On September 26-29, 2023, the 33rd annual exhibition and conference of the European Association on International Education "EAIE 2023" was held in Rotterdam (Netherlands). Over 6700 education managers from more than 100 countries took part in the event.
As a European center of knowledge, expertise and cooperation in the field of internationalization of higher education, the EAIE was created to develop internationalization opportunities in the international higher education sector, as well as to share best practices and experiences, the most relevant ideas and organize various trainings useful for the internationalization of higher education institutions in different countries. Each year, the organizers choose one of the European cities for the event, and this year they chose Rotterdam (Netherlands) as the venue, and the famous Rotterdam Agoy (conference center and multifunctional indoor arena) became the venue. Given the scale of the event, participants were able to find partners, schedule meetings, and view events online using a special virtual platform
Ukraine, whose stand was located in the very center of the exhibition pavilion, was the focus of the conference. Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was part of the powerful delegation of Ukrainian universities, represented by Olga Demydenko, Head of the Academic Mobility Department. The participation took place within the framework of the local project "KPI International", implemented as part of the two-year training course "Management of Internationalization and Ukrainian-German Cooperation", funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Director of the Center for International Education of the University Serhii Maulik participated online. A correspondent of "Kyiv Polytechnic" talked to them.
Olha Demydenko: The EAIE exhibition and conference is an incredible and unforgettable event that provides opportunities not only to open new horizons of cooperation with existing partners from around the world, significantly expand the partner base, but also to gain new knowledge in the field of internationalization of higher education. At the same time, our team of more than 30 universities had a unanimous common goal, which we did our best to achieve: to draw attention to our country, to the terrible war that affects our lives, and to the challenges that Ukrainian universities face every day. Therefore, next to the Ukrainian stand was the stand of the Ukrainian-Canadian project Unissued Diplomas (https://www.unissueddiplomas.org), dedicated to honoring the memory of students who died during the current war without completing their studies. Our team thought it was very important to inform the world about what is happening with education in Ukraine, what is happening to our students, what life challenges they have to overcome in order to get a diploma, unlike those students who can study in a peaceful environment.
I would call the exhibition a global event aimed at establishing active, open, friendly cooperation so that universities can reach the level of true multidimensional cooperation in education, innovative technologies, and training. During the event, each representative of the university team promoted his or her university and established partnerships in the dimensions of internationalization that are most relevant to each university. The lion's share of our work was devoted to this. The conference organizers planned a number of sessions dedicated to specific topics. To name a few: combining inclusion and internationalization, effective scenarios for implementing internationalization, optimizing international credit mobility and recognition processes. Together with Sergiy Maulik, we established a network of new contacts in key areas of KPI's internationalization, in particular in the field of academic mobility and recruitment of students from other countries. A number of meetings were held with representatives of partner foreign universities and organizations.
Sergiy Maulik: The main focus of this exhibition is the internationalization of higher education. Specialists in recruiting and finding new or improving existing methods of attracting foreign students to study at universities discussed what they managed to accomplish over the past year, what their plans are for the future, and shared their practical experience. Thanks to Olga Pavlivna's work directly at the exhibition, we still have access to the contacts of the participants of this event through the conference's internal portal for another month. I worked through all the participants, and there were about 6,700 of them, representing more than 100 countries. We selected those who are interesting to our university in terms of expanding cooperation in the field of international education. There is an active correspondence on potential cooperation in attracting foreign students to study at our university. I believe that the result of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's participation in the exhibition will be some practical developments on those contacts that appeared after the event in Rotterdam.
Olha Demydenko: We are actively expanding our base of partners in the field of academic mobility with the help of contacts developed during the conference. Since academic mobility is an important basis for organizing cooperation between scientists and educators from different countries, as well as joint preparation of large-scale projects, we pay attention to finding opportunities that are important for the internationalization of all dimensions of the university. EAIE was an important step in this direction. The participants of the exhibition-conference spoke about the results of the conference and their importance for education and science in Ukraine after returning home, on October 11, at a webinar organized by the National Erasmus+ Office of Ukraine "EAIE 2023 Follow-Up Webinar for Ukrainian HEIs "Boost Your Network and Share Your Internationalization Experience at the EAIE conference". Through participation in events such as the EAIE, we not only promote the development of international cooperation of our alma mater, look for opportunities for the comprehensive internationalization of educational programs and the establishment of international cooperation of professionals whom we train at universities, but also again and again draw the world's attention to Ukraine, remind that the terrible war continues and we, Ukrainians, stand in defense of human values.