EUA Annual Conference focuses on internationalisation strategies and global rankings

Around 450 university leaders and higher education representatives gathered at Ghent University last week (11-12 April) for the 2013 EUA Annual Conference entitled “European Universities - Global Engagement”.
Discussions throughout the conference confirmed that internationalisation is an issue which affects all elements of the university mission, which is why the development of strategic approaches has become a necessity for all European universities. Therefore, internationalisation will continue to be an integral part of EUA’s membership activities in the years to come.
To feed into the conference discussions, EUA published the results of a survey of its member universities on HE internationalisation, which also gauged their expectations for EUA’s future international activities and for the European Union’s forthcoming strategy for the internationalisation of higher education, which is due to be presented in the coming months. This strategy will focus in particular on European higher education engagement beyond European borders, with global partners.
The first session focused on “New models of internationalisation: European policies, national priorities and institutional strategies” and European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou was invited to present a European perspective on the topic.
She highlighted the need to be prepared to take on educational challenges that go beyond national borders (such as changes in the labour market). The Commissioner added that universities needed broader strategies that go beyond mobility and cover many other types of academic cooperation, such as joint degrees, support for capacity-building, joint research projects and distance learning programmes. The concept of "internationalisation at home" continued to be key to ensuring that the majority of students who are not in a position to study abroad can nevertheless enjoy the benefits associated with international exposure.
Institutional perspectives were then provided by Ihron Rensburg, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Luc Soete, Rector of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The former provided a view of higher education growth in Africa and a snapshot of what internationalisation means in particular to South Africa before concluding with a series of reflections on the necessity to engage in mutually beneficial higher education partnerships which value the perspectives and the contributions of all actors, whether they be big or small, or from the North or South. Luc Soete, meanwhile, addressed the multifaceted nature of the globalisation of higher education and research, focusing in particular on the importance of tackling global research challenges and the enormous impact of communications and technological developments.
The working groups on the second day were an opportunity for HE representatives to discuss in more depth how they were implementing institutional internationalisation strategies and positioning themselves in the global research landscape. Contributions and case studies were provided by a variety of European university leaders, including the Rector of Ghent University Paul van Cauwenberge.
In the final plenary which focused on responses to international competition, the audience was provided with an overview of the Monash Warwick Alliance launched in 2012 by the University of Warwick (UK) and Monash University (Australia). Its Director Andrew Coats described the development of this collaboration, its aims over the next years and the potential risks and challenges. He was followed by Thomas Schöck, Chancellor of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), who presented the university’s internationalisation strategy (including the FAU Busan campus in Seoul) in the context of more general internationalisation developments in Bavaria and in Germany.
The last session of the conference was dedicated to the launch presentation and discussion on EUA’s new report on global university rankings and their impact. The results of the second EUA report on this topic were provided by author Andrejs Rauhvargers, whose presentation was followed by a discussion with participants on a wide range of issues relating to the methodologies, impact and institutional responses to rankings. Presentations from the conference are available on the conference website.
EUA is also pleased to announce that next year’s Annual Conference will take place at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, from 3 to 4 April 2014.