Internationalisation and international mobility, inclusiveness, excellence and funding are themes high on the higher education agenda. There is no shortage of literature on them, and there are conferences galore devoted to them. But they are usually dealt with in isolation, which leads to a distorting ‘single issue’ view of higher education. ACA’s latest publication Tying it all together – and the conference it emerged from – tried to avoid this mistake. The book explores the ‘inter-relationships’ between the four issues. Can a socially inclusive and responsible university also achieve academic excellence? Can only rich universities be truly international, or do universities become rich through internationalisation? Is excellence possible without strong funding, or does it presuppose it? These are only some of questions which the volume addresses. The 10 contributions – by well-known specialists such as Sir Peter Scott, Dominic Orr and Rolf Hoffmann, to name but a few – developed out of presentations made and discussions held at the 2012 Annual Conference of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). The production of this publication was supported by the European Commission in the framework of its Lifelong Learning Programme.

ACA will launch Tying it all together at a reception to be held from 17.00 to 18.30 hrs. on 11 October in Brussels. The event will take place in a highly unusual venue, The HUB. Participation at the launch event is free of charge. Next to learning about ACA’s latest publication, the launch reception offers you the opportunity for networking, fortified by a few drinks.  Since space is limited, we kindly invite those interested in attending to register by means of an email to By the way: why not combine participation at the launch event with attending the ACA European Policy Seminar Higher Education in 2030, which takes place in Brussels the following day? We look forward to seeing you on both occasions.

ACA EPS