Beyond the traditional appointments with ‘What's new in Brussels?’ at the beginning of 2014 and our annual Conference ‘Europe in the world’ in July, where we featured the recent higher education developments in Europe and across the globe, ACA organised a number of events. Some of them were related to themes that we have long been following, such as the April Seminar on Funding student mobility – built upon the expertise of our studies and publications such as Portable state grants and loans: An overview and their contribution to outgoing student mobility that was out at the beginning of the year - or the December Seminar on English-medium instruction in Europe, related to our latest study on the topic, available from January 2015. However, we also explored completely new territories with the seminar on Liberal Arts and Science Colleges that took place last October and contributed to expand our network of academic institutions, beyond our areas of expertise.

Additionally to our conference activities, the year 2014 has seen ACA actively engaged in several projects.  Among the major ones, the EU-funded and EUA-led project 'Mobility Policy-Practice Connect' (MPPC), and the project 'EduCoach – Personalised Online Advising for Study in Europe Orientation’, funded by the EU Erasmus Mundus Programme and coordinated by StudyPortals. Moreover, ACA is coordinating a 'Survey on Open Education in European Higher Education Institutions' commissioned by the European Commission’s Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) in Seville. Many more projects are coming with the start of the new year. Just to mention some, the study on 'Mastermind Europe' project coordinated by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA) and involving nine other European partners, realised as a Strategic Partnerships of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme.  Moreover, together with 5 member organisations (British Council, DAAD, Nuffic, Campus France and Archimedes Foundation), ACA was awarded by the European Commission a 3 year-long project to promote the attractiveness of European Higher Education in the world. 

Last, but not least, every month we provided up-to-date overviews of the latest developments in higher education policy, through the ACA Newsletter ‘Education Europe’. With more than 180 articles on EU, national and international news and analysis of higher education and research policies, ACA’s newsletter covered an extensive range of countries–in Europe and around the world. Additionally, we featured a number of interesting opportunities for funding, upcoming events and conferences, as well as the latest publications relevant to your fields of interest. 

We want to warmly thank all those who contributed to the contents of the Newsletter and to make our events and publications a success. A special thanks goes obviously to our member organisations. We hope that we can continue to fulfil your expectations by providing our expertise in the years to come.