The theme of the 25th Annual Conference of EURASHE, which will be held this year in Lisbon (Portugal), is ‘Professional Higher Education more Relevant than Ever – Challenges for the Future’. In the run-up to the next Ministerial Conference of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), taking place in Yerevan (Armenia) in May 2015, the choice of this topic shows relevance of a sector of Higher Education, which is considered as one of the key players in influencing and developing the society of present and future.

While living in different contexts, institutions of Professional Higher Education (PHE) are facing challenges of the same calibre. They are open organisations, adjusted to the developments of society, and this not only in a reactive way, but also as trendsetters and key players in innovation in critical fields of institutional strategy: governance, education, research and development, employability of their graduates. As key players in finding new solutions to actual problems, their relation with stakeholders is a strategic one and is considered as a co-creatorship.

PHE institutions are clearly profiled institutions. The ambition of being highly relevant in the mentioned critical fields of institutional strategy means strong and smart institutional management, a strive for quality and openness to the global society.

The 25th Conference will deepen the debate on institutional management, quality and international cooperation through various forms: presentations, workshops, panels, networking sessions, demonstration of good practices, as well as pre-conference masterclasses. Sessions are structured in 4 tracks: institutional management, quality management, regional cooperation and international cooperation, with each of them having a specific focus in different parallel sessions throughout two days: governance, education, employability and research.

The conference is addressed to different target groups: institutional management, head of programmes, teaching staff, researchers, quality assurance managers and agencies, business, public agents and more. All EURASHE members and participants are invited to involve their global partners in the conference.

‘Du choc des idées jaillit la lumière’: the multi-level discussions and the interdisciplinarity of the conference networking will certainly make this conference an inspiring event to all participants. The 25th edition of the EURASHE Annual Conference wants to be a benchmark for all actors involved in making PHE a key factor for the future of our society.