The first round of the ACA Thematic Peer Groups (TPGs) meetings in 2022 provided the opportunity to discuss the groups’ plans and agendas for the current year.

TPG Impact of Covid-19

The TPG members gave updates about the Omicron variant and its effects on international higher education and discussed expectations for the future. The group has planned to explore over the next few months how internationalisation strategies of institutions, organisations and national agencies might change as the potential of the pandemic turning into an endemic seems near. The next meeting of the Covid-19 TPG will be held on 24 March 2022.

TPG Research on international education

TBA

TPG European policies and programmes

The meeting focused on the discussion of the situation in Ukraine and ACA members’ possible emergency support schemes for Ukrainian scholars and students (see ACA statement). The group also addressed the first lessons learned from the roll-out of the European Universities Initiative, including national co-funding schemes, and outlined several priority topics for 2022, particularly the European Strategy for Universities and the European degree.  

TPG Widening inclusion in international higher education

The TPG members exchanged on national approaches to designing inclusion support, as well as approaches to analysis, reporting and documentation. The group decided to host informal meetings in 2022, with representatives from organisations supporting disadvantaged and underrepresented students as well as with beneficiaries and experts from the field to gain better insight into the everyday realities of their needs.

TPG New mobility formats

The TPG New mobility formats members welcomed new members and discussed the latest mobility-related developments in their countries and the TPG work programme for 2022. Reporting a continuous interest on blended and virtual mobilities, the group decided to focus this year on Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs), exploring them both from an administrative but also from a pedagogical point of view.