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Brussels, 5 May 2006

Cooperation in higher education between Europe and other world regions: Asia

Theme

Europe is increasingly looking beyond its borders. Cooperation in higher education within Europe has been a stunning success story, but there are still shortcomings when it comes to cooperation with other world regions, and to the number of non-European students studying at Europe’s universities. Compared to the US or Australia, the region where Europe is particularly weak is clearly Asia.

The global dimension of European higher education is a hot topic, but the relationship with Asia is a “burning one”. The educational landscapes especially of China and India are quickly changing. China, but also other Asian countries, is investing heavily in the creation of “world-class-universities”. Many Asian universities start becoming the preferred choice of home students at least at the undergraduate level. Former “sending countries” over which English-speaking and continental European destinations have been competing are themselves becoming destinations for international students from the region and beyond.

The European Union, its member states and universities are actively promoting cooperation with Asian countries. But are they doing enough, and are they using the right tools? What are the main existing “tools” at European level fostering cooperation between Europe and Asia, and what are the perspectives for the future? How does bilateral cooperation fit in the European context? What works for European institutions, from the establishment of offshore campuses and targeted recruitment to the setting up of specific regional programmes?

These and other questions were addressed at this seminar. Building on the findings of recent ACA studies, ACA staff has presented the association’s latest insights on the theme. In addition to this, experts from the European Commission as well as national and institutional level experts from different European backgrounds have shared their insights.

Programme

Thursday 4 May 2006

19:30

Welcome dinner

Friday 5 May 2006

9:00 

Registration and coffee

9:30

Welcome / Opening

9:40

Plenary session:
Asian students: what they think of Europe and why they (don’t) come
Bernd Wächter / Franziska Muche, Academic Cooperation Association

10:30

Plenary session:
The changing face of Asia: higher education and internationalisation in China
David Pho, Nuffic

11:10

Coffee break

11:40

Plenary session:
European-level cooperation with third countries: overview and actions focused on Asia
Vito Borrelli, European Commission

12:20

Plenary session:
National cooperation with Asian countries and the European context

Hannelore Bossmann, DAAD

13:00

Lunch

14:00

Plenary session:
The home of potential students? Marketing European higher education in Asia
Thierry Audric, EduFrance

14:40

Plenary session:
Offshore campuses: no way for European universities?
Christine Humfrey, Nottingham University

 

Institutional approaches: the example of ASINSA
Jean-Claude Bureau, INSA Lyon

15:40

Coffee break

16:10

Round table discussion:
The awakening of the Asian tiger: what does it bear for Europe?

17:30

End of the seminar

Speakers

Franziska Muche
Franziska Muche is Senior Officer at the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). In this capacity, which she has held since 2003, she is responsible for the acquisition, development, and implementation of ACA projects, as well as the organization of ACA conferences and seminars. She coordinated the ACA study on the perception of European higher education in third countries carried out in 2004/2005, which will be presented at this conference. Franziska Muche is also the main author of a publication on the admission of international students into higher education and the editor of a book on the external dimension of the Bologna Process, both published in the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education.Franziska Muche studied International Business and Cultural Studies in Passau, London, and Granada. Before her appointment at ACA, she had been trained at the European Commission, at the Unit for Higher Education in DG Education and Culture, where she was dealing with the Bologna Process.
Bernd Wächter

Bernd Wächter is the chief executive officer (Director) of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). In this capacity, which he has held since 1998, he bears overall responsibility for the implementation of all ACA policy. Earlier on (1995 – 1997), he was the Head of the Erasmus Department in the then Socrates and Youth TAO, which implemented the centralised parts of the Erasmus Programme on behalf of the European Commission. Between 1992 and 1995, he headed the German national agency for the Erasmus Programme inside the DAAD, which also had important national information functions for the COMETT, LINGUA and TEMPUS schemes. His experience with internationalisation also relates to the institutional level, through his functions as head of the international office of the Fachhochschule Darmstadt, and as a departmental coordinator of international relations at the Gesamthochschule Kassel. He has also worked for the British Council.Bernd Wächter has published and lectured widely on issues of Europeanisation and internationalisation of higher education. He is the editor of the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education.

David Pho

David Pho was born in Singapore and obtained his degree in Sinology from Leiden University. During his studies he spent two years at the Peking University and National Taiwan University. From 1999 he started working for Nuffic in the field of marketing Dutch higher education in Asia. As marketing-communication advisor he developed the Dutch marketing campaign and assisted in establishing Nuffic’s Netherlands Education Support Offices in China and Taiwan. He was the Dutch coordinator for the Nuffic offices in both countries.He organized the first Holland Education pavilions at international education fairs in China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2004, he was member of the project team of the European Consortium (consisting of DAAD, EduFrance and Nuffic) that organized the first EC-funded European Higher Education Fair in Thailand. Currently he is a member of the Core team of the same Consortium that has been assigned by the EC to organize EHEFs Asia in 7 European countries. As a marketing-communication advisor David Pho is also responsible for the Country Education Profiles on promising markets in Asia and Latin America.

Vito Borrelli

Vito Borrelli is a European Commission official responsible for the implementation of the Erasmus Mundus programme. More specifically, he is in charge of EM Asian windows, relations with RELEX and AIDCO, the management of calls for tenders, and the representation of the Commission vis-à-vis the authorities and institutions in EU and third countries. Vito has many years of experience at the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, where he has worked since 1994. Before taking up his current responsibilities, he was involved in information and communication activities at the European Commission, and the programme management of Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus Mundus. Vito has studied Humanities (English/Russian Languages and Literatures) and began his career as a teacher and a translator.

Hannelore Bossmann

Hannelore Bossmann is the Head of Section South/South East Asia at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Before taking up this position in 2003, she was the Director of the DAAD’s South Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India. Hannelore has studied English and Russian at the University of Bonn, and was trained as a secondary school teacher. She has worked for the Ministry of Education and for the Otto Benecke Foundation in Zimbabwe, and, as a consult for the German Technical Assistance Agency (GTZ) and the German Foundation for International Development (DSE). Between 1992 and 1995 she was Resident Technical Assistance Management Adviser to the Kyrgyz Government for the GTZ. She joined the DAAD in 1996, as the Head of Section of the International University Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe at the DAAD, a position she held until she moved to New Delhi in 1998.

Thierry Audric

Thierry Audric came to EduFrance from the French embassy in New Delhi, where he had been counselor for culture, science, and technology. Born in 1946, Thierry Audric is a civil engineer with a doctorate in geology. He began his career as an instructor at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and the Ecole Nationale des Mines de Paris (1969–72). From 1974 to 1977 he was deputy director of the geological engineering laboratory, a thesis adviser, and director of the master program in geological engineering at the Ecole Nationale des Mines. From 1972 to 1974 he taught at the Tunisian national school of engineering, where he was also an adviser to Tunisia’s Secretary of State for housing. From 1977 to 1982, he was attaché for science and technical cooperation at the French consulate in Montreal and then, until 1986, counselor for culture, science, and cooperation in Seoul. From 1986 to 1990 he fulfilled the same functions in Jakarta.Between 1999 and 2001, Audric was deputy director for university cooperation in the office of international cooperation and development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Earlier in the decade he served in various capacities in the ministry’s office of cultural, scientific, and technical relations: he was assistant deputy director for the Far East, North America, and the Pacific from 1990 to 1992; deputy director of the office of programming, financial affairs, and evaluation from 1995 to 1997; and assistant director of the office of scientific and technical cooperation. Between 1992 and 1995 he was counselor for culture, science, and cooperation in Beijing.

Christine Humfrey

After initial administrative employment at Middlesex Polytechnic and the Faculty of Education at The University of Nottingham, Christine was asked to establish the International Office at Nottingham in 1983. The office has grown to encompass recruitment, scholarships, student mobility, international student support, consultancy and research and development. Recent involvements include the establishment of outposted international offices in Korea, Malaysia, Brazil and China and off-shore campuses in Malaysia and China. She has served as Vice Chair of the British Council ECS Board and is a member of the Board of Trustees of UKCOSA and on the Board of Governors at a local FE College. She travels extensively and has published on University development, University Government partnership and management of international students.

Jean-Claude Bureau

Jean-Claude Bureau (b. 1946) is the Vice-President for foreign affairs at the French engineering university INSA Lyon (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon). Jean-Claude holds an engineering degree in chemistry and a PhD in physics. He is also a university professor at INSA Lyon, teaching physical chemistry, thermodynamics, wave optics, radioactivity and environment and he carries out research in the field of molecular spectroscopy, molecular solids, and insulating films on semiconductors.Amongst other internationalisation activities, Jean-Claude Bureau coordinates the three international first cycles at INSA Lyon, among them the Franco-Asian section ASINSA. In order to have broader openings in Asia, INSA Lyon, Rennes and Toulouse set up this Franco-Asian section in 1998. The main aim of ASINSA is to prepare both French and Asian students for the labour market, and to enable them to gain insight into the respective cultures of their future industrial partners.

Venue

Club de la Fondation Universitaire

Rue d’Egmont 11 – 1000 Bruxelles
Tel : +32 2 545 04 40
Fax : +32 2 513 64 11
E-mail : club.fu.us@universityfoundation.be
Website: www.fondationuniversitaire.be