Erasmus+ kick off Meeting at UA

The University of Alicante, as a European reference in accessibility, sustainability and internationalization, brings together more than 100 representatives of universities and ministries from Latin America, Asia and Europe in an open dialogue to strengthen the Higher Education system by means of European Erasmus+ funds.

From the 3^rd to the 6^th of March 2020, the University of Alicante welcomed rectors, academic vice-rectors and managers from 35 universities -both public and private- and ministries from Laos, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Austria, Greece and Spain. The reason for this meeting was the launch of the "ACCESS", "MYSUN" and "OPEN" projects, financed by the European Union with the participation of the International Project Management Office (OGPI) of the University of Alicante.

These projects, which last for 3 years, are co-financed by European funds ERASMUS+ KA2, and are aimed at promoting cooperation for innovation and the exchange of best practices in the Higher Education area.

ACCESS

The main aim of the "ACCESS" project, led by the UA, focuses on improving accessibility, guaranteeing learning conditions and promoting policy changes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in the context of Higher Education in Costa Rica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic through modern inclusion, training and networking practices.

ACCESS has a consortium composed of 2 Higher Education institutions from Costa Rica, 4 from Cuba and 5 from the Dominican Republic, the Ministries of Higher Education of these Latin American countries, the University of Macedonia and the University of Alicante, which is the project coordinator.

MYSUN

The MYSUN project “Malaysia Sustainable University Campus Network” brings together 9 Malaysian universities from around the country as well as 3 European universities and the Ministry of Education Malaysia.

MYSUN aims to promote Malaysian university campuses as “living laboratories” for sustainability and energy efficiency. It intends to achieve this by strengthening the human capacities in university campuses’ sustainability and energy efficiency in Malaysia and developing a platform to promote and support a culture of sustainable HEI campuses in the Malaysian higher education system through the establishment of the MYSUN Network and the delivery of a pilot MOOC on sustainability in HEI campuses.

OPEN

The OPEN project “OPEN-ing Laos Higher Education System to internationalisation strategies” brings together 5 Laotian universities from around the country as well as 2 European universities and the Ministry of Education and Sports from Laos.

OPEN project promotes the internationalization of higher education in Laos through actions aimed at institutional strengthening and training, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of teaching and research.

Holding this joint meeting in Alicante will allow the members of the three consortia to share their experiences and best practices, as well as to get to know important cultural and geographical references of Alicante during their stay.

In addition, it is expected that the creation of synergies and the results of the different working sessions will result in clarity so as to implement the activities planned for the first year of work regarding these three important projects.