In line with tradition, the ACA Secretariat was present this September at the annual conference of EAIE – the European Association for International Education. With Dublin as a venue, the 24^th edition of the conference brought together around 4 200 delegates from 80 countries, being by far the largest education conference in Europe, to date.

In the opening plenary, Bernd Wächter – ACA’s director – was honoured with the Constance Meldrum Award for Vision and Leadership and gave a short acceptance speech, thanking the association for this highly appreciated distinction. In his typical style, Bernd promised to continue to live up to this award’s name, especially the “vision” part, by cleaning his glasses on a more regular basis. The prize bears the name of Constance Meldrum – a former European Commission fonctionnaire and a fervent supporter of the EAIE during her years at this EU institution, where she worked diligently for international education. The award is meant to recognise “inspiring leaders who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of international higher education”. The list of past winners encompasses renowned figures such as Christian Bode (2010), Peter van der Hijden (2009), Guy Haug (2009) and Hans de Wit (2008), to name just a few. The prize was inaugurated in 2003.

Furthermore, ACA staff Queenie Lam and Irina Ferencz delivered a total of four presentations, two in the opening events of two EAIE professional groups – LICOM and MOPILE – and two in regular sessions. The topics covered lingua academia and employability of formerly mobile graduates and European and national level mobility policies respectively. The presentations can be downloaded from the EAIE website.

EAIE website