On 10 and 11 June 2019, ACA’s Czech member, the Centre for International Cooperation in Education (DZS), organised its third in-house training in cooperation with the European Association for International Education (EAIE). In 2018, the topics chosen for the training focused on building a strategic internationalisation plan and on fostering internationalisation at home. This year the workshop explored the topic of “maximising student recruitment efforts through agents and networks“. As last year, the topic was chosen on the basis of the stated preferences of Czech higher education institutions.

The event was delivered by two EAIE experts, Robert Coelen and Chris Price, who managed to create a dynamic and inspiring atmosphere, involving 23 participants from the international relations offices of tertiary institutions from all over the Czech Republic. During the intensive two-day workshop, participants with expertise in foreign student recruitment and marketing, expanded their knowledge on different forms of recruitment, through, for instance, agents, networks, consortia and agreements. The trainers’ presentations also provided practical tips on how to work with agents and other international partners to reach high-quality cooperation and results.

The trainers also established an online platform (on Trello) to keep the discussion going and share useful materials. The positive feedback from participants confirmed that this EAIE in-house training was very useful for participants and for the internationalisation of higher education in the Czech Republic in general. DZS hopes there will soon be further opportunities to cooperate with EAIE on other events.