9-13 November 2020

The events organized by UAB took place in the virtual environment during the 10th edition of the Erasmus International Week, the 7th edition of the Exploratory Workshop: Internationalization of Higher Education - Challenges and Rewards, but also the first edition of the Autumn School: Innovation for NextGen EU.

In the context of the global crisis caused by the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, it was necessary to give up the events organized in the classic, face to face format, so productive for strengthening international partnerships and to identify new, creative methods of conducting the tasks scheduled under the International Week. We transferred all the events online, including those organized within the traditional Alba Culinaria Festival - an event dedicated to Romanian and international students in which they prepare traditional recipes, thus promoting the culture and culinary traditions of their national identity.

The university must assume, locally and regionally, the role of promoter of innovation, technology transfer, dynamic integration of the community in the European competitive cultural and economic environment, to meet the expectations of actors in the labor market, representing increasingly diverse economic fields and international economic activity. The training of graduates to sustain these institutional roles, enabling the university to be the mainstay of regional sustainable development, means providing the institution's students with quality, innovative and modern education, access to knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies through a reformed curriculum. And par excellence, an intercultural and diverse academic environment, tolerant, adaptable and open. In this direction, we consider that it is particularly important for UAB to support the implementation of visiting professor programmes, that is why within the Autumn School Innovation for NextGen EU, we offered to students from partner institutions abroad 15 courses, for a total of 30 teaching hours in various fields and of interest both for own students and for international students from Economics, Engineering, to Social Sciences, Psychology and Philology. Of course, the organization of these physical courses at the university is and will remain for us the first option, but their success this year, we admit, is exceptionally due to their online development: 825 participants signed up for the 33 events organized, of which 716 were students from 49 partner institutions on 5 continents: Australia, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

In implementing the specific policies necessary to achieve the institutional goals, it is especially important to pay more attention to the national, European and international partnerships of UAB.

Therefore, annually, in the organization of the proposed events, we look forward to the involvement of the Romanian diplomatic missions, in order to emphasize the strategic aspect of our inter-institutional cooperation, in the wider framework of the international cooperation between Romania and other states. This year, co-operation between UAB and the Turkmen Embassy in Bucharest made it possible for the Turkmen authorities to get involved in organizing international events, with courses offered at the Innovation for NextGen EU Autumn School being available to International University for Humanities and Development and International Relations Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ashgabat.

Increasing the international visibility is a natural component of the activities that higher education institutions carry out, so it is important to emphasize that the events organized by UAB this year, with a massive participation from external partners, offer excellent opportunities from this point of view, consolidating our position as a strategic partner with experience in implementing the internationalization policies of higher education institutions.

A few testimonials:

“The international week gave the participants the opportunity to extend their knowledge on processes, procedures and approaches accompanying the internationalization of a HEI, it also paved way for dissemination of project results, finally it help improving cultural awareness at a macro and micro scale, which should significantly improve the management of current and future Erasmus Projects”

Lukasz Marczak, Erasmus Institutional Coordinator, “Stanisƚaw Staszic University of Applied Sciences”, Piƚa, Poland.

“From 9.11.2020 to 12.11.2020 were conducted online classes dedicated to various topics for different majors, which were organized by "1 DECEMBRIE 1918" University of Alba Iulia. The instructors and students of IUHD actively participated in those classes. We are sure that they obtained plenty of knowledge and experience. It was a great pleasure for our participants. All of those activities are a good opportunity for exchanging experience and intercultural communication among the faculty staff and students.”

Dr. Tudorel Popescu, Universitatea din Pitești, România.

„The international week gave the participants the opportunity to extend their knowledge on processes, procedures and approaches accompanying the internationalization of a HEI, it also paved way for dissemination of project results, finally it help improving cultural awareness at a macro and micro scale, which should significantly improve the management of current and future Erasmus Projects”

Lukasz Marczak, Coordonator Erasmus instituțional, „Stanisƚaw Staszic University of Applied Sciences”, Piƚa, Polonia.

„Mă bucur că am avut oportunitatea de a susține un curs online în cadrul  Școlii de Toamnă Innovation for NextGen EU. În ciuda anumitor limite deja experimentate de sistemul educațional în condițiile actuale, regimul online de predare și participare la cursuri are numeroase avantaje, de care am reușit să profitam în cadrul acestui eveniment. Întalnirea dintre un profesor din Romania și peste 100 de studenți din multiple țări ale lumii pentru participarea la un curs de lingvistică a fost unică și reușită din punct de vedere științific. Pentru mine, care am fost la prima experiență de acest gen, predarea acestui curs a fost un moment de depățire a propriilor limite, atât din punct de vedere profesional, cât și personal. Am apreciat momentul și oportunitatea și aștept cu nerăbdare alte ocazii de acest gen. Felicitari organizatorilor pentru reușita acestui eveniment!”

Drd. Adina Botaș, Universitatea „1 Decembrie 1918” din Alba Iulia.

„From 9.11.2020 to 12.11.2020 were conducted online classes dedicated to various topics for different majors, which were organized by "1 DECEMBRIE 1918" University of Alba Iulia. The instructors and students of IUHD actively participated in those classes. We are sure that they obtained plenty of knowledge and experience. It was a great pleasure for our participants. All of those activities are a good opportunity for exchanging experience and intercultural communication among the faculty staff and students.”

Yhlas Haldurdyyev, IUHD Focal Point for International Cooperation 

The International University for the Humanities and Development, Așgabat, Turkmenistan