A delegation of the A4U has participated in the European Education Fair in India, celebrated in Delhi from the 30th of September. The EHEF 2016 has brought more than 100 European organizations from the Higher Education area, being the edition with the largest number of participants.
Last October 6th, Jaume Casals, president of the Alliance 4 Universities and rector of the Pompeu Fabra University had an appointment with Maurício da Silva Ferreira, rector of the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL) in Barcelona. The objective of the meeting was to strengthen the ties between UCSAL and A4U in research, teaching and mobility. During the meeting, the organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the next 5 years. This agreement confirms Brazil as a key country for the internationalisation process of the universities of the A4U.
The IUNE Observatory has published a report on the research conducted at Spanish universities between 2005 and 2014. The report measures various parameters, such as scientific output (number of papers by university, region and subject area), scientific collaboration (national and international), impact (citations by university and professor), visibility (papers published in first-quartile journals), recognition of teaching staff (based on the number of six-year productivity bonuses, or sexenios, awarded), technological innovation (measured with indicators such as the number of patents and spin-offs), competitiveness (Spanish and European competitive projects), and talent recruitment and training capacity (linked to the number of dissertations defended or Ramon y Cajal, Juan de la Cierva, research internship (FPI) and university internship (FPU) grants received).
The A4U excels in all the parameters measured. The Alliance accounted for 17% of all research output, despite having only 6% of the Spanish university system’s teaching staff. Indeed, according to Professor Elías Sanz, the coordinator of the IUNE Observatory project, at the international level, ‘The A4U’s joint output outstripped that of institutions such as the universities of Munich, Copenhagen, Pierre & Marie Curie or Bologna.’
Similarly, according to the report, the A4U accounted for 20% of the university’s system’s national collaborative output, 5% more than the system average. The quality and visibility of the output also bear witness to the Alliance’s potential, as together the partner universities account for 19% of the papers published in journals in the first quartile and 20% of the system’s ‘Top 3’ papers. Finally, the report highlights competitiveness as one of the key strengths of the A4U, which accounted for 17% of the system’s Framework and Horizon 2020 programmes and averaged 3.3 projects per 100 teachers, compared to 0.56 for the system as a whole.
The Alliance 4 Universities has obtained a KA107 mobility program with Russia and South Africa for the period 2016-2018. This program aims at strengthening and providing continuity to the previous program initiated in 2015. During the program, the A4U will provide 22 scholarships to perform mobilities between the universities of the A4U and Russia and South Africa.
Within the strategic framework for the internationalization of universitiesof the alliance, the A4U has developed an institutional mission to Indonesia in mid-July, aiming at establishing contact and strengthen relationships with key players in the country in the sector Higher Education, such as Universitas Indonesia, the Bandung Institute Teknology Bandung, Universitas Gajda Mada, the Indonesian Education Scholarship (LPDP) or the Ministry of Reshe coordinator of the A4U.
uring the past 27 May Competitiveness Council of the EU, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, announced the 25 members of the High-Level Advisory Group Open Science Policy Platform that will provide advice about the development and implementation of open science policy in Europe.
Dr. Eva Méndez Rodríguez, Deputy Vice President for Strategy and Digital Education at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has been nominated as one of themembersof the Platform and will represent the interests of YERUN (Young European Research Universities Network), as well as of REBIUN (Network of Spanish University Libraries, CRUE).
The mandate of the Platform will be to:
· Advise the Commission on how to further develop and practically implement open science policy, in line with the priority of Commissioner Moedas to radically improve the quality and impact of European science
· Function as a dynamic, stakeholder-driven mechanism for bringing up and addressing issues of concern for the European science and research community and its representative organisations, following five broad lines for actions which are presented in thedraft European Open Science Agenda
· Support policy formulation by helping to identify the issues to be addressed and providing recommendations on the policy actions required
· Support policy implementation, contributing to reviewing best practices, drawing policy guidelines and encouraging their active uptake by stakeholders
· Provide advice and recommendations on any cross-cutting issue affecting Open Science
Regarding the type of organisations represented, the following categories feature:
· Universities
· Research organisations
· Academies of Science/ Learned Societies
· Funding Organisations
· Citizen Science Organisations
· Publishers
· Open Science Platforms/ Intermediaries
· Libraries
Open Science is one one of the three priorities of Carlos Moedas’ mandate Open Science, Open Innovation, Open to the WorldOne of the concrete actions refers to the development of the European Open Science Cloud, presented on 19 April, as part of the Digital Single Market.
La Alianza 4 Universidades organiza la primera edición del EMI FORUM, el cual tendrá lugar en el Campus de Cantoblanco de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid durante los días 20 y 21 de junio de 2016 La Lengua inglesa se utiliza en todo el mundo como el medio para la enseñanza en contextos donde el Inglés no es el idioma principal o incluso una lengua oficial. ¿Qué significa esto para la experiencia de los profesores y estudiantes? ¿Es la experiencia igualmente positiva en todas las disciplinas/niveles de estudio? ¿Qué significa esto para el desarrollo de políticas nacionales y locales para incluir el inglés como un medio de enseñanza a nivel universitario? ¿Tiene un impacto en el reclutamiento de estudiantes?
El objetivo de este Foro es investigar estos temas desde la perspectiva de los países del sur de Europa y, en particular, en el contexto de las experiencias de las universidades de la A4U para la promoción de la enseñanza en inglés, un objetivo primordial en su estrategia de internacionalización. El Foro EMI proporciona una excelente oportunidad para intercambiar conocimientos y experiencias a nivel institucional, así como para coordinadores de grado, profesores, formadores y estudiantes. Para más información visite: http://congresos.fuam.es/fuamcongresos/emi-forum-english-as-a-medium-of-…
