The UoH HARMONY Team member participated in Study Visits/ Conferences in Vilnius (Lithuania) and Zaragoza (Spain) during September 5-14, 2022.
Dr. S Shaji, the UoH HARMONY project member and Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science participated in Study Visits and Conferences between September 5 and 14 at Mykolo Romerio University (MRU) in Lithuania and University of Zaragoza (Spain). The Study Visits were part of multi-institutional and multi-country consortium on Internationalization of Education, led by university of Zaragoza, funded by EU-ERASMUS +. There are seven Asian universities from three countries (India, Bangladesh and Vietnam) and the Universities/institutes (Spain, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovenia etc) from Europe participating in this prestigious academic project which began in January 2021 and is scheduled to end in January 2024.
The project is led by Professor Dr. Rafael de Miguel González, a noted Geographer (who is currently the president of European Geographers Association). The UoH team in project consortium is led by Prof. N. Siva Kumar, currently the Dean, School of Life Science, UoH. The project which is aimed at understanding key internationalization strategies adopted across various Universities from different regions of the world, along with providing capacity building to teachers, staff members and students. The project is also planned at promoting different forms of mobilities, both in person and virtual, across stakeholders in the universities as well as incorporating certain best practices in academic curriculum such as ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors. The meeting in Vilnius and Zaragoza focused on various internationalization strategies, research and Development policies, apart from increasing mobilities, both in person and virtual, across European and Asian Partners. University of Hyderabad, a partner in EU-ERASMUS+ HARMONY project is mandated to develop Handbook on Internationalization, provide training for staff members, initiate infrastructural development including the setting up of Friends Tea House and enhance staff and students mobilities. Three students will be selected through digital story-telling competition, to be conducted in September/ October and will attend a Two Weeks Boot Camp at Varna University of Management (VUM) at Varna, Bulgaria in the summer of 2023.
During the Study visits, the University of Hyderabad and University of Zaragoza have entered into an MoU, which was officially signed by the Vice-Rector during the HARMONY meeting at Zaragoza (MoU on the part of UOH had earlier been signed by the Registrar, UoH). University of Zaragoza is an eminent university which has several notable achievements, which also includes notable alumni and faculty (present and past) like Santiago Ramony Cajal, an eminent Neuroscientist/Pathologist (who was the first person of Spanish origin to receive Nobel Prize for medicine in the year 1906).
Prof. Siva Kumar, the UoH HARMONY Coordinator opined that ‘’UoH involvement in a multi-country project does provide an excellent platform for peer –learning of internationalization strategies and R&D practices of global universities as well as get involved in capacity-building and infrastructural development in our university, while showing certain pathways for how future strategies can be developed.’’