The theme of our Conference "The Dynamics of University Colleges in the EHEA" should appeal to a large audience, from both the world of more professionally oriented higher education and of other stakeholders in the broader European Higher Education Area.

This year the Conference is organised by EURASHE, with the collaboration of the Croatian Council of Polytechnics, and it will be hosted by the University of Dubrovnik, which has kindly offered to put their new Conference Centre in the centre of Dubrovnik at the disposal of the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education.

The two conference tracks are:

• ‘New Masters’ in Higher Education
• Opening up HE through links with LLL and Vocational Education & Training (VET)

Apart from a conference plenary session with keynote speakers, the two main tracks will be further developed in interactive workshops with involvement of the main stakeholders and the conference audience. We will conclude with a panel discussion about new dynamics in Higher Education.

Finally, a clear message will be addressed to the colleagues from HEI in the hosting country and in the region, on the position and expectations of the professional HE in the EHEA.

The conference theme shows to our stakeholders and to the outside world both our determination to represent the full range of higher professional education in the European Higher Education Area and our commitment to inform our members and the whole sector of professional education about challenging developments in the Bologna Process.

University Colleges have a specific role to play in this process and Eurashe will be fully participating in the Bologna working agenda for 2005-2007, as a run-up to the HE Ministers conference in London.b