Minutes from the Committee for International Affairs

Sida 1 (5) Minutes from the Committee for International Affairs 2015-09-11 Delegates present: Delegates absent: Others present: Helén Anderson, Cha...
Author: Lorena Hall
6 downloads 2 Views 196KB Size
Sida 1 (5)

Minutes from the Committee for International Affairs 2015-09-11 Delegates present:

Delegates absent: Others present:

Helén Anderson, Chairman Soniya Billore, FEH Jonas Ewald, FSV Catherine Legrand, FHL Mattias Lundin, NLU Emil Tyberg, FHL Andreas Eklund, representative for doctoral students Marcelo Milrad, FTK Rebecca Höving, Student representative Ingela Åberg, Secretary Richard Bucksch, Office of External Relations

Information from the Vice rector Meeting with SIDA with the aim of developing cooperation on research and international development in May There are many things on the agenda globally and the agenda is being revised also for SIDA. SIDA invited universities to present their activities for internationalisation. The traditional universities dominated the meeting and there are obvious differences between the traditional universities and the smaller, regional universities as far as resources. It is important for Linnaeus University to represent itself as a new university. The meeting had a focus on the Swedish perspective; it became obvious when discussing partnerships in Africa. It would have been interesting to have the African perspective introduced and Helén raised the issue at the meeting. The arena is open to come with suggestions to SIDA about how to act in the future. The meeting with the Ministry of Education about the internationalization of universities and colleges in June The meeting was opened by the Minister for Higher Education and Research, Helen Hellmark Knutsson, addressing a strategy for the whole society regarding internationalisation. The scope was wider than the universities. The message was that we need globalisation and we will meet tougher competition. Many challenges in the near future and a new strategy is needed, we need to foster democratic values. In addressing the academia she says that this will be something that will be evaluated as far as quality; mobility is not enough. Surprisingly the universities were not challenged with figures, numbers, and statements. It was an invitation to a

Linnéuniversitetet Avdelningen för externa relationer 351 95 Växjö • Besöksadress Lückligs väg 1, Växjö • Telefon 0470-70 82 45 • E-post [email protected] • Lnu.se

Sida 2 (5)

discussion. Stephen was also present. A positive outcome was that the Minister is listening and has invited universities to a discussion. Regional meetings all over the country will follow the meeting. Linnaeus University will participate in a meeting on October 13 in Malmö. The members of the committee suggested the following points for discussions for this meeting: • Peer review • Projects, best practice, study abroad for all staff • LUSA • Lnu is going towards innovation and sustainability • Nation branding – Sweden as a country where English is used for teaching and works well to get around in society can be addressed more. • Stipends for non-European students • Funding for internationalisation, raise of studentpengen. • Immigration and VISA-issues, not always easy to obtain documentation to study in Sweden. • Housing, nation wide. • Difficulties to get in touch with the labour market. • How is the current refugee crisis affect the universities? How should we cope with this challenge? STINT-Teaching Mobility Linnaeus University had 5 applicants from 4 faculties, in all very good applications. It has been suggested to Stephen Hwang to nominate Stina Eriksson from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Heiko Fritz, Faculty of Social Sciences. LUSA summer of 2015 It was a success! Many lessons had been learned from 2014; more teachers were involved and there were more teamwork between the teachers. Student’s satisfaction was high. The one problem that is difficult to find a solution to is the uncertainty regarding which students will actually participate. The organisation planned for 220 students and they had 176. The distribution among the courses was not good at all. Report of the last meeting of the University Network for Strategic Internationalisation The University Network met in Gothenburg in mid-August and some of the issues addressed were: • The Network is positive towards the suggestion that SUHF will form an expert group regarding internationalisation. There have been discussions that the Network will have representation in this group. • The group working with Crisis Management will most likely cooperate with UHR and involve Programdagarna 2016. • International Enrolment Management was addressed and the representative from Linnaeus University will prepare a discussion regarding this for the next meeting in February 2016. • The next meeting in February will have Summer Schools as a theme. • International Student Barometer, a discussion about possibilities of national cooperation.

Sida 3 (5)





Ethics and agreements, the Network is planning for a workshop in early 2016 with representation from university leadership to present a workshop model that can be brought back to individual universities. NAFSA International Education Professional Competencies – a discussion about how these can be interpreted from a Swedish perspective will be addressed at the next meeting. Please see http://www.nafsa.org/Explore_International_Education/Impact/International _Education_Professional_Competencies/.

Please see attachments for memos from the meeting.

Indicators for the allocation of strategic funding 2016-2020 See attachment for indicators for the allocation of strategic funding 2016.2020. The deans will have the possibility to comment on the document during September.

Policy for Internationalisation 2015-2020 Policy The Committee wants the policy to be noticed: • Distribute the policy in print to partners and within Linnaeus University. A letter from Helén will be distributed together with the policy. • Ask for assistance from KOM to make it noticeable within Linnaeus that we have a new policy. Important that is visible at Medarbetare and at lnu.se. • Make sure the new version of the policy can be found among steering documents at Medarbetare. • Some sort of event will be arranged to introduce the policy, Helén will discuss this with Ingrid Persson, Head of Communication.

Peer Review regarding internationalisation at Linnaeus University Helén together with Per Brolin, University Director, has introduced the idea to carry out a peer review regarding internationalisation at Linnaeus University. The aim is to focus on important aspects of core operations and support within internationalisation; what is internationalisation at Linnaeus University? The idea is to get the outsiders view to what to we see and hear. 3 reviewers would be appointed, one would be the Chair. They would start out by getting documentation and statistics for preparation followed by a site visit. The result will be a report, not an evaluation, rather suggestions and an idea of what they are missing as far as internationalisation at Linnaeus University. The peer review will serve like an energy injection, from that would follow a discussion on weather we need to think differently about how we do things. The discussion regarding the peer review will be continued at the meeting on October 22nd. It is crucial to the outcome to get the right people involved in the review, IK is important in finding these people.

Sida 4 (5)

Meetings fall 15 and spring 16 • • • • •

October 22, 10:00-12:00, meeting via telebild, Kalmar, Redet/Växjö, H1272 December 3, 09:30-13:30, Växjö, UB3018 January 28-29, lunch-to-lunch at Kosta Boda Art Hotel April 8, 09:30-13:00, Kalmar, Redet June 16, 9:30-13:00, Växjö, UB3018

Members of the committee will make every effort to participate in the meetings physically but if that is not possible alternative ways will be explored.

Members input to the agenda during the academic year Democratic values and sustainability will be addressed during the year.

Other Questions Report on outcomes of study abroad This is a project that IK is funding. Emil and Camilla, ER, has been leading the project and there have been external representatives, i.e. HR IKEA. First students have returned from their exchange period and they are satisfied, can pinpoint the qualities of their experience. The aspect of outcomes on study abroad will now be an integral part of the students study abroad experience and to obtain this there will be cooperation between central administration and faculty level administration and students participating in school practice abroad is also included. Report from I-team Emil reported that there is a group of people working centrally and from faculties that meet in order to iron out administrative gaps within the exchange process, the Iteam. The group also works with bridging the gap between administration and actually integrating students into the classroom. Top priority is to get course coordinators involved. The missing link is the contact between course/program coordinators and the central administration. Helén will bring the issue regarding integration of international students to the Quality Assurance Council FSV is planning on organizing a panel presentation on the new sustainable goals of the UN in October Jonas introduces the idea to have a panel discussion at the university level. Jonas and Helén will discuss this further. Jonas will send information to Ingela and then on to the Committee for International Affairs. Welcoming and integration international students The Committee for International Affair feels that there has been a lot of focus on recruiting students but not enough on welcoming and integrating students once they have arrived to Linnaeus University. It is important to get the multicultural classroom and the issue of International Enrolment Management on the agenda. Helén and Ingela will discuss how these issues can be addressed at future meetings.

Sida 5 (5)

Housing for international students The Committee for International Affair has been alerted that there has been problems regarding housing for incoming international students this fall, this issue will be addressed at one of the coming meetings.