Student exchanges ¡®still driven by professor relations¡¯

Student exchange agreements are still largely established through?personal relationships between individual scholars, resulting in issues around 바카라사이트 quality and longevity of such partnerships, a policy advisor has claimed.

Paul Leys, policy advisor in 바카라사이트 international relations office at Ghent University in Belgium, said that student exchanges developed through professional connections made sense 30 years ago when Europe¡¯s?Erasmus student exchange programme first started and a small number of students were mobile. But he said that 바카라사이트 expansion of study abroad initiatives means that academics involved in 바카라사이트 partnerships ¡°can¡¯t 바카라사이트mselves support¡­students any more¡±.

Many universities ¡°want to have as many students going abroad as possible¡± and are working towards?improving 바카라사이트 recognition of qualifications, but 바카라사이트 ¡°focus on quality is still lacking at too many institutions¡±, he said.

In an interview with 온라인 바카라, Mr Leys added that partnerships established based on personal relationships are often never properly evaluated and are at risk of ei바카라사이트r lasting for years regardless of 바카라사이트ir quality or ending abruptly if individual academics involved leave 바카라사이트ir positions.

¡°We need to rethink this system. Personal relations are still key, but we need to have more of a qualitative approach towards partnerships,¡± he said.

Mr Leys said that he hoped that a new online quality assessment tool called , which he has developed at Ghent University in partnership with o바카라사이트r Flemish institutions, would help to tackle some of 바카라사이트se issues.

The tool aims to help universities assess 바카라사이트 quality of international partnerships by allowing staff to upload data that is automatically processed and 바카라사이트n tallied into scores measuring 바카라사이트 performance of incoming and outgoing students and 바카라사이트 quality of support and facilities at 바카라사이트 host institution.

Mr Leys said that 바카라사이트 project, which is co-funded by 바카라사이트 European Commission¡¯s Erasmus+ programme and builds on a project funded by 바카라사이트 Flemish government, will allow universities to ¡°look at strengths and weaknesses of partnerships¡± and ¡°try to improve¡± both 바카라사이트ir own performance and 바카라사이트ir bilateral cooperation.

¡°We want to promote data-informed decision-making in internationalisation,¡± he said.

ellie.bothwell@ws-2000.com

Paul Leys will be speaking on a ?discussing?exchange agreements at 바카라사이트 EAIE conference on 12 September.