Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in Higher Education · 1 October 2025 – 30 September 2027
LITE equips university leaders, academic managers, teaching staff, and administrators with the tools and competences needed to institutionalise and reward teaching excellence.
Without leadership from the top of higher education institutions, genuine efforts for rewarding and stimulating the teaching careers and impact of academics and professional staff members leading CTLs will remain limited in terms of lasting impact.
Universities across Europe are under growing pressure to improve and reward teaching, yet leadership approaches, support structures and institutional practices remain uneven and often disconnected. Two internal focus group meetings among the project partners, together with wider discussions with members of umbrella associations, identified an absence of effective and affordable European leadership training programmes for senior and aspiring higher education leaders responsible for rewarding and stimulating teaching excellence. This gap has also been confirmed by previous Erasmus+ projects, including LOTUS, EFFECT and E-NOTE.
At institutional level, the partnership identified a concrete need for more systematic knowledge on how to create Centres for Teaching and Learning, how to use them for the benefit of teaching and professional support staff, and how to ensure their impact is felt across the university. Charles University is establishing CTLs from scratch; Copenhagen and Bologna need evidence-based transnational insights on how to reform and refine the centres they already have.
Structure
The first comparative European mapping of how universities use leadership, Centres for Teaching and Learning and wider institutional strategies to stimulate and reward teaching excellence, based on a survey targeting over 300 universities.
Charles UniversityThe LITE Competence Framework for Teaching Excellence Leadership, four open-access curricula, four blended training programmes and the LITE Blended Learning Environment.
University of BolognaPeer mentoring for senior leaders, a CTL institutional development scheme, the LITE Start-up Kit and a micro-credential in teaching excellence leadership.
University of CopenhagenDissemination strategy, the LITE Online Portal and Self-Assessment Tool, a storytelling campaign, policy briefs, a final Brussels conference, and the establishment of ENLITE.
Global Governance InstituteResults
The Strategic Cooperation Plan establishes ENLITE, a permanent European Network for Leadership and Institutionalisation of Teaching Excellence, hosted by the Global Governance Institute in Brussels.
This flagship result synthesises findings from the survey, desk research and partner contributions into a comparative analysis of leadership and CTL institutionalisation across Europe.
This package includes the final survey questionnaire, interview guidelines and desk research templates.
Sustainability
The project's ambition goes beyond producing useful trainings and tools for universities. Its goal is to change how European universities understand and advance teaching, strategic leadership and the institutionalisation of teaching excellence.
The LITE Strategic Cooperation Plan establishes ENLITE, a permanent European Network for Leadership and Institutionalisation of Teaching Excellence, hosted by the Global Governance Institute in Brussels. ENLITE coordinates policy dialogue and future joint funding proposals, and maintains the LITE Portal and Self-Assessment Tool as open-access resources beyond the funding period.
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Take part
Higher education leaders, CTL directors and staff, and academic and administrative personnel are invited to record how their institution supports, recognises and rewards excellent teaching.
Project updates and calls for participation. No marketing.