21 August 2018

A visit to Ireland’s global university

Partnership

A delegation from the University of Copenhagen visited University College Dublin (UCD) in June to learn about UCD’s dedicated global engagement and internal institutional cooperation. The delegation returned inspired and with implementable best practice examples.

The delegation discussing global engagement at UCD. Image: Trine Sand
The delegation discussing global engagement at UCD. Image: Trine Sand
 
The UCPH delegation consisted of representatives from the faculties’ international units and the central unit for international education. The purpose of the visit to Dublin was to exchange ideas on how to further institutional cooperation to enhance international education and learn from UCD’s initiatives.

Building a global community

The delegation participated in parts of UCD’s impressive Global Week initiative. The overall theme was Building UCD’s Global Community. There were more than 20 sessions, talks and workshops such as The Value of Global Partnerships for Research and Empowering UCD Students to Participate in a Semester Abroad.

The Global Week served as a platform for sharing international experiences across the UCD institution and highlighting the benefits of international cooperation in research and education.

Following the Global Week, UCD and UCPH shared experiences on such topics as international recruitment, graduate employability and academic advocacy.

Travelling together as one university

The UCPH delegation is a standing committee of administrative staff; one representative from each of the six faculties’ international units, headed by the Director of International Education and Grants.

The purpose of the committee is to coordinate and decide upon issues related to the administration of international education, ensure common standards, as well as discuss topics of institution-wide relevance and advise the senior management on such matters. The committee meets 7-8 times per year.

The visit to UCD served as inspiration for how to build an institution-wide community in support of international education through talks and workshops. Furthermore, the UCPH delegation learned about how UCD has built an extensive international network and organization for the purpose of international recruitment.