EUCANET – EU-Caribbean Network for Internationalisation of Higher Education

Boosting the international dimension of Caribbean universities

The universities of the Caribbean region increasingly recognise the direct link between boosting their international dimension and consequent socioeconomic development. Cooperative university actions such as international scientific consortia, exchange programmes and joint academic degrees can boost the role of universities as social actors, offering opportunities and delivering resources that meet the needs of their labour markets and societies. However, Caribbean universities are faced with a lack of capacities in administrative support for international activities, poor visibility at international level and insufficient intra-regional cooperation.

The EUCANET project aims to establish the first university network of the Caribbean region that will serve to raise the region’s academic and scientific profile internationally.
Specifically, the “EU-Caribbean Network for Internationalisation of Higher Education”
(EUCANET) will modernise International Relations Offices (IROs) by proposing
management improvement measures and facilitating the mobility of students, teachers
and researchers.

EUCANET will be carried out through extensive exchange of know-how between the
Caribbean partners (Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and APEC University in the Dominican Republic, Haiti State University and Haiti Superior School of Infotronics) and the EU partners (University of Alicante in Spain and the Pierre Mendès France University in France).

EUCANET partners will organise an initial set of workshops in Europe with a view to
enhancing management and administrative skills of top level management and IRO
staff of the Caribbean partner universities. They will have the opportunity to study the
background and functioning of different services of the european IROs. These workshops will also be aimed at detecting further training needs of the Caribean univerisities’ staff and at enabling individual participants to receive further training in their home institutions.

An additional series of workshops will be hosted by the Carribean universities and carried out with the support of the European partners. During these workshops top management level staff and IRO staff will be able to acquire specific skills in thematic areas that are vital in promoting the international dimension of their universities. Key discussion topics will include international strategic planning, international networking and university cooperation, fundraising and international project management.

Furthermore, the partners will jointly design internationalisation plans for the Caribbean partners, produce a “Guide for Management of International Relations Offices in the Caribbean”, set up IRO web pages and IT equipment for the Caribean universities and organise two international education fairs

Finally, the EUCANET partners will develop an internationalisation network in the Caribbean region. The goal is to set up a sustainable structure in the form of an IROs network as a platform for future exchange of experiences in international relations management practices, with the ultimate goal of accelerating the internationalisation process among local higher education institutions.

The network will also serve as a platform for continuous and future cooperation between European and Caribbean Universities. The partners will draw up a networking sustainability strategy, and hold internationalisation conferences and round tables on national policies and activities for internationalisation of higher education involving universities, ministries of higher education, as well as other relevant actors.

EUCANET will make a major contribution to strengthening Caribbean universities’ staff
capacities in carrying out internationalisation policies. These institutions’ International
Relations Offices will be modernised by enhancing their management performance and
quality and improving understanding of their role with regard to the potential benefits of
international cooperation.

As a result, ties with other universities in the region will be consolidated and the mobility
of students and researchers will be facilitated through the organisation of international
education fairs and conferences. The exchange of know-how with European universities
related to management of international relations offices will enhance the Caribbean
universities’ capacity to develop curricula that are international in perspective and to apply
for international project funds and scholarships.

Ultimately, increased cooperation between higher education institutions and national
authorities in the field of internationalisation and the the creation of the first university
network in the Caribbean region will act as a boosting mechanism to raise the region’s
academic and scientific profile internationally.

Grant:

Project duration:

EU funding: EUR 390.511,96

Total budget: EUR 459.425,83

Project contact:

Roberto Escarré,
University of Alicante
Tel: 0034 965 90 9703
Fax: 0034 965 90 9715
Email: r.escarre@ua.es
Website: www.ua.es

Project website: eucanet

Factsheet(s):

EN EUCANET.pdf

Virjinia FERRER

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… financed by the European Union and Implemented by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat, the programme supports cooperative projects between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the ACP Group of States, the EU Member States and other eligible countries. more about EDULINK...