Completed Projects
The Education Reform and Innovation Team undertook a scoping visit for the Thai Ministry of Education to assess the professional development needs of and provision for teachers in the STEM area.
In November 2016, Education Reform and Innovation hosted a visit of 13 scholars from 2 displaced* universities in Ukraine. The universities visiting Cambridge were Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (VDEUNU), relocated to Severodonetsk, and Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University (LTSNU), relocated to Starobilsk. The membership of the Ukrainian delegation consisted of 2 University Rectors, 8 university staff, 2 students and the Head of the Institute of Higher Education National Academy of Educational Sciences.
The visit was funded by the British Council Ukraine Mobility Grant within the framework of the British Council’s Internationalisation of Higher Education Programme. The purpose of the visit was to learn about the best practices in university governance, leadership, education reform and student representation.
The programme of the visit included 4 days of Faculty- and University-based meetings and workshops. The Faculty-based programme was broadcasted via YouTube to other Ukrainian universities. More than 30 speakers were invited to contribute to the programme. On the third day of the programme, four programme delegates, two representatives of the British Council Ukraine and two representatives from the Faculty of Education attended a meeting and a panel discussion at the UK Parliament. This day of the programme was kindly organised by the British Council Ukraine. The Faculty-based programme was the first programme of its kind and scale involving Ukrainian scholars in Cambridge. Subject to further funding the programme of support for displaced Universities in Cambridge will continue.
The participants’ overwhelmingly positive feedback identified the following strengths of the programme: ‘high expertise level’, ‘interactive format’, ‘democratic participation’, ‘practical advice’, ‘atmosphere of trust, warmth, ‘’soulness’’, ‘high level of coordination, ‘excellent logistical support’, ‘inspired for new ideas and their implementation’. The reach and scope of the programme is impressive. The recordings of the first day of the conference were viewed 1050 times; the second day of the conference was viewed 417 times, third day 289 times and the fourth day of the conference 448 times. The programme has enabled all programme participants, programme coordinators and representatives of the British Council Ukraine work together and achieve incredible results.
* Displaced universities are 16 universities in Ukraine which in 2014 were relocated from the zone of military conflict in eastern Ukraine to the territory under the control of the Ukrainian government.
The links to the online recordings of the programme are available at the British Council website.
The Times Higher Education interview with the programme participants is available on the TES website.