Funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme, the ‘Critical Thinking Across the European Higher Education Curricula – CRITHINKEDU’ project arises with the background and experience of European Higher Education Institutions, business corporations and Non-Governmental Organisations and their ongoing concern to improving the quality of learning in universities and across different sectors, which converge in a common need on how to better support the development of Critical Thinking (CT) education according to labour market needs and social challenges.

2. 1.What is CRITHINKEDU?
2.Context
3.Objectives
4.Activities and Outputs

3. Project Number: 2016-1-PT01-KA203-022808
Funding: European Union
Programme: Erasmus+ / KA2 Action – Strategic Partnerships
Budget: 397 478,00€
Duration: 2016-2019
Coordinator:
University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
Partners:
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Universita Degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy
University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Greece
University College Dublin, Ireland
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
UC Leuven, Belgium
Siuolaikiniu Didaktiku Centras, Lithuania
University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania

4. 1.What is CRITHINKEDU?
2.Context
3.Objectives
4.Activities and Outputs

5. Importance of Critical Thinking (CT) education for universities in the preparation of
participative students/citizens/workers.

6. CT still not systematically learnt/taught (and in general the soft skills) in the European Higher
Education Institutions (EHEI) curricula.

7. Lack of industry-university cooperation for CT curricula development and quality assurance.

8. 1.What is CRITHINKEDU?
2.Context
3.Objectives
4.Activities and Outputs

9. Align CT learning outcomes with the current labour market challenges
and needs in different European countries.
Propose guidelines and instructional approaches to teach and assess CT across
the different EHEI courses, based on the inventory of CT learning outcomes.

10. Support teaching modernization in European Higher Education Institutions; and deliver a set of
recommendations and educational strategies for CT training and learning, across different
domains and disciplines, increasing faculty professional development.

11. Propose quality assurance criteria for CT education across universities, supporting policy
reforms in the EHEI curricula.
Create a European network with universities, business corporations and Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGO) to share best practices, recommendations, quality criteria and research
on CT education.

12. 1.What is CRITHINKEDU?
2.Context
3.Objectives
4.Activities and Outputs

13. WORKPACKAGE 1
ACTIVITIES
• 1st Transnational Meeting;
• Focus group interviews with different business corporations and NGOs at
local/national level, in order to identify a set of transversal and CT skills towards the
labour market needs and challenges for future workers;
• 2nd Transnational Meeting.
OUTPUT
A European collection of CT skills needed in different professional sectors.

14. WORKPACKAGE 2
ACTIVITIES
• 3rd Transnational Meeting;
• Collection of the different curriculum/practices/strategies developed by the EHEI
partners and their outcomes;
• Comparison between CT skills needed in different professional sectors and the
analysis of current practices in the EHEI partners.
OUTPUT
Preliminary proposal of guidelines for quality-assurance criteria in CT education.

15. WORKPACKAGE 3
ACTIVITIES
• 4th Transnational Meeting;
• Training course for faculty teaching professional development on
guidelines/recommendations for CT education in EHEI, towards the implementation
of CT activities and practices in their classrooms;
• Deployment scenarios in each partner’s institution.
• 5th Transnational Meeting;
• Assess and comparison of the different deployment scenarios within a common
criteria framework.
OUTPUTS
• Conception of a training course on preliminary guidelines of quality-assurance
criteria in CT education;
• Development of European guidelines/recommendations for CT education in EHEI.

16. WORKPACKAGE 4
ACTIVITIES
• 1st Multiplier Event: ‘The European Day for CT education’ – a transnational pitch
bootcamp with partners, faculty teaching, students, business corporations and NGOs;
• 2nd Multiplier Event: ‘The European Meeting or CT education for 21st century
challenges’ – a transnational event with European experts, researchers, partners,
business corporations and NGOs.
OUTPUTS
• Special Issue on ‘CT education in EHEI curricula for 21st century challenges’;
• Technical Report.

17. Join us and participate in our events!
See more at crithinkedu.utad.pt
E-mail: crithinkedu@utad.pt
Facebook: facebook.com/crithinkedu
Twitter: @crithinkedu_EU