EAIE2024 En Route to Toulouse!

We were happy to participate in the European Association for International Education (EAIE) Annual Conference 2024. This largest international education conference in Europe took place in Toulouse, France, between 17th – 20th September 2024. It has been a tradition that Laurea international team, or currently half of it visits the conference and exhibition annually. This is a great chance to meet partners, network, get inspired by many sessions, keynotes, and panel discussions. The expo also introduces many universities, companies, European Alliances, and many others.

Toulouse and Garonne River, photo by Sini Aalto-Friman

The conference is not only for international office representatives from higher education but also many experts attend from education export, human resources, recruiting, admissions, guidance and of course teaching international students. It could be seen that international affairs can be placed in different areas of higher education, for example in career services or human resources, regarding staff and global talent management. This is the case in the Netherlands often for example.

Toulouse is a beautiful city located in southern France. It has 472 000 inhabitants. It is known as the “La Ville Rose” with its rose pink and white buildings, the city of rugby and aviation. It has a vibrant culture with many restaurants, museums, theatres, festivals, and concerts. The location is beautiful by the Garonne River and canals. Old Toulouse has a collection of Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance architecture with charming boutiques and cafes. The University of Toulouse is located in the city center and has students living located right by the city center campus. The city center is easily accessible by walking and ideal for a long weekend getaway for any visitor.

EAIE Conference

This year it was the 35th anniversary of EAIE and the largest ever with over 7300 participants. The week included plenaries on Wednesday and Friday, sessions, panels, workshops, campus experiences, posters, and the exhibition. The opening keynote plenary was held by Elisabeth Moreno who is the former French Minister in charge of gender equality, diversity, and equal opportunities. Currently she is the chairwoman of Ring Capital where she empowers impact entrepreneurs. She is also a philanthropist contributing her time as the President of Femmes@Numerique Foundation.

EAIE plenary, photo by Sini Aalto-Friman

The closing plenary was by Zhang Zhang, who is a classical violinist and humanitarian in L´Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo since 2000. She founded The Monaco String Quartet Ensemble in 2021. She leads her own Zhangomusiq, which has supported over 70 projects around the world. She explained her touching story of her childhood, starting from basically nothing and no education, making her way into having three higher education degrees. She definitely speaks for willpower and resilience. It was a touching finale of the conference when almost 7300 people start to spontaneously sing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.

Best practices in education and learning

One of the values of the EAIE conference is its ability to offer the participants the opportunity to participate in interactive sessions. These sessions gave participants current state of affairs and perspectives on best practices in higher education practices. Sessions were ranked in various topics such as European-funded programs which include the European University alliances, Leadership, strategy & policy, Marketing, and admissions, Partnerships, Research on internationalization, social responsibility, Student and alumni services, Student and staff mobility, Teaching, learning, and curriculum.

Dynamic staff competence development

Usually many sessions are about student mobility but it was great to see that this year more sessions were regarding staff and teacher mobilities and staff professional development internationally. In one session the speaker stated that there are more than 15 000 articles or research about how to internationalize students but almost none regarding staff. Here are some aspects that I collected.

It was interesting to hear experiences how international staff weeks are organized in different countries. AI was used more and more at different institutions, for example in giving out instructions with the help of an avatar. It was great to hear how internationalization is organized at different higher education institutes. Some organize for example “taster trips”, where a staff member travels abroad with the students. This trip hopefully motivates the students to go for a longer exchange as well. It was also clear that social media is used a lot when marketing exchanges.
Many stated that international or intercultural classroom should be seen as normal and nothing “extra”. The goal is to build global mindsets during the studies. In today´s dynamic and changing world cross cultural competences are more valuable than ever. The students should learn adaptability, getting rid of stereotypes and aiming towards professional growth. Some institutes have “quality in higher education certificates” . In some European universities there are no staff weeks or international weeks, there is only the focus on research. Equality was highlighted regarding staff exchanges as well that in some higher education institutions even maintenance or housekeeping staff have the possibility to go for an exchange.

The COILs (Collaborative Online International Learning) and BIPs (Blended Intensive Programmes) were again discussed in many sessions. It was also interesting to discuss how the quality of BIPs is evaluated. Do they affect the teaching and courses in the future and how? Are BIPs embedded in the curriculum or are they “extra”? Many institutions organize so many BIPs and have so many BIP requests that they must limit them. BIPs can also be organized with associated partners outside Europe. Feedback should be collected from these BIPs so they can be developed further.

Diversity and inclusion are the Erasmus values and there is a project ongoing now about the topic. Online workshops and events will be organized in the years to come, in Berlin 2025 and Brussels 2026. We have known the DEI concept (diversity, equity, and inclusion) but in the sessions DEIB was used, including belonging.

En Route European Universities Alliances

Since Laurea just received the European University Alliance status this year, sessions focused on the European University Alliance were of specific interest to us. Some were based on best practices or opportunity recognitions, whereas others evaluated the roles of partners and their impacts on society. These sessions and more were of interest to see how earlier funded alliances have managed to operate until currently.

It was obvious that each alliance is dealing with challenges in partnership and fulfilling promises made when applying for the status. Nevertheless, partners in existing alliances have found different ways to adjust from challenges to opportunities and start working from small steps. This is a good hint for Laurea and the PIONEER alliance at large as a newcomer to the alliances. Reflecting on the dynamics of partnerships, abilities to operate together, and responding to the planned goals will require consensus among partners, to understand each other’s strengths and contribute to the alliance based on their strengths.

Based on the experiences presented in the EAIE and as far as PIONEER is concerned, we can see that our PIONEER cooperation is already moving especially when it comes to education cooperation. The formation of joint and double degrees has already happened in PIONEER and joint teaching through the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) paths has already started at various levels. Associating regions through Hackathons in Paris or BIPs in Finland showcases the eagerness to include the ecosystem around them. Working closely with our Swiss partners as associate partners provides inputs for new ideas and perspectives in the alliance. The session titled as “the role and contribution of Associated Partners in the European Universities Initiative” for example displayed many elements that when compared with the PIONEER alliance, gave hope that if we work together, the future of PIONEER will be bright.

DHBW reception as a reflection of organizational best practice

EAIE conference is a place where it is possible to meet most of our partner institution representatives under one roof, organize meetings, participate in similar activities that empower our institutions but also observe best practices from our partner institutions.

Laurea and Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) have been partners for more than a decade. In each EAIE, DHBW organizes a reception to which all its partners are invited. In each of these receptions, the president of the DHBW together with the rectors of the institutions and the convoy of 30 International relations specialists from 9 of their campuses, present their developments and the importance of the internationalization of their programmes. These types of receptions are one of the best practices that PIONEER or Laurea could also utilize to share our mission with our partners and those that we wish to connect with. Explaining our strategies, showcasing our results, and enforcing new ways to cooperate would easily be done in connection with the EAIE conference since there is a guarantee that more than half of the useful contacts will be there. EAIE conference serves as a useful platform for disseminating Laurea’s education export possibilities and uplifting Laurea’s brand amid a diverse crowd from all over the world. This display can also be done by hosting a spot in Finland’s booth – but it is not as personal as organizing a reception, inviting, and speaking with those that we find important for our cooperation and the future of our activities.

Laurea contact person Conrad Lyaruu at the DHBW. Photo taken at the EAIE-DHBW reception by a DHBW collegue.

Conclusions

EAIE conference is an inspiring event, which gives you motivation in your work. It is great to meet people from different cultures, this time there were participants from 110 countries! This year the sustainability and responsibility of the event were visible more. The importance of internationalization and exchanges are always seen at EAIE. It gives opportunities for growth and has a life changing impact on the lives of many. We learned a lot during the week. One comment we left with was: “If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together. “This was a great reminder of how we need each other and working together makes great results. Next year the conference will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, 9-12 September 2025.