ConnectING 19 juni 2022

NIEUWS UIT DE FACULTEIT
FACULTY LAUNCHES
NEW INTERNATIONAL
POLICY PLAN
The Faculty of Engineering Technology has invested resources and staff in developing an
international strategic plan from its founding onwards. The previous five-year international
strategic plan 2016-2021 was under review in the middle of a pandemic situation with
international collaboration almost reduced to zero. Nevertheless, the Vice-dean for
International Affairs, Professor Koen Eneman, and his team did not hesitate to renew the
international engagement. Together with the Faculty Council for International Policy (FCIP)
he developed a new vision for the coming 5 years.
The context for international relations has changed, so our
faculty approach and strategy are facing up to the new
challenges and opportunities. The pandemic situation of
the past two years has yielded some important international
insights: digitalisation is here to stay in all fields of international
collaboration, new formats for mobility are proliferating, and
multiculturality and international competences are at the forefront
of the learning outcomes of our study programmes.
The new policy plan builds upon the realisations of the previous
one and on the international mission statement that was adopted
in 2015. The international activities in our faculty are geared
towards four levels: students, staff, the organization as a whole
and our role in society. The basic principle is that inter -
nationalisation is a transversal action, which permeates all
activities in education, research and services in the faculty.
Internationalisation is not a goal, but a means to higher quality in
each on each of these four levels.
Motor of innovation
The international mission statement starts from the assumption
that our graduate engineers can function well in an intercultural
environment. Professors and staff are coaching the students
actively and work in an international context whereby inter -
nationalisation is a motor for innovation in education and research.
The faculty creates the necessary framework to allow these
international activities to develop. It facilitates international
activities by a specific human resource policy, by a strategic
partner policy, the necessary services, and financial means.
The strategic targets for students for the period up to 2025
focus on developing intercultural competences for our graduate
students. All students graduating in Engineering Technology must
be able to function in an international and intercultural context.
The post-covid era urges us to think of new ways of achieving
these targets such as blended and virtual mobility, COIL
(Collaborative Online International Learning), international student
challenges etc. In this respect several concrete actions were set
up such as participation in the UNA EUROPA student hackathon
(July 2021) or the blended intensive programme “Sustainable
energy in an IoT world” (March 2022).
Partner universities
Another strategic choice lies in the increase of the faculty’s
English-taught course offering at Master level (in addition to the
unique English-taught ‘Bachelor of Engineering Technology’).
At the moment, our faculty boasts 8 master’s programmes and
3 advanced master’s programmes in English. A new working
group on international recruitment, founded by the FCIP, is taking
concrete actions for these study programmes, such as an online
recruitment evening.
The new policy plan furthermore includes actions geared towards
staff, with specific attention to support for the integration of our
increasing group of international staff. An online networking event
to address questions from our international staff and doctoral
students in May 2021 proved to be very successful.
International collaboration builds upon a strong network of
international partner universities and there also the faculty is
making some important choices. The international partner plan
has been reviewed and updated with an increased attention for
the development of several strategic partnerships. The faculty’s
educational programme committees (POCs) have been involved
in a discussion to work towards an appropriate partner policy,
both for EU and non-EU partners. The ongoing operation in the
POCs will result in a pilot project for course package semesters
later in 2022.
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