erasmus plus

Today, Wednesday June 16th, 2021, the ANTENA project - Internationalization of Higher Education at the Philippines Network  held the III Online Conference entitled International Accreditation, an event organized by the University of Alicante in coordination with EFMD. The conference was given by Dr. Christophe Terrasse, Director EFMD International Projects, with his extensive experience in the subject offered to all participants a substantial “Menu” of knowledge.

More than 100 participants from Costa Rica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic took part in the 3rd Online Training of the ACCESS Project, organized on May 26 and 31, 2021. The workshop was given by the University of Macedonia (Greece), combining face-to-face methodology via virtual meeting and reflections in groups through autonomous work in guided practices on scientific and informative material previously prepared in emotional intelligence applied to students with disabilities and the application of the social model of disability within the educational environment. These trainings are especially aimed at the members of the support centers for students with disabilities, academic professionals and key service personnel of the partner Higher Education Institutions as well as representatives from the Ministries of Higher Education of the ACCESS consortium member countries. They are main stakeholders of Higher Education system who should become driving forces behind the construction of a more inclusive and open university space for all in the Higher Education Institutions of Costa Rica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and in general throughout the whole Latin America

The University of Alicante delivered an online training on Social Impact Assessment within the framework of the MORALE project from 18^th to 20^th May 2021. Representatives from 7 Lebanese and Syrian Higher Education Institutions together with more 50 NGO professionals from the region were taught by Dr. Guadalupe Ortiz, Senior Lecturer of the Sociology Department from the University of Alicante. The participants were provided with an in-depth understanding of the core concepts and methodological steps of the Social Impact Assessment discipline and reflected upon its implementation on NGO actions measured according to social impacts within their own contexts. The MORALE project is part of the Capacity Building Higher Education initiative, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union in Lebanon and Syria. It aims at improving NGO capacities by collaborating with Higher Education providers in the region and is coordinated by the Beirut Arab University.

On April 29 – 30, the University of Alicante organised the last workshop in the framework of MATE project entitled “How to design a public communication and awareness campaign for digital, online and social environments”. Due to current situation the training took place on-line and involved 14 students from different academic backgrounds. The aim of the workshop was to help students through short lectures on communicational and technological topics initially to comprehend issues on hate speech and the forms it is expressed and afterwards to be able to create their own personal campaign via the production of short duration audiovisual spots which would convey their aspect on racism and xenophobia.

The University the Alicante participated in the Erasmus+ INNOVA project virtual Kick Off Meeting from 3^rd to 5^th March 2021. Led by the Coordinator, the University San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca from Sucre (Bolivia), all INNOVA consortium members partaken with representatives from  universities from Bolivia, Paraguay, Ireland and Spain.  The Ministries of Education from Bolivia and Paraguay also joined the meeting. The main goal of this meeting was officially launching the project INNO VA project, introduce partners to each other and agree upon the strategy to implement first project actions.                                         

The virtual meeting compromised 3 days of agenda in which INNOVA project was presented to partners as well as the different participant institutions. It was followed by an in-dept discussion on the strategies to organise activities across the diverse Workpackages of the project, focusing particularly on the initial articulation of the Needs Analysis, dissemination and quality control interventions. Finally, partners debated the organizational structure of the INNOVA project together with the administrative and financial schemes to enable project actions.

OPEN Consortium celebrated the 1^st National Round Table in Vientiane (Lao PDR) on 4tth March 2021. The gathering was attended by the Vice minister of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), high-representatives from other ministerial bodies of the Lao PDR government and the  European Union Ambassador to Lao PDR. During the meeting, 2 crucial publications, as result of the coordinated work of the OPEN consortium, were officially presented to the audience: “Needs Analysis“document and the “International Relationships Offices Management Guide”.

They were joined by a numerous delegation of at least 50 participants of  the Higher Education Institutions of Lao PDR, including high-representatives from the managerial staff, representatives from international organisations, together with the members of the International Relationships Offices of the 5 public Universities which take part in the OPEN consortium. The 1^st OPEN National Round Table was a blended conference in which Laotian partners participated on face-to-face basis, congregating in the Crowne Plaza Hotel of Vientiane, and the EU representatives of the OPEN project from Italy and Spain contributed online.

More than 90 participants from Costa Rica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic took part in the 2nd Training of the ACCESS Project, organized on February 17 and 18, 2021. The workshop was taught virtually by the Digital Accessibility Unit of the University of Alicante. The training focused on familiarizing, in an eminently practical way, attendees with tools and methodologies for creating digital and inclusive teaching materials. These contents are especially useful in this context of a pandemic that has forced most of the Universities to deliver their educational actions via online or hybrid methodologies

January 15th 2021 signals the official starting date of the news Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education project “Promoting the employability and entrepreneurship of Higher Education graduates through innovative ways in the Philippines”, also known as PATHWAY.

Partners have been actively at work behind the scenes to help the project get a strong start when it has its public launch on February 23^rd. This work has included several online meetings, first with the new project officer in a bilateral meeting organized in the framework of the Erasmus+ Grantholders’ Meeting, on January 28^th, and then during a pre-Kick-off Meeting with the project managers from each partner institution on February 2^nd.

ACCESS consortium held its first coordination virtual meeting of the year on 2^nd February 2021. The online gathering was attended by 35 delegates from Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Greece and Spain,  representing all the 13 Higher Education Institutions and  3 national Ministries of Education which take part in the ACCESS project. The reunion centered around reviewing progress undertook during the last year and laid the basis for ACCESS project actions during the next month such as the upcoming online trainings on  inclusion for 17-18 February.

ACCESS partners convened to celebrate the official approval of the extension of the project up to January 2024 on account of the disruption generated by COVID-19 pandemic within the pace of all project activities and the normal functioning of the University system in Cuba, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic as well as Spain.

Between January 19^th and 21^st, the V2WORK Vietnamese partners gathered together at Thu Dau Mot University, with the EU partners joining in online during the afternoons, to present the work they had done in the framework of project work packages 2, Capacity Building, and 4, Implementation of Enhanced Services.

During the workshop partners shared their experiences (including the challenges they had to overcome) and results in the implementation of online courses, career days and new employability, employment and entrepreneurship services by the career centres. As each partner presented their work, the others had a chance to ask questions, share recommendations for future actions, and do a short evaluation of each of the results.

Overall the results were very positive, with many of the partners getting very useful advice from their colleagues on how to continue implementing these activities, and others getting inspiration on how to develop something similar in their own institutions