November featured, in additional to the CZEDUCON 2019 conference by DZS, three other annual higher education events organised by ACA members in their respective countries, namely Movetia in Switzerland, NAWA in Poland and SAIA in Slovakia.

Movetia’s Annual Higher Education Event 2019 took place in Lugano, on 21-22 November, and was organised together with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI). The conference gathered some 150 participants from Swiss higher education institutions, as well as from abroad. It provided a much-appreciated opportunity to exchange ideas on the future scenarios of cooperation and mobility programmes aimed at the internationalisation of Switzerland’s tertiary education system, in the wider context of transformations brought about by innovation, inclusion, digitalisation and sustainability. Amongst many top-level speakers, the Deputy Director of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SEFRI) – Josef Widmer, presented the objectives of the Swiss strategy for exchange and mobility, as well as the political perspectives of Switzerland’s potential association to Erasmus 2021-2027.

NAWA’s Internationability of Polish Science and Higher Education conference was held in Warsaw on 25-26 November, at the Warsaw University of Technology. The celebratory gathered approx. 200 participants to discuss how to further develop the cooperation of Polish researchers with their partners abroad, as well as to celebrate NAWA’s 2nd anniversary. ACA’s Polish member presented the impressive results of its first two years of activities, as well as its outlook, in dialogue with national and international partners present on site. The event was also a good occasion to showcase successful Polish scientists, active internationally in various research areas, as well as foreign scientists that have chosen Poland as their research home, and to reflect on the factors ensuring the success of their collaborations.

On 26 November 2019, SAIA, ACA’s Slovak member, held the 2019 edition of the Day of Academic Mobility and Internationalisation in Bratislava. This seventh reincarnation of the conference was again attended by over 100 engaged and discussion-friendly participants. The event proved to be very lively and of an intellectually high level. The conference consisted of two plenary sessions, on internationalisation of higher education and on assessing the quality of internationalisation respectively.  Magdalena Kachnowicz of Polish ACA member NAWA gave a presentation in the first session. A series of parallel workshops rounded off the programme. The ACA Director Bernd Wächter had decided to attend the conference in honour of its long-time Slovak member. He was not to be a speaker, but he found it difficult to keep his mouth shut.