Empowering Education: VMU’s International Staff Week 2024
From April 22nd to 26th, Vytautas Magnus University hosted Erasmus+ International Staff Week. 112 educators and non-academic personnel from 41 countries stayed at VMU for a week filled with learning, presentations, networking, and immersing themselves in our country’s culture. The gathering brought together delegates from Japan, Ukraine, Argentina, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Kenya, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Korea, Italy, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Mauritius, Tanzania, Armenia, Malaysia, Brazil, Moldova, and numerous other countries.
Traditionally, the programme consists of two primary sets of activities: Staff Teaching Week and Staff Training Week.
The attendees of the Staff Teaching Week gave lecturers, seminars, workshops, master-classes to VMU students and staff.
The attendees of the Staff Training Week participated in two specialized training sessions: „Intercultural Communication Competence Development: Gaining Effective Strategies to Address Misunderstandings and Cross-Cultural Barriers“, and „Intercultural Communication Competence Development: Effective Communication Strategies“. Apart from that several participants gave presentations and all were involved in the discussions on a variety of subjects, including the promotion of mobility possibilities for outgoing students and staff, internationalization strategies in higher education institutions addressing challenges, assessment of international qualifications with a particular focus on refugees, international student integration challenges and good practices, current status and perspectives of attracting more international students to Japan, and many more.
The social programme, featured guided tours of Kaunas and Vilnius, visits to the VMU Botanical Garden and VMU Music Academy, a workshop on Lithuanian language, an international food fair, as well as folk dance and music activities, offered a glimpse into Lithuanian culture and traditions, enhancing the overall experience for all participants.
We hope to continue this tradition next year as it facilitates and empowers colleagues from different countries and universities to enhance cooperation, student mobility initiatives, foster international partnerships, develop intercultural competency, and employ effective marketing tactics to attract international students.
During the closing of the Erasmus+ International Staff Week, guests were invited to the 35th-anniversary celebration of the re-establishment of Vytautas Magnus University. At the event, they had the opportunity to hear speeches from Rector Prof. Juozas Augutis and Vice-Rector for Communication Associate Prof. Dr. Vilma Bijeikiene. Additionally, attendees enjoyed a solemn concert performed by students and faculty members from the VMU Music Academy.
Participants’ feedback:
“The program was very full, very interesting and excellently composed, for which I am very grateful to the entire staff of Vytautas Magnus University. We have been very busy with various activities all week. Lithuania is a wonderful country, Kaunas is a very beautiful city, and the people are warm, kind, caring, friendly, and ready to help. I loved everything here and will definitely come again”.
“Very good organisation of the week! Many interesting impressions, good information about university and country, good opportunities to meet other lecturers. Thank you very much for this opportunity!”
“I just want to thank everyone I met at VMU because they were always trying to help. I will always be thankful for this wonderful opportunity to teach at VMU, to meet colleagues from other countries and to start collaborations with those colleagues. I hope I can return to Kaunas and VMU in the future. Thank you for everything!”
See all photos of this event here.
Learn about the previous years’ experiences.
VMU Staff Week 2023: Fostering Global Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange
VMU International Staff Mobility Week 2022
Co-Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
