19 May 2015
April 05-08, 2015, IUNC Eurasia opened its doors to more than 100 university representatives, student recruitment agents, fair organizers and other HE specialists coming from around the world to seek partnership with other universities in the field of student and faculty exchange, joint degrees etc. The 4th conference in a row, IUNC Eurasia 2015 could boast even higher attendance than the previous years as more and more universities are showing recurring participation.
This year university representatives came from the following countries: Argentina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Cyprus, USA and of course – Russian Federation. Also this year IUNC was attended by student recruitment agencies from Albania, India and Thailand. Russian universities formed approx. 45% of the attending universities. We were also very pleased to see several Ukrainian universities who managed to come for the conference despite the current unfavourable situation in the country.
The conference started with an informal cocktail reception on May 05, where the participants could meet each other and have a break after their journey to Moscow. The reception was beneficial both to new participants who could make themselves at ease in the new environment, as well as for the last year participants who were very excited to meet each other again. May 06 the conference officially started with an opening speech of Mr Bogdan Voronovskiy, the Executive director of Eastern European University Association who gave a brief introduction into CIS HE market and the upcoming conference sessions.
The participants could choose to attend one of the 3 parallel sessions, which covered different topics. Overall within 2 days of the conference there were 14 sessions and round-tables:
Russian scholarship program "Global Education" by Ksenia Ivanenko, Project manager, Business School SKOLKOVO, Education Development Center;
Innovative Higher Education in Israel : How we can collaborate by Eric Zimmerman, Director of Research & Global Engagement, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya;
Developing International Strategy, A Case-study of Coventry University in the UK by Suzanna Tomassi, Academic Partnership Manager, Coventry University;
China HigherEd: Student mobility, Cooperation experience & more by Liu Fenghai, Communication University of China;
Student mobility in Russia by Anton Ryaguzov, Begin group;
The future of education online - towards a new pedagogy by Joy Kutaka-Kennedy, National university, San Jose;
How key performance indicators can be selected and established in new universities by Ioannis Angeli. Cyprus University of Technology;
Standard English language proficiency tests used for admissions and internationalisation of Higher Education: Update from ETS by Vitaliy Kartamyshev, ETS Global;
How to recruit international students? How to attract your university for international students? by Dr. Detlev Freyhoff, EDU-WorldWide (i.G.), owner/mangaging director;
Cooperation between Norwegian & Russian HEIs: experience and new opportunities by Dmytro Yakovenko, Director of International Education office, University of Agder
How can edu agents stay competitive in difficult economic times by Magdy Attalla, BHMS university centre
Challenges & Opportunities of Intercultural Collaborations in Higher Education, Suzanna Tomassi (Coventry University, UK), Ali Al Araimi, Anupam Srivastav and Mahmoud Hadj (Middle East College, Sultanate of Oman), Spasimir Domaradzki (Lazarski University, Poland) and Benoit Aubert (Leonard de Vinci University, France)
The Changing Landscape of USEK: Progress and Global Connection, Joseph Wakim, PhD. (Vice-President for International Relations, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon)
Higher Education in North Cyprus: Internationalisation Opportunities, Asim Vehbi, Vice Chancellor and CEO Asst. Prof. Dr. , North Cyprus Universities Association, Girne American University, North Cyprus)
Some speeches evoked zesty discussions as representatives from different countries shared their opinions and experience on the topic. After a hearty lunch the participants embarked on the series of pre-scheduled one-to-one appointments which are the so-called unique “zest” of the IUNC conferences. All meetings were scheduled prior to the conference with the help of the efficient online Marcom system so at the conference the participants could use their printed-out schedule and meet the desired partners.
Overall the parties conducted more than 500 appointments some leading to on-spot cooperation proposals, some - just giving ground for future cooperation opportunities.
The key feature of this year IUNC Eurasia was the opportunity to meet not only with universities but also with the student recruitment agencies from different countries. As this was the first time IUNC invited agents to participate along with universities, only a few agents could come to the event. As it turned out that the universities are highly interest to cooperate with agencies as well, next year we plan to expand the participation for all interested agents from around the world.
After the closing ceremony the participants were invited to an exquisite dinner on the boat, combined with an evening excursion along the famous Moskva river. The foreigners were thrilled to see the most outstanding sights of the Russian capital, fabulous in their evening glow.
May 08 all interested universities could take part in the campus tour to Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (RSUPESY&T) to see their facilities, meet the university staff etc. Around 20 participants joined the tour.
We are glad the conference has helped many participants to establish fruitful cooperation and find new partners, and will continue our efforts in order to bring more and more educators and agents from different countries to the next IUNC Eurasia!
