Stay in the loop! Subscribe to our mailing list

Brussels, 30 March 2007

Meeting student expectations: From minimum provision to pampering talent Principles and practice in services for international students

Theme

In the increasing global competition for the best students, the quality and attractiveness of an institution does no longer depend only on its academic, teaching and research standards: services to students have come to play an important role in the quality assessment – and thus competitiveness - of institutions. But what services should be available? How to respond to the needs and expectations of international students in particular? Who should provide support for them and how should it be organised? What difference is there – and should there be – in services available for international degree and exchange students? What is the impact of all this on the attractiveness of the institution in the international higher education “market”?

This ACA seminar looked at overall trends and presented models employed in international student support - based on an ACA study - and offered a number of examples of good practice from a number of European countries: France, Hungary, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The example cases covered university preparatory programmes - both from the provider’s and the receiving institution’s perspective - and study-related services in the course of the degree programmes with a specific focus on support designed for international degree students.

Programme

Thursday 29 March 2007

19:30           Seminar dinner @ Au Stekerlapatte

 
Friday 30 March 2007

 

  8:30

Registration and coffee

  9:00

Opening

  9:15

Main approaches and underlying principles in the support of international students
Maria Kelo, Senior Officer, Academic Cooperation Association

 10:00

Integrating student services into university management – who do “student services” serve?
Rositsa Bateson, Vice-President for Student Services, Central European University

 10:45

Coffee break

 11:15

Safety in numbers – a consortium approach to pathway programmes
Terry Jeves, Academic Director, Northern Consortium UK

 12:00

The n+i network transition semester for incoming foreign students: benefits and challenges
Marie-Jo Goedert, Director of international relations, Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics, du Bâtiment et de l’Industrie  (ESTP)

 12:45

Lunch

 14:00

Student support and student satisfaction – the impact of services on institutional competitiveness
William Archer, Director, International Graduate Insight Group

 14:45

Student support – why it matters?
Robert Coelen, Vice-President International, Leiden University

 15:30

Coffee break

 16:00

Round table discussion
Chair: Sebastian Fohrbeck, Head of Division, DAAD

 17:00

 Wrap-up and end of the seminar

Speakers

Rositsa Bateson

As Vice President for Student Services at Central European University (since 2000), Rositsa Bateson is responsible for the planning and delivery of an integrated student services program for an international student community, including recruitment, admissions, financial aid, student records and registration, student life, career advising, alumni affairs, and divisional research. The Student Services are also the contact point for other functions such as health and counseling services, food services, sports, student out-of-class involvement, and student governance. She is also a doctoral candidate on the first class of a new part-time doctoral program in Higher Education Management in the United Kingdom with a thesis on the assessment of student services in higher education as an integral part of the university core: cases of transformation and centralization in Central and Eastern Europe. Before joining the CEU in 1998, Rositsa was the Deputy Director of the American College of Sofia. She has also worked for the American University in Bulgaria.

Robert J. Coelen

Robert J. Coelen is Vice President International at Leiden University in The Netherlands. He holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from the University of La Trobe, a PhD from the University of Western Australia and a Graduate Certificate in Education from James Cook University. Robert’s research revolved around the molecular evolution of mosquito-transmitted viruses. He is an accomplished author and was an editor of the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. 

Before he took up his position at Leiden University in 2004, he spent all in all 30 years in Australia as a foreign student, researcher, and educator in microbiology. In the last decade of his time in Australia he was International Director at James Cook University and at the University of Queensland. At James Cook University, a regional university in Australia, he developed an international office from scratch and grew the international student population from 350 to about 1200 students with a profile distinctly more divergent than the average for Australia, with much less dependence on Asian students. At the University of Queensland he was responsible for an operation with 55 staff that managed the enrolment of about 6000 international students.

Sebastian Fohrbeck

Sebastian is head of the Division for Strategy and Cross Sectional Programmes of the German Academic Exchange Service. He has been working for DAAD for more than 18 years in a variety of positions in Bonn, Brussels and London; in the last years he headed the Divisions for Western Europe and North America, for Internationalisation of Higher Education and for Strategy and Cross-Sectional Programmes.

Before working for DAAD, Sebastian was Director of the International Office of Paderborn University and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University. He studied Sociology and Economics in Hamburg, Paris and Bielefeld and earned his PhD in Development Studies from Bielefeld University.

Marie-Jo Goedert

Marie-Jo Goedert has worked at Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics, du Bâtiment et de l’Industrie (ESTP), an institution for higher education in engineering (grande ecole d’ingénieurs) in Paris, France, since 1992, when she started as the Head of administration. Since 1997 she has been in addition in charge for international relations of her institution. As the director of international relations, she is also the ESTP coordinator of the French Institute of Technology (FIT), and among other things is the institution’s representative in the “n+i network” which is made up by over 60 French engineering institutions and run as part of the EduFrance agency.

Prior to joining the ESTP, Marie-Jo work for the VISA International, taught German and Italian in Paris, and has been involved in international cooperation programmes since 1986. Marie-Jo is a graduate in foreign languages and civilizations from Paris III University, and has a post-graduate degree in philology from Università degli studi di Padova, Italy.

Terry Jeves

Terry’s career has been in higher education initially as a lecturer and researcher and, since the late 1980’s, as a curriculum designer and education manager.  As Assistant Provost (International) at Liverpool John Moores University UK, Terry led the development and implementation of the university’s internationalisation strategy.  Terry is currently Academic Director and a member of the Board of Northern Consortium UK Ltd (NCUK).  Terry holds a PhD from the University of Hull, UK.

Maria Kelo

Maria Kelo is Senior Officer at the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). In this role, which she has held since 2003, she is responsible for the acquisition, development and implementation of ACA projects, the planning of ACA Conferences and Seminars, as well as ACA’s public relations and information activities, as well as presenting the association at international fora. Recently she carried out an ACA study on support for international students in higher education some results of which will be presented at this seminar. Before her appointment at ACA Maria Kelo worked as a researcher for Eurydice (the Information Network on Education in Europe). She has also worked as an intern at the DG for Education and Culture of the European Commission where she worked especially on the development of the new Community programmes in the field of higher education. Maria has an MSc in Philosophy, Policy, and Social Value from the London School of Economics.

She is the co-author of Brain Drain and Brain Gain – migration in the European Union after Enlargement (Kelo and Wächter, 2004), The Admission of International Students into Higher Education (Muche, Kelo and Wächter, 2004), the co-editor of the recently published EURODATA – Student mobility in European higher education (Kelo, Teichler, Wächter, eds.), and the editor of The future of the university. Translating Lisbon into practice (2006).

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