Food for thought at Nuffic anniversary conference

19 Jan 2012

The conference that Nuffic organised on Wednesday 11 January 2012 to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary gave participants much food for thought. The theme was the future of internationalisation.

Speakers from both the Netherlands and abroad examined the current state of internationalisation in higher education, each from their own professional and personal perspective.

Internationalisation remains important

The Mozambican Deputy Minister for Education Dr Arlindo Chilundo made recommendations for more effective practices based on a critical analysis of Dutch-Mozambican cooperation in education to date.

Approaching from a similar angle, Ms Yang Meng, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), a partner organisation of Nuffic, discussed the broad scope of cooperation between Dutch and Chinese higher education.

Mr Ulrich Grothus, as Deputy Secretary-General of the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) charged with his organisation’s strategic policy, presented facts and figures to argue for greater balance in inter-European student flows.

Young social scientist Jonathan Mijs, who is working on his doctoral thesis at Harvard, showed that universities that occupy the higher regions of the various ratings always have an international student base.

Finally, The Hague mayor Van Aartsen looked at the role played by organisations such as Nuffic in cities with an international profile like The Hague.

Anniversary book

At the end of the symposium, Nuffic employee Han van der Horst presented the mayor with the first copy of his new book Een Wereld te Winnen, Historische Aspecten van Internationalisering in het Hoger Onderwijs (‘A world to win; historical aspects of internationalisation in higher education’).

As the conference came to a close, the attendees – mainly administrators – were in agreement that what they had heard gave them reason to reflect on their own organisations. Furthermore, the speakers at the conference had presented an abundance of evidence as to why internationalisation continues to remain relevant if higher education is to fulfil its ambitions.

Photos and presentations

You can view some photos taken at the conference on the website of the photographer.

Below is a copy of the programme of the conference and some of the speeches and presentations: