On September 17-20, the EAIE (European Association for International Education) forum was held in France. The event was held in one of the most picturesque cities in Europe – Toulouse.
The theme of the 2024 EAIE conference “En Route!” translates to “We are on the road” and emphasizes the energy with which the international community is moving towards a brighter future. More than 7000 representatives from all over the world gathered to communicate and share experiences.
Sumy National Agrarian University was one of the Ukrainian universities that joined the event. Kseniia BLUMSKA-DANKO, Director of the Promotion Office, took on the mission of representing Sumy National Agrarian University. According to her, it is at such events that new projects of cooperation with partners are born. The international projects Unicom, Organic-UA, Soil Experts, and many others that were implemented during the full-scale invasion have already become successful cases for SNAU, because now is the time for bold and active action.
“All the work starts at such exhibitions. We communicate with partners, find like-minded people and exchange contacts. After that, the second stage begins: sending e-mails, more specific negotiations and agreeing on details. But all this is possible only through live communication and participation in forums,” Ksenia BLUMSKA-DANKO adds.
The areas in which SNAU negotiated this time were academic mobility for our students and teachers, joint research and publications, and grants. We communicated with universities in Portugal, China, Canada, Spain, Colombia… We have contact, and now we are starting direct communication between universities.
This work includes exploring the possibilities of increasingly powerful digital technologies, implementing sustainable practices, developing innovative ways to support the interests of the international community, and much more. By actively learning as we go, we are moving towards a better future through our efforts as professionals in this field and how we use it.
France is called the “cradle of European integration”, but it has expanded its capabilities this week. Representatives of Sumy NAU return from Occitania with cautious optimism, there are prerequisites for expanding opportunities for our students and popularizing the university brand for international higher education institutions.
