International dissemination conference at DSTU, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
On May 28-29, 2018 Don State Technical University welcomed lead experts from Germany, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia, UK, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. International experts met to discuss two projects supported by the European Commission Erasmus+ programme: “European Dimension in Qualifications for the Tourist Sector (EurDiQ)” and “Establishment of Centres for Competence and Employability Development (Complete)”. The participants represented European and Asian universities, as well as business and governmental bodies of the Rostov region. “We need to jointly establish the educational and cultural agenda of our countries” – noted DSTU Rector Besik Meskhi. “I hope that joint international projects will bring about positive changes in both the university and the region, turning into a cornerstone for productive university-enterprise collaboration.” Conference programme extended to presentations of models and best practices in implementing network educational programmes, as well as roundtable discussions dealing with the issues of university-enterprise cooperation and establishment of regional centres for competence development. One of the training workshops was held by the Head of Educational Consultancy SJEC Ltd. Dr.Simon Jones (UK), who spotlighted competence development centres operating in the UK. “Today, international agenda is focused upon better efficiency of practice-oriented learning, and no such thing will be conceivable should education, business and authorities fail to cooperate. The government of the Rostov region seeks to create conditions for the development of higher education, which makes an important contribution to the region’s economy sustainable development”, – said Evgeni Mamichev, Vice Minister for Economic Development of the Rostov region. In the course of two days, international experts discussed best practices in training highly qualified human resources for the regions, the new forms of university-enterprise cooperation, innovative models of network collaboration. In the course of the conference, training workshops were held by Yianna Orphanidou and Dr Melpo Iacovidou, lecturers of University of Nicosia (Cyprus), as well as Dr Simon Jones, external expert, Head of Educational Consultancy SJEC Ltd. (UK). The second day of the conference was marked by a planned meeting on EurDiQ project. Implementation. This day agenda included: - Quality report and project update – made by project coordinators: Marina Gunare and Elena Vasileva (via Skype), - Development of recommendations for project improvement – by all partners, - Discussions on preparation of the Guidelines on Master program implementation – by all partners, - Partners’ project activities reports presentations – by all partners Following the training workshops, all participants were awarded with certificates.