29 - 30 January 2018
Management Centre Europe, Brussels, Belgium
Participants:
- Prof. Azirah (UM)
- Yee Chee Leong (UM)
Summary of activity:
This two-days meeting convenes all representatives (coordinators and partners) of CBHE projects selected in 2017 and the EACEA staff to address in detail all contractual, financial and implementation issues of the grant. The meeting provides an excellent opportunity to all CBHE practitioners and new grantees to network, share knowledge and experiences, and address common issues encountered in similar Partner Countries.
Several parallel workshops were held including sessions on the Erasmus+ KA2 CBHE grant selection process and results, management of CBHE grants, and financial management according to grant agreement and financial rules applicable to the CBHE action. Parallel networking sessions (by regions) were also carried out and the BRECIL team was involved in the Southeast Asia panel.
In this panel, a short presentation on some statistics of CBHE participation of Asian countries and a brief account of recent developments of the Bologna Process in Europe were shown. The BRECIL team were involved in a group discussion on the theme ‘modernisation of governance, management, policies and functioning of higher education’.
The group comprises 6 other CBHE projects with acronyms NEXUS, BRECIL, OPTBANK, CHINLON, ALIEN and SICA that are either structural or joint projects involving partners from Indonesia, Malaysia, France, Vietnam, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia, and so on. All participants were asked to introduce themselves to the group and to discuss on topics about the expected challenges, and common ones; plans to make synergies within and beyond every HEI; and the added value towards common challenges which are academic or non-academic. Notes were presented at the end of the session to everyone in the panel.
On the next day, a plenary session on the impact, dissemination and sustainability of CBHE projects were presented. This is followed by sharing of good practices and experiences by CBHE projects through video presentations and dialogue forums; and the closing session by Rafh Rahders (Head of Unit, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency or EACEA). It was an interesting experience to have real-time surveys and interactive quizzes during these meetings to broadcast and generate real-time feedback and results from all participants via the ConnexMe mobile application.
The helpdesk session for BRECIL was held later. We met our Project Officer, Joseph-Lynn Micallef and Wolf Besche, who is the Finance Officer with the Agency. We had a constructive discussion with both of them and discussed several issues such as the eligibility of costs regarding equipment purchases, reimbursement for travel and costs of stay, concerns about VAT/GST, and so on. Other matters concerning our project visibility (via social media and project websites), project ownership (communication and transparency within institution and between all Partners), and budget adjustments (between equipment and subcontracting costs) were clarified as well.
Prepared by: Yee Chee Leong, UM
