On 28-29 November 2022, ACA members convened for the biannual General Assembly (GA), warmly hosted by NAWA and the Warsaw School of Economics in the Polish capital.

The GA adopted ACA’s new strategy for the period 2023-27 and the work programme and budget for 2023.  Other important decisions include the approval of two membership applications submitted by the Portuguese National Erasmus+ Agency (A.NE+EF) and the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) as well as the election of Vidar Pedersen from the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and skills (Hk-Dir) as a member of the ACA Administrative Council.

Unanimously approved by the members during the GA, the ACA Strategy outlines the vision, mission and strategic goals of the Association for the period 2023-2027. ACA’s vision is of a closely interconnected world of thriving, fair societies, empowered by international higher education. To achieve this, ACA’s mission is to serve as a sound, future-oriented and collaborative European platform for national organisations active in international higher education, empowering its members, supporting their higher education systems, and working closely with strategic partners to maximise the potential of internationalisation.

ACA has established the following goals for the next five years:

1. Strengthen ACA as THE European platform for national-level international education organisations and agencies
2. Strengthen ACA’s role as an advisor to the EU and European institutions
3. Reinforce ACA’s position as one of the main international higher education knowledge providers in Europe
4. Become an information gateway on trends and developments in European higher education internationalisation, translating European developments for the higher education community worldwide.

With a vision to achieve the abovementioned goals by 2027, ACA will be guided by five focus areas:

1. Role of higher education cooperation in times of crisis
2. Societal relevance of internationalisation
3. Supporting inclusive and diverse internationalisation
4. Sustained digitalisation of international education formats and activities
5. Future-oriented institutional transformations

Members reconfirmed their strong commitment to ACA’s continuing growth and further expansion of activities, aiming to achieve stronger impact at the European, national, and institutional level.

The activities planned for 2023 will support further development of the higher education sector during challenging times.

Stay tuned for the upcoming updates.