OPEN

OPEN Consortium organised the 2^nd OPEN Online Training throughout the months of June and July. Representatives from the 5 Laotian Higher Education institutions of the OPEN consortium and the Ministry of Education gather together to take part in these meetings. They worked on successive theoretical and practical sessions of training, scheduled during the whole month on to instruct and guide them through the process of formulating their Internationalisation Strategic Plans.

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.

The OPEN project held its 1st training of trainers module which due to the COVID-19 emergency was organised on-line from November 9th to 12th, 2020 for the staff from 5 Universities International Relations Offices and Ministry of Education and Sports in Lao PDR. The training was jointly delivered by the University of Alicante and the University of Bologna.

This workshop was centered on the following topics:

• Globalisation vs. Internationalisation
• Introduction to Fundraising and Project Management
• Information and communications technologies for IROs.

OPEN partners met on July, 8th for the 2nd Virtual meeting to follow up on project progress and activities made so far. The main discussion was focused on the advances related to the WP 1: Need Analysis. A recent survey “The state of internationalisation in Laos: need analysis & mission sharing”, developed by UNIBO, was successfully completed by all Laotian partners

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.

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.