ACA had the pleasure to organise this year’s autumn general assembly in a hybrid format, on 3 November 2021, with participants joining online from all over Europe and in person, at the University of Zürich. The meeting was presided over by ACA President Ulrich Grothus. 

In additional to the regular agenda items (updates from member organisations and reports on progress), the meeting featured three important highlights.

1. The elections of the Vice President and Treasurer of the administrative council, along with two new Administrators

Alenka Flander, Director, Centre of the Republic of Slovenia for Mobility and European Educational and Training Programmes (CMEPIUS) was elected as ACA’s Vice President. Katarzyna Aleksy, Director of Department - Programmes for Institutions at the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) was elected as ACA’s Treasurer.

Jakub Tesař, Director, Higher Education Department at the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research (DZS) and Gerhard Volz, Head, Department for International Cooperation in Higher Education at the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation (OeAD)  were elected as members of ACA’s administrative council for the coming three years.

On this occasion, the ACA President, ACA members and the Secretariat expressed their deepest vote of thanks to outgoing Vice President, Dana Petrova, former director of the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research (DZS) and outgoing treasurer Ragnhild Solvi-Berg of the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-Dir).

2. The presentation and in-depth discussion of the Work Programme for 2022

Following the elections, the 2022 Work Programme was discussed in greater detail and was warmly endorsed by the member organisations. The next year will see ACA continuing on the successful work carried out in 2021, leading up to the next strategic planning period for our organisation.

3. The official in-person farewell for Bernd Wächter, former ACA Director

The ACA General Assembly taking place partially on site, was the perfect opportunity to finally being able to officially say goodbye to Bernd Wächter, former ACA Director with a farewell reception in his honour, joined by many colleagues and ACA friends. On this occasion, the ACA members and colleagues had the opportunity to express their deepest gratitude for Bernd’s 22 years of service in ACA.