Staff week: internationalization on the agenda

[Article] - Published on November 18, 2024 in International Partnerships, European University CHARM-EU

From November 12 to 14, UM welcomed partner universities from the Coimbra network and the European Charm-EU alliance for an "Away Week" on the theme of internationalization. This was an opportunity to strengthen existing ties and develop new collaborations.

International relations or internationalization? This was the question chosen by François Pierrot, Vice President for International Relations at UM, to welcome participants to the Away Week(staff week) held in Montpellier from November 12 to 14. He outlined UM's overall international strategy, covering both the Global South and the Global West, emphasizing the need to better identify partnerships to be developed and the importance of intra-European collaboration.

Coming from nine countries (Portugal, Lithuania, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway), the twenty or so participants in this staff week on the theme of internationalization represented the partner universities of the Coimbra Group, a network of long-established, high-level multidisciplinary European universities, as well as the Charm-EU alliance of European universities.

Exchange of best practices

During these three days, partner universities and representatives from the University of Montpellier alternated between insightful presentations and demonstrations of concrete practices related to the concept of internationalization, such as international mobility, welcoming international students, and staff involvement in Erasmus+ projects. Other topics included optimizing the international experience, inclusive education throughopen education resourcesand innovative teaching tools,and integrating sustainable development goals into higher education programs.

Several of these topics were discussed using examples from Montpellier, including the welcoming of international students at UM and the "Bienvenue en France" label, hybrid mobility programs trialed as part of the joint master's degree run by Charm-EU, or the IDIL teaching program focused on interdisciplinary research and supported by the pillars of excellence: nourishing, caring for, and protecting.

Special meetings, promising fruitful cooperation, were also held with the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Law and Political Science, MOMA, IUT MS, Polytech, the Faculty of Education, IUT Béziers, IUT Nîmes, and others. This can only be an asset for developing and strengthening UM's international partnerships within a forward-looking European higher education system.