Erasmus+ Information Days in Yerevan 2019
On November 7-8 annual Erasmus+ Information Days in Yerevan were held at the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport and the Armenian State Pedagogical University. Information Days are the key awareness raising campaigns that shed light on Erasmus+ Programme and bring together administrators, scholars, experts and students from higher education institutions, decision makers from the Ministries, EU Delegations, and other partners from the EU and its neighborhood.
The two day event gathered over 250 registered participants from 23 state and 5 private HEIs, as well as national decision makers from the Ministry and non academic stakeholders from CSOs and the labour market. This year as well, the national Information Days in Yerevan informed the beneficiaries on the last Erasmus+ (2014-2020) Call for Proposals 2020 launched in November 2019 and actions relevant to the international dimension of Higher Education (Capacity Building in Higher Education, International Credit Mobility, Jean Monnet Activities).
In order to promote and strengthen the links between the higher education institutions of Armenia and Spain, this year the National Erasmus+ Office in Armenia had invited guests (academics and administrators) from Erasmus+ Spanish National Agency (SEPIE) and 13 Spanish Universities. On November 7, the National Erasmus+ Office in Armenia presented the Overview of Erasmus+ Capacity Building Higher Education (CBHE) Projects’ Implementation in Armenia, which was followed by 2 moderated panel discussions with participation of Armenian coordinators and institutional implementers of 8 ongoing Erasmus+ CBHE projects as well as Erasmus+ coordinators from the Universities of Seville and Granada. The 1st panel aimed at discussing the common practices of project idea development and implementation, and the 2nd focused on revealing those aspects of project planning that target at impact and sustainability.
In order to discover the new perspectives for inter-University cooperation under Erasmus+ ICM, the 2nd day was dedicated to the Armenian-Spanish contact making sessions. During the panel with IROs from Armenia and Spain, the guest speakers shared their achievements and challenges of planning and implementing mobility with Programme/Partner countries. The session was followed by introduction of changes foreseen by the new draft law on Higher Education and Research to facilitate internationalization and scientific cooperation between Armenian and European HEIs.
The two day event was concluded by ICM Armenian-Spanish market place and Spanish delegates’ institutional visits to Yerevan based public and private Universities.