalition agreement, with the 
shared position that free digital teaching material must be strengthened by the state and 
the federal states. The basis for this was an education- and research-friendly copyright law 
and  an  open-access  policy  stating  that  access  to  textbooks  for  schools  and  teaching 
materials for universities should be free as far as possible. The policy also states that the 
use of free licenses and formats should be extended.  

Therefore,  although  it  had  not  been  expected  that  OER  would  become  a  policy  priority  in 
the  near  future,  some  actions  in  the  field  have  taken  place.  Due  to  encouragement  from 
teachers,  educational  institutions  and  non-profit  organisations,  a  hearing  took  place  in 
November  2012  with  the  Federal  Ministry  of  Education  and  Research  (BMBF)  and  the 
Standing  Committee  of  the  German  Ministers  of  Education  and  Cultural  Affairs  (KMK),  on 
the subject of OER-related issues and especially copyright challenges in digitising parts of 
textbooks for classrooms.  

159 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Germany  
160 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/File:Open_Education_Initiatives_in_Germany.pdf  
161http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)563397_EN.pdf,  pp.120-

124  

162http://www.oerup.eu/fileadmin/_oerup/dokumente/need_analysis_report_MFG_Germany1.pdf  
163https://open-educational-resources.de/wp-content/uploads/OER_Machbarkeitsstudie_Bericht.pdf  
164 http://l3t.eu/oer/images/band10.pdf 
165 http://open-educational-resources.de/oer-atlas-2016-download/  
166https://open-educational-resources.de/wp-content/uploads/UNESCO_Report_-German_OER.pdf 
167 “Germany was the only country who responded that the OER issue is not expected to become a policy priority 
in  the  near  future.  They  also  stated  that  they  do  not  consider  a  lack  of  learning  material  in  digital  format 
(especially in English) to be one of the major problems in education; therefore, the potential benefit of OER in 
Germany  is  not  highly  rated.”  OPEN  EDUCATIONAL  RESOURCES:  ANALYSIS  OF  RESPONSES  TO  THE  OECD 
COUNTRY QUESTIONNAIRE, EDU Working Paper 76, 2012, p. 8 – 

http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=EDU/WKP(2012)13&docLanguage=En  
168  Political  parties  in  Germany,  standing  for:  Christlich  Demokratische  Union  (CDU);  Christlich  Soziale  Union 

(CSU); Sozialdemokratische Partei (SPD). 

60 

 
 
                                           
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In  2013  the  Federal  Ministry  of  Education  and  Research  (BMBF)  launched  three  surveys 
with the aim of providing a solid basis for future policy-making with regard to OER:  

  OER  –  fields  of  action,  stakeholders  and  perspectives  from  an  international 
perspective  (Freie  Bildungsmedien  (OER).  Dossier:  Offene  Bildungsressourcen  / 
Open  Educational  Resources  –  Handlungsfelder,  Akteure,  Entwicklungsoptionen  in 
internationaler Perspektive )169 

 

Judicial  matters  concerning  Open  Content  and  Copyright  (Open-Content  und 
Urheberrecht)170 

  Metadata for OER (Metadaten für Open Educational Resources)171.  

Then  in  2015,  a  joint  working-group  at  the  federal  and  regional  level  (Bund-Länder-
Arbeitsgruppe), set up specifically to address issues related to OER, came to the conclusion 
that  OER  may  well  have  positive  effects  on  learning  and  teaching,  and  recommended 
support  for  the  spread  of  OER  in  Germany.  In  2015  the  BMBF  initially  commissioned  a 
feasibility study on infrastructure that aimed to make it easier for learners to find OER, and 
also  promoted  a  dialogue  process  to  clarify  unresolved  issues  in  connection  with  OER 
(quality  assurance,  legal  and  licensing  issues,  possible  business  models,  qualification 
models). 

In early 2016, as presented below, the BMBF presented its funding programme “OERinfo” 
aimed at further mainstreaming Open Educational Resources.  

At  the  federal  level  Germany  plays  an  active  role  in  the  long-term  process  of 
mainstreaming OER under the  aegis  of UNESCO and it also  supports the  Ljubljana Action 
plan 2017172.  

Open Access 

The BMBF started an open access Strategy for scientific publications in September 2016, to 
be distributed via the internet either in an online open access journal, on a website or in a 
so-called “repository”.  

A key action of the new BMBF strategy is the introduction of an open access clause for all 
the projects it funds. Scientific articles originating from BMBF-funded projects should either 
be  published  directly  under  an  open  access  model  or  should  be  placed  in  an  appropriate 
document server after an embargo period173, typically of 12 months.  

In addition, the BMBF will support the Länder, universities and research institutions with a 
national competence and networking site to develop their open access activities. The BMBF 
is  also  funding  a  competition  of  innovative  ideas  that  will  help  to  anchor  the  new 
publication formats at universities and research institutions.  

Even  now  the  OpenDOAR  portal  reports174  an  impressive  193  open  access  repositories, 
which is more than two for every million German citizens. 

“Open Universities” 

In  parallel  and  not  yet  closely  connected,  Germany  has  been  investing  in  ICT  in  higher 
education  activities.  The  first  policy  presented  below,  Advancement  through  Education: 

169 http://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2013/7868/pdf/DBS_2013_OER.pdf 
170 http://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2013/8008/pdf/Kreutzer_2013_OER_Recht.pdf 
171 http://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2013/8024/pdf/TIB_2013_Metadaten_OER.pdf 
172 https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ljubljana_oer_action_plan_2017.pdf 
173 https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/political-push-for-open-access-in-germany/1017484.article  
174 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=81&title=Germany  

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Open Universities, is a competition programme that follows the 2008 qualification initiative 
Advancement  through  Education,  which  aimed  to  enhance  educational  opportunities  for 
everyone at different stages of learning and to improve citizens’ employment prospects. 

The second policy presented is Germany’s core OER funding programme, OERinfo. 

Germany – “Open Universities” initiative 

Policy title 
Policy URL 

Description  

Institution 
Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Advancement through Education: Open Universities 2011-2020 
http://www.wettbewerb-offene-hochschulen-bmbf.de 
In a first nationwide contest the Federal Ministry of Education and Research 
(BMBF) is currently funding 26 projects from universities and university 
networks, with a further 47 projects funded in the second round. The aim is to 
develop open study programmes for working adults and other target groups in 
order to a) permanently secure the supply of skilled workers, b) improve 
permeability between vocational and academic education, c) ensure a more 
rapid transfer of knowledge into practice, and d) raise the profile of the 
universities in the field of lifelong learning.  
The projects are based on a variety of formats, including part-time courses, 
sandwich courses, study modules and certificate offers. The first round started 
in 2011 and the second in 2014. 
The first round of projects come to an end in September 2017. A second 
funding period of the second round is scheduled to start in February 2018. 
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) 
2011 
Current 
German 
National 
Higher education (including vocational HE), Adult learning 
Core dimensions 



☐  Recognition 

☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 

☐  Technology 
☐  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewee 

Ida Stamm, Senior Consultant, VDI/VDE Innovation, Technik GmbH on behalf of BMBF 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research175 understands open education as a means 
to  widen  participation  for  new  target  groups  that  normally  do  not  enrol  in  university 
programmes straight after leaving school. Also, open education is understood as a route to 
effectively  develop  skills  towards  improving  the  competences  of  workers,  and  therefore 

175 https://www.bmbf.de/en/index.html  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

towards achieving the development of a highly skilled workforce. In this sense the role of 
the Fachhochschulen176 (Universities of Applied Sciences) is key, since they offer part-time 
courses aiming at opening access to education to adult learners. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  initiative  Advancement  through  Education:  Open  Universities  2011-2020 
responds  to  the  need  to  democratise  access  to  higher  education  programmes  for  people 
who  normally  do  not  have  a  chance  to  participate  in  them,  whether  because  their 
vocational studies did not allow access to HEIs or because previously there was not enough 
of an offer of part-time and blended learning options. The policy has been designed by the 
Central Government and by the Federal States, by agreeing both on the implementation of 
the policy and on its funding scheme. To ensure the quality and consistency of the policy, 
its plan has been  assessed and improved by international experts from German-speaking 
countries.  The  key  stakeholders  of  the  policy  are  the  German  Central  Government,  the 
Federal  Ministry  of  Education  and  Research  and  its  agencies,  the  Federal  States,  the 
universities, the universities of applied sciences, the universities of the arts, and all those 
institutions that provide lifelong learning opportunities at Vocational Education level. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The main dimensions and areas of action are related to widening participation and opening 
up access to higher education, and to providing further qualifications so as to promote the 
development of competences for the country’s labour force. Digital technologies are key in 
order to ensure  participation is widened via the enhancement of the lifelong learning offer 
across the country – including digital learning materials and MOOCs, as these will not only 
train  academics  to  teach  mature  students  and  to  create  new  programmes,  but  more 
importantly to democratise access to high-quality education and training. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The first evaluation round of the initiative will be completed later in 2017. Since the start of 
the initiative in 2015, more than 110 new study courses have been implemented – both in 
face-to-face  and  blended  modes  –  in  different  subject  areas  such  as  applied  and  natural 
sciences, with the exception of healthcare and other social sciences subjects. Also, due to 
the  initiative,  a  considerable  number  of  MOOCs  have  been  developed  by  German 
universities and are being adopted in the context of lifelong learning for workers. Another 
interesting  aspect  that  has  had  a  big  impact  in  relation  to  the  implementation  of  the 
initiative has to do with the accreditation and recognition for access to higher education of 
the  vocational  training  diplomas,  which  is  a  key  enabler  to  facilitate  workers’  access  to 
universities and universities of applied sciences.  

One  important  outcome  of  the  initiative  Advancement  through  Education:  Open 
Universities  2011-2020  is  the  Open  Applied  Sciences  Universities  Bremen  (Offene 
Hochschulen  Bremen)177  project,  a  consortium  of  universities  from  Bremen  State178  that 
provides a wide formative offer for non-traditional and new target groups. 

176 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fachhochschule  
177 http://www.offene-hochschulen-bremen.de/home/  
178 Bremen is the smallest of the 16 German states – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_(state)  

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Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The main barriers encountered during the implementation were the tensions between the 
Central  Government  and  the  different  Federal  States,  which  led  to  long  and  complicated 
negotiations  on  different  aspects  of  the  initiative,  slowing  down  its  start-up  phase.  Also, 
considering that both traditional and applied sciences universities are  facing an important 
transformation  and  modernisation  phase,  a  certain  level  of  reluctance  exists  among 
academics  who  will  be  affected  in  different  ways:  educators  from  traditional  universities 
(Universitäten),  who  normally  have  more  hours  of  research  than  teaching;  and  from 
applied  science  universities  (Fachhochschulen),  whose  contracts  normally  do  not  include 
research  and  are  now  expected  to  increase  their  teaching  hours  to  teach  in  the  new 
blended and part-time courses, which they view as an increase in their workload.  

Relation between the policy and EU-level developments 

The structure of Germany as a federal state makes the initiative  Advancement through 
Education:  Open  Universities  2011-2020  quite  complex,  as  its  implementation  and 
success depend on a wide range of actors at national and federal level, including traditional 
universities, universities of applied sciences and vocational training centres, which typically 
respond to policies at the state level. The fact that the latest university reforms in Germany 
have been built in line with EU frameworks, such as the Bologna Process, is a key enabler: 
national pressure for modernisation is not sufficient on its own, and the guidance of the EU 
has been crucial in order to modernise the German higher education system.  

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

In the eyes of the interviewee, the lessons learned are related to the negotiation between 
the  central  government  and  the  federal  states,  as  reaching  a  compromise  and  common 
ground  can  be  challenging  given  that  some  federal  states  are  more  open  to  change  than 
others.  

As  for  future  policies  aiming  at  opening  up  education,  the  main  recommendation 
provided  during  the  interview  is  to  include  a  system  to  support  the  Recognition  of  Prior 
Learning,  thus  making  it  possible  to  transform  lifelong  learning  and  vocational  training 
systems, thereby opening up and democratising access to higher education. 

Germany –OERinfo  

Policy title 
Policy URL 

Description of 
the policy 

Policy/initiative overview 

OERinfo  
http://open-educational-resources.de 
The German funding programme OERinfo has two main strands that are 
linked to each other.  
1. A hub is created that bundles information on the subject and spreads it to 
institutions and individuals.  
2. Projects across educational sectors that promote measures to raise 
awareness and instruct people entrusted with the education and training of 
educational staff. Within this funding line, 23 projects started from 
November 2016 onwards, aiming to promote OER in Germany.  

Policy/initiative overview 

Policy 
institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 

Ministry 

2016 
Current 

64 

 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Language 
Policy 
jurisdiction 
E&T sector(s) 

Dimension of 
impact 

German 

National and regional 

Lifelong Learning 
Core dimensions 



☐  Recognition 

☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
☐  Technology 



Other strategic papers issued by various institutions are relevant for the 
discussion on OER in Germany, but cannot be qualified as national policies.179 

Interviewees 

Dr. Barbara Getto, University of Duisburg-Essen, Head of MainstreamingOER, and Richard 
Heinen, Project Lead Digital Education, Montag-Stiftungen. MainstreamingOER is one of 23 
projects funded by the national policy OERinfo and is located in North Rhine Westphalia 

Complemented  by  Dr.  Charlotte  Echterhoff,  Scientific  Officer,  DLR  Project  Management 
Agency, on behalf of BMBF. 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The  policy  on  open  educational  resources  is  part  of  the  BMBF’s  broader  strategic  policy 
approach on digital education, which consists mainly of the strategic educational operation 
for the digital knowledge society.180  

Very  recently  the  KMK  published  a  strategy  document  entitled  Learning  in  the  digital 
age181, based on an open consultation process which has engaged all relevant stakeholders 
and which will represent a common starting point at the national level for future activities 
dealing with open education. 

At the federal level Germany supports the long-term process of mainstreaming OER under 
the aegis of UNESCO and supports the Ljubljana Action Plan 2017182.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

As  stated  above,  the  funding  line  was  a  result  of  a  continuous  exchange  between  the 
federal Ministry and the states on the potentials of OER. To get further information on the 
preconditions  for  mainstreaming  OER,  the  BMBF  funded  the  project  mapping  OER  which 
conducted  a  multi-stakeholder  dialogue  on  framework  conditions  such  as  training  for 
stakeholders and licensing questions.  

179  See  German  universities’  position  on  OER  from  HRK  (the  Rectors’  conference)  and  three  White  Papers  on 

OER: http://open-educationals-resources.de/oer-whitepaper/ 

180 https://www.bmbf.de/pub/Bildungsoffensive_fuer_die_digitale_Wissensgesellschaft.pdf 
181 https://www.lmz-bw.de/kongress2016.html  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

Within  the  funding  line  OERinfo,  the  Oerinfo  hub  and  22  projects  have  been  launched 
since  November  2016,  covering  mainly  HE  and  schools  but  also  VET  and  LLL  across 
Germany,  which  focus  on  qualifying  people  to  enhance  the  use  of  OER183  in  their 
institutions. In terms of funding, for the next two years the policy is to receive €6.3 billion 
for the 23 projects.  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

It is too early to try to discern the impact of OERinfo since some projects started only in 
early 2017. However, the OER community in Germany is better connected than ever and is 
searching for solutions on how to promote OER outside the community. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  main  expected  challenge  is  the  lack  of  awareness  about  OER  and  the  limited 
understanding of the benefits of producing learning content in the form of OER. Awareness 
exists  among  the  e-learning  and  digital  learning  community,  but  not  beyond.  It  will  be 
important  to  make  clear  to  teachers  and  managers  that  the  approach  is  not  only  about 
OER  and  infrastructure  but  also  about  a  new  way  of  looking  at  teaching  and  learning.  In 
other  words,  while  it  is  important  to  work  on  infrastructure  and  on  OER,  the  key  for  the 
OERinfo policy’s success will be to keep focusing on the main objective so as to have an 
impact on the whole system. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

At  the  moment  there  is  no  direct  cross-border  collaboration  with  other  German-speaking 
countries: the policy is limited to German institutions. 

Suggestions for future open education policies 

In terms of suggestions, the interviewees recommended that there should be more funding 
lines for OER and open education within European programmes such as Erasmus+, even if 
participation in EU projects is very competitive and institutions (in Germany) tend to prefer 
to apply for national funding.  

Furthermore,  they  stated  that  legal  guidelines  on  OER  and  copyright  from  the  EU  could 
help the discussion at the national level, that it is  important to keep talking and raising 
awareness about open  education, and that the EU could help keep the discussion alive in 
Member States. 

183  http://www.bildungsserver.de/Studien-zur-Diskussion-um-Potenziale-freier-Bildungsmedien-Open-Educational-
Resources-initiiert-durch-das-BMBF-10828.html  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.12 Greece (EL) 

Open education in the country184 

The Greek government has used EU grants to promote OER, with an implicit, if not explicit, 
policy  of  encouragement.  In  fact  Greece  has  significant  OER  activity  (as  documented  in 
POERUP185  and  the  OER  World  Map  –  which  has  a  Greek  contact  point).  To  add  to  the 
national programmes, which will be discussed further below, these two are worth noting: 

  The initiative Mathisi 2.0 plus186 fosters knowledge-building and collaboration in the 
area of social media and open learning communities in Greece. It has a very strong 
social media presence. 

  Veria  Central  Public  Library187  gives  access  to  a  large  digital  repository  comprising 
the  library’s  collection,  including  the  collections  of  the  Monastery  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  Skete  Veria,  and  the  Lyceum  of  Greek  Women,  an  annex  of  Veria.  The 
initiative  is  supported  financially  by  the  Public  Libraries  digitisation  action  of  the 
Information  Society  Operational  Programme  (80%  contribution  by  the  European 
Social Fund). Through a set  of metadata mechanisms the Central Public Library of 
Veria provides its digital content to the European culture portal Europeana.188 

Greece  is  not  yet  very  active  in  MOOCs  but  the  developments  with  regard  to  open 
courses189  should  be  noted,  as  should  the  increasing  number  of  in-country  analytic 
papers190 on the topic of MOOCs. 

The OpenDOAR portal reports191 35 open access repositories in Greece, a high number for 
the country’s population. 

Digital schools 

The  Digital  School  initiative192  by  the  former  Ministry  of  Education,  Religious  Affairs, 
Culture  and  Sports  (now  the  Ministry  of  Education,  Research  and  Religious  Affairs),193 
contains the official repository194 of all the textbooks in the form of e-books for all levels of 
education (primary, secondary, upper secondary and professional education). It is not clear 
whether all these textbooks are in OER format but many are. It is also not clear whether 
they are oriented to independent study (their content was not designed in a mode allowing 
its reinvestment into contexts other than the formal learning setting), but they are a useful 
set of resources. 

In  its  response  to  the  2012  OECD  questionnaire,  Greece  noted  that  the  documents 
describing  the  function  and  areas  of  responsibility  of  the  directorate  that  handles  the 

184 There is a 2014 POERUP report on OER in Greece184 and wider but older (2011) reports on ICT in education 

in schools and universities, e.g. by the VISCED project184. 

185  Only  two  entries  made  it  into  the  POERUP  database;  but  the  narrative  report,  written  by  a  Greek  expert, 
contains many more examples – http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Greece#OER_Initiatives_in_Greece  
186 http://mathisi20.gr  
187 http://medusa.libver.gr  
188 http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en  
189 http://opencourses.gr/index.xhtml and Open courses in a Greek higher education institution: faculty views and 
attitudes (http://hci.ece.upatras.gr/files/c203_Avouris_Komis_Garofalakis_ICODL2015.pdf, 2015) 
190 Such as http://conta.uom.gr/conta/publications/PDF/2014-%20INTED-
%20MOOCs%20for%20foreign%20language%20learning.pdf and  
191 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=84&title=Greece  
192 http://dschool.edu.gr  
193  http://www.minedu.gov.gr/  –  for  News  in  English  see  http://www.minedu.gov.gr/grafeio-typoy-kai-dimosion-
sxeseon/news-in-english  
194 http://ebooks.edu.gr  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

educational portal in the then Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports of 
Greece made reference to OER. 

The  same  applies  to  the  country’s  Digital  Learning  Supportive  Materials  (Psifiaka  sholika 
voithimata),195  also  created  under  an  initiative  of  the  Ministry  of  Education,  Religious 
Affairs,  Culture  and  Sports.  These  materials  are  all  available  under  Creative  Commons 
licences. 

Earlier interventions 

There  were  a  series  of  earlier  but  still  quite  recent  policy  interventions.  The  operational 
programme196  Education  and  Lifelong  Learning  2007-2013  was  a  large-scale,  nationwide 
funding programme, part of the 4th programming period co-funded by the European Social 
Fund (ESF) and the Greek government. It was the main funding scheme for upgrading the 
quality  of  learning  at  all  levels  of  the  educational  system,  involving  the  use  of  Internet 
technologies. The programme consisted of four sets of thematic priority axes, clustered in 
groups of three: “Upgrading the quality of education and promoting inclusion”; “Upgrading 
the  systems  of  initial  vocational  training  and  vocational  education  and  linking  education 
with the labour market”; “Enhancing lifelong education for adults”; and “Enhancing human 
capital in order to promote research and innovation”.  

Within the first set of priority axes, 1, 2 and 3, there were special objectives addressing the 
need  for  ICT-based  learning  such  as:  reforming,  modernising  and  decentralising  the 
educational  system;  reinforcing  the  mobility  of  pupils  and  students;  accelerating  the 
rhythm  of  integrating  ICT  into  the  education  process;  and  reinforcing  and  improving  the 
quality of teaching-staff training in primary and secondary education, with an emphasis on 
innovation  and  the  use  of  ICT.  In  addition,  several  ICT-enhanced  educational  initiatives 
have been targeted, such as the development of digital educational content, the creation of 
digital  knowledge  repositories,  and  the  design  and  implementation  of  e-training 
programmes for teacher trainers and stakeholders in the area of lifelong learning. 

However,  the  economic  situation  in  Greece  has  not  been  helpful  for  progress  in  these 
areas.  

Open Government Plan 

For  the  policy  interview  it  was  decided  to  focus  on  the  3rd  National  Action  Plan  on  Open 
Government 2016-2018. Unlike most of the OGP Action Plans197 lodged by Member States, 
many of which do not have much of a focus on education, this had a clear commitment to 
open education. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

3rd National Action Plan on Open Government 2016-2018 
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/GREEK_NAP3-
OGP-ENG.pdf  

Policy/initiative overview 

195 http://www.taexeiola.gr  
196 http://www.edulll.gr/?page_id=32  
197 For access to these, link from http://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Dimension of impact 

Within the 3rd National Action Plan on Open Government 2016-2018, 
Commitment 20 is on open education. The main planned activities are: 
  Study for the inventory of available OER 
 
 

Platform to provide the educational content 
Legal assistance for procurement process which will cover open 
issues 
Educational actions for information and awareness-raising on open 
licenses and OER at conferences, one-day summits, etc. 
Participation in educational conferences 

 
  Organisation of conferences or one-day summits focusing on open 

 

education 

Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs 
2016 
Current (Open Education work will start in May 2017) 
English 
National 
School education, Higher education, VET, Adult learning 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
☐  Technology 
 Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewee 

John Vrettaros, Unit of Digital systems in LLL, Directorate of Digital Governance, Ministry of 
Education, Research & Religious Affairs 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The  main  policy  of  the  Ministry  of  Education198  under  the  current  leadership  revolves 
around  the  idea  that  open  educational  data  and  materials  belong  to  everyone.  The 
Ministry  of  Education  plays  the  core  role  in  open  education  in  relation  to  the  other 
ministries. The country has the clear political goal of opening up education. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  interviewee  was  involved  as  a  policymaker  and  researcher  in  the  design, 
implementation  and  assessment  phase  of  the  3rd  National  Action  Plan  on  Open 
Government  2016-2018.  The  implementation  of  the  policy  was  important  for 
improving education and also the democratisation of education.  

The two main open education projects launched by the Ministry in the frame of the Action 
Plan  were  the  Open  Academic  Lessons  and  the  depository  Photodentro199,  with  the 

198 The interviewee is using the short name for the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs – 
http://www.minedu.gov.gr  
199 http://photodentro.edu.gr states (in translation): “Photodentro is the National Repository of Learning Content for 
Primary  and  Secondary  Education.  It  is  the  central  e-service  of  the  Ministry  of  Education  for  unified  search  and 
distribution of digital educational content to schools. It is open to everyone: students, teachers, parents and anyone 

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purpose of creating open lessons on all academic levels for everyone. These two projects 
together  cost  €25  million.  Many  more  projects  are  due  to  be  funded  for  the 
implementation of the open education policy across all education levels. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The policy dimensions of the 3rd National Action Plan on Open Government 2016-
2018 that are most important are as follows: Open data, Open materials, Open lessons, 
Open collaborations, Open research, Open Certification, Open source. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The two projects mentioned above200 have been a great success from the perspective of 
the beneficiaries, but further improvements can be made  so as to benefit a wider range 
of  people.  There  were  other  programmes  of  lesser  importance  and  scale.  In  order  to 
make open education a reality, a national strategy across all of open education must be 
implemented and coordinated. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  main  barrier  was  the  preparation  of  the  trainers.  This  challenge  can  be  faced  if  the 
trainers receive proper and continuous training across all educational levels. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  interviewee  observed  that  the  EU  initiatives  are  proving  to  be  a  great  success  and 
that  Greece  would  like  to  be  a  part  of  this  whole  EU-led  initiative  on  opening  up 
education. 

Suggestions for future open education policies 

In terms of suggestions the interviewee noted that the EU should enforce the standards 
on  open  education  in  every  Member  State  and  that  it  should  possibly  also  provide 
multilingual good practices for all Member States.  

else  interested...  It  promotes  the  use  of  open  educational  resources  (OER)  for  schools,  implementing  the  national 
strategy for digital educational content. All material is freely available under license Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 
or other similar, more open licenses.” 
200 Open Academic Lessons and Photodentro 

70 

 
 
 
                                                                                                                                    
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.13 Hungary (HU) 

Open education in the country201 

In  Hungary the Digital Renewal Action Plan 2010-2014202 was said to promote the use of 
OER in line with the recommendations and goals of the Europe 2020 Digital Renewal Action 
Plan strategy. The full text of this plan in English seems now to be unavailable on the web, 
but  it  can  still  be  accessed203  in  Hungarian.  Another  summary  report204  states  that  the 
plan: 

includes four action plans which deal with ensuring equal opportunities for citizens, increasing the 
competitiveness of enterprises and the improvement of the ICT infrastructure of the country. The 
Hungarian  government  hopes  that  the  information  communication  sector  will  provide  a 
breakthrough for the country since an increased number of digitally literate citizens will contribute 
to a higher economic performance for the country. 

There was a new Digital Strategy205 published in 2016. It is available only in Hungarian but 
terms  such  as  “open  access”,  “open  education  resources”  and  “open  courses”  are  often 
emphasised in the text. Developments have been limited, however, whether with regard to 
OER,  MOOCs  or  distance  learning:  there  is  little  OER  activity  in  higher  education.  More 
specifically, no Hungarian university is a member of the Open Education Consortium; there 
are not  many  MOOCs  originating from  Hungary, though now  there  are  a few  from the K-
MOOC  project206;  and  there  are  just  three  (accredited)  distance  learning  programmes 
listed. 

Open  access,  in  contrast,  is  well  developed.  Since  2007  a  government  decree  has 
mandated  that  all  funded  researchers  must  deposit  their  results  in  an  OA  repository  or 
publish them in an OA journal. This also applies to doctoral dissertations. The OpenDOAR 
portal lists 35  open  access  repositories207 for  Hungary,  which is quite a higher number in 
relation  to  the  total  population.  Open  Data  is  also  an  active  area208.  The  Hungarian 
government decided that from April 2012 public administrations should only provide official 
documents  in  internationally  recognised  open  standards-based  document  formats  and 
must  be  able  to  accept  and  process  such  documents.  The  Hungarian  government  also 
recommends209  that  public  administrations  and  other  public  organisations  switch  to  free 
open source office software – otherwise, they will need to give reasons for their continued 
use of proprietary software. 

Extensive desk research and consultation (mainly face to face at several meetings) did not 
surface  in  any  recent  policy  proposals  in  the  mainstream  open  education  or  ICT  in 
education  areas.  However,  these  conversations  did  point  to  interesting  initiatives  at  the 
institutional level. 

201 Hungary has been intensively studied in respect of OER and open education in the last few years. There was 
a  POERUP  country  report  as  recently  as  2014  that  embedded  OER,  MOOC  and  related  open  education 
activities in the context of ICT for education. There was a more recent study (2015) by ADOERUP (for the 
European  Parliament)201.  In  the  D-TRANSFORM  study201  Business  Models  for  Opening  Up  Education  that 
analysed six Member States, Hungary was one of the countries covered. For some background on distance 
learning in Hungary see the 2016 IDEAL report201 Distance Education in Hungary. 

202 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/dem/initiatives/2302/digital-renewal-action-plan-2010-2014 
contains a summary 
203 http://www.terport.hu/webfm_send/2709  
204 http://ppemi.ens-cachan.fr/data/media/colloque140528/rapports/HUNGARY_2014.pdf  
205 http://www.kormany.hu/download/0/cc/d0000/MDO.pdf  
206 https://kmooc.uni-obuda.hu  
207 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=97&title=Hungary  
208 See for example http://opendata.hu/about  
209 https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/hungary-increase-use-open-source-software  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Initiatives at Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) 

BME operates an open portal, ALFA210, rather similar to an MOOC, which aims to promote 
mathematics and physics courses for students. The portal states that:  

In  our  experience,  especially  with  varying  levels  of  previous  studies,  mathematics  and  physics 
prove  to  be  tough  hurdles  to  climb  for  our  new  students,  irrespective  of  their  individual 
specialisations. It is very important for our university to ease our new students’ adjustment... At 
this  site  you  can  solve  problems  in  mathematics  and  physics  to  help  you  prepare  for  your 
undergraduate  studies.  The  topics  covered  are  not  comprehensive,  they  rather  focus  on  areas 
that we consider most important for your studies at our university.” 

In September 2016, with support from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, BME started a 
four-year project211 to provide methodological support to the open curriculum development 
at BME and a number of partner sites. The site observes:  

Due to the complex nature of the subject, the new kind of electronic materials and contents will 
be developed and piloted in a vast scope of vocational training, namely in the fields of mechanical 
engineering,  information  technology,  engineering  and  economics.  The  efficiency  monitoring  and 
the summary of the research results are to be evaluated in connection with the school subjects of 
the secondary vocational training.  

During  the  research  and  development,  the  creative  involvement  of  the  vocational  partner 
institutions and their teachers is a priority in the first phase of the project (2016-2018) in the four 
assigned  and  engaged  vocational  schools.  After  the  first  piloted  part,  in  the  second  phase  the 
preparations for extending the project among a wider circle of specific vocational schools are to 
be made, ensuring that an innovative methodological network of 10-12 institutions will be formed 
in which the teacher-student-centred interactive open content development and its effects are to 
be  analysed  and  evaluated  in  practice.  Based  on  our  findings,  recommendations  for  wider 
vocational piloting and the consideration of the research results in vocational teacher-training will 
be made. 

K-MOOC project 

In  2015  the  minister  responsible  for  maintaining  contact  with  diaspora  Hungarians  living 
abroad  developed  a  policy  to  support  them  via  MOOCs  under  the  K-MOOC212  project.  A 
Carpathian Basin Online Education Centre has been set up, supported by a consortium of 
universities  led  by  Óbuda  University,  a  university  of  advanced  technology.213  Participants 
come  from  Hungarian  universities,  colleges,  and  trans-border  Hungarian-language  higher 
education  institutions  in  nearby  countries.  The  K-MOOC  policies  include  rules  for  credit 
transfer. K-MOOC course institutions214 apart from Óbuda University include the University 
of Debrecen (the oldest continually operating institution in Hungary), together with Charles 
Esterhazy  University  and  Kaposvár  University  (two  new  universities),  and  Dennis  Gabor 
College (a private institution). 

Interviewee 

András Benedek, Professor, Head of Open Content Development Research Group, Budapest 
University of Technology and Economics 

210 https://alfa.bme.hu/?lang=en  
211 http://www.ocd.bme.hu/en/main/  
212 https://kmooc.uni-obuda.hu  
213 Originally founded in 1879 – http://bgk.uni-obuda.hu/en/faculty/our-history 
214 https://www.uni-obuda.hu/en; http://www.edu.unideb.hu/; https://uni-eszterhazy.hu/en; 
http://english.ke.hu/; and http://dennis-gabor-college.eu/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The  vision  in  the  country  is  to  establish  and  support  an  open  learning  environment,  to 
organise  open  courses  for  students  and  adults  mostly  in  HE  and  adult  education,  and  to 
develop  Open  Educational  Resources  for  those  attending  open  (formal  or  non-formal) 
education.  The  Ministry  forms  the  strategy  (now  the  National  Digital  Education  Strategy 
2016)  and  takes  leadership  of  the  national  projects  in  this  field.  There  is  a  clear  political 
goal related to opening up education. Although educational practice is rather conservative 
in Hungary, the target-setting in this strategy is clear. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  educational  institutions  generally  are  key  to  the  real  reform  steps  towards  open 
education.  In  recent  years,  however,  the  universities  in  particular  have  been  very 
conservative. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

With  reference  to  the  former  policy  on  infrastructure  development  projects  2012-2016 
(large distribution of smart boards, pupils’ tablets, expansion  of internet access), this had 
limited success. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

Key  barriers  in  the  infrastructure  development  projects  2012-2016  were,  first,  a  lack  of 
methodological innovation, and second, issues of physical sustainability of the equipment. 
The key enabler is to make concerted efforts to change the attitude of the HE leadership, in 
particular their rigid academic mindset, in order to transform the role of their institutions in 
the new innovation process. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

Hungarian  institutions  aim  to  keep  in  touch  with  EU  developments  –  for  example  my 
institution  sent  several  senior  delegates  to  the  EU-funded  Digital  Leadership  School  in 
Barcelona last November, where EU experts were present. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies.  

The key recommendation provided by the interviewee is for the EU to support processes 
aimed at changing the thinking of institutional leaders. 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.14 Ireland (IE) 

Open education in the country 

Although there is no official policy document on open education in Ireland, there have been 
a number of recent developments in the higher education sector. In terms of language the 
term “flexible learning” incorporates both online and face-to-face provision for on-campus 
students  but  also  opportunities  for  learning  at  a  distance,  harnessing  the  potential  of 
technology. Part-time and distance learning courses have to charge fees since there is no 
government support (unless the distance learning course is full-time). Currently there is no 
student  loan  system  in  place.  There  are  some  moves215  to  change  this,  which  have  not 
resulted into a policy as yet. 

The  National  Strategy  for  Higher  Education  to  2030  made  a  large  number  of 
recommendations,  but  none  mentioned  OER  or  open  education  specifically.  However,  in 
May  2014  the  report  Building  Digital  Capacity  in  Irish  Higher  Education216  was  published, 
containing  several  references  to  “open  education”,  and  a  Call  for  Proposals  was  released 
which  invited  higher  education  institutions  “to  make  collaborative  proposals  for  funding 
under  the  Teaching  and  Learning  Enhancement  Fund  2014  (Building  Digital  Capacity  in 
Irish Higher Education). The fund amounts to €6 million and the total investment is over a 
3-year time-frame ending in 2016.”  

In  terms  of  open  access,  the  National  Principles  for  Open  Access  Policy  Statement217  is 
designed to support the free flow of information across national and international research 
communities;  to  support  the  principle  of  research-enabled  teaching  and  learning  and  the 
generation  of  Open  Educational  Resources  (OER);  to  contribute  to  Open  Innovation 
through richer and more effective knowledge transfer and diffusion; and to support greater 
transparency,  accountability  and  public  awareness  of  the  results  of  publicly  funded 
research. 

The most relevant policy for open education is the National Forum for the Enhancement of 
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

215 http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/q-a-how-the-proposed-student-loan-scheme-would-work-
1.2717914 
216 http://www.teachingandlearning.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Digital-Roadmap-web.pdf 
217 http://openaccess.thehealthwell.info/sites/default/files/documents/NationalPrinciplesonOAPolicyStatement.pdf 

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Policy/initiative overview 

National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in 
Higher Education 
http://www.teachingandlearning.ie  
The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher 
Education aims to enhance teaching and learning for all students in higher 
education. 
The Forum will engage in a range of activities aimed at: 
  Championing all those who contribute to great teaching and learning in 

Identifying and promoting best practice in professional development 

Promoting key enhancement themes 
Enabling innovation in a fast-changing educational environment. 

higher education 
Inspiring great practice 

 
  Developing teachers and learners 
 
  Building digital capacity 
 
 
Higher Education Authority 
2012 
Current 
English 
National 
Higher education 
Core dimensions 
☐  Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
 Collaboration 
 Research 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description  

Institution 
Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension 
of impact 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
 Quality 
 Leadership 

Interviewee 

Terry Maguire, Director, National Forum for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in 
Higher Education 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In  recent  years  the  Irish  Higher  Education  Authority218  has  promoted  mainly  open  access 
and  open  data,  but  also  open  education  is  progressively  gaining  ground  in  the  policy 
discourse and has come to be considered a key asset for improving education by building 
digital  capacity  among  academics.  The  role  of  the  authority  is  to  promote  innovation  and 
quality  assurance  in  education219  and  to  provide  funding  for  HE,  including  financing  the 
National Forum for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, which 
is its (academically led) advisory body for teaching and learning. 

218 http://www.hea.ie  
219 Via Quality and Qualifications Ireland, a sub-agency – https://www.qqi.ie  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

Starting  from  the  principles  contained  in  the  Innovation  2020  document220  and  in  the 
National  Strategy  for  Higher  Education  to  2030221,  the  National  Forum  for  the 
Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education was set up in 2012, aiming to 
enhance teaching and learning and to promote collaboration among universities, institutes 
of  technology  and  private  colleges,  along  three  main  pillars:  professional  development, 
digital  capacity  (including  a  roadmap,  with  a  strong  focus  on  open  access  and  open 
education), promotion of  equality. The  project  was launched after a  consultation with the 
HE sector. The role of the National Forum is to promote innovative, fresh thinking; to share 
good  practice;  to  transcend  both  collaboration  and  competition;  and  to  raise  national 
standards, thereby establishing Ireland as a national role model. 

The  National  Forum  aims  to  be  an  agent  of  change  to  support  the  adoption  of  open 
educational practices and to build digital capacities among academics in Ireland. The vision 
is to attribute to open education the same level of importance in HE that open access and 
Open Data currently have. The core role of the Ministry was to represent the voice of the 
educators,  highlighting  the  importance  of  teaching  and  learning  in  HEIs  and  aiming  to 
promote  equal  status  for  Open  Access,  Open  Data  in  research,  and  Open  Educational 
Resources  in  teaching  and  learning.  The  initial  funding  was  €900,000  per  annum  for 
operative  costs  plus  €2  million  per  annum  for  three  years’  enhancement  funding, 
distributed across the sector via calls for projects and competitions which include projects 
involving students. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The  National  Forum  for  the  Enhancement  of  Teaching  and  Learning  in  Higher 
Education  aims  to  enhance  teaching  and  learning  by  strengthening  collaboration  among 
universities  and  institutes  of  technology,  along  the  following  four  pillars:  Professional 
Development, Digital capacity-building, National awards for excellence, and improving the 
quality of STeM education. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The  main  objective,  which  was  to  launch  a  national  digital  platform  for  HE  collaboration, 
was  achieved.  Nowadays  the  National  Forum  is  working  on  building  capacity  and  raising 
awareness in OE within the sector. What the policy achieved, in summary, is the following: 
it sponsored research on open access for learning content222; granted every HE institution 
in Ireland its own open repository, or access to one; launched a peer-reviewed process to 
recognise innovative strategies for T&L through these materials; offers collaborative spaces 
for  open  collaboration  on  any  subject;  and  works  closely  with  all  the  institutions  in  the 
sector  and  has  a  designated  National  Forum  Associate  in  each  institution  that  works  with 
the Forum team to identify the priority areas for development for the sector. An example of 
a  funded  project  is  “All-Aboard”223,  which  aims  to  identify  the  wide  range  of  digital  skills 
and  knowledge  that  students,  and  all  those  who  work  in  Higher  Education,  will  need  in 
order to feel confident and creative when learning, working and exploring the digital world 
in the years to come. 

220 https://www.djei.ie/en/Publications/Publication-files/Innovation-2020.pdf  
221 http://www.hea.ie/sites/default/files/national_strategy_for_higher_education_2030.pdf 
222 Learning resources and open access in higher education institutions in Ireland, 2015, 
http://www.teachingandlearning.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Project-1-LearningResourcesandOpenAccess-
1607.pdf  
223 http://allaboardhe.org 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

The  Higher  Education  Authority  has  commissioned  an  evaluation  of  the  Forum  that  will 
report  in  April  2017.  This  evaluation  will  recommend  what  structure  and  function  the 
Forum should have in future.  

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

One of the main difficulties observed, especially within the universities, is the lack of parity 
of  esteem  between  research,  one  the  one  hand,  and  teaching  and  learning  on  the  other. 
Academics tend to be assessed and promoted based of the quality of their research rather 
than  their  teaching  excellence.  This  challenge  can  be  addressed  by  giving  a  voice  to  the 
teachers, by  changing perceptions  of the value of teaching and learning, and by reaching 
out to educators within their institutions through the organisation of events and capacity-
building  opportunities.  The  recent  publication  and  current  implementation  of  a  national 
professional development framework  for those  who teach in higher education should help 
to support a commitment to teaching excellence. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  policy  is  framed  within  the  EU  framework  towards  higher  education  modernisation, 
aiming at achieving teaching and learning excellence, and aims to produce good practices 
for academic development that can be shared internationally at European level. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The  interviewee  suggested  that  the  EU  should  promote  excellence  in  teaching  and 
learning,  embedding  its  value  in  the  policies  they  promote.  Also  the  EU  should  aim  to 
promote  professional  development  in  open  education,  based  on  consultation  with 
teachers.  It  was  further  advised  that  a  policy  such  as  the  National  Forum  for  the 
Enhancement  of  Teaching  and  Learning  should  not  be  positioned  within  an  institution 
(Ministry or HEIs) but instead be independent, as in the case of Ireland.  

Finally,  the  interviewee  noted  that  policymakers  in  open  education  should  always 
remember  that  if  a  policy  is  to  be  an  agent  of  change,  the  engaged  stakeholders  will 
inevitably feel a certain degree of discomfort and must be guided through the process of 
embracing the proposed innovations.  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.15 Italy (IT) 

Open Education in the country224 

In terms  of higher  education policy,  “openness” is not mentioned  specifically in the latest 
Italian  HE  reform,  but  some  developments  must  be  mentioned.  First,  the  Working  Group 
on  Open  Access  created  within  the  CRUI  (Italian  Conference  of  Rectors)  a  sub-group  on 
OER,  which  ran  an  analysis  of  the  use  of  OER  in  Italian  universities,  and  a  sub-group  on 
MOOCs that produced some guidelines225. Second, the Ministry of University and Research 
has recently provided support for the Italian MOOCs platform called EduOpen226, launched 
in 2016.  

Several  OER-related  initiatives  must  be  mentioned  in  the  school  sector,  especially  at  the 
regional  level.  Two  examples  are  the  project  from  the  Lombardy  administrative  region  – 
Progetto Scuole Lombardia Digitale227 – working to develop the ICT skills of school teachers 
and  their  use  of  OER,  funded  and  managed  from  the  Regional  School  office;  and  the 
project  A  scuola  di  Open  Coesione228.  Another  interesting  initiative  currently  underway  is 
the project Risorse per docenti dai progetti nazionali229, a collection of OER for the lifelong 
learning and training of teachers, unfortunately limited to languages and literature. It is a 
sub-action  for  the  professional  development  of  teachers  and  promoted  by  the  National 
Operational Programme 2007-2013. 

In  terms  of  Open  Access,  a  2013  law230  envisages  that  public  institutions  responsible  for 
the  provision  of  funding  for  scientific  research  shall  take  the  necessary  measures  to 
promote open access to publicly funded research data in at least 50% of cases, subject to 
certain conditions. The OpenDOAR portal231 lists 110 Open access repositories for Italy. 

Openness is present in the recent national school reform,  called La Buona Scuola232 (Law 
107/2015),  under  the  Piano  Nazionale  Scuola  Digitale  (National  Digital  School  Plan), 
which has been selected for interview. 

224 Italy has been intensively studied in respect of OER and open education in the last few years by EU projects. 
There  was  a  POERUP  country  report224  in  2013,  with  a  tabular  supplement224  in  summer  2014,  which 
embedded OER, MOOC and related open education activities in the context of ICT for education. A narrative 
update224  to  this  material  was  prepared  in  2015  for  the  Open  Education  Working  Group.  In  the 
D-TRANSFORM study224 Business Models for Opening Up Education which analysed six Member States, Italy 
was one of the countries covered, with information on distance learning and MOOCs – and fees. 

225 https://www.crui.it/images/allegati/pubblicazioni/2015/mooc_2015.pdf  
226 http://eduopen.org  
227 http://www.istruzione.lombardia.gov.it/argomenti/scuola-lombardia-digitale  
228 http://www.ascuoladiopencoesione.it  
229 http://risorsedocentipon.indire.it/home_piattaforma  
230 http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2013/10/08/13G00158/sg  
231 http://opendoar.org/find.php?p=2&step=20&cID=106&format=summary&sort=r.rName  
232 https://labuonascuola.gov.it/index_en  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description  

Institution 
Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Piano Nazionale Scuola Digitale 
National Digital School Plan 
http://www.istruzione.it/scuola_digitale/allegati/2016/pnsd_en.pdf  
The Italian National Plan for Digital Education (Piano Nazionale Scuola 
Digitale – PNSD) is a policy launched by the Ministry of Education, 
University and Research for setting up a comprehensive innovation 
strategy across Italy’s school system and bringing it into the digital age. 
It is one of the pillars of La Buona Scuola school reform (Law 107/2015). 
It is an organic plan for innovation in Italian schools, with cohesive 
programmes of 35 actions organised into three pillars (tools, skills, 
organisation) and nine areas: access, learning environments, 
competences, entrepreneurship, contents, staff-training and supporting 
measures. 
Within the plan, Action 23 deals specifically with the promotion of OER 
and with the delivery of guidelines for content production. 
Ministry of Education, University and Research 
2015 
Current 
Italian (summary in English) 
National 
School education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
 Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
☐  Technology 
☐  Quality 
 Leadership 

Interviewee 

Donatella  Solda,  Executive  Director,  Cabinet  of  the  Minister,  Ministry  of  Education, 
University and Research 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

A  vision  on  open  education  exists  within  the  Italian  Ministry  of  Education,  University  and 
Research233 (MIUR), embedding different understandings and approaches, since MIUR is in 
charge  of  education  from  school  to  HE.  Even  if  policies  and  initiatives  exist  in  different 
sectors and have been launched at different times, contacts exist between different sectors 
within the Ministry. Open education is understood both in terms of teaching practices and 
in terms of learning resources: the Piano Nazionale Scuola Digitale is the first policy on ICT 
in  schools  that  will  make  this  approach  practical.  Openness  is  a  transversal  priority:  we 
cannot speak about digital without speaking about openness, promoting critical citizenship 
and an active approach towards ICT and online knowledge. 

233 The MIUR website is called not miur.it but http://www.istruzione.it  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The National Digital School Plan was designed in such a way to involve as many public 
and private stakeholders as possible, also as far as funding is foreseen. Apart from current 
funding  from  the  MIUR  for  school  education,  funds  from  other  Ministerial  services  as  well 
as  regional  funds  from  the  European  Social  Fund  (for  labs,  school  libraries  and  teachers 
training  for  instance)  have  been  activated,  and  synergy  is  taking  place  with  other 
ministries  (in  broadband  for  schools  for  example).  Partnerships  with  private  sector 
stakeholders are also happening through the local laboratories234 – Laboratori Territoriali – 
where  a  call  of  €80  million  has  been  launched  for  coding  and  digital  citizenship  courses 
delivery  for  primary  and  secondary  schools235  and  in  general  whenever  funding 
opportunities are offered to schools, their partnerships with local bodies, NGOs and private 
sector is highly encouraged. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The  Ministry  funds  OER  production  and  supports  schools  that  take  openness  into  account 
(in  terms  of  open  data  or  open  government  for  example).  Areas  of  work  include  Spaces 
and  Instruments  (such  as  stakeholder  involvement  and  Open  Data),  Competences  and 
Content  (where  OER  open  curriculum  and  platforms  are  funded),  and  Training  and  Best 
Practices.  

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The National Digital School Plan was launched in October 2015. The plan is structured 
through pillar actions with individual action plans that can easily be monitored. Almost all 
actions have  commenced: some are have already been completed; and others are  still in 
process  (such  as  the  Unique  Identity  of  teachers  through  the  SPID  national  project  –  to 
provide  a  unique  digital  ID  to  every  citizen).  The  policy  has  managed  to  produce  a  “new 
narrative”  on  ICT  for  education  (for  example  by  investing  in  low-cost  and  sustainable 
technology instead of a LIM236 costing €50,000), and has activated 8,300 animatori digitali 
(digital animators237), one per school, which is probably the most dramatic change but one 
that schools have embraced enthusiastically. In a nutshell, short-term results can already 
be observed but the long-term system results of the policies will not be visible for another 
10 years or so. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  biggest  barrier  is  the  time  needed  (at  least  two  years)  to  build  up  teachers’ 
competences  so  that  they  can  work  effectively  in  digital  ways,  coupled  with  the  need  to 
create  effective  training  paths  that  can  cope  with  the  scale  of  the  training  demand,  since 
there  are  not  enough  quality  experts  in  these  fields.  Another  barrier  is  the  slow 
bureaucratic  processes  in  the  Ministry  when  it  comes  to  coping  with  such  a  radical  policy 
change. 

The main enablers have been that the National Digital School Plan has allowed teachers 
to  self-organise  and  valorise  innovative  approaches,  and  the  role  of  private-sector  actors 
(such as publishers through the Publishers Association238 or companies such as Google or 
Intel who have offered investments connected to the policy). Thanks to this, the plan has 

234 http://www.istruzione.it/scuola_digitale/prog-laboratori-territoriali.shtml  
235 http://www.istruzione.it/scuola_digitale/prog-laboratori-territoriali.shtml  
236 LIM stands for interactive whiteboard (Lavagna Interattiva Multimediale, in Italian). 
237 http://www.istruzione.it/scuola_digitale/prog-animatori-digitali.shtml  
238 http://www.aie.it/English.aspx  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

been able to generate a higher demand for schools with respect to previous policy cycles, 
and stakeholders replied in line with this.  

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The interviewee affirmed that the policy is in line with EU priorities on open education, and 
inspired by the 2013 EC Communication Opening up Education239. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The  interviewee  concluded  that  the  approach  of  following  through  the  policy-making240 
process  is  probably  the  secret  of  the  success  of  the  policy:  engaging  and  accompanying 
stakeholders in the implementation phase is actually the core activity of the MIUR staff in 
charge of the policy; this needs a lot of support time but pays off in terms of impact and 
the perceived relevance of the initiative. 

239 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52013DC0654 – Italy is one of the few 
countries to mention this 
240 See http://www.slideshare.net/damienlanfrey1/from-open-government-to-living-policy-making-59162036  

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3.16 Latvia (LV) 

Open education in the country241 

There  appears  to  be  no  current  policy  related  to  open  education  in  Latvia.  The  Open 
Government  Plan  for  Latvia  2014-16  makes  no  commitments  with  respect  to  education 
either.  Until  recently  there  was  an  active  Lifelong  Learning  Policy  2007-13242.  However, 
although the development of open resources was implied in that document, terms such as 
“e-learning”,  “virtual”,  “OER”,  “distance”  and  “open”  were  not  used  in  the  document  in 
relevant  ways.  The  policy  documentation  related  to  adult  and  lifelong  education  does  not 
identify  any  specific  targeted  tasks  and  actions,  and  neither  does  it  directly  support  the 
introduction of open education. 

In  contrast  with  the  centralised  activity  originating  from  the  Estonian  e-University  and  a 
thriving Distance Education Network in Lithuania, in Latvia in 2000 a plan for creating The 
Virtual  University  of  Latvia  was  supported  by  the  Ministry  of  Economics  but  not  by  the 
Ministry of Education and Science, and was never implemented. 

Despite  this,  some  universities  in  Latvia  have  produced  distance-teaching  activities,  and 
there  are  also  several  virtual  schools.  These  are  mainly  the  result  of  the  Phare  Multi-
country  Programme  for  Distance  Education  (1994-1999),  which  aimed  to  introduce 
distance  education  in  11  Central  and  Eastern  European  countries.  For  Latvia243  this 
established three distance-education centres at the country’s universities, trained over 100 
academic  staff  members,  developed  several  distance  education  courses,  and  started  the 
introduction  of  virtual  learning  platforms  at  the  universities.  This  has  had  long-term 
beneficial consequences. 

In 2012 the e-learning platform ORTUS run by Riga Technical University was evaluated by 
EADTU experts and received the E-xcellence Quality Label244. 

An example of a cross-border project is the Latvian-Lithuanian project245 eBig3 run by the 
Distance  Education  Centre  at  Riga  Technical  University,  which  combines  three  aspects  of 
technology-enhanced  learning  in  complementary  ways  (eLearning,  TV-based  learning  and 
mobile  learning)  to  produce  an  effective  and  innovative  cross-media  learning  delivery 
system that goes beyond traditional web-based learning approaches. The project received 
the BOLDIC Award in 2013 and the annual BOLDIC conference for 2014 was organised in 
Riga with the theme of open resources online.  

For Open Access the OpenDOAR portal records246 only three repositories (for a population 
of 2 million with over 20 higher education institutions). 

Interviewee 

Ilmārs Slaidiņš, Professor and OER expert, Riga Technical University 

241  Latvia  has  been  only  minimally  studied  in  respect  of  OER  and  open  education  in  the  last  few  years  by  EU 
projects. However, there was a 6-page study (2015) on policies for OER specifically, by ADOERUP (for the 
European Parliament). 

242http://asemlllhub.org/fileadmin/www.dpu.dk/asemeducationandresearchhubforlifelonglearning/nationallllstrateg
ies/resources_3348.pdf  
243 http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED438452.pdf – pp. 21-23 on Latvia 
244 http://e-xcellencelabel.eadtu.eu/e-xcellence/qualified-institutions  
245https://ortus.rtu.lv/science/en/publications/19768-
eLearning+Approach+eBig3%3A+Development,+Delivery+and+Evaluation  
246 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=119&title=Latvia  

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Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

It  was  reported  that  the  understanding  of  open  education  among  the  experts  at 
government level is rather  limited, and that when  open  education  projects are developed 
they are mainly initiated by teachers and their institutions, and supported by international 
(including EU) or public grants, since funds from the Latvian government are limited even 
when  available.  Also,  it  is  important  to  consider  that  the  use  of  open  licenses  such  as 
Creative Commons is not yet recognised by Latvian legislation247. 

State-of-the-art of open education 

The country does not have a particular policy in this field, as there seems to be a narrow 
understanding  of  open  education  on  the  part  of  the  government  and  because  there  are 
other  key  issues  to  address  in  relation  to  improving  education  in  the  country,  such  as 
teachers’ demands for better salaries. However, there are organisations in the country that 
are  promoting  the  use  and  adoption  of  digital  technologies  in  education,  such  as  the 
Latvian  ICT  association  LIKTA248  which  organises  events  to  connect  schools  and  teachers 
and  supports  educational  portals  such  as  MyKoob249.  This  contains  educational  resources 
developed  within  the  state-supported  project  LIIS  (Latvian  Education  Informatisation 
System)250.  This  project  started  in  1997  with  the  aim  of  introducing  IT  in  schools  and 
ended in 2003: in that period it developed learning resources for schools, trained teachers 
and introduced the ECDL standard (650 teachers tested).  

Furthermore, some universities are engaged in promoting the development and exchange 
of teaching resources in portals such as Skolotajs251. This portal is created and supported 
by  the  public  foundation  Elektronisko  mācību  līdzekļu  kvalitātes  asociācija  (e-MLKA)252. 
This association comprises people from IT-related companies, universities and schools. 

Latvia is indeed quite active in promoting Open Access to  research papers and data,  also 
through  the  participation  in  projects  such  as  OpenAIRE253  and  FOSTER254.  There  is  good 
cooperation  among  universities  (University  of  Latvia  and  Riga  Technical  University)  in 
organising the implementation of Open Access initiatives and several Open Access events, 
and in supporting the development of the Latvian Open Access Research portal255. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The three main barriers to the development of open education in the country are the lack 
of  strategic  support  for  the  development  and  promotion  of  open  education,  the  lack  of 
recognition of Creative Commons licenses, and the absence of dedicated financial support 
in the area of OER and open education. 

247 See the minimal entry for Creative Commons Latvia – the site openfm.lv no longer exists. 
248 https://www.likta.lv/en/about_us/Pages/about_us.aspx  
249 https://www.mykoob.lv  
250 Summarised in English, French and German at 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233595415_Latvian_Education_Informatization_System_LIIS  
251 http://skolotajs.lv/Lapas/Sakums.aspx  
252 http://www.emlka.lv  
253 https://www.openaire.eu  
254 https://www.fosteropenscience.eu  
255 http://www.napd.lu.lv  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

In  terms  of  suggestions,  the  interviewee  noted  that  support,  both  financially  and  at  a 
promotional level, would be needed to  ensure  that the  government and policymakers are 
aware of open education.  

He also recommended that the EU should provide funds to initiate and open discussions 
and  promote  exploratory  projects  in  countries  where  open  education  has  not  yet  been 
considered; and also that it should provide action plans – not just suggestions and policies 
but guidelines and exchanges of expertise entailing clear goals and targets. 

84 

 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.17 Lithuania (LT) 

Open education in the country 

A comprehensive report256, Open Educational Resources in Lithuania, was written in 2011 
for  the  UNESCO  Institute  for  Information  Technologies  in  Education  (IITE),  and  further 
developments have taken place since then. The author of that report provided an update257 
in 2015 for the Open Education Working Group, in the context of open education.  

The OpenDOAR portal lists 11 Open access repositories for Lithuania,258 a high number in 
relation to the country’s total population. 

Distance  learning  is  quite  well  known  and  there  is  an  active  national  distance-learning 
association,  LieDM.259  Despite  this,  the  standard  Education  and  Training  Monitor  2015 
report260 for Lithuania makes no mention of OER, open or distance learning. 

More usefully, the Monitor reports on higher education reform (p.6): 

In a 2014 study261 (MOSTA262 2014), the Lithuanian Government and stakeholders identified the 
main challenges on the quality of higher education and the relevance of tertiary students’ skills to 
the labour market. In response, in January 2015 the government presented a proposal to amend 
the law on higher education and research (Lithuanian Government 2015). The proposal includes 
the following main measures:  

i)   performance contracts will be  brought  in  between higher education institutions and the 
State  governing  the  activities  of  higher  education  institutions  and  student  admission 
requirements for a three-year period;  

ii)   state-financed student places will be planned for each field of study, based on the skills 

needs identified by the government;  

iii)  centrally determined minimum admission requirements will be set. These will apply both 
to public (both state-financed and  self-financed higher education places)  and  to  private 
institutions (until now universities could set their own admission requirements); 

iv)  the total duration of bachelor’s and master’s programmes can be reduced by one year;  

v)   career guidance will become obligatory for institutions; 

vi)  higher  education  institutions  will  be  managed  by  a  Senate  composed  of  external 

members. 

There  is  nothing  to  criticise  in  these  reforms  and  they  are  in  line  with  developments  in 
some other Member States; yet there is no explicit mention of ICT, even though target (iv) 
might  be  facilitated  by  a  blended  learning  approach.  However,  the  reforms  go  on  to 
observe that: 

In  response  to  increased  interest  among  students  for  professionally  oriented  programmes, 
pathways  will  be  opened  up  from  these  programmes  towards  traditional  master’s  programmes. 
Lithuania also plans  to make  higher education  programmes more relevant to  the labour market 
by  promoting  cooperation  on  study  content  development  with  social  partners  and  by  helping 
employers to offer more work-based learning opportunities to students in tertiary education. 

256 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002144/214493e.pdf  
257 http://education.okfn.org/open-education-lithuania/  
258 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=125&title=Lithuania  
259 http://vma.liedm.lt  
260 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/repository/education/tools/docs/2015/monitor2015-
lithuania_en.pdf  
261 Studijų kokybė Lietuvoje: suinteresuotų šalių požiūris (Quality of Studies in Lithuania: 
Stakeholders Opinion), 
http://www.mosta.lt/images/leidiniai/Studiju_kokybe_suinteresuotuju_saliu_poziuris._Santrauka.pdf  
262 MOSTA (http://www.mosta.lt/en/) is an interesting agency – see their reports in English at 
http://www.mosta.lt/en/reports-and-publications, especially 
http://www.mosta.lt/images/leidiniai/Effectiveness_of_higher_education_Policy_brief.pdf  

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These aims are traditionally facilitated by ICT deployment.  

There are also plans to modernise vocational education and training and to promote adult 
learning, but again with no strong ICT aspect.  

In the end it was decided to choose a more ICT-specific action plan, the so-called Activity 
Plan  for  ICT  Implementation  in  General  and  Vocational  Education  for  2014–2016,  which 
has the merit of not only extensively mentioning ICT but also open content and MOOCs. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Activity Plan for ICT Implementation in General and Vocational 
Education for 2014–2016 
https://www.e-
tar.lt/portal/lt/legalAct/e5ee5450e0de11e388bee944977d73d2  
In 2014 the Ministry approved ICT implementation in general and 
vocational education activities plan for 2014 – 2016, which aims to 
ensure that after a few years: 
  Teachers actively participate in virtual forums, exchange experience, 

and participate in distance learning (e.g. MOOC) 

  Students can learn in virtual environments, to self-assess their 

learning outcomes. Assessment information is available to teachers 
and principals to make decisions 

  Open content and other resources are accessible by schools’ safe 
wireless networks. Students can use their own mobile devices for 
learning both at school and at home (BYOD) 

  The updated IT subject curriculum is attractive to students, and it is 
offered both in a formal and informal way. Students have already 
been acquainted with IT possibilities at a lower level. 

Future activities in the Activity Plan are related to open digital content 
creation, development of already created content; adaptation to 
students with special needs; and development of methodological 
material and teacher-training. 
Ministry of Education 
2014 
Current 
Lithuanian 
National 
School education, VET 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
 Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
 Technology 
 Quality 
☐  Leadership 

86 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interviewees 

  Giedrius Vaidelis, Director of Education Development Centre. 

  Vaino Brazdeikis, Director of Centre of Information Technologies in Education under 

the Ministry of Education and Science. 

Interview results  

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

At  governmental  level,  open  education  is  quite  well  understood  –  mostly  the  concept  of 
Open  Educational  Resources.  However,  this  understanding  seems  to  decrease  at  school 
level.  The  role  of  the  Ministry  is  to  support  the  implementation  of  ICT  for  teaching  and 
learning,  by  providing  networks  and  equipment,  but  also  to  develop  digital  skills  in  the 
teaching  body.  By  promoting  a  better  digital  infrastructure,  therefore,  the  Ministry  can 
promote innovation in teaching and learning. To develop new skills for educators, training 
is needed, so the use of OER to support and motivate the teachers is key – this is widely 
understood by the Ministry. 

Policy design and stakeholders involved 

The  policy  design  aims  to  reduce  social  exclusion  and  related  problems  by  improving 
education and by developing new skills in teachers and students, aspiring also to develop 
citizenship  skills.  The  main  stakeholders  are  the  Ministry  and  its  agencies,  but  also  the 
schools and the municipalities, as in fact the schools depend on the municipalities. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The  main  dimensions  of  the  Activity  Plan  for  ICT  Implementation  in  General  and 
Vocational  Education  for  2014–2016  are  the  implementation  and/or  improvement  of 
ICT in schools, including the provision of Internet/Wi-Fi, computers, interactive boards and 
other  devices  that  can  be  used  for  teaching  and  learning.  Another  dimension  is  the 
provision  of  digital  content  for  teacher-training  and  for  sharing  of  teaching  and  learning 
resources, and also the development of a centralised assessment system. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

So far there have been a large number of schools equipped with digital technologies and a 
considerable  number  of  teachers  have  been  trained.  A  significant  amount  of  resources 
have also been developed to train teachers. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

Some  of  the  barriers  encountered  during  the  implementation  are  related  to  a  lack  of 
motivation  on  the  part  of  some  municipalities  when  it  comes  to  supporting  the 
implementation of new technologies and/or training the teachers. 

Another barrier encountered is the age of the teachers in the country: on average they are 
much older than in other European countries and also only a minority of them understand 
English,  so  in  many  cases  learning  new  things  in  English  is  problematic.  Also  there  is 
reluctance on the part of some school principals to adopt new technologies and innovative 
teaching methods, as they often prefer more traditional approaches. 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Enablers  include  the  provision  of  training  for  school  principals  which  would  lead  them  to 
understand  the  paradigm  shift  in  educational  processes,  and  support  them  in  gradually 
overcoming  the  initial  reluctance  of  the  teachers.  Also,  the  showcasing  of  data 
demonstrating  progress  in learning  through  the  adoption  of  new  technologies  has  been  a 
source of motivation for some educators and principals: it allows them to see results, thus 
leading them to support and promote training for teachers aimed at enhancing educational 
results at school level. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  connection between this policy and the EU-level developments is that they  share  the 
aim of widening participation in education and reducing social inequality. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

One  of  the  lessons  mentioned  by  the  interviewees  is  the  importance  of  involving  school 
principals, as they can be both an obstacle and an enabler in the implementation of policies 
and agendas. 

For  future  OE  policies,  the  interviewees  from  Lithuania  recommended  that  the  EU  could 
provide a library of Open Source Software that could be translated for sharing and creating 
content or for innovation, because for countries with lesser-used languages (Lithuanian is 
spoken  by  fewer  than  3  million  people)  it  is  expensive  to  purchase  software  because  its 
translation is costly, or indeed there is no translation available. 

They  also  mentioned  that  the  EU  should  facilitate  teachers’  mobility,  offer  more 
Erasmus+ projects to enhance teachers’ capabilities, and provide a platform for the sharing 
of good practices that can facilitate and motivate teachers’ training. 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.18 Luxembourg (LU) 

Open education in the country 

Despite its relatively small population Luxembourg has quite a developed higher education 
sector,  comprising  the  University  of  Luxembourg263,  the  Open  University  of  Luxembourg 
(the  result  of  cooperation  between  the  Luxembourg  Lifelong  Learning  Center,  the 
Luxembourg  Chamber  of  Employees,  and  the  Open  University  in  the  UK,  with  a  rich 
distance  learning  offer),  the  Lunex  University,  the  Sacred  Heart  University  Luxembourg, 
and the Miami University — John E. Dolibois European Center (MUDEC).  

The OpenDOAR portal lists264 four Open access repositories for Luxembourg – a relatively 
high  number  explained  by  the  fact  that  Luxembourg  hosts  a  number  of  research  centres 
and foundations. 

Open Education and OER are present within the Digital(4)Education strategy265, which falls 
under the Digital Lëtzebuerg (Digital Luxembourg) overall policy266. This plan was launched 
in  October  2014,  aiming  to  “strengthen  and  consolidate  in  the  long  term  the  country’s 
position  in  the  ICT  field”,  and  transform  the  country  into  a  digital  nation.  The  strategy  is 
composed of five pillars: Digital Peer, Digital Citizen, Digital Entrepreneur, Digital Worker, 
and Digital Learner. Each one of these has some activities aiming at opening up education. 
This strategy is being deployed – with special attention paid to Open Educational resources 
and Practices – in the school sector through nationwide initiatives such as MathemaTIC267 
and one2one268, briefly presented below. 

In  school education, through the portal  https://portal.education.lu, teachers and students 
can  access  a  range  of  collaborative  applications  and  resources,  including  openly  licensed 
ones. 

Interviewee 

Serge LinckelsINCKELS, Professor, Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la 
Jeunesse  (MENJE),  Service  de  Coordination  de  la  Recherche  et  de  l’Innovation 
pédagogiques et technologiques (SCRIPT). 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In the school sector, even if there is not a specific policy focusing only on open education, 
a  lot  of  initiatives  are  underway.  Open  Education  is  transversally  embedded  within  the 
Digital(4)Education  strategy,  a  national  initiative  run  by  the  Ministry  of  Education  and 
aiming to transform schools into digital schools  partly through the use of Open Resources 
and  collaborative  knowledge  development.    Given  this  “transversal  presence”  of  open 
education within the major national initiative on school innovation through ICT, we can say 

263 http://wwwen.uni.lu  
264 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=126&title=Luxembourg  
265 http://portal.education.lu/digital4education/  
266 

http://www.luxembourg.public.lu/en/investir/secteurs-cles/economie-numerique/digital-

letzebuerg/index.html  
267 https://www.mathematic.lu/  

268 www.edusphere.lu/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

that the Ministry of Education has a clear vision on ICT for learning and media literacy that 
embeds a vision of open education. This is further witnessed by the fact that the Ministry of 
Education has very recently created a running prototype of an OER metasearch engine in 
collaboration with the University of Luxembourg. 

Open Education state-of-the-art 

Under  the  Digital(4)Education  initiative,  a  number  of  actions  involving  the  opening  up  of 
education have been implemented. 

MathemaTIC  is  a  very  large  project  for  ICT  development  in  schools,  fully  open  to  all 
teachers and students. Based on a personalised e-learning platform, it targets students in 
Grades 3 & 4 (Cycle 3) and Grades 7 & 8. The interactive content is available in different 
languages.  Multilinguism  is  indeed  important  in  Luxembourg,  since  students  would  need 
materials  in  the  three  official  languages  of  the  country;  for  example  an  initiative  was 
recently launched  for students to learn how to  write  in Luxembourgish. During the  2015-
2016  school  year  MathemaTIC  was  piloted  in  41  schools  through  interactive  learning  and 
assessment  modules  aligned  to  the  mathematical  competences  outlined  in  the  national 
curriculum  document.  The  project  is  run  in  collaboration  with  the  French  Ministry  of 
Education,  the  University  of  Luxembourg,  the  Luxembourg  Centre  for  Educational  Testing 
(LUCET),  the  Luxembourg  Institute  of  Social-Economic  Research  (LISER),  and  the  Centre 
de gestion informatique de l’éducation (CGIE). 

one2one  is  one  of  the  newest  initiatives  of  the  Ministry  of  Education.  It  aims  to  deploy 
iPads into schools in a 1:1 model and to promote digital and interactive learning resources. 
The  project  is  based  on  three  pillars:  the  technical  aspects,  the  training  of  the  teachers, 
and the delivery of pedagogical content and its learning scenarios. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The main challenge in order to fully open up education in the country, especially in terms 
of  learning  materials,  has  to  do  with  language.  Most  of  existing  Open  Educational 
Resources  are  in  fact  in  English,  but  most  of  the  subjects  are  taught  either  in  French  or 
German. What students need, therefore, is content in those languages. 

A  centralised  authentication  system  for  every  teacher  and  student  with  single  sign-on 
(SSO)  is  already  in  place.  Therefore  technology  is  not  a  critical  issue:  in  fact  it  would  be 
quite easy to open up the centralised credentialing and resources system to the rest of the 
world,  even  of  this  might  create  problems  with  students  from  other  countries  wanting  to 
access  the  country’s  school  system.  A  solution  such  as  EduID269  (developed  in  Sweden) 
would help. 

Teachers’ competences would not be a barrier either, but rather an enabler. In the last two 
years, in fact, media literacy, classes on Creative Commons and OER have been included in 
basic teacher-training and have been offered on many occasions – for example the annual 
teacher-training  day  “journée  eduSphere”,  or  on  a  more  regularly  basis  as  in-service 
training. Furthermore, teachers would generally be willing to open up, and many do share 
content openly already via the national cloud solution. This was the result of a number of 
collaboration  activities  organised  by  the  Ministry,  such  as  Exchange  Days  when  teachers 
meet and exchange digital material and approaches. 

269 https://www.eduid.se/  

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Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The  main  recommendation  is  to  start  with  teachers.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
interviewee, awareness-raising among teachers is the most important thing: teachers must 
be informed and convinced that using and improving existing content is the way to go. The 
Ministry  has  devoted  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  teacher-training,  with  lots  of  exchange 
events, visits in the schools, and discussions at all levels. 

Another  recommendation,  specifically  for  small  countries,  is  to  take  advantage  of  their 
ability to put in place a single centralised system that includes an OER repository (or meta-
repository)  and  a  student  identification  system.  Having  such  a  centralised  system  would 
make  things  easier  for  teachers  and  students  and  would  increase  their  motivation  to 
participate, collaborate and share. 

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3.19 Malta (MT) 

Open education in the country 

In Malta, although there is a thorough understanding of the wide scope of open education, 
the  main  policy  target  at  the  moment  concerns  OER.  Unlike  many  other  Member  States, 
open  education  in  the  form  of  MOOCs  and  OER  are  positioned  as  important  goals  in  key 
policy documents. Malta also has a pilot initiative on blockchain in education. This initiative 
maps onto the recognition dimension of open education. Malta’s case study on blockchain 
policy, focusing on citizens’ ownership and the portability of their own educational records, 
can be found in the report Blockchain in Education270 (JRC, 2017), p.74.  

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

National Lifelong Learning Strategy 2014-2020 
https://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/Malta%20National%20Lifelong
%20Learning%20Strategy%202020.pdf 
The National Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020271 is the first 
document to mention open education in Malta. The document 
recommends “embracing the emergence of Open Education Resources 
as an opportunity for Connected Learning”.  
Ministry of Education and Employment 
2014 
Current 
English 
National 
Post-compulsory education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
 Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
☐  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewees 

●  Alex Grech, Senior Advisor to the Ministry for Education and Employment. 

●  Emmanuel Zammit, Ministry of Education and Employment. 

● 

Jeffrey Zammit, Ministry of Education and Employment. 

270 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/blockchain-education  
271https://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/Malta%20National%20Lifelong%20Learning%20Strategy%202020.pdf 

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Interview results  

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The  role  of  the  Ministry  is  that  of  developing  policies  and  strategies  and  implementing 
programmes  that  can  foster  a  more  equitable  uptake  of  open  educational  resources  by 
Maltese citizens. It is an activist approach which at the moment is very much related to the 
uptake of OER.  

The  Ministry  sees  itself  as  the  primary  policymaker,  with  responsibility  for  increasing 
Maltese citizens’ understanding of the value of OER. The Ministry is both a policymaker and 
a promoter of OER, although OER uptake on a large scale may not be achieved in the near 
future. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  National  Lifelong  Learning  Strategy  2020272  embraces  open  education  and  open 
educational  resources  so  as  to  promote  connected  learning.  It  was  published  at  the 
beginning  of  2015,  being  launched  as  an  official  policy.  It  was  the  first  time  the  Maltese 
government had addressed open education and the need to do something about OER. The 
document  set  out  the  strategy  and  contained  a  number  of  recommendations  for  raising 
awareness of OER.  

Strategy 5, for example, is to “Embrace the emergence of Open Educational Resources as 
an opportunity for Connected Learning”, emphasising that it is important to observe: 

[…] The European Commission’s call for EU-level cooperation on OER as the platform from which 
to push reforms towards the adoption of open learning environments within adult education. This 
will  involve  the  development  of  a  sound  policy  framework  for  the  introduction  of  innovative 
learning  and  teaching  practices  through  technologies  in  schools,  universities,  VET  and  adult 
learning institutions. There is a significant opportunity to re-think the role of digital technologies 
within adult learning institutions. (pg.32) 

The  other  document  is  a  green  paper  on  digital  literacies273  which  is  argues  in  favour  of 
OER  uptake.  It  was  published  in  late  2015  and  encourages  people  to  be  digital  literate, 
starting from primary school. These documents are currently part of national priorities. It is 
planned  that  Malta  will  publish  a  national  open  education  policy  in  2018,  followed  by  a 
digital literacy strategy.  

Apart from the two documents mentioned above, Malta has also published a report to the 
Ministry of Education by the Working Group on Post-Secondary Education and the Future of 
Education274. This report presents  a series  of  recommendations, with number 13 focusing 
on OER: 

Use Open Education Resources and MOOCs to redesign and deliver accessible, competency-based 
curriculum content [p.157] 

These documents and policies form the basis of Malta’s OER and open education strategy 
until  a  specific  policy  is  published  in  2018.  To  date  the  strategy  is  about  informing  key 
stakeholders such as policymakers and teachers about the opportunities of open education. 
Malta has been providing OER for students and the general public. The underlying rationale 
is how to connect “knowledge that is  out there in the world” with formal knowledge.  The 
Maltese  education  system,  according  to  the  Ministry,  aims  to  provide  equitable  education 

272https://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/Malta%20National%20Lifelong%20Learning%20Strategy%202020.pdf 
273https://education.gov.mt/en/elearning/Documents/Green%20Paper%20Digital%20Literacy%20v6.pdf  
274 https://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/Post-Secondary%20Education.pdf 

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with no one left behind: there are several initiatives aimed at breaking down “one-size-fits-
all” regimes. 

To this end the Ministry has launched a  “tablet” initiative and has been providing training 
to teachers and students. Every learner in both public and private schools receives a tablet 
computer. 

In  February  2017  the  Ministry  set  up  the  Commonwealth  Centre  for  Connected 
Learning275. This was established as an arms-length foundation in collaboration with the 
Commonwealth  of  Learning276  in  Vancouver,  providing  Malta  with  access  to  an 
international  network  of  experts  and  practitioners  in  OER.  The  centre  will  be  working  in 
conjunction with key stakeholders in the Ministry and  other Maltese institutions in order 
to facilitate policy initiatives and pilot projects. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

These policies cover the following dimensions of the OpenEdu Framework: access, content, 
collaboration, recognition, strategy and technology. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The bottleneck in policy implementation is the lack of human resources within the Ministry. 
To  overcome  this,  Malta  often  reaches  out  for  external  support  in  order  to  move  forward 
with its strategies. Since these strategies primarily concern “mindset change”, the process 
has  been  more  about  raising  awareness  on  the  importance  of  OER  and  discussing  ideas 
for pilots with stakeholders to promote buy-in. Apart from the offer of OER and the tablet 
initiative,  the  interviewees  explain  that  the  strategies  in  these  documents  have  not  yet 
been fully implemented.  

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  lack  of  human  resources  within  the  Ministry  is  a  challenge  to  be  overcome,  as 
previously mentioned. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

It  becomes  evident  when  reading  these  documents  that  Malta  is  very  well  informed  on 
current EU-level developments and aspirations. The Communication on open education and 
the  OpenEdu  framework  are  both  cited  in  these  documents:  they  provide  an  important 
rationale for the policies and additional input as to why Malta needs to move forward with 
Open Education. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

Malta  plans  to  implement  policies  on  digital  literacy  and  open  education  by  the  end  of 
2017. The government understands that mindset change is very important for the practical 
realisation  of  these  policies.  Through  an  approach  equally  involving  all  individuals  in  the 
initiatives promoted by the Ministry, Malta is striving towards an education system in which 
digital competence and open education are both core values. 

275 www.connectedlearning.edu.mt  
276 www.col.org. 

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3.20 Netherlands (NL) 

Open education in the country 

In  the  last  few  years  the  Netherlands  has  been  studied  with  respect  to  OER  and  open 
education through EU-funded and other projects. In terms of public reports, in 2014 there 
was  a  substantial  POERUP  country  report  on  OER,277  augmented  by  a  policy  options 
supplement278.  In  2015  there  was  only  a  brief  study  by  ADOERUP  (for  the  European 
Parliament)279. 

The HE policy for the Netherlands makes no specific mention of e-learning but appears to 
contain  no  inhibitors  to  its  development.  The  national  quality  agency,  NVAO280,  is  one  of 
the few in Europe (along with those of the UK and Ireland) that is aware of e-learning and 
considers it to some extent in its deliberations. Its Self-Assessment Report281 for the 2017 
ENQA Review mentions it specifically: 

Students demand more flexibility in the organisation of education, especially in life-long learning. 
NVAO can  use its  expertise to assist maintaining standards of quality in these developments. It 
has published papers on quality assurance in online education and MOOCS282. (p. 24) 

3.  Input  in  discussions  on  quality  assurance  and  accreditation  in  the  Bologna  process  NVAO 
contributed to the  development  of  the ESG,  to  discussions and meetings on learning outcomes, 
qualifications frameworks, joint programmes, quality culture, and MOOCs. (p. 41) 

Each  year  NVAO  organises  in  cooperation  with  ECA  a  topical  international  seminar  with 
participation of Dutch and Flemish HEIs, on themes related to the Bologna agenda (e.g. mutual 
recognition of qualifications; online learning; employability; joint programmes). (p. 41) 

ESG  1.6:  In  the  case  of  assessments  of  long-distance  education,  a  specialist  with  expertise  in 
online education is mandatory in the expert panel. (p. 56) 

However, “open education” (or any similar expression) does not appear. 

In  2009  the  Ministry  of  Education,  Culture  and  Science  initiated  a  programme  to 
mainstream  OER  in  all  educational  sectors  by  creating  the  Wikiwijs  portal283  for  finding, 
sharing and reworking OER.  Government support  for this comprehensive programme was 
withdrawn at the end of 2013 and Wikwijs was refocused. The current government focus is 
on  MOOCs,  but  progress  seems  slow.  MOOC  activity  is  quite  widespread,  with  Coursera 
having four members, FutureLearn three, iversity one, and the Open Education Consortium 
four. 

A 2012 SURF report284 noted (p.4) that: 

A small, active group of universities of applied sciences can be distinguished that are interested in 
OER, that are developing initiatives, and that have plans for taking matters further, but most of 
the respondents at these institutions say that in the present period of budget cuts and discussions 
of quality they do not have the scope for developing a vision or policy regarding OER. 

277 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Netherlands  
278 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/File:POERUP_D4.3.3_Options_brief_pack_Netherlands.pdf  
279 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)563397_EN.pdf, pp.129-
130  
280 https://www.nvao.com/system/files/pdf/ENQA%20Review%202017%20NVAO%20Self-
Assessment%20Report_0.pdf  
281 https://www.nvao.com/system/files/pdf/ENQA%20Review%202017%20NVAO%20Self-
Assessment%20Report_0.pdf – dated October 2016 
282 See for example MOOCs and online HE: A survey – 
http://ecahe.eu/assets/uploads/2014/08/NVAO_MOOCs_and_online_HE_A_survey_June_2014.pdf 
283 https://www.wikiwijsleermiddelenplein.nl/startpagina/vmo  
284 https://www.surf.nl/binaries/content/assets/surf/en/2012/article+OER+in+the+Dutch+Educational+Landscape
.pdf 

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Despite  this,  SURF285  publishes  an  insightful  annual  report  on  open  and  online  education, 
making the best of the largely grassroots activity. 

The  OpenDOAR  portal  reports286  that  there  are  34  Open  access  repositories  in  the 
Netherlands. 

In  2015  the  Dutch  Ministry  of  Education,  Culture  and  Science  formulated  an  ambitious 
programme  for open and online education in its Strategic  Agenda  HO2025,  de waarde(n) 
van weten (Higher Education 2025, the value of knowing), with the aspiration (pp.29-30) 
that: 

all teaching staff at Dutch institutes of higher education make their educational resources openly 
available,  i.e.  open  access  higher  education,  and  that,  as  a  result,  the  Netherlands  plays  a 
pioneering role in the world. 

In the spring of 2016 a Ministry taskforce investigated what measures should be taken to 
realise  the  ambitions  of  the  policy.  After  interviewing  many  stakeholders  they  identified 
three categories of hurdles that hinder the widespread adoption of OER and other forms of 
open  online  education  (although  the  latter  was  narrowed  down  to  MOOCs):  culture, 
infrastructure  and  professionalisation.  Currently  the  research  universities  and  universities 
of  applied  science  are  working  together  with  SURF  and  the  Ministry  to  start  a  multi-year 
programme to take action in their ambition for widespread acceptance of open education.   

Besides  that,  in  the  summer  of  2017  the  Ministry  launched  an  enhanced  funding 
programme for open and online education. In addition, two model projects started forming 
a  learning  community  in  which  users  create  and  continuously  enhance  their  Open 
Educational Resources. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description  

Institution 
Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Policy/initiative overview 

HO2025, de waarde(n) van weten 
Higher Education 2025, The value of knowing 
https://www.government.nl/documents/reports/2015/07/01/the-value-of-
knowledge  
The policy presents a number of objectives for for the modernisation of HE by 
2025, and the actions the Netherlands intends to put in place to achieve this. 
This strategic agenda therefore considers ways to increase quality in a manner 
that is tangible for both students and university staff, and openness is at the 
core of the strategy. 
The ambition for 2025 is that all teaching staff at Dutch institutes of higher 
education will make their educational resources openly available, i.e. open 
access higher education, and that as a result the Netherlands will play a 
pioneering role in the world. The plans also attach importance to the Dutch 
institutes’ recognition of each other’s MOOCs and Open Educational Resources. 
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science 
2015 
Current 
English 
National 
Higher education 

285 https://www.surf.nl  
286 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=151&title=Netherlands  

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Policy/initiative overview 

Dimension of 
impact 

Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
 Recognition 
 Collaboration 
 Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
☐  Technology 
 Quality 
 Leadership 

Interviewee 

Ruud Nauts, Policy officer, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The  Dutch  Ministry  of  Education,  Culture  and  Science287  sees  open  education  as  an 
important  asset,  putting  it  at  the  same  level  as  Open  Access  in  the  higher  education 
context. Open education is perceived as an element that can foster quality and reduce the 
cost  of  education,  thereby  widening  participation  in  higher  education  and  ultimately 
supporting the development of an open culture in teaching and learning. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  policy  Higher  Education  2025,  The  value  of  knowing  was  launched  because  the 
Dutch government believes open and  online education is a strategy  capable of  enhancing 
and  broadening  access  to  education  by  promoting  the  sharing  of  teaching  resources  and 
practices. The main stakeholders involved in the preparation of the policy were the Ministry 
of  Education  itself,  the  Dutch  universities  and  the  universities  of  applied  sciences,  and 
SURF,  the  agency  that  supports  open  education  in  the  Netherlands.  SURF  is  particularly 
important  since  among  other  things  it  helps  the  government  allocate  ministerial  funds  to 
projects  and  initiatives  by  selecting  them  through  open  competitions,  which  cover  a  wide 
range of activities from MOOCs to OER repositories.  

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The core dimensions  of  the policy  Higher Education 2025, The value of knowing can 
be understood as  enabling the  sharing of educational content, with the  aim that by 2025 
resources will be openly shared across all schools and HEIs. To achieve this goal the policy 
is  supporting  initiatives  from  Dutch  HE  coalitions  at  the  national  and  international  level. 
Also  the  Ministry  intends  to  include  students  and  teachers  in  the  discussions  aimed  at 
shifting  the  teaching  and  learning  culture  towards  openness  and  supporting  the 
development of an open culture, providing technical support to staff and students to share 
and find OERs via institutional infrastructures. 

287 https://www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-education-culture-and-science  

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Policy implementation and impact to date 

The initial objectives have been achieved to a great extent, as higher education institutions 
are thinking at a strategic level what open education means to them, moving from the old 
approach of technical developments towards a strategic one. An interesting example is the 
project  developed  by  TU  Delft  in  the  form  of  a  coalition  with  European  universities  to 
develop  MOOCs,  which  can  be  taken  by  students  from  the  universities  and  upon 
completion of the course the students are given credits in the same way they are credited 
for face-to-face courses. Another significant project is the coalition among Dutch technical 
universities288,  led  by  TU  Delft,  which  promotes  the  sharing  of  OER,  supporting  the  idea 
that  open  education  is  embedded  in  Open  Science  and  therefore  promoting  the  scientific 
and technical development of the country.  

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  main  barriers  encountered  are  related  to  the  goal  of  moving  teaching  and  learning 
towards  an  open  culture.  First,  there  is  the  resistance  of  educators  when  it  comes  to 
adapting  their  practices  and  receiving  the  training  that  will  allow  them  to  innovate  in  the 
classroom;  and  second  the  fact  that,  despite  the  efforts  to  finance  projects  in  open 
education,  the  overall  level  of  institutional  support  and  recognition  for  educators  in 
implementing these projects has been lower than expected. As for the enablers, these can 
be  understood  from  different  perspectives.  First,  it  has  been  important  to  ensure  the 
political promotion of the open education agenda within the country, through endorsement 
by the Minister and other politicians in their public appearances. Also, it is key to promote 
and  support  open  education  by  financing  initiatives  at  higher  education  and  school  level; 
and finally it is crucial to address new and innovative approaches to open education. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The interviewee affirmed that the frame of this policy is in line with the European principles 
for  promoting  the  development  of  an  open  education  culture  across  Member  States. 
Because of its success, this policy can serve as a model to be adapted for the development 
of further policies and agendas on open education by other European countries. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The  interviewee  felt  that  the  success  of  the  policy  is  connected  to  the  extensive  support 
provided to  educators in embracing a change of culture and practice, but this support  for 
cultural  change  needs  to  be  provided  via  actions  that  endorse  and  acknowledge  good 
practices,  allocating  funding  for  projects  and  consistently  providing  training  for  educators 
rather than enforcing this cultural change via mandates. 

The first  recommendation from the interviewee with regard to further developments in 
open education in Europe is that a space should be created where policymakers can share 
good practices across countries and institutions.  

A  further  recommendation,  connected  to  the  fact  that  a  high  number  of  MOOCs  have 
been  produced  by  European  HEIs  as  part  of  their  open  education  remit,  is  that  after 
ensuring  the  quality  of  these  online  courses,  students  can  take  them  as  part  of  their 
elective modules, gaining credits upon completion of these courses as if they were part of a 
sort of e-Erasmus, thereby ensuring the courses are used to their full potential. 

288 http://www.open.tudelft.nl/en/education  

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3.21 Poland (PL) 

Open education in the country289 

In the case of Poland, probably the OER-related project best known outside the country is 
the Digital School Programme, announced290 in April 2012. This is the largest government-
sponsored  open  education  programme  in  Polish  history,  and  has  created  a  full  set  of 
educational materials for grades 4-6 under a CC-BY licence. 

The  Digital  School  programme  with  the  Digital  Textbooks  component  was  initially  drafted 
and proposed to the Prime Minister’s Office by the Modern Poland Foundation, the Centre 
for  Civic  Education,  and  Creative  Commons  Poland  (with  the  cooperation  of  the  Prime 
Minister’s  Office).  All  those  organisations  are  members  of  the  Coalition  for  Open 
Education291  (KOED),  a  network  of  NGOs  and  educational  institutions  promoting  Open 
Education in Poland. 

One of the most ambitious features was the creation of a national repository of training 
materials. Teachers in all of the test schools will have access to this nationwide database. 
The  first  draft  was  accepted  by  the  Ministry  of  Education,  but  at  a  later  stage  of  the 
negotiations  the  free  licensing  requirement  was  left  out.  Both  the  Coalition  for  Open 
Education and the Modern Poland Foundation took part in the public consultation process; 
their comments in support of free licensing were agreed  upon and accepted. As a result 
of the adopted regulation, schools will be computerised and all educational materials for 
grades 4-6 will have a  Creative Commons license (CC-BY-3.0) to allow for easy  sharing 
and attribution. By accepting the regulation and now also accepting the materials, Polish 
schools  will  soon  be  fully  adopting  the  open  education  model.  The  textbooks  are  to  be 
available  under  the  Creative  Commons  Attribution  license,  in  an  open  format  (with  the 
full  specification  being  freely  available  both  technically  and  legally),  and  for  web  access 
as required by the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. So far it appears that the 
only non-accessible material may be some  of the images, which contain embedded text 
and might therefore prove inaccessible for blind students.  

There  is  also  a  new  national  initiative  supported  by  the  Ministry  of  Science  and  Higher 
Education,  a  Polish  MOOC  platform.  The  goal  of  this  platform  is  to  increase  e-learning 
reach  among  young  people,  enhance  teaching  methods  and  support  the  professional 
development of academic staff, as well as to offer courses on various subjects. Since this 
project is presently only in the initial development stages292 it will not be the policy focus, 
although  it  has  the  potential  to  become  a  major  initiative  in  Poland  once  the  platform  is 
launched (in October 2018, according to the plans). 

The  new  regional  fund  policy  OP KED  –  Operational  Programme  Knowledge  Education 
Development, was the policy chosen as the basis of the interview. 

289 Poland, like Germany,  the  Netherlands and the UK (as well as France and Spain)  has  undergone intensive 
analysis by POERUP. There is a country report289 and a policy options paper289 written by two Polish experts 
commissioned by the well-known NGO Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt289. 

290 http://creativecommons.pl/2012/04/digital-school-program-with-open-textbooks-approved-by-polish-
government/  
291 http://koed.org.pl/en/  
292 December 2017 

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Policy URL 

Policy/initiative overview 
Policy title  OP KED – Operational Programme for Knowledge Education Development 
https://www.power.gov.pl/media/10256/OPKED_zatwierdzony_przez_KE_en_calos
c.docx  
In 2014 the Polish Ministry of Development introduced a broad open licensing 
requirement for all educational resources funded from the European Structural 
Fund293, with about €10 billion to be spent in Poland by 2020. This will be achieved 
through a large regional fund policy called Operational Programme Knowledge 
Education Development (OP KED) and through 16 regional operational 
programmes, which all have a strong educational focus. The interviewee (see 
below) indicated that the goals with respect to open education are: 
 

Description 
of the 
policy 

 

 

 

 
 

 

ensuring open educational resources are available by preparing e-textbooks 
and developing didactic e-materials accompanying the existing e-textbooks 
creating sets of education tools for each educational stage, as well as revision 
of learning content in terms of students’ key competences necessary to 
operate on the labour market  
reviewing and updating of core curricula and other content of VET (in 
cooperation with social partners), in order to take into account employers’ 
expectations regarding knowledge, skills and competences 
strengthening cooperation between schools and entrepreneurs, universities and 
social partners in order to mobilise business-education partnerships 
inclusion of qualifications into an integrated qualifications system 
increasing the competences of persons participating in higher education to 
match the needs of the economy, labour market and society 
transnational mobility programmes pursuant to the rules specified for the 
Erasmus+ programme 

Ministry of Development 

Policy 
institution 
Policy date  2014 
Policy 
status 
Language 
Policy 
jurisdiction 
E&T 
sectors 

Polish 

Current 

National 

School education, Higher education, VET, Adult learning 

Policy/initiative overview 

Dimension 
of impact 

Core dimensions 
  Access 
 Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
  Strategy 
☐  Technology 
☐  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewees 

  Beata  Pojawa,  Department  of  Education  and  Health,  Department  of  European 

Structural Fund, Ministry of Development. 

  Alek Tarkowski, director, Centrum Cyfrowe 

293 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

Open  education  is  an  important  part  of  education  policy  in  Poland.  It  aims  to  increase 
access  to  the  learning  offered  through  formal  and  informal  education  system  for  all  the 
recipients of the educational offer. The term “open” refers to the content of education and 
the  educational  process  –  understood  as  methods  and  tools  for  learning.  To  us,  “open” 
means  accessible,  flexible,  developed  in  collaboration  with  the  school  environment, 
responding to the expectations of the labour market and local society, and tailored to new 
technologies.  Implementation  of  the  idea  of  openness  in  education  is  a  guarantee  of 
universal access to information, knowledge and experience exchange. However, in Poland 
it is still very strongly identified with Open Educational Resources. Additionally, the Ministry 
of  Digital  Affairs  has  expressed  strong  interest  in  Open  Data,  and  to  some  extent  treats 
educational resources as an aspect of this.  

The Ministry of Economic Development294 is responsible for managing the implementation 
of  European  Funds295  in  Poland,  including  the  European  Social  Fund.  The  Minister  is 
coordinating  the  national  programme  financed  by  the  European  Social  Fund  –  OP KED 
(Operational  Programme  Knowledge  Education  Development),  which  includes  Open 
Content in their action strands including Open Educational Data.  

Recently  (in  the  second  semester  of  2017),  however,  the  Ministry  of  Science  and  Higher 
Education  turned  its  attention  to  developing  an  MOOC  platform  as  a  way  to  disseminate 
scientific knowledge and to offer attractive and valuable education activities, as well as to 
promote Polish science and culture abroad. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The key stakeholders of the OP KED initiative are the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of 
Digital  Affairs  and  the  Ministry  of  Development,  which  are  committed  to  supporting  the 
development  of  citizens’  skills  and  competences,  school  infrastructure,  ICT  in  education 
and  other  education-  and  culture-related  initiatives  by  providing  funding  and  support  for 
different initiatives and programmes.  

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The core policy dimensions are: 

  Vocational  training  and  language  training  (funded  through  OPKED),  which  both 
include elements of Open Education by promoting and supporting the development 
of  openly  licensed  content.  An  interesting  approach  in  this  context  is  that  the 
emphasis  is  being  placed  first  on  the  content  and  its  value,  and  then  on  its 
openness.   

  A  general  rule  of  openness  for  OER,  as  defined  (through  a  binding  policy)  for  all 
European  Social  Fund  projects  (therefore  including  all  of  OPKED  and  16  regional 
Operational Programmes, all of which include educational projects to some extent) 

  Open  licensing  requirements  within  the  Operational  Programme  Digital  Poland, 
through which educational activities related to coding in schools and e-inclusion will 
be funded 

294 https://www.mr.gov.pl/en/  
295 https://www.mr.gov.pl/en/site/what-we-do/european-funds/ 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

  The  government  is  developing  the  National  Educational  Network  (OSE),  based  on 
new  broadband  infrastructure  for  schools,  on  top  of  which  a  layer  of  services  is 
being built this year – one of them is a planned OER repository. 

  A  new  platform  for  MOOCs  supported  by  the  Ministry  of  Science  and  Higher 

Education 

Open education in the OP KED is implemented at several levels:  

  ensuring  the  availability  of  Open  Educational  Resources  by  preparing  e-textbooks 

and developing didactic e-materials accompanying the existing e-textbooks 

 

 

 

 

 

 

creating  sets  of  tools  for  each  educational  stage,  as  well  as  revision  of  learning 
content  in  terms  of  students’  key  competences  necessary  to  operate  in  the  labour 
market  

reviewing  and  updating  core  curricula  and  other  VET  content  (in  cooperation  with 
social  partners)  in  order  to  take  into  account  employers’  expectations  regarding 
knowledge, skills and competences 

strengthening  schools’  cooperation  with  entrepreneurs,  universities  and  social 
partners in order to mobilise business-education partnerships 

inclusion of qualifications into an integrated qualifications system 

increasing  the  competences  of  persons  participating  in  higher  education  to  match 
the needs of the economy, labour market and society 

transnational mobility programmes pursuant to the rules specified for the Erasmus+ 
programme. 

The  European  Social  Fund  supports  schools  in  the  process  of  developing  the  key 
competences  of  their  students.  In  the  2014-2020  period  the  European  Social  Fund 
intervention is focused on 4 key areas:  

1.  the use of modern information and communication technologies;  

2.  modern  teaching  (the  use  of  experimental  methods  in  education,  including 
equipping  classrooms  for  teaching  mathematics  and  sciences  and  to  prepare 
teachers to teach experimentally);  

3.  training  of  key  competences  and  skills  needed  in  the  labour  market  (creativity, 

innovation and entrepreneurship);  

4.  an 

individualised  approach  to  each  student  (providing  psycho-pedagogical 

diagnostic tools and conducting individual work with the student). 

As  for  the  e-textbooks,  thanks  to  ESF  support  (in  the  previous  programming  period)  14 
open  digital  e-books  have  been  created.  It  is  planned  that  by  the  end  of  2023  14 
e-textbooks for general education and 150 for vocational education will be developed under 
the  programme.  The  ESF  intervention  will  also  result  in  more  than  13,500  didactic  e-
materials  developed  under  the  programme.  All  of  these  materials  will  be  accessible  for 
public use. The funding allocation is €69 million.  

Another important priority of ESF intervention is to provide alternative flexible pathways to 
attain competences, including a combination of validation of skills acquired outside formal 
education and a relevant offer of education or training. The OP KED envisages co-financing 
the  creation  and  functioning  of  the  Integrated  Qualifications  Register,  which  will  contain 
qualifications  issued  in  Poland.  The  aim  of  the  OP KED  projects  will  be  to  include  all 

102 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

“complete”  qualifications  and  200  partial  qualifications  (non-formal  education)  in  the 
Integrated  Qualifications  Register.  As  a  result  of  the  implementation  of  the  Integrated 
Qualifications  Register  it  is  estimated  that  270,000  diplomas  and  certificates  will  be 
granted  in  the  field  of  non-formal  education  under  respective  level  of  the  Polish 
Qualifications Framework. The funding allocation is €54.5 million. 

Policy impact to date 

Implementation  is  already  widespread:  Polish  libraries  have  a  longstanding  tradition  of 
providing  digital  access  to  information,  and  the  Ministry  of  Education  has  developed 
educational  repositories  that  contain  some  openly licensed  content  and  some  copyrighted 
materials  that  are  freely  available  to  educators296.  Most  importantly,  the  government  has 
created an online service (epodreczniki.pl), which provides core curriculum resources for all 
subjects, and all primary and secondary school grades. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  implementation  of  these  measures  is  being  conducted  efficiently.  However,  one 
interviewee  mentioned  that  many  of  these  measures  depend  on  cooperation  with  a  wide 
range of stakeholders.  A frequent  bottleneck, therefore, is  the issue  of combining various 
interests.  

One of the challenges mentioned by the interviewees is the lack of awareness about open 
licenses, which may be a driver to promote open education. For example at HE level there 
is  no  commitment  to  open  education  as  there  is  with  Open  Access.  Due  to  a  lack  of 
awareness  and  necessary  support,  grantees  of  Operational  Programmes  might  not  meet 
the  open  licensing  requirements,  or  fulfil  them  only  partially.  Another  challenge  that  was 
mentioned  is  to  ensure  that  proposed  innovations  are  realistic  and  achievable,  otherwise 
they cannot be implemented. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The interviewees stated that policy is in line with EU guidelines for skills and competences 
development  among  Member  States,  and  that  Poland’s  approach  is  leading  in  the 
development  of  language  training  for  students,  equipping  them  with  core  skills  for  the 
current  labour  market.  The  Polish  approach  is  also  leading  with  regard  to  setting  open 
licensing requirements  for  ESF-funded  Operational  Programmes.  This approach could  also 
be implemented in other Member States. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future Open Education policies 

During the interviews it was suggested that European Operational Programmes should be 
developed  with  clear  guidelines  with  regard  to  Open  Licenses,  promoting  a  framework 
that  can  be  applied  across  different  areas  of  action.  Such  open  licensing  requirements 
need  to  be  supported  by  awareness-raising,  outreach,  training  and  other  support 
schemes, in order to have them fully implemented in practice.  

The inclusion of OER within a broader ICT for education project – the national educational 
network  –  is  a  good  template  for  treating  OER  as  one  (core)  element  of  a  broader 
strategy that deals with access to a range of services and resources online.  

Also  it  was  suggested  that  the  Erasmus  programmes  could  have  a  stronger  strand  in 
relation  to  open  education;  and  that  in  order  to  promote  and  support  open  education 

296 https://wyszukiwarka.efs.men.gov.pl/search?stage=5  

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across Member States, a programme such as Europeana for Education should be created, 
facilitating well-curated and selected materials that can be used by anyone. 

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3.22 Portugal (PT) 

Open Education in the country297 

In Portugal, most of the initiatives in open education undertaken either by the Ministry of 
Education  or  developed  at  school  level  concern  open  educational  resources.  This  is 
because open education is not yet seen holistically. Paradoxically, there are initiatives on 
technology,  pedagogy,  recognition,  collaboration,  access  and  leadership  –  but  what  is 
lacking  is  an  integrated  approach  to  these  areas.  These  initiatives  tend  to  be  derived 
from  legislation,  which  is  naturally  what  guides  decisions  at  ministerial  level.  However, 
the  opposite  can  also  happen,  when  the  Ministry  of  Education  pilots  non-compulsory 
initiatives,  and  then  subsequent  evidence  of  their  success  contributes  to  the  creation  of 
new  legislation.  This  is  the  case  with  the  initiative  Conta-nos  uma  história298  (Tell  us  a 
story),  which  has  been  approved  by  the  government  and  has  been  conducted  by  the 
General Directorate of Education since 2009.  

Policy title 
Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension of impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Conta-nos uma história  
http://erte.dge.mec.pt/concurso-conta-nos-uma-historia 
This is a national-level policy in which students are invited to take part in 
an annual story-writing competition. These stories are published under a 
CC license and made available on a website. The students deemed to 
have written the best stories receive a small prize. The main goal of the 
policy is to promote the use of new media in education, and new 
methodologies for teaching and learning based on collaborative 
environments and projects. At the same time it is meant to increase the 
responsibility of students as consumers of media content.  
Ministry of Education – Directorate General of Education  
2009 
Current  
Portuguese 
National 
School education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
 Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
☐  Quality 
 Leadership 

Interviewee 

João  Carlos  Martins  de  Sousa,  Directorate  General  of  Education,  Ministry  of  Education 
(focusing on school and secondary education levels) 

297 The perspective taken in this case study is at the school education level only. 
298 http://erte.dge.mec.pt/concurso-conta-nos-uma-historia  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In Portugal, including at the ministerial level, open  education is typically taken to mean 
OER. There is no specific policy on open education but there are a number  of initiatives 
with  open  education  components,  particularly  when  it  comes  to  the  production  of 
educational  materials  by  the  Ministry,  teachers  and  students.  What  is  lacking  is  an 
integrated view such initiatives.  

The Directorate General of Education has technical and executive roles when it comes to 
policies, and it is the national government  that defines them. The regional governments 
are also responsible for specific areas of education as defined by law. But the fact is that 
there have been no strategic documents in Portugal in the field of  open education – the 
kind of documents that might have been useful in guiding decisions about what action to 
take.  The  closest  to  an  integrated  view  in  this  area  developed  in  1997  with  the  Plano 
Tecnológico  de  Educação  (Strategy  for  Technology  in  Education).  An important  result  of 
the strategy was the Portal das Escolas (Schools Portal)299. This is supported by a digital 
technological  infrastructure  and  is  available  to  all  the  members  of  the  educational 
community  –  teachers,  pupils,  parents  –  and  is  also  open  to  people  in  general.  It  is  a 
space where teachers  can share educational resources. All teachers have a password to 
access the portal and publish their educational materials, which can then be shared. 

There  are  digital  resources  of  all  types  but  with  a  high  proportion  of  PowerPoint 
presentations,  some  of  which  have  a  degree  of  interactivity.  Quality  control  for  these 
resources  is  conducted  at  a  basic  level,  in  terms  of  grammar  and  scientific  content. 
Resource  production  is  centred  on  the  teachers,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
organisation and technology used, this portal is dated and would have to be substantially 
reformulated in order to have an important role in OER policy. There is another initiative, 
however,  which puts the focus  on the  students as producers of digital media resources, 
has  been  running  since  2009,  and  has  been  very  successful  for  schools: it is  Conta-nos 
uma história (described below). 

Besides  Conta-nos  uma  história  a  number  of  actions  have  been  carried  out  to  alleviate 
problems  in  the  education  system.  For  example  there  is  an  initiative  on  the  continuous 
professional  development  (CPD)  of  teachers,  potentially  targeting  every  teacher  in  the 
country. The interviewee explains that the way CPD is offered to all these teachers has to 
be optimised, otherwise it would take too long. Therefore MOOCs are used, based on an 
EdX platform. Overall, however, there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction with this EdX 
platform, so discussions regarding the development of a new MOOC server are underway, 
involving  academia,  public  administrations  (e.g.  Education,  Health)  and  the  national 
professional development agency.  

299 https://www.portaldasescolas.pt  

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These  MOOCs  are  offered  to  teachers  who  feel  the  need  for  professional  development, 
particularly on the use of technologies in education and new methodologies for teaching 
and  learning.  Participation  in  these  CPD  MOOC-based  initiatives  is  not  compulsory 
(although  desirable)  and  there  has  been  a  completion  rate  of  around  80%.  Due  to  the 
characteristics of the assessment methods employed, they are not totally certified as CPD 
as  the  Ministry  would  like  them  to  be.  This  problem  could  be  solved  if  there  were  the 
resources  (human  and  material)  to  run  supervised  assessments  that  would  then  be 
recognised  fully  by  the  independent  authority  responsible  for  teachers’  CPD.  All  the 
resources of these MOOCs are published under Creative Commons Licenses.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

Conta-nos  uma  história  is  a  national  initiative  for  basic  schools.  It  is  a  story-writing 
competition  for  students  in  which  their  stories  are  submitted  to  the  initiative’s  website 
under  the  supervision  of  teachers.  Even  groups  of  young  learners  who  are  not  yet  fully 
literate can submit stories. This initiative has proven to be an important tool for fostering 
media  literacy.  As  producers  of  content,  students  learn  to  be  responsible  and  critical 
consumers of media content.  

There are several stakeholders in this initiative: the Ministry, national bodies, schools and 
even  the  industry300  (e.g.  Microsoft).  The  initiative  costs  around  5,000  euros  annually, 
paid  from  the  government  budget.  The  other  stakeholders  provide  logistical  support  to 
the  initiative.  The  portal  is  maintained  by  the  Ministry.  Overall  the  interviewee  argues 
that  it  is  a  cheap  initiative  (which  is  helpful,  given  the  government’s  current  budgetary 
constraints) and has excellent results. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

All the content available at Conta-nos uma história is licensed under a Creative Commons 
license.  It  incorporates  the  following  dimensions  of  the  OpenEdu  Framework:  access, 
content, pedagogy, leadership and collaboration. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

Conta-nos  uma  história  involves  approximately  15,000  students  and  800  teachers,  and  it 
has published 2813 stories during its seven editions: 

Table 2. Total stories written during Conta-nos uma história. Source: Directorate General 
of Education 

Academic 
year 

Total of 
stories 

2009/2010 

2010/2011 

2011/2012 

2012/2013 

2013/2014 

2014/2015 

521 

673 

400 

335 

262 

296 

2015/2016 

326 

Audio 

Vídeo 

URL 

521 

372 

184 

154 

145 

152 

153 

- 

301 

216 

181 

117 

144 

173 

http://historias.dge.mec.pt/  

http://historias2010.dge.mec.pt/ 

http://historias2011.dge.mec.pt/ 

http://historias2012.dge.mec.pt/ 

http://historias2013.dge.mec.pt/ 

http://historias2014.dge.mec.pt/ 

A specific website was not produced for this 
academic year. However, many of the 
stories submitted are available on YouTube. 

Total 

2813 

1681 

1132 

300 http://erte.dge.mec.pt/regulamento-do-concurso-conta-nos-uma-historia 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

Leadership on the part of the Ministry, with the approval and support of the government, 
ensured  the  initiative  has  been  implemented  nationwide  with  a  good  take-up  rate.  Other 
stakeholders  are  also  involved,  as  previously  mentioned,  for  example  contributing  by 
providing the prizes for the authors of the best stories.  

The  barriers  that  exist  –  such  as  the  government’s  budgetary  constraints  –  are  not 
related  to  this  initiative  in  particular.  The  initiative  affected  directly  by  certain  barriers 
was the other one, the Portal das Escolas, which often suffers from resistance on the part 
of teachers when it comes to publishing their materials. This is because according to the 
interviewee,  teachers  in  Portugal  do  not  normally  like  to  “expose”  themselves  through 
their  work.  Only  a  very  limited  number  of  Portuguese  teachers  use  the  portal  and  its 
contents, and are willing to publish in it. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The interviewee describes  Portugal as a centralised country in which priority is given only 
to  what  has  been  enshrined  in  national  legislation.  Therefore  it  is  important  to  keep 
decision-makers  informed  regarding  the  needs  of  the  country  and  possible  courses  of 
actions to address them. The role of the European Commission (EC) is crucial, argues the 
interviewee, since ministers meet periodically through the EC to discuss and communicate 
their  policies.  Macro  frameworks  provided  by  the  EC  are  extremely  helpful  since  they 
provide orientation about the kinds of policies that can and should be implemented, based 
on  research  evidence.  Otherwise  policies  without  proper  foundation  are  often  introduced, 
causing more harm than good. 

Besides the EC, national bodies – such as the Ministry of Education in the case of Portugal 
– must keep up their role as providers of information to politicians and action-drivers.  

In terms of policies in Portugal, the interview says: “We currently expect the release of a 
new  document  related  to  a  large-scale  initiative  on  digital  technology,  but  it  has  not  yet 
been approved.”  

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3.23 Romania (RO) 

Open Education in the country 

A country report301 on OER in Romania was produced by POERUP in 2014. In terms of OER 
in adult education, the country was also studied in 2015 for the ADOERUP  project funded 
by  the  European  Parliament,  with  advice  from  an  in-country  expert,302  and  in  the  EU 
OERup! Project303. A useful synthesis of OER-related analytic work with the catchy title The 
Power of the Three Words and One Acronym: OER vs OER was published304 in 2015 by  a 
team of Romanian experts. 

As  described  in  the  latter  paper,  there  have  been  significant  developments  over  many 
years  in  national  OER  policies,  flowing  from  the  former  Knowledge  Economy  Project305 
(KEP)  implemented  by  the  Ministry  of  Communication  and  Information  Society  in  2005-
2013 and funded by the World Bank. The Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport 
was  a  partner  in  this  programme,  which  had  three  components:  Expanded  access  to 
Information  &  Communication  Technologies  and  improved  digital  literacy;  Development 
and  promotion  of  government  e-services;  and  Promotion  of  e-commerce  and  innovation 
support for SMEs. 

One of the important activities of the KEP project towards the field of open education was 
the  elaboration  of  a  set  of  recommendations  for  the  Romanian  Ministry  of  Education  for 
policies  supporting  Open  Source  (OS),  Open  Educational  Resources  (OER)  and  Open 
Educational Practices (OEP): to adopt a clear definition of open licenses and to support the 
principle  that  publicly  funded  products  should  carry  such  licenses;  to  facilitate  the 
sustainable  implementation  of  OER  by  creating  incentives  for  use  and  reuse,  and  funding 
technical infrastructure to increase access to OER.  

Some  of these  recommendations were specified in the  Proposal for public policies  for ICT 
integration in the pre-university system and adopted by the Ministry of Communication and 
Information  Society  and  by  the  Ministry  of  Education,  Research,  Youth  and  Sport  as  long 
ago  as  2007.  The  activities  in  the  KEP  project  have  led  schools  towards  a  shift  in  focus 
from the resources themselves towards the practices associated with the creation, use and 
management of OER: that is, open educational practices (OEP).  

The Government Programme for 2013-2016306, adopted in December 2012, specifies that 
the  Ministry  of  Information  Society  and  the  Ministry  of  Education  will  collaborate  to 
support  the  innovative  integration  of  Web  2.0  and  Open  Educational  Resources  in 
education, to promote the use of open/free resources and the development and sharing of 
resources by teachers and students. 

The Romanian Coalition for Open Educational Resources was formed in October 2013. The 
initial  memorandum  of  understanding  was  signed  by  the  members  of  the  project  OER 
Awareness Activities for Librarians and Academics in Romania and has also been signed by 
private companies. 

301 http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Romania  
302 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)563397_EN.pdf, pp. 
124-128 
303 http://www.oerup.eu/fileadmin/_oerup/dokumente/need_analysis_report_IREA_Romania.pdf  
304 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815027299  
305 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/764741468333031527/pdf/ICR26580ICR0Ro000PUBLIC00Box379
811B.pdf  
306  http://arhiva.gov.ro/upload/articles/105576/program-de-guvernare-2013-2016-bun1.pdf  –  see  especially  pp. 
22-23 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

In  the  library  context,  the  OpenDOAR  portal  reports  that  there  are  just  three307  Open 
access repositories in Romania. Progress seems slow in this area, therefore. 

MOOC initiatives include: 

  UniCampus308,  a  project  supported  by  the  Ministry  of  Education,  started  in  2014 
under  the  initiative  of  University  Politehnica  Timisoara  and  developed  by  the 
Association of Technical Universities from Romania309 to offer MOOCs 

  UniBuc Virtual310 (from the University of Bucharest) offers three MOOCs for teacher-

training 

  The mooc.ro portal311. 

There is also an increasing in-Romania literature312 on MOOCs. 

The Distance Learning Portal313 indicates that there is just one institution offering distance 
learning  in  Romania,  “Eftimie  Murgu”  University  in  Resita,314  but  searches  indicate  that 
there are in fact others, including the Transylvania University of Brasov, 315 the Polytechnic 
University  of  Timisoara316  and  the  “Babes-Bolyai”  University  of  Cluj-Napoca317  –  and 
probably many more. 

National Strategy on the Digital Agenda for Romania 2020 

In  2014  the  Romanian  government  adopted  the  National  Strategy  on  the  Digital  Agenda 
for  Romania  2020,  which  focuses  on  three  main  pillars:  the  modernisation  of  the  public 
administration, supporting the competitiveness of the private sector via ICT, and providing 
ICT access and digital education to the public at large. The full plan, available in English, is 
a  very  long  document318  but  there  is  a  useful  summary319  from  which  the  following 
material  is  taken.  It  sets  out  four  areas  of  action.  First,  e-Government,  Interoperability, 
Cyber Security, Cloud Computing and Social Media – which aims to increase efficiency and 
reduce  costs  in  the  public  sector  in  Romania  by  modernising  the  administration.  Second, 
ICT  in  education,  culture  and  health  –  which  aims  to  support  these  technologies  at  the 
sectoral level. Third, ICT in e-commerce, and research, development and innovation in ICT 
–  aimed  at  regional  comparative  advantages  of  Romania,  and  backing  growth  in  the 
private  sector.  Fourth,  Broadband  and  digital  infrastructure  services  –  aimed  at  ensuring 
social inclusion. 

A  full  implementation  of  the  strategic  vision  of  the  ICT  sector  in  Romania  will  result  in  a 
total investment of around €2.4 billion.  

Concrete measures set out in the strategy will lead to: 

307 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=177&title=Romania  
308 https://unicampus.ro  
309 http://rouni.ro  
310 http://www.unibuc-virtual.net  
311 http://mooc.ro  
312  For  example,  “A  Comparative  Analysis  of  MOOC  (Massive  Open  Online  Course)  Platforms”,  published  in  the 
Romanian journal Informatica Economică (vol. 20, no. 2/2016) – http://www.revistaie.ase.ro/content/78/01%20-
%20Conache,%20Dima,%20Mutu.pdf  
313 http://www.distancelearningportal.com – search for “Romania” 
314 This has a Department of Distance Learning – http://www.uem.ro/index.php?id=86  
315 http://www.unitbv.ro/en/AcademicProgrammes/Bachelor%E2%80%99sDegreeProgrammes/DistanceLearning.
aspx  
316 https://niif.videotorium.hu/en/recordings/949/the-development-of-the-politehnica-university-of-timisoara-
distance-learning-web-portal  
317 http://www.ceebd.co.uk/ceeed/un/rom/ro019020.htm  
318 http://www.mcsi.ro/Transparenta-decizionala/Proiecte-2014/Digital-Agenda-Strategy-for-Romania,-8-
september-2  
319 http://gov.ro/en/government/cabinet-meeting/national-strategy-on-the-digital-agenda-for-romania-2020  

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  Ensuring  access  to  electronic  public  services  for  citizens  and  organisations  (e-

government services); 

 

Improving  access  to  the  Internet  by  increasing  the  coverage  of  high-speed 
electronic broadband communications networks; 

 

Increased use of the Internet; 

  E-commerce promotion; 

 

Increasing the number of cross-border electronic public services; 

  Enhancing  digital  content  and  the  development  of  ICT  infrastructure  in  education, 

health and culture; 

  Supporting  the  growth  of  the  ICT  sector  added  value  by  supporting  research, 

development and innovation in the field. 

However,  after  reviewing  this  and  noting  that  only  one  measure  was  directly  relevant  to 
open education, it was decided to focus for the interview on the Open Government Plan for 
Romania which has several interesting aspects relating specifically to OER. 

Policy/initiative overview 

National Open Government Plan (Virtual School Library and Open 
Educational Resources) 
http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Romania-
NAP_2016-2018%20EN.pdf  
With the objective of improving transparency in the public education 
system, the 2016-2018 National Action Plan for Open Government has 
introduced a chapter on education to help implement the legal framework 
for the use of OER created through the Law on national education no. 
1/2011, called the Virtual School Library. 
By creating the Virtual School Library320 (work should have started in 
September 2016) and defining a national policy regarding open 
educational resources, the commitment aims to increase access to 
quality education and foster innovation.  
Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research  
2016 
Current 
Romanian, English 
National 
School education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
☐  Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
☐  Technology 
☐  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension of impact 

The Virtual Library 

320 See Commitment 16 on pp. 51-54 of the OGP Plan http://ogp.gov.ro/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/NAP_2016-
2018-EN.pdf  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

This material321 is taken from the OGP Plan for Romania, Commitment 16. 

By  creating the  Virtual  School Library  and defining  a national  policy  regarding open educational 
resources, the commitment aims to increase access to quality education and foster innovation. 

The sources for these materials will be: 

  documents  produced  by  the  MENCS322  and  subordinate  agencies,  particularly 

curricula and textbooks that the Ministry buys directly; 

 

resources  produced  in  EU-funded  programmes,  regardless  of  the  beneficiary.  The 
financing  contracts  will  include  clauses  stating  that  the  resources  produced  will  be 
published under an open license and will be uploaded on the national portal; 

  new resources created by teachers and used for teaching activities, including school 
inspections.  It  is  well  known  that  teachers  are  constantly  creating  materials,  and 
these can also be uploaded to the portal; 

 

resources  that  have  already  been  developed  by  teachers  and  are  distributed  to 
other communities. The users of these communities will be encouraged to transfer 
the most valuable resources to the national portal; 

  educational  resources  produced  as  a  result  of  the  implementation  of  EU-funded 

projects will be part of this library; 

 

starting a public consultation process regarding the acquisition of textbooks, so that 
the content of the textbooks is also bought and becomes the property of MENCS; 

The implementation terms will be discussed and agreed within the MENCS. 

Interviewees 

  Radu Puchiu, Secretary of State, Office of the Prime Minister. 

  Diana Andone, Director, eLearning Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara. 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In  Romania,  public  efforts  for  opening  up  education  are  mainly  framed  under  the  Open 
Government  Partnership  (OGP)  umbrella.  This  has  allowed  several  discussions  to  take 
place,  involving  civil  society  (NGOs,  universities)  as  well  as  governmental  services.  Since 
not all relevant discussions in the country are framed under the open education “label”, the 
OGP  is  a  good  place  for  dialogue  between  government  and  civil  society  to  happen.  A 
Coalition  on  Open  Education323  was  launched  in  2013  involving  many  stakeholders.  In 
terms of vision, we cannot say that there is a common understanding but progress is being 
made  through  the  discussions  framed  in  the  OGP  work.  The  Prime  Minister’s  Office  is  in 
charge of the whole OGP partnership while the Ministry of Education324 is in charge of the 
Commitment of the OGP related to education, and cooperation between the two institutions 
is smooth. 

321 See previous footnote 
322 MENCS is the abbreviation for the Romanian name of the Ministry: Ministerul Educației Naționale și Cercetării 
Științifice – http://www.edu.ro  
323 For some background see the report of the second  Romanian National Open Education  Conference, 2015, at 
http://education.okfn.org/romanian-noec/  
324 http://www.edu.ro  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The  whole  OGP  resulted  from  a  large  consultation  process  in  which  independent 
recommendations and comments from civil society were submitted to the government. As 
for  open  education,  the  OE  Coalition  submitted  a  number  of  proposals  for  the  National 
Action Plan. Within the OGP, every action is provided with a budget, connected to the one 
of the  ministries responsible: in the case  of  open  education the budget is taken from the 
general allocations of the Ministry of Education.  

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The main dimensions addressed by the National Open Government Plan are: access to 
education  (also  for  disadvantaged  people  and  communities),  content,  collaboration, 
leadership  and  strategy.  These  dimensions  are  vital  in  order  to  achieve  a  real 
transformation of education in Romania, and were taken into consideration when the policy 
was designed. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

A  first  important  impact  of  the  National  Open  Government  Plan  was  to  raise  the 
visibility of open education in Romania. A number of actions are ongoing, with the Ministry 
of  Education  significantly  involved  (which  is  not  the  case  in  all  chapters  of  the  OGP)  and 
strong engagement by civil society organisations: stakeholders are working on the Virtual 
Library platform, which includes five open courses already. The Office of the Prime Minister 
has set some deadlines for each activity, for example for the collection of resources for the 
Virtual Library: they expect to achieve this by the end of 2017. What is not yet in place is a 
clause stipulating that all products of EU projects shall be openly licensed. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The two main challenges are capacity, meaning that most teachers and other staff lack the 
skills  to  work  with  open  methods  and  resources,  and  leadership,  which  is  important  in 
order to raise the profile of open education.  

Leadership  is  particularly  important  since  many  stakeholders  are  afraid  of  change. 
Committed  leaders  must  be  found  at  all  levels  and  sectors.  A  push  from  above  is  not 
enough:  instead  there  need  to  be  leaders  and  champions  who  use  the  data  and  the 
resources  that  have  been  openly  produced.  These  challenges  persist  even  in  universities 
that do work on open education and that have MOOCs (such as the Polytechnic University 
of Bucharest),325 mainly because universities are afraid of opening up their offer. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The general perception is that the work carried out by European institutions helps in terms 
of  the  funding  and  regulation  of  important  areas.  The  Office  of  the  Prime  Minister  takes 
inspiration from the work of the EU and its policies. The EU is not perceived as important 
by  all  stakeholders,  however:  for  example  although  the  National  Research  Agency  has 
been  aware  that  the  EC  is  pushing  hard  for  Open  Access,  it  has  not  yet  adopted  Open 
Access as a default for publicly-funded research results. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

325 http://www.upb.ro/en/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

The first recommendation provided by the interviewees is that for countries which have 
an established national agenda (through the Open Government Partnership in  the specific 
case of Romania), receiving European recommendations and a framework indication would 
be very helpful not only in open education but also in Open Access for research and Open 
Data, since it would further strengthen the efforts of the national government. 

Secondly, it was suggested that since the open education community in Romania is quite 
small, with people knowing how to use the tools but less familiar with the concepts, the EU 
could help mainstream OER and OE by reaching out to practitioners in the country who are 
not used to working with these approaches.  

In summary, the interviewees concluded that there is a problem of visibility at two levels. 
What  the  EU  is  doing  on  open  education  should  be  more  visible  in  Romania,  and  what 
Romania  does  in  the  field  should  be  more  visible  in  Europe.  Because  of  this  fact,  studies 
like this one are extremely useful. 

114 

 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.24 Slovakia (SK) 

Open Education in the country 

There is little prior information on OER or more general open education activity in Slovakia. 
The  OER  World Map326 has no entries for the country;  and POERUP narrative reports  and 
databases of 2014  327 contain no information on MOOCs or OER there. However, mention 
should  be  made  of  the  recent  (2016)  BizMOOC328  project  involving  Košice  IT  Valley. 
Slovakia does not feature in the OpenDOAR portal329 in terms of Open access repositories 
in the country. 

However,  the  Open  Government  Partnership  National  Action  Plan 
includes 
commitments  for  OER  and  Open  Access,  which  justified  its inclusion  as  the  policy  chosen 
for the interview. 

Policy title  Open Government Partnership Action Plan 

Policy/initiative overview 

Policy URL 

Description 
of the 
policy 

http://www.minv.sk/swift_data/source/rozvoj_obcianskej_spolocnosti/otvorene_vl
adnutie/akcne_plany/2015/OGP_2015_Action-plan-Slovakia_final.pdf  
One chapter of Slovakia’s OGP Action Plan for 2015 is devoted to OER, starting 
with the statement: “Creation of educational materials used in public institutions is 
primarily financed through public funds and therefore these should be available for 
public re-use, including other purposes than originally intended, just as it is with 
Open Data.” A number of activities were planned for 2015: 
a)   map existing digitally available educational resources and repositories at the 

Ministry of Education, 

b)   analyse and propose a procurement process of educational resources in 
primary and secondary education and identify possible barriers to their 
publication under “Creative Commons Attribution” open license, 

c)   run a pilot of the procurement process, 
d)  propose measures and their implementation to raise awareness among 

teachers and other educational staff about open educational resources, and 

e)   join multilateral activities in Europe and beyond that support the creation, 

improvement, sharing and re-use of open educational resources. 

Ministry of Education 

Policy 
institution 
Policy date  2015 
Policy 
status 
Language 
Policy 
jurisdiction 
E&T sector  School education 

English, Slovak 

Finalised 

National 

326 https://oerworldmap.org/country/sk  
327  http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Slovakia  and  http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Open_Education_Initiatives_-
_by_country  
328 http://www.kosiceitvalley.sk/en/2016/04/22/society-survey-on-massive-open-online-courses-mooc_bizmooc/  
329 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Dimension 
of impact 

Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
☐  Pedagogy 
☐  Recognition 
 Collaboration 
☐  Research 

Transversal dimensions 
☐  Strategy 
☐  Technology 
☐  Quality 
☐  Leadership 

Interviewee 

Iveta Ferčíková, State  Advisor at the  Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Development  of 
the Civil Society, Slovakia. 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

The interviewee argues that there is a good understanding of open education330 both at the 
Ministry of Education331 and at the Ministry of Interior332, and that their joint vision is that 
it is  necessary  to  change  the  teaching  and  learning  culture  in  the  country.  The  education 
commitments  inside  the  OGP  national  plan  aim  to  reform  education  and  change  the  way 
resources and used and produced, in order to develop a culture of collaboration. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

For  the  OGP  plan  there  are  two  main  stakeholders  in  relation  to  the  education 
commitments: the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic 
for the Development  of  the  Civil Society (part  of Ministry of  Interior),  and the Ministry  of 
Education,  Science,  Research  and  Sport.  Additionally,  to  embed  the  open  education 
commitments  in  the  plan,  a  national  working  group  was  established,  including  members 
from NGOs, academia and the ministries, which worked for two years to draft and discuss 
the action plan while the Ministry of Education evaluated the viability of the commitments. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The main dimensions and areas of action of the National Open Government Partnership are 
related  to  Open  Data,  Open  Education,  Open  Justice,  Civic  Engagement  and  the  national 
legislative framework. 

The  main  goal  with  regard  to  open  education  is  to  challenge  the  traditional  ways  of 
teaching  and  learning,  and  to  enhance  the  digitisation  of  resources,  but  also  to  provide 
verifiable  and  reliable  information  to  reduce  credulity  when  it  comes  to  false  and  fake 
websites that misinform the public. 

330Throughout the interview, when she mentions “open education” the interviewee is actually referring to OER. 
331 In full, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport – https://www.minedu.sk/about-the-ministry/  
332 http://www.minv.sk/?ministry-of-interior  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Another  goal  is  to  provide  an  effective  mechanism  to  change  procurement,  because  the 
current  situation  is  that  if  publishers  are  commissioned  by  the  government  to  produce 
educational content, it has to be released under Open Licenses. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

As the commitments of the Open Government Partnership Action Plan are quite new, 
their  implementation  is  still  in  progress,  but  the  Ministry  of  Education  is  promoting  the 
commitments  and  intends  to  find  effective  means  of  raising  awareness  about  open 
educational  resources.  Also  the  Ministry  is  aiming  to  support  the  development  of  a 
repository of open resources. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  main  barriers  encountered  were  the  difficulty  in  introducing  the  concept  of  open 
education  within  the  Ministry;  followed  by  the  challenges  presented  by  the  publishers, 
which  are  seeing  a  change  in  the  procurement  mechanisms  that  may  see  their  business 
model change radically. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The  interviewee  affirmed  that  the  Open  Government  Partnership  plan  aligns  with  broader 
international  agendas,  and  that  Slovakia  is  playing  a  pioneering  role  in  including  open 
education in the commitments. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The interviewee recommended that open education should be introduced to the Member 
States using a common framework.  

She  also  argued  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  EU  to  provide  leadership,  support  and 
recommendations for education ministries, and financial mechanisms to create national 
repositories for OER. 

Finally,  she  stated  that  it  is  important  to  develop  a  common  framework  in  relation  to 
procurement  of  educational  resources  and  textbooks  commissioned  to  private  publishers 
by the governments and funded with public funds or with European funds, to be published 
under open licenses. 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.25 Slovenia (SI) 

Open Education in the country 

is  a  bottom-up  approach 

“Opening  Up  Slovenia” 
to  policy  development  and 
implementation. Above  all the initiative is a  framework for  engaging various stakeholders 
in  order  to  discuss  and  implement  openness  in  support  of  the  digital  transformation  not 
only of education but also of businesses, industry and government. Opening Up Slovenia is 
not  a  piece  of  legislation,  nor  is  it  compulsory  for  anyone  to  get  involved.  However, 
everyone  is  invited  and  expected  to  participate  and  co-shape  the  initiative:  teachers, 
learners, schools, governments and industries. One of the main stakeholders is the Ministry 
of  Education,  Science  and  Sports.  The  Ministry  contributed  towards  designing  the  vision 
and action plan of the initiative, and plays an important dissemination and support role in 
its relations with different stakeholders. 

Policy title 
Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension of impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Opening Up Slovenia 
http://www.ouslovenia.net/ 
Opening Up Slovenia is a bottom-up approach supported by many 
different stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education and Sports, 
and this fact gives it sustainability and wide dissemination across the 
country. It is a framework with the long-term objective of involving 
stakeholders in discussing, researching, developing, implementing, 
testing, validating and sharing good practice on open education and 
“openness beyond education”. The framework is as a conduit for 
promoting the open education agenda nationally, regionally and 
internationally. 
Ministry of Education and Sports 
2015 
Current  
Slovenian, English 
National mostly, with international collaborations 
school, secondary, higher and lifelong learning 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
 Recognition 
 Collaboration 
 Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
 Quality 
 Leadership 

Interviewees 

  Borut  Čampelj,  Secretary  of  Education  and  Development  Office,  Ministry  of 

Education, Science and Sport. 

  Davor  Orlic,  COO  –  Knowledge  for  All  Foundation,  Co-founder  of  videolectures.net 

and Project officer at Opening Up Slovenia. 

118 

 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

  Mitja  Jermol,  Head  of  Centre  for  Knowledge  Transfer  at  Jožef  Stefan  Institute  and 

UNESCO chair in open technologies for OER and open learning. 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country 

Opening  Up  Slovenia  is  about  the  digital  transformation  of  society.  In  this  broad  sense  it 
encompasses  various  open  practices  (OER,  open  pedagogies,  open  technologies, 
collaboration,  etc.).  It  is  also  concerned  with  digital  competences  (of  citizens,  teachers, 
learners) as a route to digital transformation. Open education is seen in the context of the 
10  dimensions  of  open  education  in  the  OpenEdu  Framework,  and  is  not  limited  to  open 
educational resources.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The country’s biggest initiative in open education, Opening Up Slovenia was conceptualised 
in  2013  and  officially  launched  in  2015.  The  government  hopes  the  initiative  will  enable 
Slovenia to become the first green reference country on digital transformation and the first 
open reference country, serving as a case study for others to follow.  

Opening Up Slovenia is a framework;  a think tank with many  stakeholders  from different 
sectors,  all  treated  as  equal  players,  with  the  aim  to  discuss  problems  (e.g.  related  to 
digital  education)  and  come  up  with  solutions.  It  is  a  framework  in  the  sense  that  it  is  a 
support  mechanism  for  various  projects.  It  brings  them  together,  showcases  them  and 
helps establish partnerships and collaboration among the stakeholders. The ultimate goal is 
to design, implement, test, validate and share good practices.  

There  is  not  a  specific  document  regulating  Opening  Up  Slovenia,  instead  there  are 
overarching  goals  which  help  framing  the  initiative.  These  goals  were  based  on  the 
computer literacy  action project, which  was designed in 1993 with the aim of introducing 
ICT in education in Slovenia. This literacy action project is a type of national action plan for 
education  and  is  updated  every  seven  years;  the  most  recent  update  was  in  2016333.  It 
was  in  this  last  revision  that  open  education  was  first  mentioned  specifically  in  the 
document,  as  a  support  mechanism  for  digital  transformation  in  different  education 
sectors.  

The  document  mentions  the  creation  of  an  open  platform  for  cooperation  on  information 
technology,  e-content,  (e-)services,  pedagogical  concepts  and  approaches,  added-value 
models, as well as motivational mechanisms (e.g. positive legislation) in open education. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

When mapped against the OpenEdu Framework, Opening Up Slovenia deals with all the 10 
dimensions  (access,  content,  pedagogy,  collaboration,  research,  strategy,  technology, 
leadership and quality), which can be observed in the following objectives of the initiative: 

●  To  update  and  modernise  existing  educational  approaches  in  order  to  develop 
innovative  and  dynamic  open  learning  environments  and  foster  knowledge 
exchange. This goal will be achieved by:  

333 http://www.mizs.gov.si/fileadmin/mizs.gov.si/pageuploads/URI/Slovenian_Strategic_Guidelines_ICT_in_education.pdf  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

o  ensuring appropriate digital competences, skills and knowledge for everyone 

directly involved in the processes of education 

o  upgrading  the  open  learning  environments  in  educational  and  research 
institutions,  which  will  enable  the  exchange  of  knowledge  and  experience 
between different fields 

o  developing an open platform (repository) of information technology, content, 
services, pedagogical concepts and approaches, models of added value and 
motivational mechanisms in open learning ('open by default' services) 

o  modernising  approaches  to  leadership  and  management,  which  should  be 

responsible, inclusive and autonomous 

●  Develop  a  legislative  environment  and  mechanisms  for  quality  assurance  and 

control of open learning services. The objective will be achieved by: 

o  updating  the  existing  legislation,  and  where  necessary  introducing  new 
legislation that will be geared to enable the development and implementation 
of open learning principles 

o  creating clear quality standards of open education in cooperation with all the 

relevant stakeholders 

●  Create  a  collaborative  environment  for  interdisciplinary  and  intersectoral 
research,  development  and  deployment  projects  of  open  education  where 
cooperation of public, private and non-governmental sectors will be paramount. 
This objective will be achieved by: 

o 

fostering  public-private  and  public-public  partnerships  that  will  ensure 
sustainable  national,  EU  and 
funding  (e.g.  Erasmus+, 
Horizon2020,  European  Structural  and  Investment  Funds,  World  Bank, 
UNESCO, US educational institutions) 

international 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

Below  there  are  three  examples  of  projects  (in  one  case  actually  a  collection  of  projects) 
under the umbrella of the Opening Up Slovenia initiative: 

●  X5gon334: Cross Modal, Cross Cultural, Cross Lingual, Cross Domain, and 
Cross  Site  Global  OER  Network  is  an  H2020  project  combining  content 
understanding,  user-modelling  and  quality-assurance  methods  and  tools  to 
foster the creation of a homogenous network of OER sites and repositories, and 
it  also  provides  users  (teachers,  learners)  with  a  common  learning  experience 
based  on  “open”  content.  It  is  a  prime  example  of  innovation  with  machine-
learning  technologies  being  used  for  unlocking  the  potential  of  European  OER. 
The  project  has  been  partially  delivered  for  Slovenian  OER  sites,  but  with  an 
extension  into  an  EC  grant  it  is  fully  deploying  open  technologies  for 
recommendation,  learning  analytics  and  learning  personalisation  services  that 
will  work  across  various  OER  sites  independent  of  languages,  modalities, 
scientific domains and cultural contexts. X5gon will produce a technology stack 
in  a  platform  format  that  will  be  extended  to      European  Member  States,  thus 
promoting the use and uptake of OER and open education. It will invite Europe 
to act more practically and make an argument for why acting in a systemic way 

334 http://www.k4all.org/project/x5gon/  

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is vital. The rationale will address the six new priorities for Education 2020 and 
invite  EU  policymakers  to  engage  in  a  more  in-depth  discussion  beyond 
Erasmus+, OER, etc., with coordinated action in accordance with MS needs. 

●  MyMachine Slovenia335(MIZS) is a project developing, piloting and scaling up 
new  approaches  for  education  and  skills,  featuring  the  ethos  of  open.  It  is 
probably one of the flagship projects within Opening Up Slovenia as it combines 
almost  all  10  elements  of  the  Open  Education  Framework.  It  brings  together 
inter-generational  learners  (primary,  secondary,  HEI)  into  designing  and 
building  a  child’s  “dream  machine”.  It  was  implemented  in  order  to  address  a 
lack  of  sufficient  collaboration  among  research,  entrepreneurial  and  policy 
stakeholders  in  teaching  and  learning  practices,  and  a  lack  of  inter-
generational learning. It supports young people with a specific methodology, 
tools,  open  educational  resources  and  an  open  environment  encouraging 
experimentation  and  the  development  of  joint  “makers”  projects  based  on 
interdisciplinary  approaches.  Because  of  its  effectiveness  and  open  educational 
practices,  MIZS  was  exploiting  its  design  and  approach,  to  be  used  as  an 
effective  blueprint  and  pipeline  it  into  the  Slovenian  educational  system.  MIZS 
issued a call for proposals for a nationwide large-scale project using the results 
of  the  initial  project  with  the  idea  to  guide  young  people  into  their 
entrepreneurial journey. 

for  Knowledge  Transfer 

MIZS  is  a  project  within  the  Opening  Up  Slovenia  ecosystem,  funded  by  the 
Jožef  Stefan  Institute  (Centre 
in  Information 
Technologies),  which  also  hosts  the  UNESCO  Chair  on  Open  Technologies  for 
OER and Open Learning. It has been running since 2015 and is in its third cycle. 
It has produced 18 “dream machine” prototypes, two exhibitions, 27 education 
institutions (primary, secondary, HEI) and several companies (depending on the 
nature  of  the  prototype).  It  has  also  inspired  two  candidates  to  become  early-
stage researchers. 

●  Six new projects (€12.58 million, co-financed by European Social Fund (2017-
2022)).  These  projects  aim  to  develop  and  implement  open  and  innovative 
learning environments and flexible forms of learning so as to develop students’ 
general  competences  (reading  and  cultural  literacy,  communication  ability, 
multilingualism,  mathematics  and  science:  promotion  of  critical  thinking  and 
problem  solving,  computational  thinking,  pedagogy  to  implement  personalised 
and collaborative learning and formative assessment. 

The  necessary  conditions  to  achieve  open  and  innovative  learning  environments 
are: 

● 

four types of mandatory partner for each of the six projects: Schools – all levels of 
pre-university  education  to  be  involved  (primary,  lower-  and  upper-secondary; 
vocational training/education; and kindergarten). In these six projects, at least 285 
schools  have  participated  –  out  of  which  the  majority  is  primary/lower  secondary, 
and  the  remaining    are  upper  secondary  schools  and  kindergarten  schools;  Public 
institutions/services  (curriculum,  teacher-training,  school  leadership,  national 
examination);  Educational  faculties  (for  teachers);  Public  research  institutions 
(surveys, development projects, cross-curricular activities) 

335 http://www.ouslovenia.net/project/mymachine/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

●  Bottom-up and top-down approach – two types of school are involved (development 

and implementation schools) 

●  Development  of  supportive  environment  for  schools,  teachers,  headteachers, 

students 

●  Sustainability of partnerships – national, institutional, individual level 

● 

“Whole  school”  approach  (innovative  schools:  development  team  including 
headteacher; get more teachers involved year by year) 

●  Systematic potential changes and motivational approaches. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

When  Opening  Up  Slovenia  started,  the  first  challenge  was  that  there  were  too  many 
stakeholders  who  had  slightly  different  perspectives  on  ICT  in  education.  Some  were 
pushing  Slovenia  to  embrace  the  digital  era  while  others  were  not  so  keen  on  ICTs.  The 
initiative itself helped bridge this gap between these  stakeholders, by promoting dialogue 
and information exchange.  

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

Opening up Slovenia plays a key role in strategic documents which have been submitted to 
the  European  Commission  as  part  of  the  necessary  interchange  between  these 
stakeholders,  such  as  in  the  Operational  Programme  for  the  European  Cohesion  Policies 
(2014-2020) and Slovenia’s Smart Specialisation Strategy. Part of the funding received by 
the  Commission  via  the  structural  funds  is  used  towards  sustaining  the  various  projects 
which are part of the ecosystem of the initiative. 

Opening Up Slovenia was directly inspired by the Opening Up Education Communication336 
of  the  EC,  and  it  was  developed  as  a  bottom-up  strategy  to  be  accountable  to  new 
European  developments  on  open  education.  Slovenia  also  participated  actively  in  the 
working groups337 run by DG EAC for all the education ministries of EU Member States and 
for civil society, when the Open Education Communication was being developed.  

336 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/oj/direct-access.html  
337 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/repository/education/policy/strategic-framework/expert-
groups/documents/wg-digital-mandate_en.pdf  

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3.26 Spain (ES) 

Open Education in the country 

Spain  has  a  number  of  interconnected  policies  and  initiatives  which  support  open 
education.  These  include  OER,  open  source  technologies  and  MOOCs.  One  of  the  most 
prominent  ones  is  the  Plan  de  Cultura  Digital  en  la  Escuela338  (Plan  for  Digital  Culture  in 
Schools),  a  national  policy  that  addresses  ICT  applied  to  education,  including  various  
actions  towards  open  education  such  as  an  OER  repository  and  a  service  entitled 
PROCOMUN,  as  well  as  an  open  source  tool  for  OER  development  by  the  name  of 
EXELEARNING. This policy has been in place since 2012. 

The  main  policy  goal  is  to  enhance  education  by  getting  better  results,  both  in  terms  of 
quality and quantity, and through the productive use of technology in schools. The results 
can  be  in  terms  of  equal  opportunities  in  education,  reduction  of  early  school  leaving, 
learning personalisation, or better preparation for 21st-century skills. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description of the 
policy 

Policy institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension of impact 

Policy/initiative overview 

Plan de Cultura Digital en la Escuela 
http://blog.educalab.es/intef/2013/04/16/plan-de-cultura-digital-en-la-
escuela/ 
This is a framework for supporting schools with seven main actions, two 
of which involve open education. Procomun entails the use and support 
of a repository for open educational resources; the other action is a 
catalogue for open educational resources, called Punto Negro, which 
includes the creation of open textbooks. 
Ministry of Education – INTEF 
2012 
Current  
Spanish 
National 
School and secondary education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
 Recognition 
 Collaboration 
 Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
 Quality 
 Leadership 

338 http://blog.educalab.es/intef/2013/04/16/plan-de-cultura-digital-en-la-escuela/  

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Interviewees 

  Felix  Serrano  Delgado,  Director,  National  Institute  of  Educational  Technologies  and 

Teacher-training (INTEF339), Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport  

  Miguel Ángel Pereira Baz, Director, CEDEC340  
  Cristina Valdera López, Head of Service, CEDEC 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country 

Open education contributes towards enhancing education by promoting the achievement 
of better results, both in terms of quality and quantity, and through the productive use of 
technology  in  schools.  The  results  can  be  in  terms  of  equal  opportunities  in  education, 
reduction  of  early  school  leaving,  learning  personalisation,  improved  teaching  methods 
and teachers’ skills, as well as better preparation for 21st-century skills in general. Open 
educational  resources  have  been  at  the  core  of  this  initiative,  followed  by  open  source 
technologies and MOOCs for teacher-training.  

The  open  education  projects  Procomun,  La  Aventura  de  Aprender  (learning  adventure), 
EDIA, ExeLearning and MOOC training (part of the Plan for Digital Culture in Schools) can 
enable  these  results  in  a  generalised  way,  both  in  terms  of  national  and  international 
education.  

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

These initiatives have low costs in relation to the high number of users who benefit from 
them. The main stakeholder is the Spanish Ministry of Education, acting in collaboration 
with  the  regional  governments  of  Spanish  autonomous  communities,  schools,  teachers 
and learners.  

INTEF (National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher-Training) is the unit of 
the  Spanish  Ministry  of  Education,  Culture  and  Sport  where  many  open  education 
initiatives  are  coordinated,  including  the  Digital  School  Culture  Plan,  the  PROCOMUN 
project,  MOOCs  for  teacher-training,  and  the  open  education  projects  run  by  CEDEC341 
(National Centre for the Development on Non Proprietary Systems). 

in  2009 

CEDEC is an organisational unit dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Education through 
INTEF,  created 
in  cooperation  with  the  Autonomous  Community  of 
Extremadura342 to support the design, development, and promotion of digital educational 
contents.  CEDEC’s  work  is  for  the  whole  country,  and  they  are  in  charge  of  promoting 
actions  and  strategies  to  further  develop  the  production,  use  and  general  uptake  of 
digital content in education. They work with teachers in the creation and testing of open 
educational  resources  and  related 
tools,  and  provide  continuous  professional 
development  for  teachers  in  Spain.  The  resources  produced  are  meant  to  be  used  by 
teachers, students and families – and they all carry an open license (Creative Commons). 

339 INTEF in Spanish stands for Instituto Nacional de Tecnologias Educativas y de Formación del Profesorado.  
340 CEDEC in Spanish stands for Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Curricular en Sistemas no Propietarios. 
341 As above. 

342http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2009/09/03/pdfs/BOE-A-2009-14159.pdf 

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Policy dimensions and areas of action 

These policies cover nine out of the 10 dimensions of the OpenEdu Framework. At the 
moment there is no formal recognition of teacher-training via MOOCs offered by the 
Ministry. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, along with the regional administrations, is 
responsible  for  the  design  and  development  of  the  Digital  School  Culture  Plan  (Plan  de 
Cultura Digital en la Escuela), of which the National Institute of Educational Technologies 
and Teacher-training (INTEF) is responsible for coordination, and CEDEC cooperates with 
it  in  relation  to  the  implementation.  The  Ministry  also  finances  most  of  the  actions 
included in this plan. 

Procomun,  Exelearning  and  MOOCs  for  teacher-training  were  evaluated  as  part  of  Open 
Government  Partnership  self-evaluation  and  external  evaluation.  Self-evaluation  is 
available,  in  Spanish,  at  the  Spanish  Transparency  Portal.  External  evaluation343  found 
substantial completion and moderate impact of the project, with a clear value relevance.  

The total budget of the Spanish Ministry of Education for 2015-2016 for Open Educational 
Resources  (OER)  development,  Procomun,  ExeLearning,  and  MOOC  was  €4,314,004,  as 
the following table shows: 

Spanish Ministry of 
Education budget for:  

2015 

2016 

OER 

€1,384,476  

€1,430,574  

PROCOMUN 

MOOC 

Total 

€201,263  

€286,530  

€305,177  

€705,984  

€1,872,269  

€2,441,735 

The  above  figures  do  not  include  indirect,  general  infrastructure  or  staff  costs.  CEDEC 
considers  the  impact  to  have  been  good  (although  it  acknowledges  improvements  can 
still  be  made).  CEDEC  always  uses  teachers’  networks  on  Twitter  and  other  social 
networks  to  further  disseminate  their  work,  resources  and  methodological  tips  for  other 
teachers. The rate of access to CEDEC’s website and open educational resources are: 

  1,433,337 page visits in 2016 
  934,458 users to date 
  50,522 Twitter followers 
  3,000 (approx.) downloads of OER from CEDEC’s website 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

Regarding  open  educational  resources,  the  main  driver  is  the  availability  of  directly 
applicable  digital  educational  resources  for  teaching  and  learning  practices.  These 
resources  also  make  it  possible  to  modify  and  re-publish  digital  content  created  by 
teachers (or other education stakeholders). 

The  main  challenge  is  to  simplify  as  far  as  possible  the  process  of  locating  the 

343 http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Spain_2014-15_IRM.pdf  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

appropriate  content,  as  well  as  to  deliver  easy  tools  to  adapt  the  content  to  everyday 
school needs. Both Procomun and Exelearning are designed to address these challenges. 

As  for  the  open  training  for  MOOC,  the  main  driver  is  their  capacity  to  deliver 
competence-based  training  with  a  highly  scalable  platform  and  low  cost  per  student, 
worldwide  reach,  and  continuously  evolving  processes  quickly  adapted  to  new  training 
needs. 

However, the main challenge related to open training is certification. At the moment the 
open  courses  issue  digital  badges  which  showcase  learning  outcomes,  goals  and 
professional  competences,  but  those  badges  are  not  regarded  as  a  means  to 
acknowledge  training  hours.  Therefore  they  are  not  useful  for  teachers  who  work  in 
state-funded schools in Spain. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The Ministry tends to develop policies that are not only in line with Spain’s own goals and 
needs (taking into account the autonomous communities) but also those of Poland. 

The Ministry has been following the open education agenda of the European Commission 
and  works  closely  with  the  EC’s  JRC  in  a  number  of  aspects,  such  as  participating  in 
workshops and research projects. All of these influence policy development. For example, 
with  regards  to  Spanish  MOOCs  offered  by  the  Ministry  of  Education,  the  evaluation  is 
currently  being  carried  out  through  the  JRC’s  Moocknowledge344  project.  According  to 
their  latest  publication  of  results,  the  open  training  run  by  INTEF  has  fully  achieved  its 
goals and can serve as a model for the rest of Europe. 

The interviewees argue that:  

“The  European  Union  plays  a  key  leadership  role  in  education  that  supports  and  helps 
each country’s activities. In this sense most of the actions developed or implemented by 
the  EC  are  very  welcome  by  Spain,  as  a  Member  State.  Especially  valuable  are  the 
studies and standards definition in the area of Digital Competences. The Spanish Ministry 
of  Education  is  adopting  the  EU  frameworks  for  Digital  Competence  in  Education,  and 
cooperating with EU institutions in their activities in this field. 

As  for  the  Open  Educational  Resources,  a  European  platform  for  OER  that  integrates 
national platforms, based on a distributed database [the same model as for the Spanish 
Agrega] could be very helpful.”  

344 

 http://moocknowledge.eu/ 

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3.27 Sweden (SE) 

Open Education in the country 

Sweden345  is  one  of  the  more  active  Member  States  in  distance  learning  at  higher 
education  level.  Putting  this  in  an  EU  context,  “distance  learning  at  the  HE  level  is 
widespread  in  the  UK  (found  in  almost  every  large  university)  and  also  found  to  a 
substantial extent in Spain, France and Sweden”.346 

There is no central support in higher education, however. The Swedish Net University, the 
former agency supporting online learning, was closed down347 around eight years ago. But 
its  longer-term  effects  can  still  be  seen  in  the  substantial  amount  of  distance  learning 
activity.  In  fact,348  “the  number  of  students  opting  for  distance  education  alone  has  also 
risen  since  the  beginning  of  the  century  from  just  over  18,000  in  2000  to  just  under 
68,000 in the autumn of 2011”. 

From the perspective of certain non-Swedish experts, some of the country’s HE policy was 
in  fact  inimical  to  lifelong  learning.  In  2011,  a  National  Audit  Office  review  of  the 
“efficiency” of the HE sector – Efficiency and productivity for universities and colleges – led 
to a conclusion that the university college subsector and its work on distance learning was 
less  efficient  than  that  of  research  universities.  This  report  appears  to  have  helped  to 
create a climate conducive to mergers and generally less focused on university colleges.  

There  was  also  a  reorganisation  of  the  HE  quality  regime  that  led  to  the  Swedish  Quality 
Agency being deregistered349 by ENQA and then re-organised.350 

Sweden was rather late in entering the MOOC movement. In more detail:351 

In 2014 the first Swedish universities began offering courses via the main global MOOC consortia 
Coursera  and  EdX.  The  Open  Education  Europa  MOOC  scorecard  records  a  total  of  9  in  all.226 
Recent MOOCs include Chalmers Technical University – 2 courses during spring 2015; Karolinska 
Institute  –  5  courses  2014-2015;  Lund  University  –  3  courses  during  2015;  Mid  Sweden 
University  –  one  course  in  autumn  2014  and  Karlstad  University  (Lifelong  Learning  Web)  – 
several  open  professional  development  courses  for  school  teachers  in  cooperation  with  the 
National education authority (Skolverket) and Norwegian Lillehammar University College. Uppsala 
University is planning to launch MOOCs in 2015. 

The  Swedish  government  (as  in  Norway  and  UK)  commissioned352  the  Swedish  Higher 
Education  Authority353  (UKÄ),  which  made  a  series  of  recommendations  to  government 
and universities. To government the key recommendations were: 

●  HEIs  should  be  provided  with  an  explicit  opportunity  to  arrange  MOOCs  as  a 
specific  form  of  education.  UKÄ  therefore  proposes  a  new  ordinance  on  open 
online courses. 

345 In the last few years Sweden has been studied by EU projects with regard to OER and open education, but to a 
lesser extent than its other aspects of e-learning are studied by EU projects345. There is a brief POERUP country 
report dated 2014, which embedded OER, MOOC and related open education activities in the broader context of 
ICT for education. More recently (2015) there was a 7-page report within the study by ADOERUP on OER for Adult 
Education (for the European Parliament)345. 
346 http://www.dtransform.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/O1-A2Business-models-edition-1-final.pdf p.22  
347 http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Swedish_Net_University  
348  http://www.uka.se/download/18.1c251de913ecebc40e780003405/1403093616367/annual-report-2013-ny.pdf 
p. 29  
349 http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120503164105608  
350 http://www.enqa.eu/index.php/sweden-develops-a-new-system-for-quality-assurance/  
351 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)563397_EN.pdf p. 111 
352 http://english.uka.se/higher-education-system/massive-open-online-courses-moocs.html  
353 http://english.uka.se  

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●  The  HEIs  should  be  allowed  to  use  their  funding  for  the  development  and 

implementation of open online courses up to a specified level. 

● 

In  order  to  provide  all  HEIs  with  the  possibility  of  developing  open  online 
courses,  earmarked  direct  funding  should  be  allocated  for  the  organisation  of 
such courses as well as for the development of digital methods for teaching and 
learning in higher education. 

●  Although open online courses should be offered free of charge, the HEIs should 
be  permitted  to  charge  fees  for  certificates  awarded  for  these  courses.  This 
would  facilitate  cooperation  with  the  international  platforms  and  the  HEIs 
themselves  would  be  able  to  choose  the  channels  used  to  distribute  their 
courses. 

The  report  was  circulated  for  consultation.  The  proposals  in  the  report  and  the 
consultation comments are now being considered by the government. The proposals are 
controversial to some Swedish interests – in particular the recommendations that MOOCs 
should  occupy  a  zone  separate  from  accredited  higher  education  and  therefore 
supplementary  fees  might  be  charged  for  their  certificates.  In  the  view354  of  the 
university  teachers’  trade  union,  this  is  a  new  assault  on  the  principles  of  free  state 
education,  already  eroded  in  the  period  that  non-EU  students  have  been  obliged  to  pay 
fees. 

There  is  no  timescale  given  by  the  government  as  to  when  any  conclusions  on  MOOCs 
might produce concrete policies. 

With regard to Open Access, the OpenDOAR portal records355 42 Open access repositories 
in Sweden. 

Schools and Adult Education sectors 

As  regards  ICT  in  schools,  the  Swedish  government  has  taken  steps  to  provide  teachers, 
principals  and  education  providers  in  compulsory  and  upper  secondary  education  with 
extensive  continuing  professional  development  on  ICT,  and  is  also  currently  working  with 
the  ambition  to  present  a  national  strategy  for  the  digitisation  of  the  Swedish  school 
system.  This  will  be  aimed  at  making  sure  the  potential  that  digitisation  represents  for 
school  development  and  development  of  the  tutoring  is  fully  exploited.  In  the  last  few 
years  the  possibility  of  remote  education  in  some  subjects  in  compulsory  and  upper 
secondary education has been introduced in the Education Act and the National Agency for 
Education  has  also  been  tasked  with  conducting  a  learning  project  concerning  remote 
education.  It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  longstanding  and  well-known  virtual  school 
Sofia Distans356 is a municipal school that is entitled to state grants357. 

One  expert  suggested  that  there  were  some  interesting  policy  developments  in  terms  of 
OER in the Folkbildning sector (Liberal Adult Education) at the Swedish National Council of 
Adult  Education358.  However,  the  advice  from  government  officials  is  that  the  council  is 
“autonomous”  (like  a  university)  and  therefore  not  “an  arm  of  government”  –  hence  any 
such  policies  are  not  national  or  regional  policies,  and  do  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  this 
report. 

354 http://sulf.se/en/consultation-response/massive-open-online-courses-moocs-at-swedish-universities-20161/  
355 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?cID=204&title=Sweden  
356 http://www.sofiadistans.nu 
357  For  more  detail  watch  http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.info/presentation/sofia-distance-education-

ronny-karlsson-catherina-sawarell-mai-wall/ 

358 

http://www.eaea.org/en/membership/eaea-members/sweden-he-swedish-national-council-of-adult-

education-ordinary-member.html  

128 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Interviewee 

Per Rosenblad, Ministry Secretary, Ministry of Education and Research, responsible for the 
compilation of the answers on the Sweden MOOC report 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

In  Sweden  there  is  no  specific  national  definition  of  open  education,  but  initiatives  exist 
that are relevant to the concept. In general terms the aim of the Swedish government is to 
make  higher  education  accessible  to  everyone  and  make  participation  possible  for  all 
regardless of background, the kind of area in which a person lives, or any other personal 
circumstances.  Widening  participation  and  gender  balance  are  priorities  for  the  Swedish 
government. 

Regarding Open Research, the government presented its position in the recently published 
research  bill  Collaborating  for  Knowledge  –  for  society’s  challenges  and  strengthened 
competitiveness,  which  unfortunately  is  not  available  in  English.359  The  position  of  the 
Swedish  government  is  that  all  research  results  generated  from  publicly  funded  research 
should be made available and subject to open access. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

Given that the Swedish government understands the value of open education but because 
higher  education  in  the  country  is  free,360  there  is  no  policy  to  support  activities  in  this 
regard, but there is a strong commitment in relation to Open Science and Open Access. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

Sweden  is  committed  to  widening  access  and  participation.  Higher  education  institutions 
have  a  responsibility  to  ensure  that  societal  diversity  is  reflected  in  higher  education.  In 
principle this can be regarded as the basic definition of widening access, although operative 
work on widening access may vary. Each person’s right to higher education and it should 
be an aim of democracy.  In purely economic terms  Sweden cannot afford to miss  out  on 
potentially excellent students. Also, diversity among students brings new perspectives and 
broader  experiences,  so  heterogeneous  student  groups  contribute  to  increased  quality  in 
education, as knowledge develops through the  cross-fertilisation of different perspectives. 
Another aspect of quality is that students are better prepared to encounter social diversity 
after studying at an HEI that in itself constitutes a diverse environment. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

Several  Swedish  higher  education  institutions  are  developing  massive  open  online  course 
(MOOCs),  which  is  also  viewed  as  a  way  of  learning  a  new  technology  and  developing 
teaching  methods.  In  2015  the  Swedish  Higher  Education  Authority  was  asked  by  the 
government to study the opportunities and obstacles related to the introduction of MOOCs 

359 However, an English summary is available at http://www.government.se/press-
releases/2016/11/collaborating-for-knowledge--for-societys-challenges-and-strengthened-competitiveness/  
360  Noting  that  non-EU  students  incur  “economic”  fees  –  http://www.studera.nu/startpage/higher-education-
studies/higher-education-in-sweden/application-and-tuition-fees/  

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in  the  country.  The  report  was  presented  recently361  and  the  government  is  now 
considering the proposals. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

In  relation  to  widening participation  and  recognition  of  foreign  qualifications,  the  Swedish 
Council  for  Higher  Education362  (Universitets-  och  högskolerådet)  is  the  public  agency 
responsible  for  recognition  of  foreign  qualifications.  The  Council  evaluates  foreign 
secondary  education,  post-secondary  vocational  education  and 
foreign  academic 
qualifications. 

A  person  who  has  completed  a  foreign  academic  qualification  with  a  degree  can  apply  to 
have  it  evaluated  by  the  council.  The  council  will  provide  a  general  evaluation  statement 
that can be used when  applying for work.  The  statement helps the potential employer to 
understand what the person has studied by describing the degree and comparing it to an 
equivalent Swedish degree. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

As  Sweden  does  not  have  specific  policy  for  open  education,  the  interviewee 
recommended  that  the  EU  should  advise  the  governments  and  ministries  about 
the  development  of  policies  in  this  field,  as  the  Ministry  does  not  perceive  open 
education  as  being  an  important  movement  in  the  country  yet,  even  though  some 
educators  and  institutions  are  already  acting  in  this  field  without  the  involvement  of  the 
government. 

However, the interviewee felt that the value of open education for widening participation is 
understood at governmental level. 

361 Summarised at http://english.uka.se/higher-education-system/massive-open-online-courses-moocs.html 
362 https://www.uhr.se/en/start/  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

3.28 United Kingdom (UK) 

Open education in the country 

As  reflected  in  the  various  theoretical  discussions  on  the  subject,  the  UK  is  not  a  unitary 
state  but  it  is  not  really  a  federal  state  either.  This  causes  particular  issues  for  the 
education  sector,  where  in  general  terms  the  four  “home  nations”  operate  differently. 
England, Wales and Northern Ireland operate in relatively similar ways but very differently 
from  Scotland  –  an  internal  split  more  significant  than  in  any  other  Member  State  (even 
the federal or highly devolved ones) with the possible exception of Belgium. 

OECD,  EU,  UNESCO  and  other  agencies  reporting  on  educational  matters  often  group 
England,  Wales  and  Northern  Ireland  together,  but  sometimes  even  they  are  treated 
separately363  –  and  some  consolidated  reports  still  try  to  treat  the  UK  as  a  whole,  with 
varying degrees364 of plausibility. 

Whereas copyright legislation is controlled by the UK government, the education systems 
of  three  of  the  four  home  nations  are  run  by  the  devolved  administrations  of  Northern 
Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with the central government responsible just for England. So 
there  are  no  national  OER  policies  for  the  UK  as  a  whole,  and  so  far  the  home  nations’ 
respective OER policies have been very different 

Before the change of political parties at the helm of the national government in 2010, the 
central  government  was  funding  a  major  OER  programme  (2009-2012),  largely  for  HE, 
through the Jisc/HEA OER Programme365, run jointly by Jisc366 – Joint Information Systems 
Committee and HEA367 – Higher Education Academy. In reality (and in line with politics) it 
was in fact mainly focused on England, with small amounts of spill-over to the other home 
nations. 

In addition to the OER Programme, which had investment totalling about £5.4 million, Jisc 
funded  a  Content  Programme368  between  2011  and  2013.  This  programme  built  on 
previous  Jisc  Digitisation  and  Content  Programmes  which  addressed  issues  related  to  the 
creation  and  delivery  of  digital  content  in  parallel  with  the  skills  and  strategies  needed 
within  institutions  to  support  digitisation  activity,  including  nine  projects  focusing  on  the 
digitisation of OERs.  

Within each of the four home nations, recent developments have been patchy. 

In England (population 53 million), following the change of government in 2010, funding 
was withdrawn from national programmes for ICT support and development in schools and 
VET, and there was no national policy for ICT in education. In 2013, the situation changed 
slightly,  with  the  establishment  of  ETAG369  (Education  Technology  Action  Group)  and 
FELTAG370  (Further  Education  Learning  &  Technology  Action  Group).  FELTAG  produced  a 
report  for  the  Department  of  Business,  Innovation  and  Skills371,  to  which  the  department 
responded;  there  are  indications  of  movement  towards  a  more  positive  ICT  policy  in 

363 Such as in http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/facts_and_figures/fees_support.pdf  
364 Such as https://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/PISA-2015-United-Kingdom.pdf  
365 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/open-education  
366 https://www.jisc.ac.uk  
367 https://www.heacademy.ac.uk  
368 http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614023117/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/program
mes/digitisation/content2011_2013.aspx  
369 http://etag.report  
370 http://feltag.org.uk  
371 http://feltag.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FELTAG-REPORT-FINAL.pdf  

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schools  and  further  education,  including  online  learning,  but  no  mention  of  OER  and  no 
clear indication that there are policies in the pipeline.  

Apart from university issues related to Brexit (research funding, staff recruitment, non-UK 
students  etc.),  the  current  concerns  of  the  government  in  education  are  the  new  Higher 
Education  Bill372,  which  will  set  up  the  Teaching  Excellence  Framework,  and  related 
changes to quality and accreditation, including for private providers– sometimes now called 
“challenger  institutions”.373  While  there  is  some  rhetoric  on  the  need  to  reduce  higher 
education costs, the TEF is seen by some commentators as a means for the universities to 
increase their fees.  

There  is  steady  progress  with  Open  Access,  but  open  education  is  hardly  mentioned  in 
policy circles. The OpenDOAR portal reports374 that there are 250 Open access repositories 
across the UK. 

In  Scotland  (population  5.3  million375),  a  number  of  national  curriculum  and  technology 
groups  have  come  together  voluntarily  to  form  Open  Scotland376,  which  produced  an 
Open  Scotland  Declaration377  in  the  summer  of  2013.  This  focuses  significantly  on 
developing  policies  to  promote  OER  uptake  and  is  supported  by  several  government-
funded organisations.  

In 2014 a new initiative, Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS), was launched 
by  the  Scottish  Funding  Council378  and  the  project  provided  support  for  a  revision  of  the 
Open  Scotland  Declaration  and  its  launch  as  version  1.0.  There  is  an  interview  report  on 
this later in this section. 

Wales (population 3 million) made rapid progress in open education until 2014, at which 
point  the  issue  ceased  to  be  a  priority.  Wales  had  had  a  national  open  education  group, 
funded  by  HEFCW379  (the  Welsh  Funding  Council),  and  in  September  2013  the  Welsh 
universities  had  committed  themselves  to  open  education  policies  and  the  promotion  of 
OER via the Wales Open Education Declaration of Intent380.  

This  was  the  nearest  to  a  formal  government  policy  promoting  OER  in  any  of  the  home 
nations  of  the  UK,  and  the  Welsh  government’s  intention  was  that  this  would  spread 
beyond higher education to encompass all education sectors.  

However,  there  is  not  much  current  movement  in  the  schools  or  further  education  (VET) 
fields – and in the  HE  field, months before the  Brexit decision, the financial pressures  on 
Wales had led to open education initiatives being de-funded and staff dismissed. 

Northern Ireland, with a population of just 1.8 million, tends to follow England and Wales 
rather  than  Scotland  in  terms  of  education.  There  is  little  sign  of  open  education  activity 
there. 

372 http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/highereducationandresearch.html  
373 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/are-challenger-institutions-really-gamechangers-for-the-future-of-higher-
education-21-dec-2016  
374 http://www.opendoar.org/find.php  
375 Almost exactly 1/10 of England’s population 
376 http://openscot.net  
377 http://declaration.openscot.net  
378 http://www.sfc.ac.uk  
379 https://www.hefcw.ac.uk/home/home.aspx  
380 http://www.oerwales.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/OER-Declaration-of-Intent-Sept-2013.pdf  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy title 
Policy URL 

Description  

Institution 
Policy date 
Status 
Language 
Jurisdiction 
E&T sector 

Dimension of 
impact 

Policy/initiative overview 
OEPS – Opening Educational Practices in Scotland 
https://oepscotland.org  
OEPS aims to facilitate best practice in open education in Scotland. It does so 
through the development of a peer support network and an online hub and 
awareness-raising activities. 
It aims to enhance the capacity and reputation of the Scottish tertiary 
education sector in developing publicly available online materials supported 
by high-quality pedagogy and learning technology. 
It provides an opportunity for the higher education sector in Scotland to build 
on its collaborative ethos and establish a support network for best practice 
and innovation in developing publicly available online resources. 
OEPS is a cross-sector project funded by the Scottish Funding Council and led 
by the Open University in Scotland.381 
Scottish Funding Council 
2014 
Current 
English 
Regional (Scotland) 
Higher education 
Core dimensions 
 Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
☐ Recognition 
 Collaboration 
☐ Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
☐ Technology 
 Quality 
 Leadership 

Interviewee 

Pete Cannell, Project co-director, OEPS, Open University in Scotland 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

Different stakeholders have different visions on open education. Universities are starting to 
engage, with a few having a specific policy on OER;382 and trade unions and charities see 
access to education as  an important issue. At  governmental level there  has been a lot  of 
interest  in  OE,  starting  in  2013  with  the  Open  Scotland  declaration383,  focusing  on  equity 
and  on  widening  access  to  education  in  connection  with  MOOCs  developments  –  but  this 
interest has waned in the last two years, and now there is no coordinated policy on OE. For 
example  the  recent  2016  national  policy  on  school  education  does  not  mention  open 
education.384 

381  http://www.open.ac.uk/scotland/  –  the  Open  University  is  the  leading  provider  of  part-time  education  in 
Scotland, with around 15,000 students (in a 5,3 million population) 
382 See http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/openeducationalresourcespolicy.pdf and 
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/media/gcalwebv2/library/content/pdffiles/GCU-Interim-Open-Educational-Resources-Policy-
Approved.pdf  
383 http://declaration.openscot.net  
384 http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/NationalImprovementFramework  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The primary reason for launching the policy OEPS – Opening Educational Practices in 
Scotland was to increase equity and social justice (big issues for the Scottish government) 
and to foster innovative practices underpinned by open education. The project is funded by 
the  Scottish  government  and  led  by  the  Open  University  in  Scotland,  working  with  all 
universities and colleges in the country, plus the informal education sector. 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

OEPS  aims  to  produce  evidence  on  the  impact  of  open  educational  practices  and  support 
collaboration  between  different  partners  including  formal  and  informal  educational 
institutions,  with  particular  interest  in  organisations  outside  the  higher  education  sector, 
through online collaborative work and workshops385. 

The  total  funding  is  £1.3  million386  for  three  years,  and  the  Open  University  Scotland  is 
responsible for administering and distributing these funds. Through this policy the aim is to 
understand the current reality of OER and OEP, and gauge their future potential; to identify 
the barriers that prevent access to education for all, as well as the pedagogical issues that 
underpin  the  adoption  of  OEP;  and  also  to  uncover  the  tensions  between  culture  and 
individuals,  and  the  drivers  for  OER  at  institutional  level  with  regard  to  teaching  and 
research excellence and outreach. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

The  original  objectives  of  the  policy  have  been  met:  quantifiable  objectives  have  been 
assessed and the results presented as reports. However, the achievement of aims such as 
changing culture and practice is more difficult to demonstrate. Nonetheless, thanks to the 
policy,  several  Scottish  organisations  are  now  implementing  OEP  for  themselves387;  for 
example  it  was  reported  that  the  University  of  the  West  of  Scotland  is  now  working  on 
collaborative curriculum development using OER, and the University of the Highlands and 
the Islands are increasing their adoption of OER and OEP. 

The project has had an important impact in creating partnerships among formal institutions 
and  between  formal  and  informal  ones,  also  through  the  use  of  the  OpenLearnWorks388 
platform, with collaboratively designed OER among different HEIs. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

One  difficulty  mentioned  by  the  interviewee  is  that  institutional  staff  seem  not  to  fully 
understand  what  it  means  to  systematically  adopt  Open  Educational  Practices.  To  try  to 
overcome  this,  the  policy  has  been  putting  a  lot  of  effort  into  explaining  what  open 
education can do, through forums, events,  etc. The project has been looking for partners 
wanting  to  start  other  OEP  projects,  and  has  been  offering  training  via  learning  design 
workshops and through the collaborative platform OpenLearnWorks. The situation is similar 
in the informal learning sector, where it is also the case that more effort needs to be made 
to promote and support understanding and development of OEP. 

385 https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/learning-and-teaching-academy/events/thinking-about-open-2  
386 About €1,5 million at current exchange rates 
387 http://jime.open.ac.uk/articles/10.5334/jime.412  
388 http://www.open.edu/openlearnworks  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The policy-coordinating team (which the interviewee co-directs) is following what is going 
on  at  the  EU  level;  they  have  studied  how  developments  in  Scotland  are  connected  with 
and reflect developments internationally, but with a focus on social justice and on widening 
participation. 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

The interviewee  suggested that the  EU, as well as  other Member States,  should focus on 
promoting diverse and engaging models of Open Educational Practices, both at formal and 
non-formal  education  levels,  propagating  a  wide  range  of  OEP  and  models.  He  said  the 
focus  must  not  be  restricted  to  promoting  and  delivering  Open  Education  via  MOOCs 
exclusively. 

Policy title 

Policy URL 

Description of 
the policy 

Policy 
institution 
Policy date 
Policy status 
Language 
Policy 
jurisdiction 
E&T sectors 

Policy/initiative overview 

Higher Education Funding Council for England, national OER 
programmes 
https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/60338879/HEFCE-OER-Review-Final-
Report  
In 2008 the Jisc Good Intentions report389 concluded that the landscape 
around learning materials had changed sufficiently to support a range of 
sustainable models for sharing. In 2009 the Higher Education Funding 
Council for England funded four years of development. 
UKOER1390 – April 2009 to April 2010 – supported 29 pilot projects and 
activities around the open release of learning resources. 
UKOER2391 – August 2010 to August 2011 – funded 36 research and 
technical projects examining the release, discovery and use of OER by 
academics.  
UKOER3392 – October 2011 to October 2012 – supported the continued 
application of OER and related activity and processes across the HE and VET 
sector via 13 projects funded to investigate the use of OER approaches to 
work towards particular strategic, policy and societal goals. 
Jisc funded a Content Programme393 between 2011 and 2013 which 
addressed issues related to the creation and delivery of digital content in 
parallel with the skills and strategies needed within institutions to support 
digitisation activity. It funded 9 projects focusing on digitising and openly 
released archival and special collections of primary sources, aiming to 
embed such resources within teaching and learning394. 

Higher Education Funding Council for England 

2009-13 
Closed 
English 

Regional (England) 

Higher education, VET (in later phases) 

389 http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/265/1/goodintentionspublic.pdf  
390 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140702233839/http:/www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/ele
arning/oer.aspx 
391 https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614005411/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/program
mes/elearning/oer2 
392 https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/60792010/OER%20Programme%20Phase%203 
393 https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140614023117/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/program
mes/digitisation/content2011_2013.aspx 
394 For a recent evaluation report by Littlejohn et al see “Motives and tensions in the release of Open Educational 
Resources: the JISC UKOER programme”, AJET Vol 32, No 4 (2016), 
https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/2258  

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Dimension of 
impact 

Core dimensions 
☐ Access 
 Content 
 Pedagogy 
☐ Recognition 
 Collaboration 
☐ Research 

Transversal dimensions 
 Strategy 
 Technology 
☐ Quality 
☐ Leadership 

Interviewee 

David Kernohan, Senior co-design manager, Jisc 

Interview results 

Vision of open education in the country; role of the Ministry 

At government level there is an understanding of open education, but despite the support 
to  Open  Access  and  Open  Science  there  has  been  very  little  support  for  open  education. 
Also, the UK government is not currently funding activities, initiatives or projects, although 
it is still funding the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) and the Higher Education 
Academy  (HEA),  and  those  institutions  provide  some  support  for  the  development  and 
promotion of open education. 

Policy design and involved stakeholders 

The main actors are the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the  Joint 
Information Systems Committee (Jisc) and UK Higher Education Academy (HEA). As stated 
in  their  report:  “The  activities  and  impact  of  the  HEFCE-funded  initiatives  must  be 
considered  in  relation  to  wider  political,  economic,  social  and  technological  contexts  and 
questions have emerged around how far open educational practice challenges or supports 
notions of traditional higher education.” 

Policy dimensions and areas of action 

The dimensions of the national OER programmes promoted by the Higher Education 
Funding  Council  for  England)  can  be  understood  as  follows:  Phase  1  –  Large-scale 
release  of  OER, Phase 2  – Extending OER  release,  OER use and discovery and  Phase  3  – 
Strategic, policy and societal goals for OER and open approaches.  

The  HEFCE  OER  review  framework  consisted  of  four  focus  areas:  Culture  and  practice; 
Releasing and using OER; Processes for sustainability; and Benefits and impact. 

Policy implementation and impact to date 

Despite the success of these programmes promoting open education, their funds were not 
extended.  However,  a  large  and  strong  community  was  built,  and  this  can  be  considered 
the programmes’ greatest achievement and impact, as the open education community kept 
working together and developing initiatives. Now, for example, there are initiatives aimed 
at  developing  open  textbooks  in  response  to  the  high  costs  of  education  in  England,  and 

136 

 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

the  UK  community  continues  to  organise  international  conferences  on  the  theme  of  open 
education395  as  there  is  great  interest  in  developing  projects  and  research  on  open 
education-related themes and in publishing and sharing the subsequent outcomes. 

Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

The  main  barriers  presented  were  the  lack  or  scarcity  of  funding  at  national  level.  There 
appeared to be little institutional support in some instances: for example some institutions 
had funds only to support and develop MOOCs, not for any other open education initiative. 

The  enablers  of  open  education  in  UK  are  the  members  of  the  OE  community,  who 
promote,  advocate  and  also  seek  funding  at  the  national  and  international  level,  aim  to 
develop OE initiatives and projects. 

Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The national OER programmes were related to and aligned with EU developments on open 
education, but more funds are necessary in order to allow these programmes to progress 
and to adapt and adopt policies and innovative projects from other European countries. For 
example funds are needed to support the development of  Open Textbooks, as  HE fees in 
the UK are very high and the price of textbooks increases the overall cost of education.396 

Lessons learned and suggestions for future open education policies 

According to the interviewee, the most interesting result of the policy is the development 
of a strong community of open education practitioners and researchers who are continuing 
to support and develop open education despite the lack of funding. 

As for suggestions for future open education policies, the interviewee recommended first 
and foremost that the policies should be carefully thought out. He also said the EU should 
provide an online collaborative space in which open education practitioners can experiment 
and share good practices. 

The interviewee also suggested that efforts should not be focused on building repositories 
based  on  metrics.  This  is  because  users’  data  on  repositories  tend  to  receive  too  much 
attention  to  the  detriment  of  other,  more  important  elements.    A  repository  can  face  the 
risk of closure when their usage metrics seem to low. 

395 The next being OER17 in April 2017 in London – https://oer17.oerconf.org  
396 As the SharedOER final report notes (footnote 50): “A simple calculation based on the reported cost of 
textbooks (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/why-are-college-textbooks-so-
absurdlyexpensive/266801/) and the out-of-state fee, a proxy for true cost 
(http://www.topuniversities.com/studentinfo/student-finance/how-much-does-it-cost-study-us) suggests a figure 
of just under 3% in the US” – http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC94956/jrc94956.pdf p. 
14 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

4  Analysis 

4.1  Introduction 

This  chapter  provides  an  analysis  of  the  interviews,  correlated  with  the  Member  State 
narratives, which incorporate and link to a large amount of additional information collected 
through desk research. 

A  list  of  the  limitations  of  the  study  will  be  presented,  followed  by  an  overview  of  the 
policies in which they will be categorised as follows: 

●  within the four main typologies where open education activities were found397  

● 

in connection with the ten dimensions of the JRC’s OpenEdu Framework 

The impact to date of open education policies and initiatives in each Member State will then 
be presented, followed by a compilation of the main barriers and enablers reported by the 
interviewees and by a brief analysis of the relation between the identified policies and the 
open education developments at the EU level. 

4.2  Limitations of the Study 

Caveats include the following: 

●  The  desk  research  parts  of  the  country  reports  are  brief  documents:  although 
they  are  normally  based  directly  on  input  from  country  experts,  only  a  few 
experts per country could be consulted in the time available; 

●  The  interview  reports  are  also  brief  documents,  and  many  nuances  are  not 
documented or could not be probed in a conversation typically lasting only one 
hour with a person not previously known to the team; 

●  On  the  whole,  statements  by  ministries  are  taken  at  face  value,  though  the 
researchers  looked  for  URLs  to  confirm  each  statement  made  about  specific 
policies, projects and institutions; 

●  The  research  outcomes  presented  in  the  study  are  not  intended  to  be 
exhaustive about the state-of-the-art of open education across Member States – 
in  particular  the  research  team  did  not  run  an  extensive  general  analysis  of 
national  policies  for  education  (which  most  Member  States  have)  or  national 
policies for ICT in education (which a few Member States now have). 

4.3  Emerging  approaches  to  policy  for  opening  up 

education 

Based  on  the  study  results,  there  currently  seem  to  be  four  types  of  policy  aimed  at 
opening up education across Europe: 

397 To see how the selected policies fit into these categories, please see Table 1 of the present report. 

138 

 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

●  Policies focusing specifically on opening up education through the promotion of 

OER and OEP (e.g. Germany, Scotland, Netherlands, UK); 

●  Policies  relating  to  general  ICT  for  learning  with  some  open  education 

component (e.g. Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland); 

●  Comprehensive educational policies and strategies which embed some open 

education component (e.g. Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia); 

●  Polices  from  National  Open  Government  Plans  with  some  open  education 

component (e.g. Greece, Romania, Slovakia). 

4.4  Correspondence  between  policies  and  the  OpenEdu 

Framework 

The  identified  policies  have  been  analysed  in  accordance  with  the  dimensions  of  the 
OpenEdu framework produced by the JRC398, as in the table below. The fact that the great 
majority of the policies target a number of openness dimensions, including in many cases 
some  of  the  transversal  dimensions  identified  by  JRC  in  their  research,  indicates  that  the 
understanding of open education on the part of most European policymakers – though not 
all them – goes beyond OER and open content. 

Policy 

MS 

Strategy of Education, Science and 
Technology 
Digital Strategy for Cyprus 
(Measure 16 eEducation) 
Strategy for Education Policy of the 
Czech Republic 2020 
Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 
2020 
FUN MOOC 
PIX 
Open Universities 2011-2020 
OERinfo  
National Action Plan on Open 
Government 2016-2018 
National Forum for the 
Enhancement of T&L in HE 
National Digital School Plan 

HR 

CY 

CZ 

EE 

FR 
FR 
DE 
DE 

EL 

IE 

IT 

Core dimensions 

Transversal 
dimensions 

s
s
e
c
c
A

X 

X 

X 

X 
X 
X 
X 

X 

X 

t
n
e
t
n
o
C

X 

X 

X 

X 
X 
X 
X 

X 

X 

X 

y
g
o
g
a
d
e
P

X 

X 

X 
X 
X 
X 

X 

X 

n
o
i
t
i
n
g
o
c
e
R

X 

n
o
i
t
a
r
o
b
a

l
l

o
C

X 

X 
X 
X 
X 

X 

X 

h
c
r
a
e
s
e
R

k
c
e
h
c

n
a
r
t
S

y
g
e
t
o
i
s
n
o
c

X 

X 

X 
X 
X 

X 

X 
X 

l

y
g
o
o
n
h
c
e
T

X 

X 

X 

X 
X 

X 

X 

X 

y
t
i
l

a
u
Q

X 

X 

X 
X 

X 

X 

X 

i

p
h
s
r
e
d
a
e
L

X 
X 

X 

X 

X 

Core dimensions 

Transversal 
dimensions 

398 Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening up Education: A Support Framework 
for Higher Education Institutions. JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN; doi:10.2791/293408 

139 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Policy 

MS 

Activity Plan for ICT in General and 
Vocational Education  
National Lifelong Learning Strategy 
2014-2020 
Higher Education 2025, The value 
of knowledge 
Programme for Knowledge 
Education Development 
Tell us a story 
National Open Government Plan 
(VS Library and OER) 
Open Government Partnership 
Action Plan 
Opening Up Slovenia 

Digital School Culture Plan 

HE Funding Council, National OER 
programmes England 
Opening Educational Practices in 
Scotland 

LT 

MT 

NL 

PL 

PT 

RO 

SK 

SI 
 ES 

UK 

UK 

s
s
e
c
c
A

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

t
n
e
t
n
o
C

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

y
g
o
g
a
d
e
P

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

n
o
i
t
i
n
g
o
c
e
R

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

n
o
i
t
a
r
o
b
a

l
l

o
C

h
c
r
a
e
s
e
R

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

y
g
e
t
a
r
t
S

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

l

y
g
o
o
n
h
c
e
T

X 

X 

i

p
h
s
r
e
d
a
e
L

y
t
i
l

a
u
Q

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

The  collaboration  dimension  was  perceived  as  being  very  important  in  a  number  of 
interviews  (e.g.  Finland,  Italy,  Romania,  Scotland),  which  shows  the  importance 
policymakers  are  attributing  to  the  role  of  stakeholders  –  and  collaboration  with  them  – 
when working on initiatives aiming at opening up education. 

4.5  Policy implementation and impact to date 

In  general  terms,  most  of  the  policies  are  too  new  to  have  had  much  evidence-based 
impact.  In  addition,  some  countries  like  Germany  and  the  Netherlands  already  had 
substantial  activity  before  there  was  a  relevant  policy  in  place,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
disentangle the effect of the policy from the general volume of  activities already running. 
Also, several interviewees seemed rather vague about funding and timescales.  

At  an  overall  EU-wide  level,  data  from  many  reports399  and  also  the  findings  from  the 
interviews  show  that  in  France,  Slovenia,  Spain  and  the  UK  there  are  several  open 
educational initiatives, and that in all these countries this is mainly due to policy initiatives, 
though  not  exclusively  to  national/regional  policies.400  Germany  had  developed  a 
reasonable level of MOOCs and a large amount of OER in advance of any policies, and with 
the recent investment in digital education and OER it is likely to become a leader in the EU. 
Spain and the Netherlands also had substantial amounts of open education activities prior 

399 Such as http://www.dtransform.eu/business-models-for-opening-up-education-report-available  
400  Note  in  particular  the  effect  of  FutureLearn,  a  policy  from  a  hegemonic  provider,  discreetly  facilitated  by  a 
Minister, but with no national funding or policy framework. The role of major non-state actors is out of scope for 
this study but needs to be considered in order to understand the overall situation in certain countries. Such actors 
include  the  Ufi  Trust  in  UK  and  Folkbildningsrådet  in  Sweden.  The  role  of  international  NGOs  such  as  the  Soros 
Foundation and Creative Commons also needs consideration. 

140 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

to  any  policy.  In  contrast,  the  Scandinavian  countries  do  not  have  policies  specifically 
aiming  to  opening  up  education  –  probably  due  to  their  long  tradition  of  distance  and 
flexible learning401, while many of the new Member States so far have little open education 
activity.  Italy  occupies  an  intermediate  position  with  several  MOOCs  and  OER  initiatives, 
most of which predate any specific policies. 

Below are some highlights of this research, and some issues that arose: 

Member States without policy-driven activity 

Seven countries out of 28 – Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Latvia and 
Sweden – appear to have no current active policies containing open education aspects (in 
the meaning utilised in the present study – see the Introduction), or at least (such as the 
efit21  policy  for  Austria  or  the  K-MOOC  policy  for  Hungary)  none  that  we  could  surface 
interviewees for.  

Austria,  Finland  and  Hungary  are  considering  proposals  on  possible  policies,  as  is 
Sweden, once the government there decides on its response to the MOOCs report.  

Member States with policy-driven activity 

Croatia includes the “development of Open Educational Resources” in its policy but there 
are  no  details  in  the  corresponding  policy  documents  and  in  the  interview  it  was  not 
possible to gain an understanding of the detailed planning on OER. 

Cyprus  has  a  general  ICT  in  education  strategy  but  the  interviews  revealed  only  some 
tactical  interventions  (one  under  an  EU-funded  project  and  one  a  collaboration  largely 
driven  by  Greece),  and  no  strategic  open  education  activity.  Yet  in  the  field  of  distance 
education Cyprus is increasingly active, with its own Open University and also the private 
University  of  Nicosia  having  an  active  online  learning  programme  (targeting  Africa) 
delivered via a joint agreement with a Welsh university. 

The Czech Republic also has a general ICT in education strategy as a subset of its overall 
education  policy,  but  in  contrast  to  Cyprus  it  appears  to  be  taking  forward  existing  open 
education activity (e.g. Metodicky) and making some decisions, e.g. on Creative Commons. 
However, the interview implied that progress was slow and constrained by capacity issues 
in the Ministry. 

Estonia has a currently active Lifelong Learning Strategy that mentions Open Educational 
Resources, continues support for platforms for sharing content (e.g. among teachers), and 
focuses on training teachers. However, there was no specific information on the impact of 
its  five-year  €60  million  programme,  except  that  “teachers  are  being  trained  in  digital 
competences  across  the  country  and  online  platforms  have  been  built  to  support  the 
sharing  and  creation  of  resources,  while  guidance  and  support  is  being  provided  to 
teachers and students for the effective use of these platforms”. 

Germany is highly active in OER and quite active in MOOCs,  despite not having had any 
national or regional policies  specific to  open  education until very recently.  There is now a 
Mainstreaming  OER  programme,  based  on  thorough  prior  research  and  consultation;  and 
also a  continuation of their earlier  Open universities initiative that has  now branched into 
MOOCs. 

401  The  relatively  close  (but  not  perfect)  correlation  between  the  level  of  distance  education  activity  (open 
education in the traditional “Open University” or “Open and Distance Learning” sense) and open education activity 
in a given Member State is not in scope for this study. 

141 

 
 
                                           
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Greece is one of the three countries using the Open Government Programme mechanism 
to  drive  through  its  open  education  plans,  via  “Commitment  20”.  This  is  building  on  a 
number  of  existing  developments  including  Open  Academic  Lessons  and  the  curriculum 
repository Photodentro. 

Ireland has an active ICT in higher education policy and funding mechanism, which covers 
OER but apparently with more emphasis on open access issues. The country was starting 
from a rather low level with regard to the use of ICT in higher education, but is catching up 
fast. 

Italy has made a strong start  with its “National Digital School Plan” but notes that long-
term effects cannot yet be demonstrated; in parallel a number of OER and MOOC-related 
activities have been started without any direct public policy support. 

Lithuania  has  an  ICT  in  education  policy,  which  appears  largely  focused  on  schools  and 
VET. They identified a number of barriers including a need for greater EU support. 

Luxembourg has an active programme for ICT in schools, which includes open education 
and OER aspects. 

The  Netherlands  has  a  new  (2015)  policy  to  modernise  higher  education  with  a  strong 
core of OER. However, some of the projects it references had commenced before the policy 
was  implemented  (TU  Delft  has  been  active  in  MOOCs  for  some  years)  so  cannot  be 
regarded as policy successes. Nevertheless it is expected that in terms of open education 
the  policy  will  bring  the  Netherlands  up  to  the  level  of  nearby  countries  (France,  UK, 
Germany) in a few years. 

Poland  has  a  digital  schools  programme  but  the  policy  chosen  to  focus  upon  was  the 
Programme  for  Knowledge  Education  Development,  since  this  explicitly  states  that  all 
resources  funded  by  the  European  Structural  Fund  should  be  openly  licensed.  The 
programme  is  very  thorough  and  impressively  documented  in  its  general  forward-looking 
aspects  but  the  specific  open  education  aims  and  concrete  returns  are  not  clearly 
described,  and  much  of  the  programme  could  be  regarded  as  an  effort  to  “catch  up”  in 
areas of education reform – much needed but not specific to open education. 

Romania  is  the  second  of  the  three  countries  using  the  Open  Government  Programme 
mechanism to drive through its open  education plans. The aims of the  Virtual Library are 
impressive but work on this project has only just started. 

Slovakia is the third such country: a whole chapter of the OGP Action Plan is devoted to 
OER. However, the country is starting from a very low base in terms of OER and notes that 
implementation is still in progress. 

The  UK  does  not  have  and  cannot  have  a  unified  approach  to  education  policy  in  any 
sector, although for ICT there are some “federal” agencies such as Jisc that are working to 
provide  a  level  of  uniformity  for  higher  education  at  least.  In  Scotland  the  OEPS  project 
cites benefits at two universities but there are 19 universities in Scotland and no large or 
high-ranking ones are mentioned as having changed as a consequence of the OEPS project 
(the University of Edinburgh has been active in MOOCs and OER for several years, as has 
the  Open  University  in  Scotland,  the  project  lead).  In  England  the  HEFCE-funded  OER 
programmes  have  left  a  strong  legacy  but  there  is  no  current  policy  fostering  OER  or 
MOOCs  in  higher  education,  or  indeed  in  any  other  sector  of  education  (the  FutureLearn 
MOOCs  consortium  is  purely  an  initiative  of  the  UK  Open  University,  with  no  government 
funding or support). 

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4.6  Key barriers and enablers during implementation 

Understanding the main barriers that can prevent open education policies (or, for countries 
where there is no policy, open education initiatives) from fully succeeding is important both 
for  the  policymakers  who  actually  running  the  policies  and  for  planning  future  initiatives 
aimed at opening up education. At the same time, spotting the potential enablers of open 
education  is  fundamental,  since  these  can  be  strengthened  through  policy  actions  and 
therefore act as multipliers for the success of future policies and initiatives. 

Barriers 

The main barriers identified by the interviewees can be grouped as follows:  

●  Low  ICT-readiness:  lack  of  ICT  devices  for  schools,  students  and  teachers 
(EE);  poor  access  to  internet,  including  lack  of  Wi-Fi  and  poor  connectivity  – 
especially in rural areas (EE) 

●  Broader  institutional  issues:  “The  slow  bureaucratic  processes  in  the 
Ministry” (IT); or – in federal or semi-federal countries – tensions between the 
central government and the different states “which led to long and complicated 
negotiations  on  different  aspects  of  the  policy”  (DE);  or  the  general  economic 
downturn (CY) 

●  Low policy priority  assigned  to  open  education: lack  of  policy (DK); “lack 
of  strategic  support  for  the  development  and  promotion  of  open  education” 
(LV); “lack of financial support” (LV); and lack of a dedicated team “to promote, 
support and advocate for Open and Digital Education at the ministerial level, as 
such a team would enable policy implementation in a more effective way” (CZ)  

●  Fragmentation of initiatives: “there are quite a few open education initiatives 
in  Austrian  universities  that  work  in  their  context,  but  there  is  nothing  that 
works  on  a  national  scale”  (AT);  “independent  institutions  which  want  to  work 
together  (on  open  educational  projects)  have  to  modify  and  harmonise  their 
timelines and priorities: to change this takes a  lot of time and commitment by 
the  single  institutions”  (FI);  “management  processes  related  to  students  of 
other  universities  should  be  further  simplified  in  terms  of  information 
availability, interoperability and credits recognition” (FI) 

●  Lack  of 

institutional  support:  educators 

in 
implementing open education in their institutions, despite the efforts to finance 
projects  in  open  education  (NL);  “some  institutions  had  funds  only  to  support 
and develop MOOCs, but any other open education initiative was neither funded 
nor supported” (UK) 

little  support 

receive 

● 

In  the  university  sector,  primacy  of  research  over  teaching:  “One  of  the 
main  difficulties  observed  is  the  treatment  perceived  by  academics  and  the 
government  regarding  teaching  and  learning,  which  is  seen  as  a  second-class 
element in contrast with research in higher education, as academics tend to be 
assessed and promoted because of the quality of their research instead of their 
teaching excellence” (IE) 

●  Resistance  to  cultural  change:  a  high  degree  of  cultural  change  is  required 
(CY),  connected  with  the  “reluctance  of  certain  groups  of  educators  in 
embracing change and adopting a digital culture for teaching and learning” (DK) 

143 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

and  with  “reluctance  among  academics  towards  sharing  the  resources  they 
produce”  (HR).  In  even  more  detail,  “a  significant  barrier  is  the  still  dominant 
traditional  approach  to  teaching  and  learning:  it  was  noted  that  the  preferred 
teaching  materials  in  the  country  are  printed  textbooks  and  that  there  is 
reluctance  among  teachers  to  adopt  and  embrace  new  digital  technologies” 
(EE). Even in an country advanced in ICT terms, there is “resistance on the part 
of  educators to  changing their practices and getting training to innovate in the 
classroom” (NL), while “open licensing of teaching materials is a challenge since 
the  norm  is  that  content  belongs  to  the  teachers”  (FI).  Cultural  change  also 
affects  educational leaders:  “there is reluctance from some school principals in 
adopting  new  technologies  and  innovative  teaching  methods,  as  they  prefer 
some rather traditional approaches” (LT); “Committed leaders must be found at 
all levels and sectors: a push from above is not enough, one needs leaders and 
champions to use the data and the resources openly produced” (RO) 

●  Lack  of  awareness  about  open  education,  “and  about  OER,  copyright  and 
open  licenses”  (HR);  “institutional  staff  don’t  seem  to  fully  understand  what  it 
means  to  systematically  adopt  Open  Educational  Practices”  (UK/Scotland)  and 
have  a  “limited  understanding  of  the  benefits  of  producing  learning  content  in 
the form of OER” (DE) 

●  Low  open  education  capacity  within  the  teaching  population,  connected 
with “the need to create effective training paths that can cope with the scale of 
the  training  demand,  since  there  are  not  enough  experts  in  these  fields”  (IT), 
and  with  the  time  needed  to  build  teachers’  competences  so  they  can  work 
effectively in digital ways – estimated as “at least two years” (IT). “Training of 
trainers  would  be  needed”  (FI),  “and  to  do  so,  better  institutional  and  inter-
institutional coordination would help, since it is not always clear who is in charge 
of supporting professors when it comes to OER and open education” (AT); and 
“most  teachers  and  other  staff  lack  the  skills  to  work  with  open  methods  and 
resources” (RO) 

●  Absence  of  open  licenses  recognition,  such  as  the  lack  of  recognition  of 
Creative  Commons  licenses,  or  equivalent  (LV),  connected  with  resistance  on 
the  part  of  publishers,  “which  are  seeing  a  change  in  the  procurement 
mechanisms that may see their business model change radically” (SK) 

Enablers 

The  main  enablers  for  open  education  to  thrive,  in  the  eyes  of  the  interviewees,  are  as 
follows: 

●  Clear  policy  priority  assigned  to  open  education:  having  a  clear  policy 
framework  (CY,  DE),  with  government  support  and  promotion  (EE); 
implementing  the  National  Reform  Programme  (CY)  and  “programmes 
democratising  access  to  higher  education”  (DE),  with  a  focus  on  “new  and 
innovative approaches to open education” (NL). The involvement of the private 
sector  was  mentioned  as  an  important  policy  partner  “offering  funds  and/or 
services” (IT) 

●  Awareness-raising on open education, targeting leaders and educators: 
The  key  enabler  is  to  make  concerted  efforts  to  change  the  attitude  of  the  HE 
in  particular  changing  the  “rigid  academic  thinking”  (HU). 
leadership, 

144 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Furthermore,  “reaching  out  to  educators  within  their  institutions  through  the 
organisation of events and  capacity-building moments” (IE), and  ensuring “the 
political  promotion  of  the  open  education  agenda  within  the  country,  through 
endorsement  by  the  Minister  and  other  politicians  in  their  public  appearances” 
(NL).  What  this  requires  is  “putting  a  lot  of  effort  into  explaining  to  everyone 
what  open  education  can  do,  through  forums,  events,  etc.”  (UK/Scotland).  “It 
will be important to make clear to teachers and managers that the approach is 
not  only  about  OER  and  infrastructure  but  also  about  a  new  way  of  looking  at 
teaching and learning” (DE) 

●  Capacity-building 

in  open  education 

for  educators  and  other 
stakeholders:  “training  and  guidance  for  teachers”  (EE),  “training  and 
guidance across the educational sector benefitting students” (EE), “training and 
support  for  parents  towards  understanding  how  their  children  will  use 
technologies”  (EE),  “proper  and  continuous  training  of  the  trainers  across  all 
educational  levels”  (GR).  Educational  leaders  should  also  be  trained:  “leading 
them  to  understand  the  changing  paradigm  in  the  educational  processes,  to 
support them in gradually overcoming the initial reluctance of the teachers” (LT) 

●  Empowering educators: Self-organisation of teachers (IT); “giving a voice to 
the  teachers,  changing  the  perception  of  the  value  of  teaching  and  learning” 
(IE) 

●  Broader  issues:  “the  economic  crisis  can  also  be  perceived  as  an  enabler,  as 
the  sharing  of  resources  was  useful  to  support  teachers  and  students  when 
other  means  were  not  available,  so  open  education  was  widely  promoted  as  a 
means  to  overcome  economic  factors  that  could  negatively  affect  education” 
(CY) 

●  Online  platforms  were  mentioned  only  once  as  enablers,  as  tools  “to  share 

open educational resources” (EE) 

●  Grassroots  communities:  One  interviewee  said  that  the  main  enablers  for 
open  education  are  “the  members  of  the  OE  community,  which,  despite  not 
having  enough  funds,  promote,  advocate  and  seek  for  funds  at  national  and 
international  to  develop  OE  initiatives  and  projects  and  support  other 
communities  of  practice  at  national  and  international  level  to  develop  open 
education in their own contexts” (UK). 

4.7  Relation between policy and EU-level developments 

The interviewees from most Member States made reference to EU participation and if their 
countries had open education policies in place they all considered that those policies are in 
line with those of the EU. 

Among those who did make reference to a specific policy in their country, there appears to 
be a good understanding of the potential of open education to increase equity and access 
to  education.  This was the  case  with Austria,  Cyprus, Denmark  (especially with regard to 
Open  Science),  Germany  (very  positively  and  thoroughly),  Italy  (at  least  for  schools), 
Netherlands, and the UK/Scotland. 

145 

 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

The  Czech  Republic  stated  that  Czech  policies  “are  in line  with  the  recommendations  of 
the EU as far as promoting the development of innovative and digital skills, including open 
education” are concerned (our italics).  

Estonia seemed to limit this to “the general aim of developing an open and digital culture 
among educators”. 

Finland mentioned specifically “the ET2020 Expert Working Groups, even if the openness 
part of the work has not really started” (our italics). 

Ireland  took  as  its  focus  “aiming  at  achieving  teaching  and  learning  excellence,  [and] 
producing  good  practices  for  academic  development  that  can  be  shared  internationally  at 
European level”. 

Latvia took as its focus the “aim of widening participation in education and the reduction 
of social inequality towards developing a better and more skilled citizenship”. 

Netherlands  was keen to  flow back its  knowhow to  Europe,  saying “this policy can be a 
model  that  can  be  adapted  for  the  development  of  further  policies  and  agendas  on  open 
education by other European countries”. 

Slovakia  took  an  interesting  standpoint,  saying  “The  Open  Government  Partnership  plan 
aligns  with  broader  international  agendas,  and  the  Republic  of  Slovakia  is  pioneering  on 
including open education in the commitments”. 

However,  even  if  most  of  the  interviews  stated  that  coherence  exists  between  their 
national  policy  and  EU  policies  in  the  field,  few  countries,  with  the  notable  exception  of 
Italy, mentioned any of the specific key EU documents on open education, in particular the 
Communication  Opening  up  Education:  Innovative  teaching  and  learning  for  all  through 
new Technologies and Open Educational Resources.  

No  commentary  was  offered,  for  example,  on  whether  they  felt  Erasmus+  was  delivering 
on the promises made in the Communication, or on any of the recommendations made in 
it, for example that of encouraging “the production, including through public procurement, 
of high-quality educational materials whose copyrights would belong to public authorities”. 
No  interviewee  mentioned  the  value  of  the  JRC’s  Opening  up  Education:  A  Support 
Framework for Higher Education Institutions or any of the other studies by JRC or by any 
other institution or project conducting research on open education policy. 

It  is  hard  to  escape  the  conclusion  that  the  Commission’s  work  in  this  area  needs  to  be 
disseminated  far  more  thoroughly,  and  that  this  would  motivate  Member  States’ 
representatives  to  make  more  visible  their  activities.  In  the  words  of  the  Romanian 
interviewee: “What the EU is doing on open education should be more visible in Romania, 
and what Romania does in the field should be more visible in Europe.” 

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5  Suggestions by interviewees for Future Open Education 

Policies 

In  this  section  the  various  suggestions  made  by  interviewees  in  the  country  reports  are 
grouped  in  relation  to  the  dimensions  of  the  OpenEdu  Framework,  but  extended  so  as  to 
include  the  usual  dimensions  of  EU  action  such  as  research,  dissemination  and  funding. 
Some brief commentary is included. 

5.1  Suggestions for the European Union 

Justification for open education 

The  European  Commission  and  Member  States  that  are  engaged  in  implementing  open 
education  mostly  embed  their  open  education  actions  (digital  skills,  repositories,  etc.) 
within wider policies such as ICT for education (or a sector of education), lifelong learning, 
open  government,  digital  nation,  etc.  Thus  there  has  to  be  a  justification  of  why  open 
education  is  the  answer  to  the  policy  questions  being  raised,  or  at  least  facilitates  an 
effective response. This section is intended to provide precisely that justification. 

UK.2 

The EU should think carefully about the reasons behind developing open education 
policies. 

Standards for open education 

A common understanding of open education at an European level is key: 

SK.1 

EL.1 

Open education should be introduced by the EU to the Member States using a 
common framework. 

The EU should enforce the standards on open education in every MS. 

Raising awareness of open education 

Suggestions  such  as  the  ones  below  are  probably  a  more  realistic  alternative  to  those 
proposed above under “Standards”. 

LV.1 

CY.1 

DE.4 

RO.1 

EU support, at a promotional level, is needed to ensure MS government and 
institutional policymakers are aware of open education. 
The EU should provide a means to share agendas and strategies in relation to lifelong 
learning, digital literacies and development around open education initiatives. 
It is important to keep talking and raising awareness about open education: the EU 
should help to keep the discussion alive in MS. 
Even for MS with established national agendas, receiving European recommendations 
and framework indicators would be very helpful, not only in open education but also 
in Open Access for research and Open Data – since that would further strengthen the 
efforts of national governments. Therefore the EU should disseminate to all Member 
States, not only smaller or poorer ones. 

To  pick  up  on  earlier  discussions,  it  is  very  important  that  the  EU  should  explain  clearly 
how “open education” in the modern EU sense draws upon and yet is different from “Open 
and Distance Learning”, a phrase the EU has employed frequently402 in the last 20 years. 
Finland and Denmark  in particular expressed  concerns on this issue, and it is likely these 
would also be shared to some extent in Germany and Sweden. 

402 As one example among hundreds: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/leader2/rural-en/euro/p4-2-6.pdf, 2001 

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Funding and support for open education 

It is not surprising that Member States are keen to request more funding, especially in the 
case  of  countries  accustomed  to  receiving  substantial  Structural  Funds,  but  it  is  still 
noteworthy.  Those  MS  that  have  been  receiving  project  funding  have  noticed  some 
discontinuity  between  the  Lifelong  Learning  Programme  and  Erasmus+,  along  with  a 
certain degree of incoherence as a result of the increased number of projects run from the 
national agencies. 

DE.2 

LV.1 

LV.2 

LT.2 

SK.3 

UK.3 

CZ.1 

EL.2 

RO.2 

There should be more EU funding lines for OER and Open Education within European 
programmes such as Erasmus+: participation in EU projects is currently very 
competitive and in some countries institutions tend to prefer to apply for national 
funding. 
Support from the EU, financially, is needed to ensure that MS institutional 
policymakers are aware of open education. 
The EU should provide funds to initiate and open discussions and promote 
exploratory projects in countries where open education is not yet being considered, 
and provide action plans – not just recommendations and policies – with guidelines 
and exchanges of expertise with clear goals and targets. 
The EU should provide a library of Open Source Software that could be translated 
for sharing and creating content, as for countries with lesser-spoken languages it is 
expensive to purchase software because its translation is costly (or, worse, there is 
no translation available). 
The EU should provide financial mechanisms to create national repositories for OER. 
The EU should not focus too much on repositories because metrics and data of 
usage tend to receive too much attention, to the detriment of other, more important 
elements that surround them, therefore, these risk closure when metrics of usage 
seem too low. 
The EU should further develop the resources developed by EU stakeholders that 
define and clarify open education and its associated concepts. (In fact, even if the 
core principles are in place, the concept has not yet been widely disseminated – and 
therefore even when in principle aspects of openness are present in policies and 
projects, these are not clearly stated and not easily identifiable in official 
documents.) 
The EU should also provide multilingual good practices for all MS. 
In a Member State where the open education community is quite small, with people 
knowing how to use the tools but not so familiar with concepts, the EU should reach 
out to those practitioners who are not used to working with OER and OE, and 
mainstream these approaches. 

Content and copyright 

The most interesting points are perhaps i) the observation that the EU needs to monitor its 
rulings  on  project  outputs  to  ensure  that  they  do  in  fact  appear  at  all,  and  that  they  are 
openly  licensed;  and  ii)  the  point  about  procurement  approaches  (where  much  work  has 
been done in the US, for example under Common Core).403 

BG.1 

BG.2 

CZ.2 

It is key for the EU to take the lead in resolving the current copyright issues across 
Europe: it is sometimes quite difficult to share materials between countries because 
national legislations operate differently and there is no clear common ground in 
relation to the use of open licenses. 
All teaching and learning resources and research outcomes from the EU level 
(Erasmus+, H2020, etc.) must be openly published. 

In order to ensure that openness-related good practices are known and shared, the 
EU should monitor all documentation, agendas, polices and their outcomes (such as 
guides, materials and resources) produced with EU funding to ensure they are 
published under open licenses. 

403 http://poerup.referata.com/w/images/SharedOER_D2-1.pdf – a study for JRC/IPTS 

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Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

CZ.3 

DE.3 

SK.4 

The biggest help would be if the EU were to state that all work undertaken with EU 
funds has to have a CC BY license. 
Legal guidelines from the EU on OER and copyright would be useful for the 
discussion at the Member State level. 
The EU should develop with Member States a common framework in relation to the 
procurement of educational resources and textbooks commissioned to private 
publishers by the governments and funded with public funds or with European 
funds, to be published under open licenses. 

Recognition of Prior Learning 

An important area for further development: 

Since a high number of MOOCs have been produced by European HEIs as part of 
their open education remit, the EU should ensure that, after checking the quality of 
these online courses, students can take them as part of their elective modules, 
gaining credits upon completion (as with e-Erasmus), thereby making it possible to 
realise the full potential of these courses. 

NL.2 

Leadership 

Focusing on leadership development projects in the digital education field404 : 

SE.1 

SK.2 

HU.1 

The EU should advise governments and ministries about the development of policies 
in this field. 
The EU should provide leadership, support and recommendations for education 
ministries. 
The EU should support processes to change the thinking of institutional leaders. 

Pedagogy 

These suggestions are in contrast to those under “Standards” above. 

IE.1 

UK.1 

The EU should promote excellence in teaching and learning, embedding its value in 
the policies they promote. 
The EU and Member States should focus on promoting diverse and engaging models 
of Open Educational Practices, both at formal and informal education levels, 
propagating a wide range of Open Educational Practices and models. The focus must 
not be only on promoting and delivering Open Education via MOOCs. 

Digital skills for students 

An important area for further development: 

EE.1 

The EU and Member States should consider, when developing digital skills in schools 
and when adopting the use of digital devices with children, the concerns of the 
parents. They should provide guidance and support to parents to ensure the effective 
use of these resources. 

Teacher-training 

These  are  two  recurring  suggestions,  but  they  do  need  to  be  re-stated  for  each 
programme.  

EE.3 

LT.3 

The EU should provide Member States not only with a framework of competences 
and skills, but guidance and resources to develop these skills, including by providing 
accredited MOOCs for teachers’ training and more funds for the development of 
open education 
The EU should facilitate teachers’ mobility, offer more Erasmus+ projects to enhance 
teachers’ capabilities, and provide a platform for the sharing of good practices that 
can facilitate and motivate teachers’ training. 

404 http://www.dtransform.eu – part-funded by Erasmus+ 

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Technology – experimental spaces 

NL.1 

UK.3 

To facilitate further developments in open education in Europe, the EU should create 
a space where policymakers can share good practices across countries and 
institutions. 
The EU should provide spaces for experimentation and innovation at a collaborative 
level – more specifically an online collaborative space for open education 
practitioners in which they can experiment and share good practices. 

Refugees 

This is a topical suggestion 

BG.3 

The EU should provide support for initiatives from EU countries to develop open 
educational platforms and resources for migrants and refugees, to help them learn 
the language of their host countries, facilitate their integration into society, and 
empower them to gain access to the formal education system. 

5.2  Suggestions for Member States 

Research 

The  current  level  of  knowledge  regarding  open  education  in  the  EU  and  other  European 
countries is not high, though it is probably better than in other parts of the world with the 
possible exceptions of North America and Australasia. 

AT.1 

AT.2 

To properly establish a policy in the field of open education, a lot of desk research 
needs to be done within each Member State, since a lot of things are happening 
nationally and internationally. (Member States should not rely only on EU-level 
research to inform their decisions.)405 
It is important for each Member State not only to look at “who is doing what” in their 
own country but also to consider who they need to bring together in order to facilitate 
decisions and understand the areas they have to focus on.406 

Awareness-raising 

This  complements  the  suggestions  for  the  EU  regarding  raising  awareness  about  open 
education. 

RO.3 

What each Member State does in the field should be made more visible at EU level. 

Content and copyright 

These are also complementary to the suggestions about awareness-raising. 

BG.2 

SK.4 

Member States must ensure that teaching and learning resources and research 
outcomes are openly published if produced using public funds. 
Member States should work together and with the EU to develop a common 
framework in relation to the procurement of educational resources and textbooks 
commissioned to private publishers by the governments and funded with public 
funds or with European funds, to be published under open licenses. 

405 Only a minority of Member States have carried out such studies (e.g. Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and 
the UK): the others have done nothing, or rely on EU-level reports. 
406 Member States have considerably different approaches to education and its funding and organisation 

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Recognition of Prior Learning 

An important area for further action: 

There should be a system in which each Member State supports the Recognition of 
Prior Learning, thus making it possible to transform lifelong learning and vocational 
training systems, thereby increasing openness of and democratising access to higher 
education.407 

DE.1 

Leadership 

The list of suggestions below is the longest therefore showing the importance of leadership 
in the open education field408. 

Member States should involve school principals, and leaders of educational 
institution more generally, as they can be both an obstacle and an enabler in the 
implementation of policies and agendas. 
Policymakers in open education in Member States should always remember that if a 
policy is to be an agent of change, the engaged stakeholders will inevitably feel a 
certain degree of discomfort and must be guided through the process of embracing 
the proposed innovations. 
The approach of “living policy making” is probably the secret of the success of policy 
in a Member State: engaging and accompanying stakeholders in the implementation 
phase should actually be the core activity of the staff in charge of the policy; this 
needs a lot of support time but pays off in terms of impact and perceived relevance 
of the initiative. 

LT.1 

IE.3 

IT.1 

Pedagogy 

This suggestion is in a contrast to those under “Standards” above.  

AT.3 

Policymakers in Member States, especially federal ones, must be open to different 
visions when they are planning policies and measures involving stakeholders, and 
there has to be the necessary boldness to take something of a visionary approach. 

Digital skills for students 

It was a surprising that there was not much more on this. 

EE.2 

EE.1 

Member States should realise that it is important to consider that digital skills are 
needed to prepare students for higher education. This can be an effective way to 
democratise and to widen access to universities. 
Member States should consider, when developing digital skills in schools and when 
adopting the use of digital devices with children, the concerns of the parents and 
provide them with guidance and support to ensure the resources are used 
effectively.409 

Collaboration 

This fits the European approach better than might be the case in North America. However 
it  might  not  fit  the  student-numbers-based  or  outcome-based  funding  models  now 
common  in  Member  States,  where  either  there  is  competition  for  student  fees  or 
competition for Ministry student-based funding. 

407 This is a topic worthy of its own full report. For an introduction see 
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/focus-on/152.pdf and the discussion in the ADOERUP 
2015 report to the European Parliament, 
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)563397_EN.pdf sections 
4.2.6 and 5.1 
408 http://www.dtransform.eu – part-funded by Erasmus+ 
409 This has been taken very seriously in the UK when Becta was in charge of such policies – see e.g. 
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrdering
Download/Exploiting%20ICT.pdf – but arguably less so now, though see https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-
network/teacher-blog/2014/jul/16/talking-to-parents-how-schools-using-social-media  

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FI.1 

Member States should, where appropriate, favour more collaboration among 
institutions: universities need to see the value of this cooperation and the Ministry 
needs to reward it, while also working on practical issues such as interoperability 
and information-sharing. This will help to “institutionalise” openness. 

Organisation 

Opinions may vary on the wisdom of this. It is almost routine for quality agencies, less so 
for other areas of activity. 

IE.2 

Member States should ensure that a policy should not be positioned within 
an institution (Ministry or HEIs) but be in an independent agency. 

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6  Suggestions for Further Research 

One conclusion emerging when interviewing ministry representatives and experts is that in 
general there is very limited knowledge about the situation in other Member States in the 
fields  of  open  education  and  ICT  for  learning.  On  the  other  hand,  a  number  of  barriers 
were  quoted  transversally  by  most  of  the  interviewees,  and  therefore  it  is  important  to 
increase awareness of the solutions and policies that are in place in other Member States. 

To achieve this, each Member State should be studied in detail at least once every 
five  years.  These  studies  should  be  designed  to  produce  outcomes  that  could  be  easily 
understood by policymakers and that could quickly inform policy, for example by selecting 
the  initiatives  that  have  a  proven  impact  and  are  potentially  replicable  in  other  countries 
and contexts. 

To  complement  this,  key  policy  documents  that  are  not  available  in  English  (although 
many are, such  as OGP plans  and bids for Structural Funds)  should  be  translated  into 
English, possibly at no cost to the issuing country, so as to allow a wider understanding of 
the  overall  policy  framework  of  Member  States  and  to  foster  mutual  understanding  and 
benchmarking. 

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7  Conclusion 

The  study  provides  the  first-ever  EU-wide  overview  of  the  state  of  play  with  regard  to 
policies aimed at opening up education.  

For  each  Member  State  a  brief  overview  is  given  of  the  open  education  situation  in  the 
country, followed by a description of one or at most two relevant key policies, and finally 
by  an  interview  with  one  or  two  policymakers  or  policy-aware  experts  from  the  country, 
ideally chosen from the Ministry or national agency of most relevance. The country section 
is followed by a section of analysis and tabulations looking at the correspondence between 
policies and the OpenEdu framework410, the policy implementation and impact to date, the 
key barriers and enablers during implementation, and the Relation between policy and the 
EU-level developments.  

The first conclusion is that the road to open education implementation is a long one and 
that  different  MS  are  travelling  along  it  at  very  different  speeds  and  in  different  ways.  A 
few  are  very  advanced,  several  others  have  made  good  progress,  and  all  have  at  least 
started the journey. In particular, actions aiming at opening un education can be found in 
four  typologies  of  policies:  a)  policies  focusing  specifically  on  opening  up  education 
through the promotion of OER and OEP, b) policies relating to general ICT for learning with 
some  open  education  component,  c)  comprehensive  strategic  educational  policies  with 
some  open  education  component,  and  d)  polices  built  up  as  National  Open  Government 
Plans with some open education component.  

The  second  conclusion  is  that  there  is  a  key  factor  complicating  the  open  education 
journeys: the surrounding education scenery is very different in the different MS, especially 
at university level (which was a key focus area for this study). Despite the welcome impact 
of the Bologna Process, there are very different rates  of progress in areas  such as digital 
skills,  employability,  increasing  access,  and  the  role  of  the  private  sector.  Some  MS  are 
now having to deal with problems caused by earlier “solutions” that other MS are only just 
now  considering  –  e.g.  enhancing  provision  by  using  the  private  sector,  fees  for 
international  students,  or  a  functional  credit-transfer  system  between  institutions  in  a 
given MS. 

The third conclusion is that in most MS the vision of open education is quite broad, going 
beyond  OER  and  open  content,  but    when  this  vision  is  applied  to  a  policy,  the  approach 
towards  open  education  is  often  still  limited  to  OER.  Specifically,  most  of  the  analysed 
policies and initiatives cover many  of the dimensions from the  OpenEdu Framework, with 
an important  role for the  collaboration dimension (this finding is corroborated by the  fact 
that  a  good  number  of  policies  result  from  open  stakeholders’  consultations  and  provide 
quite an active role for stakeholders). 

The  fourth  conclusion  is  that  if  the  MS  and  the  European  Commission  want  further 
progress in the open education field – and in more uniform fashion – then the EC will have 
to take steps to both increase awareness on open education and increase the frequency of 
studies  and  peer-learning  activities  among  MS.  What  emerged  from  the  study  is  in  fact 
that,  due  to  the  vagaries  of  project-based  funding,  rather  a  large  number  of  MS  had  not 
looked at such issues for many years. A more systematic approach, such as some kind of 

410 Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening up Education: A Support Framework 
for Higher Education Institutions (pp.24-30). JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN; doi:10.2791/293408 

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regular “open education census”, would be needed, preferably carried out in some form of 
MS-EU partnership. 

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References  

Bacsich, P. and 53 others (2014), POERUP: Policies for OER Uptake, Funded under 
Lifelong Learning Programme KA3 ICT, 2011-2014, http://www.referata.com 

Bacsich, P. (2015), Adult Education and Open Education Resources, Study for Culture 
and Education Committee, European Parliament, September 2015, 
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)56
3397_EN.pdf 

Bacsich, P. (2016), Business Models for Opening up Education: Sustainability of MOOCs, 
OER and related online education approaches in higher education in Europe, D-
TRANSFORM, D-TRANSFORM Deliverable O1.A2, March 2016, 
http://www.dtransform.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/O1-A2Business-models-edition-
1-final.pdf  

Eurydice (n.d.), Descriptions of national education systems, 
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Countries  

Inamorato dos Santos, A., Castaño-Muñoz, J. and Punie, Y. (2016) Opening Up Education 
– A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions, Luxembourg: Publications 
Office of the European Union, https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-
technical-research-reports/opening-education-support-framework-higher-education-
institutions 

OECD (n.d.) Education Policy Outlook Country Profiles, 
http://www.oecd.org/education/policyoutlook.htm 

OERup! (2015), OERup! country reports, http://www.oerup.eu/ 

OER World Map (2017) OER World Map, https://oerworldmap.org/ 

OEWG (n.d.), Open Education Working Group blog – country briefs, 
https://education.okfn.org/ 

OpenDOAR (2017), OpenDOAR: The Directory of Open access repositories, University of 
Nottingham, http://www.opendoar.org/ 

Pepler, G., Bacsich, P., Frank Bristow, S., Ossiannilsson, E., Creelman, A. Szalma, E. and 
Slaidins, I. (2015) Adult Education and Open Education Resources: Annex on UK, France, 
Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Latvia, Germany and Romania, Study for Culture and Education 
Committee, European Parliament, September 2015, 
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/563397/IPOL_STU(2015)56
3397_EN.pdf 

UNESCO IITE (n.d.), Open Educational Resources publications, 
http://iite.unesco.org/publications/themes/oer/ 

Other  national  documents  and  websites  consulted  can  be  found  in  the  footnotes  of  the 
report. 

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Annex 2.  Acknowledgements 

In  addition  to  the  interviewees  cited  at  the  beginning,  the  following  people  acted  as 
advisors out of a much longer list of experts approached.  

Country 

Experts 

Role and institution 

Dr. Helga Posset 

Austria 

Monika Moises 

Wolfram Laaser 

Bulgaria 

Eliza Stefanova  

Croatia 

Sandra Kučina Softić 

Cyprus 

Anastasia Economou 

Kevin Andrews 

Czech Republic 

Tamara Kovacova 
Line Bækgaard- Fuldmægtig 

Denmark 

Tue Vinther-Jørgensen 

Hanne Shapiro 

Rikke Warming 

Ene Koitla 

Estonia  

Inga Kõue 

Hans Põldoja 

Ilmari Hyvönen 

Finland 

Pirkko Ruuskanen-Parrukoski 
Tina Engblom 

Jouni Kangasniemi 

Ida Stamm 

Barbara Getto and Richard 
Heinen  

Germany  

Isabel Schünemann 

Jan Neumann 

Susanne Friz 

Staff member of the expert unit on higher 
education development, Federal Ministry for 
Science, Research and Economy 
Blended Learning Consultant, Consultant to 
the Austrian Ministry of Education in 
International Project Management 
Instructional designer, Austrian School of 
Applied Studies; and former Academic 
Director, FernUniversität in Hagen 
Vice-rector of Information Activities, Academic 
Staff and Administration, Sofia University 
Assistant Director for Education and User 
Support University of Zagreb University 
Computing Centre SRCE 
Head of ICT Unit, the Ministry-level entity for 
ICT educational policies in schools 
Chief Academic Officer, UNICAF, University of 
Nicosia Online 
Manager of the Open Education project, EDUin 
Danish Agency for Higher Education 
Senior Consultant, Centre for Education Policy, 
Ministry of Higher Education and Science 
Danish Technological Institute 
Special Advisor, Danish Accreditation 
Institution 
Head, Innovation Centre, Estonian Information 
Technology Foundation for Education  
Head of Content Development, Estonian 
Information Technology Foundation for 
Education 
Head of Studies, School of Digital 
Technologies, Tallinn University 
Senior advisor, Department of Higher 
Education and Science Policy, Ministry of 
Education and Culture 
Deputy Director, Centre for Lifelong Learning, 
Abo Akademi University 
Head of Development, Ministry of Education 
and Culture 
Senior Consultant, VDI/VDE Innovation, 
Technik GmbH on behalf of BMBF 
University of Duisburg-Essen, Heads of 
Mainstreaming OER programme for North 
Rhine Westphalia 
Programme Manager, Stifterverband für die 
Deutsche Wissenschaft 
OER World Map, Hochschulbibliothekszentrum 
des Landes NRW 
Abteilung Dienstleistungen, Projekte, 
Medienentwicklung, FWU Institut für Film und 
Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 
gemeinnützige GmbH 

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Country 

Experts 

Role and institution 

Oliver Janoschka 

Ulf-Daniel Ehlers 

John Vrettaros 

Greece 

Kalomira Marouga 

Nikitas Kastis 

Spiros Borotis 

András Benedek 

András Szűcs 

Terry Maguire 

Brian Mulligan 

Mark Brown 

Kevin O’Rourke 

Donatella Solda 

Ada Giannatelli 

Anna Maria Tammaro 
Eleonora Pantò 
Matteo Uggeri 
Ilmārs Slaidiņš 
Giedrius Vaidelis 

Vaino Brazdeikis 

Alvida Lozdienė 

Serge Linckels  

Gust Mees 

Anand Karat 

Ruud Nauts 
Robert Schuwer 

Beata Pojawa 

Alek Tarkowski 
Radu Puchiu 

Diana Andone 

Hungary 

Ireland  

Italy  

Latvia 

Lithuania  

Luxembourg 

Netherlands  

Poland 

Romania 

Head of Programmes, Stifterverband für die 
Deutsche Wissenschaft 
Vice-President Quality and Academic Affairs, 
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State 
University 
Unit of Digital systems in LLL, Directorate of 
Digital Governance, Ministry of Education, 
Research & Religious Affairs. 
General Director, Strategic Planning and 
Design of Electronic Governance, Ministry of 
Education, Research and Religious Affairs 
Director, Mind2Innovate 
E-Learning Advisor 
Senior Consultant, Mind2Innovate 
E-Learning Advisor 
Professor and Vice-Rector, Budapest 
University of Technology and Economics  
Secretary General EDEN (European Distance 
and E-learning Network) 
Director, National Forum for the Enhancement 
of Teaching and Learning 
Online Learning Research and Development, 
Institute of Technology Sligo Learning, Dublin 
City University 
Professor and Director, National Institute for 
Digital 
National Forum for the Enhancement of 
Teaching and Learning 
Executive Director, Cabinet of the Minister, 
Ministry of Education, University and Research 
E-learning project manager, METID, 
Politecnico di Milano 
Università di Parma 
CSP Piemonte 
Fondazione Politecnico di Milano 
Professor, Riga Technical University 
Director, Education Development Centre 
Director, Centre of Information Technologies 
in Education, Ministry of Education and 
Science 
Supervisor, Information and Communication 
Technology Division, Education Development 
Centre 
Professor, Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, 
de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse, Service de 
Coordination de la Recherche et de 
l’Innovation pédagogiques et technologiques 
ICT Course Instructor, Life-Long Learner and 
Blogger 
President, Vretta 
Policy officer, Ministry of Education 
Lector OER (Professor) in OER, Fontys 
Hogeschool ICT 
Department of Education and Health, 
Department of European Structural fund, 
Ministry of Development 
Director, Centrum Cyfrowe 
Secretary of State, Office of the Prime Minister 
Director, eLearning Center, Politehnica 
University of Timisoara 

160 

 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

Country 

Experts 

Role and institution 

Radu Vasiu 

Carmen Holotescu 

Gabriel Dima 

Slovakia 

Iveta Ferčíková 

Per Rosenblad 

Professor and Chair of Senate, Politehnica 
University of Timisoara 
CEO Timsoft; and Professor, University “Ioan 
Slavici” Timisoara 
Politehnica University of Bucharest 
Office of the Plenipotentiary for the 
Development of the Civil Society 
Ministry Secretary, Ministry of Education and 
Research (responsible for the compilation of 
the answers on the Sweden MOOC report) 

Ebba Ossiannilsson 

Consultant 

Sweden 

Per Westman 

Deputy Head of Department, Department of 
Higher Education Analysis, Swedish Higher 
Education Authority 

Alastair Creelman 

E-learning specialist, Linnaeus University 

Seth Norberg 

United Kingdom 

Pete Cannell 

David Kernohan 

Director of Education, School Improvement, 
Unit for School Organisation and Management, 
SKOLVERKET/Swedish National Agency for 
Education 
Project co-director, OEPS, OU in Scotland 
David Kernohan, Senior co-design manager, 
Jisc 

161 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

List of Tables 

Table 1. Overview of the identified policies ............................................................ 13 

Table 2. Total stories written during Conta-nos uma história. Source: Directorate 
General of Education .......................................................................................... 107 

162 

Policy Approaches to Open Education in Europe 

K
J
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N
A
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2
8
7
7
6
-
E
N
-
N

doi:10.2760/283135 

ISBN 978-92-79-73495-3 

163