erasmusplus

The University of Alicante hosted more than 30 representatives from 4 Moroccan and  4 Egyptian Universities in order to train them on inclusion and accessibility for students with disabilities from 17^th to 21^st February.  Within the framework of the PACES - Progression of Accessibility Centres in Higher Education for Students with Disabilities in North Africa, the University of Alicante contributed with their expertise on disability to share practices and lessons learnt on how to develop an inclusive Higher Education environment.

Therefore, partners had the opportunity to work closely with the staff of the Student Support Center of the University of Alicante on improving their peer to peer-volunteering services, understanding the experiences of students with disabilities at the University as well as harnessing the application of Assistive Technology to increase the scope of these inclusion actions. Besides that, partners also visited the Archaeologic Museum of Alicante which displays a very innovative and cutting-edge system on accessibility collection, providing an excellent example for inclusion on didactics and tourism.

On January 23rd & 24th, 2020, the Erasmus+ project REACH "Reinforcing Access to Cross Border Employment at Palestinian Higher Education Institutions" held its Kick-off Meeting at the University of Ljubjlana in Slovenia. REACH aims to enhance the capacity of Palestinian HEIs in promoting cross border employability of graduates, providing them with the capabilities for effective cross border working so that they can develop their potential and also participate actively in sustainable economic development in Palestine.

From 4th to 7th February 2020, the Erasmus+ project ENTENDER “Enabling Students with Neurodiversity” held its Kick-Off meeting and good practice visit at Coventry University’s Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment (UK). The University of Alicante, partner in this project, was represented by Eric Sánchez, OGPI IT Expert. The general aim of ENTENDER is to improve access, retention, attainment and employment prospects of people with neurodiverse conditions (Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dyscalculia, Autistic Spectrum and Tourette’s Syndrome) in Argentina and Mexico, allowing them to achieve their full potential by capacity building of neurodiversity support across higher education and employment sectors, fostering inclusion, and building knowledge.

On 27-28^th of January 2020, the International Project Management Office (OGPI) of the University of Alicante took part in the Grant Holders' Meeting organised in Brussels by the European Commission Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.

This two-day event dedicated to the representatives of CBHE projects selected in 2019 under the Call for proposals EAC/A03/2018 aimed to address in detail issues related to the implementation of the CBHE project, the operational management of the grant agreement and the financial rules applicable to the CBHE grant.

The University of Alicante took part in the Kick Off Meeting held from 16^th to 17^th January 2020 in Meknes (Morocco). Representatives from 7 Dutch, Moroccan, Lebanese and Tunisian Higher Education Institutions and 1 NGO from Greece, together with different NGO professionals from the region, assembled to celebrate the Kick Off Meeting of the  DEMOS project. This project is part of the  Capacity Building Higher Education initiative, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and aims at developing a 2-year multidisciplinary Master program in Democratic Governance & Human Rights in Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon.

The project is coordinated by the Université Moulay Ismail (Morocco) and with the collaboration from Eurotraining (Greece), Universiteit Utrecht (Netherlands) and the University of Alicante (Spain) will coordinate different activities to generate 6 Master programmes on Human Rights and Governance, blending online and traditional teaching. In addition, they will also set-up 6 DEMOS research units, a series of Capacity Building courses as well as the Demos&Rights Learning Environment which will become the digital platform to coordinate this curricula development action.

On 13^th December, a Focus Group took place at the University of Alicante organised by the International Project Management Office (OGPI), in the framework of the Erasmus+ project "Digitalized Financial Education for Seniors - Interactive Scenario Gaming Solutions for Increasing Online Financial Literacy of Seniors - DEFINE". During the meeting, the DEFINE project, partnership, aims, target groups and expected results were presented by the academic director of Institutional Projects, Dr. Joaquín Marhuenda. Following the presentation of the project, the Focus Group was conducted to discuss the existing trainings and best practices on digitalized financial education, to identify the needs of seniors in the area of financial education and digital skills and find out more about the gaps between existing trainings and training needs.

On 3^rd and 4^th December 2019, the International Conference “Sustainable Tourism Development for Southeast Asia: Lessons learned for South East Asian countries” took place at the Hilton Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, hosted by the VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities. The conference was attended by around 120 participants, from more than 20 countries worldwide. Following the official welcome by Prof. Pham Quang Minh, Rector of the USSH, VNU Hanoi, the project coordinator presented the new-founded online TOURIST Network, as the main knowledge exchange platform on sustainable tourism and innovative financial management strategies in Southeast Asia and internationally.

20 representatives from the EMINENT project consortium celebrated the II and III Modules- Train of Trainers in Camaguey (Cuba), extended from Wednesday 27th November to Wednesday 4th December. The capacity building action was led by experts from the University College Cork (UCC) and the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation from Austria (AQ Austria). Delegates from 5 Higher Education Institutions in Haiti were introduced to the wide array of tools, resources, and methodologies in order to start designing their own Internal Quality Assurance Systems and carrying out the Self Evaluation of their programmes.

Due to the persistent socio-political crisis in Haiti, EMINENT partners were forced to find an alternative location to celebrate their capacity building actions. As such, EMINENT Consortium opted to organize their meeting in the city of Camaguey, setting up a long week of intense hard-work to facilitate transfer skills which have laid the knowledge foundation for the roll-out of the project pilot exercises.

INDOEDUC4ALL Final conference took place in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) on 3rd - 4th December. In this meeting, organised by UIN SUKA, were represented 6 Indonesian HEIs, 1 NGO SIGAB, 3 European universities together with the representatives of two Ministries (Ministry of Higher Education and Culture and Ministry on Religious Affairs) and general public representing university community and all engaged stakeholders.

This event was a great opportunity to showcase the INDOEDUC4ALL outputs, and in particular recently established National Network of Support Centres KOPERTINA as well as to raise awareness about the progress made on students with disabilities learning conditions, their social inclusion and employability.

On 28^th November around 100 representatives of more than 30 Cambodian Higher Education Institutions attended the first BALANCE National Conference titled “Trends in Financial Management of Universities: reflecting on current status and potential improvements. European and Cambodian perspectives”, which took place at the Royal university of Phnom Penh in Cambodia capital. The event was organized in the framework of the BALANCE  project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, which contributes to strengthen financial autonomy and accountability of HEIs in Cambodia via modernisation of financial management practices and legal framework.