25 February 2016
The 2nd annual IUNC North America opened its doors to educators and agents from different countries in the enchanting sunny city of Miami, Florida, USA. Following the last year conference in Washington DC, IUNC North America 2016 has shown a telling development this time including both educators and educational agencies under one roof and gathering 80 participants fromJapan, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Bulgaria, Cuba, Colombia, Azerbaijan, Spain, Estonia, France, Belgium, Brazil, India, Russia and the US.
Held on February 11-12 at the Chapman Conference Center of Miami Dade College, IUNC NA 2016 offered extensive parallel sessions program (total of 12 sessions, 3 sessions at a time) and prescheduled one-to-one business appointments – the key feature of all IUNC conferences. Outstanding speakers from USA, France, Azerbaijan, Japan and Brazil, engaging topics and hot discussions concerning the topical HE issues marked the first day of the conference, while the second day was totally devoted to pre-scheduled one-to-one appointments between the participants.
In total there were 172 meetings conducted, and the format of the conference was found to be very efficient, especially for initiating the collaboration from scratch. It must be mentioned that the format of IUNC conference allows the participants to meet only those potential partners who have the same area of interest, the same study fields and key objectives. This saves a lot of time and makes the conference participation highly efficient. At the same time the conference acts as a platform for just sharing academic expertise and valuable experience in internationalizing HE and implementing various cooperation programs. The IUNC participants could network in a relaxing atmosphere of the Chapman Conference Center (every participating university or agency is provided with a networking table), as well as during coffee breaks, lunch and dinner.
Lunch and dinner were served at the Culinary College of MDC and added an exquisite touch to the pleasant conference environment. The dinner was enlivened with traditional Russian buffet and a number of contests such as reading Russian words or answering general questions about Russia, for which the winners were being given Russian souvenirs.
On the third day of the conference all interested universities could take part in campus tour to Florida International University (FIU) and find out more information as to how they can attract more US students to their campuses and set up exchange programs.
Miami Dade College being located in the heart of Miami downtown area, it was easy for the participants to enjoy Miami sightseeing in their free time, even for those who came just on a short business visit.
It was great pleasure to see quite a number of last year IUNC participants attending IUNC NA this year. We look forward to seeing our loyal participants and newcomers at the next IUNC conferences this year and hope IUNC North America will build on success!
