Kick-Off Meeting TIGRIS Project
The Kick-Off Meeting of TIGRIS Project, which has been awarded for EU co-funding within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme “Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education”, took place from 9th – 10th November 2017 in Göttingen.
The event which was attended by representatives of all partner universities within the Consortium. The Managing Director for Administration and Financial Affairs from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Kurdistan, University Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Directors of International Offices, amongst others, participated in this meeting on behalf of the partner HEIs from Kurdistan, whilst academic and administrative staff members closely involved in internationalisation processes or well-experienced in international relations and international collaboration participated in this meeting on the EU partner side.
The TIGRIS Project, which will run from 2017 to 2020, aims to support the modernisation, accessibility, and internationalisation of higher education in Kurdistan. In short, the TIGRIS Project has set the following objectives which the partners will seek to address throughout the project’s lifespan and within the activities undertaken:
- Improve the quality of Higher Education in Kurdistan;
- Develop new and innovative education programmes;
- Modernise the Higher Education system in Kurdistan through policy reform;
- Create and implement national legislation which will facilitate the accreditation of joint and double degrees, the recognition of studies abroad, and the ECTS;
- Foster cooperation across different regions of the world via joint initiatives and collaborative action;
- Strengthen management structures and services geared towards international relations;
- Develop advanced strategic polices regarding the internationalisation of education, collaborative research, academic mobility, and international student services within Kurdistan which will bring Kurdish HEIs closer to their European counterparts;
- Transfer best practices and disseminate knowledge so as to understand how to cooperate within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and European Research Area (ERA).
The Kick-Off Meeting focussed on providing a detailed overview of the project and the project activities for the next 3 years. Management procedures, financial regulations, and the EACEA’s evaluation of the project proposal all formed key discussion points during the first day, whilst the second day was dedicated to an interactive workshop on the designated work packages followed by a general question and answer session. This meeting also offered a welcome opportunity for the project partners to present their institutions, as well as their respective institutional challenges, strengths, and international status quo.
All in all, the Kick-Off Meeting was deemed to have been a great success and highly beneficial in laying solid foundations for future cooperation and the efficient and effective implementation of the upcoming activities.
The next project activities planned to take place include study visits to four European institutions, namely Masaryk University (Czech Republic), the University of Groningen (Netherlands), KU Leuven (Belgium), and the Global Impact Institute (Czech Republic), during which a delegation from the partner institutions in Kurdistan will be able to observe first-hand the workings of International Relations Offices in Europe, to participate in seminars and workshops on writing EU-funded project proposals and applying for future cooperation or capacity-building projects, to discuss the formulation of internationalisation strategies, and to identify necessary international student services and potential steps to align the Kurdish Higher Education system with the Bologna process.
More information on the TIGRIS Project can be found here.
Contact:
Dr. Uwe Muuss
Göttingen International/The International Office
Tel.: +49 (0)551 39 21343
E-Mail: uwe.muuss@zvw.uni-goettingen.de