About AQUA-TNET

AQUA-TNET is a multidisciplinary Thematic Network that unites the academic and vocational aspects of the Bologna reforms and the establishment of the European Higher Education Area in the field of Aquaculture, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management. One of its major aims is to become the TUNING reference for the aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resources sector. To this end, there are 6 themed workpackages encapsulating the changes taking place in all three Bologna cycles:

  1. Masters and Masters of Science curriculum development and assessment
  2. PhD curriculum development and assessment
  3. Proposed transparency measures (including Qualifications Frameworks) and quality assurance
  4. Measures to improve student mobility
  5. Innovation in teaching (e-learning and ICT technologies and their role in joint degrees)
  6. New methods of language training and promoting language diversity


Network deliverables pool different elements of the Bologna, Copenhagen and Lisbon Processes for the benefit of the entire sector, involving the production sector, consumers, educationists, researchers and NGOs.  Three over-arching Workpackages are dedicated to the needs of industry, academia and society.

Deliverables include this web portal, student conferences, publications and online self-tuition language learning modules all geared towards the promotion of life-long learning in its many aspects.

History

AFA-NET AQUA-TNET, originally funded in 1996 as a SOCRATES Thematic Network, was merged with the Demeter Thematic Network in 1998, becoming part of the AFA-NET Thematic Network (Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture – 1998-2004). As part of AFA-NET, AQUA-TNET continued to assess and analyse the aquaculture higher education sector and to identify key curriculum development and assessment objectives, publishing its “Higher Education in Aquaculture and Related Sciences - Guide to Courses within Europe” (1998), updated and uploaded to the internet in 2001 (PiscesTT). AQUA-TNET also published “White Paper on Education and Training in Aquaculture for the New Millennium” (2000), addressing the long-term education and training needs of the European industry for the new millennium. Its formal recommendations on geographic and functional mobility, trans-national placements, delivery of specialised and advanced education and training, joint development of specific courses, and accreditation and mutual recognition of qualifications, predated the findings of the “Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe”.

AQUA-TNETCore Group Varese Building on eight years (1996 – 2004) of solid results and achievements of the Thematic Network AQUA-TNET, the present AQUA-TNET covers intrinsically related sectors: aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resources management, where there is a degree of synergy. Not only because they have a common environment and context, but also consumer-led interest in their respective end products. The proposed extended AQUA-TNET network has received broad support from the sector at large and this can be seen both in the partnership and supporting organisations. Through the partnership of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP), the largest aquaculture producers association in Europe, there is a good channel for consultation and dialogue with the Commission on matters affecting fisheries and aquaculture.

 Participants at the Core Group Meeting, September 2004, Gent, Belgium (Photo taken outside Ghent University Het Pand)

Core Group Gent 2004

From L-R: Zdenek Adamek (Czech Republic), Lucian Oprea (Romania), Margaret Eleftheriou (Greece), Lluis Tort (Spain), Peter Bossier (Belgium), Elin Kjorsvik (Norway), Jean Dhont (Belgium), Gavin Burnell (Ireland), Paula Henttonnen (Finland), Mario Stael (Belgium), David Murphy (Coordinator AquaTT, Ireland), Marco Saroglia (Italy), David Benhaim (France), Bent Rønsholdt (Denmark), Bjarni Kristofer Kristjansson (Iceland), John Bostock (UK)