In September, Chalmers, together with five other universities in western Sweden, hosted one of the world’s largest conferences on the internationalisation of higher education.
Chalmers, together with five other universities in western Sweden, hosted one of the world’s largest conferences on the internationalisation of higher education. The annual education conference, organised by the European Association for International Education (EAIE), took place on 9–12 September at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in central Gothenburg. The conference provided participants with opportunities to exchange experiences, build relationships, and strengthen collaborations with current and prospective partners.
– Hosting the EAIE conference in Gothenburg has allowed us to increase our global visibility. It is therefore not only an important international forum for dialogue with current and prospective partners, but also a tool that helps us achieve our vision: to become a globally leading technical university for a better world, says Jörgen Blennow, Vice President for Education.
EAIE is a member-driven organisation for professionals in higher education and annually brings together over 7,000 participants — primarily University Management and experts within internationalisation — from more than 100 countries.
This year’s conference theme, Go-Create, reflected Gothenburg’s strong focus on sustainability, inclusion, and innovation, in which the city is a world leader. Gothenburg thus provided an excellent setting to plan the future of internationalisation in higher education, develop new approaches to today’s key challenges, and create a shared vision for the future.
In addition to all activities organised at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre during the week, the host universities invited partners to special events and guided tours of their respective campuses. Chalmers hosted several events that were highly appreciated by the participants. The Partner Day on Monday, which was attended by 85 partners, began with Swedish fika, networking and presentations at The House of William Chalmers, and concluded with a reception at the World of Volvo. On Tuesday, Chalmers Campus Experience featured guided tours of campus Johanneberg, during which participants also took part in interactive micro-courses held at the university’s makerspace, Fuse. Towards the end of the week, Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg’s presidents invited partner leaders to a dinner at The House of William Chalmers.
– The conference week was a great success overall, our events went well and we received positive feedback from participants. We also established new contacts and strengthened collaboration with our existing partners, says Jens Hansson, Chalmers Coordinator and representative in the operational working group of the consortium formed by the host universities.
Thanks to close collaboration between the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre, Göteborg & Co, and the host universities, initial feedback indicates that participants in general, and the EAIE organisation in particular, were very satisfied with this year’s conference.
For Chalmers, the next step is to leverage the contacts made during the week and build on the initiated collaboration dialogues — to increase global awareness of the university and continue working toward Chalmers’ vision.