HUMANE Training Programme
Cultivating strong international strategic partnerships between universities:
Practising robust partnership evaluation
Hosted by Leiden University (NL)
September 30 – October 2, 2024
Universities have been collaborating with peer institutions across the world for many years: through student and staff mobility, collaborative degree education and collaborative research, capacity building and joint initiatives in their communities.
The recent pandemic and geopolitical challenges place significant pressure on universities to reinvent internationalisation in many ways and to revisit their strategic international partnerships: contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, using digitalisation, more balanced approaches between partner universities in very diverse regions in the world. Being mindful of diversity and aware of geopolitical challenges, knowledge and security risks, to name only a few.
- How are your strategic international academic partnerships performing?
- Do you have the evidence to demonstrate that they have been successful and achieved a return of investment?
- How do your partnerships relate to your wider university strategy?
- How do you assess them before embarking on new partnerships?
- Do you have a robust, yet a flexible evaluation system in place as your partnerships evolve?
- Do you sufficiently understand your stakeholders’ interests?
All these questions and many more will be addressed during the programme.
Programme pillars and themes
The programme builds on extensive resources from the Erasmus+ project “EVALUATE – a Framework for Evaluation of International University Partnerships” by a group of universities made of several HUMANE member institutions. The Evaluate handbook provides guidance, resources and tools to help Institutions evaluate their partnerships (how do you design a robust evaluation; when do you evaluate and what are your central questions?).
We will look at recent trends with international partnerships in higher education, work with practical tools to assess these, as well as extensive case material.
We will focus on the multiple dimensions and activities typically found in international partnerships, understanding the context in which they developed, from research collaborations, collaborations for teaching purposes and collaborative educational programmes, network developments (including examples such as the European University Alliances and international branch campuses), staff and student mobility, among others.
It is structured around the following key components:
- Understanding the current drivers in international partnerships and different responses by institutions based on their different contexts
- Learning techniques, methods and practical tools to assess partnerships (working with value mapping, stakeholder register, power & influence methodology, KPIs)
- Reflecting and considering best approaches to evaluate your own partnerships in your institutions.
Programme delivery
The programme will be delivered over three days. It will have a mix of presentations, interactive case-based and practical sessions, for participants to work with peers to reflect on their own institutions, gaining new knowledge and practical skills to deliver robust strategic international partnerships and inform future developments in their institutions.
Target group
The programme will develop the management capacity of those involved in internationalisation, enhancing their skills to cultivate strong strategic international partnerships based on robust evaluation.
It is designed for professionals in higher education, senior to middle managers involved with shaping strategic international partnership strategies between universities and managing their implementation across central services, faculties and schools. We are seeking participants to drive new ways of engaging actively with partner institutions around the world.
The programme is available here. Save the date and register here to secure your place.
Programme fees
Staff from HUMANE Member Institutions and Residential School Alumni benefit from the members rate of €1,215. Non HUMANE Members will be charged €1,715. Non HUMANE Members may attend if they meet the following criteria: they are from a higher education institution that delivers degree programmes in at least two of the three Bologna cycles (BA, MA, doctorate). Non-member applications are subject to review before acceptance. The Secretariat will apply the correct rate.
The fee includes catering within the programme (coffee breaks, lunches on Tuesday and Wednesday, dinner on Monday and Tuesday). It does not include accommodation or travel.