In early December 2020, the kick-off meeting of the Internationalisation in Higher Education for Society (IHES) project took place online. The project aims to tackle the situation where, even in the most advanced and internationalised HEIs, the benefits of internationalisation remain inwardly oriented and not strongly focused on the wider community. HEIs are increasingly active, however, in social engagement (the third mission alongside teaching and research) but these activities are usually viewed as competing for priority and relevance with excellence in research and internationalisation. IHES explicitly aims to change this and activate the internationalisation potential for societal engagement. 

 In the framework of the IHES project, ACA will produce a  mapping report and online repository of current good practices based on desk research and surveying HEIs across Europe. It will serve as  a basis for implementation and evaluation of series of pilot IHES activities in Catalonia, Spain and Olomouc, Czech Republic. To ensure a  impact which can be multiplied  beyond the project consortium, guidelines will be generated to help non-IHES member HEIs to later identify best approaches for their specific situation, the relevant target groups, actors and specifications of different IHES approaches. In addition, to enhance the transferability of the guidelines, a regional model for implementing IHES will be developed. The final aim of the project is to establish  a network of “IHES enthusiasts”by the end of the project cycle to support the continued sustainable delivery of related efforts 

 The coordinator of the project is Palacky University Olomouc in the Czech Republic.  Other partners are Global Impact Institute, Rovira i Virgili University, Lifelong Learning Platform and SGroup European Universities’ Network. The project is funded under Erasmus + KA2 – Strategic Partnerships, in Czech Republic. 

 If you would like to get in touch with the project for future updates or have best practice to share, you can get in touch with the IHES project here contact us.