EM-ACE

Promoting Erasmus Mundus Towards European Students:
Activate, Communicate, Engage

Template: Event report

1. Identification

Partner institution / Sapienza University Rome
Person(s) attending / Mattea Capelli
Event name / Santander Group Liason Officer Meeting
Event Location / Leon, Spain
Event Date(s) / 4-5 October 2012
Event Organiser / Santander Group

2. Narrative

Short description of the event, including target audience, number of participants, etc. / The meeting gathered 37 International Relations Officer, Head of International Office or Deputy Rectors for International Relations of partner Universities.
The agenda intended to present outcomes of projects and activities implemented by the network in the past year and proposals for new joint activities and projects to be submitted for funding in the coming months.
Reasons for attending the event within the framework of EM-ACE, including mentioning of the related work packages / Santander Group is an associate partner of the EM-ACE project whose members have been very active in the Erasmus Mundus programme in the past years. International officers participating to the meeting were therefore an ideal target of the stakeholder consultation.
Due to the tight agenda, only one individual interview was carried on with Kent University, while the project was collectively discussed within the overall agenda for the meeting.
Concrete outcomes for the EM-ACE Project /
  1. Summary of main findings (see attachment for detailed minutes of answers):
-In general the programme is not well understood, not even by IRO Officer, unless they directly took part to projects
-Action 1 is perceived as not being addressed to EU students but only to international students, although since the launch of the 2nd phase of the project a scholarship is provided for these participants
-In most cases, similar Master courses taught at home ins titution, so students enrol there, Students not wanting to cut links with home Institution
-Action 2 offers all different projects so application forms, rules, deadlines become too complicated for students to understand and for coordinators to know what to promote
-A number of rivals are active in some countries, i.e. DAAD in Germany, AHRC and ESRC in the UK for PhD
-Action 1 projects are separately promoted by coordinators, there is no central coordination or support
-A web page is normally provided for all projects but it is not normally very prominent in the Uni web sites
2.The interview was conducted with Kent University which appeared to have a peculiar experience. The University coordinates 2 Joint PhD courses and they are embedded in the internationalization strategy of the university. A steering group was set up composed of the deans of the faculties in order to transfer competences of coordinators to other research groups.
Other comments, if any

3. Dissemination of the event (only for EM-ACE project events)

Prior to event: invitation sent (paper + electronic), online announcement, etc.

After the event: press coverage, e.g. link to articles mentioning EM-ACE project and/or its events, etc.

4. List of attachments

-Programme

-List of Participants

-Minutes of discussion

4. Declaration

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the information contained in this Report is accurate and in accordance with the facts.

Signed in: on / /

Name and function in capital letters

1 / EM-ACE Event report template