NMIMS to host the first Conference of the EU HARMONY project
· Three year long association with European Union to streamline the curriculum · To adapt best practices and process to enhance Indian education landscape · To promote virtual mobility, training programs and student exchange programs
Mumbai : SVKM’s NMIMS to host the very first conference of the European Union HARMONY consortium in India. The conference will be a two-day event commencing from 23rd March. The conference will offer a coherent platform to devise and share the best practices and process, for holistically transforming higher education across borders through research, training programs and technology. It will enable an ecosystem that encourages a virtual mobility platform to promote student exchange and revolutionising the Indian education landscape.
This will be a three-year project of “Internationalisation and Virtual Exchange: Borderless between EU and Asian Countries,” in June 2021. The project will support and strengthen higher education, through increased virtual mobility, accessibility, modernisation, and internationalisation. The consortium will bring together eleven esteemed universities (4 from Europe and seven from Asia), across Spain, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and India, and usher higher cooperation between European and Asian universities.
On being the first university to host the conference, Dr. Ramesh Bhat, Vice Chancellor, SVKM’s NMIMS, said,” The is a quantum leap towards enriching and elevating higher education and virtual mobility across India. With this cross-border collaboration and exchange of best practices, ideas and processes we are all set to foster a highly advanced and future-ready education system that prep our students to emerge as successful future leaders with extensive institutional and cultural knowledge.”
The project members will engage in a series of activities to streamline the objectives by outlining the integration of international and intercultural landscape into the curriculum, improving staff capabilities through intensive trainings, and building intercultural knowledge and sensitivity towards cultural diversity.
Adding on, Dr. Rafael de Miguel González, Associate Dean for International Relations, Faculty of Education – University of Zaragoza, said, “We highly appreciate this step towards modernisation and internationalisation of higher education across countries. India is a key market for us, and Mumbai is rich in its historical culture. Entering the Indian market will aid the students and faculties to enhance internationalisation virtual mobility and develop people skills. This will also empower them to seize more opportunities across the globe and accelerate their success journey with International Education standards and borderless expertise and cultural expansion.”
The key outcomes envisioned for the three-year project are country profile on Internationalisation of Higher Education, University Strategy on Internationalisation, University Action Plan on Internationalisation at Home, Storytelling How-to Manual, and guide for International Students, Established International Relations Office and Projects Office and HARMONY Teahouse (intercultural hub).
Zaragoza University Spain are leading the project. The NMIMS working group includes Pro Vice Chancellor- Dr Sharad Mhaiskar, Pro Vice Chancellor- Dr Meena Chintamaneni & Director International Relations -Ms Meena Saxena. The countries – India, Bangladesh, and
Vietnam, will address the aims and objectives of capacity building action and enhancing the management and operations of Higher Education Institutions.
The project primarily targets academicians, researchers’ students, and administrators. Universities from India include Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Vellore Institute of Technology and University of Hyderabad.
Achieve this, the European HEIs from Spain, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Lithuania and the 7 Asian PC HEIs will engage in a series of activities that contribute to the following three project specific objectives:
1. To outline PC HEIs’ internationalisation landscapes and to identify levels of integration of international and intercultural dimensions into PC HEIs’ formal and informal curriculum.
2. To improve PC HEIs’ capabilities for internationalisation through staff trainings and by translating general awareness of the IaH concept into streamlined institutional strategies and Action Plans.
3. To build students’ intercultural knowledge and sensitivity to cultural diversity by transforming PC HEIs’ International Relations Offices (IROs) into vibrant multicultural focal points.
The project primary target groups are academics, researchers, students, and administrators who are participating or wish to participate in international collaboration. The qualitative leap in the process of internationalisation they will benefit from, stems from the project’s main outcomes.