INU will be holding its Spring Council meeting on 16th & 17th March 2022, including a full program of sessions to further INU’s agenda.

As part of the program, Malmö University (Sweden) will lead a session on “How do you develop a sustainable agenda for global engagement for the entire university?” drawing on elements of Malmö’s Agenda for Global Engagement 2021-2026 .  The session will include discussion on how you can implement sustainable global engagement across your institution.

We will also hear from Rovira i Virgili University (Spain) on “Unlocking the innovative potential of staff through Internationalisation”. The session will explore how can we inform, train, empower and invite our staff to be actors of our institution’s internationalisation process; What could be a good formula to engage them and what is at play that generally deters staff from getting involved? The session will invite members to share experiences, good and bad, in trying to involve and engage staff in internationalisation.

We’re also delighted to have a keynote speaker, Dr Anne Holper, Co-Director at Center for Peace Mediation at the Institute for Conflict Management at European University Viadrina (Germany) talking on “Universities in the International Political Context: Roles, Conflicting Goals, Balancing Strategies”

In this keynote talk, Anne will address how in their international activities, universities often operate in politically sensitive contexts and encounter challenges as a result.  How to navigate, for example, collaborations between universities from countries whose relations are under political strain? Or, in view of the increasing advisory role of universities, what needs to be considered when providing scientific advice to ministries on conflictual foreign relations? Such activities of universities entail various challenges and risks, but also specific added values, which are currently discussed under the buzzword “science diplomacy”. The session addresses the question of what roles universities can play in the field of international relations, what conflicting goals they typically face, and what strategies they can use to balance them.

In addition, there are 1-to-1 networking sessions for members to re-connect and catch up, as well as time to review the plans to mark 25th anniversary of INU in 2023!  Lots of exciting  plans ahead!

The agenda and finalised programme will be circulated to Council members in due course.

For questions, please email the INU Coordinator