4. Quality education

Data for the indicator 4.1. Research on early years and lifelong learning education (4.1.1 Quality Education: paper views, 4.1.2 Quality Education: CiteScore, and 4.1.3 Quality Education: publications) is being collected via Scopus.

4.2 Proportion of graduates with teaching qualification

4.2.1 Proportion of graduates with relevant qualification for teaching

Graduate only: 537 / 4389 = 12.23% (2,32% increase since 2022)
All levels: 647 / 5254 = 12.31% (1,59% increase since 2022)

Departments counted: Department of Education and Social Work; Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education. It should be noted that other Departments' graduates are able to work on secondary education schools, e.g. teaching biology, physics, etc. All levels include postgraduate and doctoral programmes.

4.3 Lifelong learning measures

4.3.1 Public resources (lifelong learning)

The University has developed and made available several Open Courses aimed towards broader audiences (i.e. beyond students specializing in a particular study area). The audience may include undergraduate students from different Departments of the University of Patras, students from other Institutions, graduates from the same or a different Department as well as the general public. There is no limitation following an Open Course or using its resources. The complete list is available at https://opencourses.gr/results.xhtml?ln=el&uni=Πανεπιστήμιο+Πατρών and information about the project can be found at http://ocw-project.upatras.gr.

Finally, the University Library is open to the general public for studying. According to its Regulation unemployed citizens are entitled to a waiver for registering to other services, such as circulation of material, etc. A translation of the article 5.1. of the Regulation follows:

Unemployed people, who can obtain an External User Card, without paying the one-off amount, by presenting a valid OAED unemployment card. The duration of the membership card is annual and the validity of the unemployment card is regularly checked.

Many of the Faculty Members of the University publish their Open Textbooks on the digital library Kalippos. This is an open access digital library that every student and citizen of the country can view and download university textbooks. In 2023, 47 textbooks from our members were published as it can be found here.

Furthermore, the Library participates to the AmeLIB digital library that provides access to educational material for print-disabled students. The access though, due to the legislation for the protection of intellectual rights, is controlled and is provided strictly to authorized users. The Library also provides guidance on the digitally accessible content by Faculty Members. Information about these activiites and resources can be found on the website of the Library (in Greek).

4.3.2 Public events (lifelong learning)

The Science and Technology Museum carries out a variety of on-site thematic educational programs for all levels of education with various topics related to the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions of the Museum. The educational programs are planned in collaboration with teachers and students from various Departments of the University of Patras. Given the recent developments due to the Covid-19 pandemic Distance Learning Programs are also offered, through WebEx or Zoom platforms. Furthermore, the Museum organizes several other public events, competitions, lectures, seminars etc. One of them was organized in collaboration with the Hellenic Section of the International Council of Museums on the celebration of the European Academic Heritage Day, under the theme "University Museums: actions for the environment and sustainability", on Friday 25 /11/2022. Such activities can be found at the annual report of the Museum.

Other public events are being hosted by the University’s Conference and Cultural Center. Most events are open to the general public, especially those that present project results and/or addressing topics of popular science. A complete list is available at http://www.confer.upatras.gr/events.php.

The University Library is also hosting events that are open to the public. Two of those are the observation of the partial solar eclipse, organized jointly with the Astronomical Society "Orion", and the old/vintage school textbooks exhibition, organized jointly with the Museum of School Life and Education and the Department of Tourism Management of the University of Patras.

The University of Patras participates every year in the Researcher's Night. According to the official description, "the European Researchers' Night is a Europe-wide public event, which displays the diversity of science and its impact on citizens' daily lives in fun, inspiring ways. The European Researchers' Night aims to bring research and researchers closer to the public, promote excellent research projects across Europe and beyond, increase the interest of young people in science and research careers, and showcase the impact of researchers’ work on people’s daily lives." The event takes annually place in Patras too. Evidence for the event in 2023 can be found at https://researchersnight.gr/2023-2/.

4.3.3 Vocational training events (lifelong learning)

The University operates the Lifelong Learning Center – University of Patras, which offers several courses for vocational training. The Center was established in 2018 with the main purpose to design, organize and operate lifelong training programs in a wide range of fields such as technology, administration, health, humanities, education, art etc. Distance and blended learning are the main methods for the implementation of the programs and the Center is continuously exploring new attractive methods and approaches to enhance adult education, training and employment. The Center provides both free and paid courses. Indicative courses:

Furthermore, the University operates the Auditor of University Courses. Citizens who wish to do so, have the opportunity to attend university courses of their choice from those offered by Departments. They are eligible to receive a special card from the Secretariat of the Department, which allows them to attend specific courses, for a certain period of time. It should be noted that they do not participate in exams or in laboratory, clinical or tutorial exercises, and they receive a certificate of attendance at the end of each semester.

4.3.4 Education outreach activities beyond campus

This is an indicative list of activities:

The Department of Education and Social Work provided supportive interventions in Roma communities to strengthen access to education and reduce the dropout rate of children and adolescents in the Region of Western Greece. According to the project, intercultural education is a pedagogical approach aiming to tackle social and intra-school problems that arise within a multicultural society and affects socially vulnerable group of citizens, such as the Roma. It is an approach with a holistic character, which concerns, in addition to the members of the Roma group, the social environment in which they live in. The implementation of the project primarily seeks to address the educational inequality and marginalization of this social group by improving the conditions for inclusion and participation of Roma children in the education system. More at https://roma.upatras.gr.
The Laboratory of Pedagogical Research and Lifelong Education of the Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Education undertook the assessment of the TEACH4_I (Teach for Integration) project, which involves the training of 3,750 teachers working in institutions with refugee and migrant children. The programme is implemented by three Universities (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and University of Thessaly), supervised and funded by the UNICEF Office in Greece and under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports and the Institute of Educational Policy.
The Children's Festival is organized by students from the Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Education of the University of Patras in collaboration with faculty of the Department. Every year, at the end of spring and for one week, about 2000 children of preschool age visit the Children's Festival, together with their teachers or parents, in order to participate in creative activities and educational orientation workshops, which take place in the premises of the Department. More information at https://childrenfestival.gr/en/timeline/.
As mentioned above the Museum of Science and Technology is offering Distance Learning Programs, through WebEx or Zoom platforms. A description can be found on its website.
The Laboratory of Greek Language and Culture of the University of Patras has collaborated with the Association of Greek-Ukrainian Friendship "Faros" during the summer of 2022. The Laboratory provided free of charge Greek language courses to Ukrainian war refugees who have been settled in the region of Patras with the aid of the "Faros" association. The provision of the language course serves the Goal 4 of SDGs especially 4.4. and 4.5 as the knowledge of Greek language would enable the refugees (vulnerable group) to better integrate to Greek society and find a job. Furthermore, the attendees were women, who are more vulnerable than men when in refugees' status, thus we provided a chance to smooth out the differences between genders (Goals 5 and 10). (Note: Also mentioned in SDG17)

4.3.5 Lifelong learning access policy

The University prescribes in the Internal Regulations (latest version published on the Govenrment's Gazette, II, 5468, 14/09/2023) explicitly that all of its activity is governed by the following principles:

2. The operation of the University of Patras is supported to a set of values, which are based on the principles of freedom of teaching and research, free expression and circulation of ideas, respect of the rights of the members of the University Community and of the society as a whole, of justice, of meritocracy, transparency, accountability, equality, as well as on the principle of the cooperation of every institution of the University Community in the context of compliance with the Constitution, the Laws and Regulations. Any discrimination, which is related with color, gender, sexual orientation, racial, national or ethnic origin, age, religion or ideology, is considered impermissible.

(Article 3: Mission and Targets)

4.4 Proportion of first-generation students

4.4.1 Proportion of first-generation students

This information is not available.