UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > UNE chosen for International Network for Higher Education Studies

Next Exploring cultural diversity in the classroom September 7, 2005  

Previous UNE presents itself to the community September 5, 2005 

UNE chosen for International Network for Higher Education Studies

September 06, 2005

LynnMeek.thumb.jpgThe European Commission has chosen The University of New England as the Australian partner in its International Network for Higher Education Studies (INHES). The other members of the network are the Universities of Aveiro (Portugal), Oslo (Norway) and Tampere (Finland) in Europe, and Obirin University (Tokyo) in Japan.

INHES is part of the Commission’s new, world-wide higher education program named “Erasmus Mundus”.

Earlier this year, the Commission chose Professor Lynn Meek, the Director of UNE’s Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy, for a three-month Erasmus Mundus scholarship (May to August, 2005) to conduct teaching and research at selected European universities.

Professor Meek (pictured here) said that the new partnership would bring about 15 European students working towards a Master’s Degree in Higher Education to UNE and/or Obirin University (OU) each year for a period of four-to-six weeks. In addition, three European scholars would visit UNE or OU for a period of two-to-six weeks each year. “The European scholars visiting UNE will teach courses, present seminars, assist in supervising research students, participate in current research projects, and help to establish new projects,” Professor Meek said. “We plan on having the first students and at least one scholar at UNE in October this year.”

“This is a great opportunity for us at UNE to explore and establish research links with our colleagues in Europe,” he continued. “The partnership has been established to engage the rapidly intensifying global connectedness of the practice of higher education as well as to promote higher education as a field of studies.”

“The main activities of the partnership,” he explained, “will be: offering courses to European students on specific aspects of Asian/Japanese and Australian higher education; offering courses to Japanese and Australian students on specific aspects of European higher education; developing teaching and research cooperation between the participating institutions; making higher education studies more visible and better established as a field of studies in its own right.”

The Erasmus Mundus program is designed to promote the European Union around the world as a centre of excellence in higher education, and is intended to rival the USA’s Fulbright program by the end of its first phase. INHES is one of nine Erasmus Mundus partnerships: UNE is the sole Australian partner in INHES, and is one of only four Australian universities involved in the program as a whole. The other partnerships include Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Water and Coastal Management, Global Studies, and International Health.


Media contact: Professor Lynn Meek on (02) 6773 2042 or Jim Scanlan (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at September 6, 2005 02:48 PM