A wide range of experts and stakeholders have meet in Brussels on 15 June 2023 to discuss the final outcomes of the IHES (Internationalisation in Higher Education for Society) project and future outlooks of the IHES concept, supporting societal engagement in international higher education.

The programme covered discussions on policies, conceptual frameworks, and practical approaches in addressing challenges in higher education and society in an innovative and impactful way, with concrete examples from project partners and other stakeholder organisations. Additionally, there were ample exchanges on how diverse partnerships in innovative European projects can help to address them, hearing from the perspectives of national agencies (NAs), stakeholder organisations and projects like IHES that shared their views on the matter.

ACA and the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) have presented the extensive mapping of activities intentionally seeking to provide impactful benefits to the wider community (see more here) in a discussion with representative from HEIs and civil society. Such activities should also increase the involvement of the wider community (at home or abroad). They may bring the global to the local, or vice versa, as both are equally valuable. And they occur in any areas in which a HEI is active: education, research and/or service to society. Next to the report, the Online Repository of IHES activities and the IHES network were introduced, highlighting inspirational examples of innovative activities. The participants have also had a chance to be introduced to the IHES Guidelines with specific suggested steps on implementing IHES activities in a higher education institutions, developed through the experience of IHES regional labs, which took place in Catalunya and Olomouc.

This project was coordinated by the Palacký University Olomouc, involving eight other partner institutions: Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament D´Empresa i Coneixement, Generalitat de Catalunya and Grupo Santander in Spain, Academic Cooperation Association and Lifelong Learning Platform in Belgium, and Global Impact Institute s.r.o. and the Olomouc Region in the Czech Republic.