Dr. Susana Menéndez and Paul Nixon of THUAS visited Masaryk University to discuss research potential between the two institutions. They had a tour of the new campus including the labs and facilities at CEITEC, followed by a range of meetings regarding research possibilities. They met with Dr. Pavlik, Director of International Co-operation, Petr Dvořák, Vice-Rector for Research, Petr Kaniok and Vít Hloušek, professors of European Studies. The trip reinforced the belief that closer cooperation would be possible and furthermore targeted visits will be undertaken

The Executive Board of The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Leonard Geluk, Chairman, Rajash Rawal, Board Member and Hans Camps, Board Member along with colleagues Eveke De Louw and Jerimi van Laar visited the University of Derby on the 6th March. They met with Kath Mitchell,Vice-Chancellor, Malcolm Todd, Provost (Academic) and Ruth Ayers, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor to discuss further engagement as strategic partners. Discussions were held on the future of the relationship, synergies between the two universities and next steps in growing the relationship further. The visitors also had chance to see the Kedleston Road campus and meet with key staff from the College of Business, Law and Social Science and the Research and Innovation Department.
The two institutions already work together through Erasmus exchanges and have a MoU as strategic partners. They also have a student exchange agreement for the BA (Hons) International Relations and Diplomacy (Hague) programmewhich has students exchanging for the second year of the programme, with the first students exchanging this academicyear.

15 staff from The Hague University of Applied Sciences visited Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (31 Jan.- 1 Febr.). During two days professors and international staff from both universities interacted sharing good practices, experiences and evaluated future common projects. Degrees and UFV profs. involved: Education (J.Acebes), Business Administration (G.Arce and J.Peláez), Marketing (M.Tovar), Advertising (R.Caerols) and International Relations (G.Graíño).

In the photo: Henk Chin, Andrévan den Heuvel, Nora Daoud, Ruud Fortuin, Adela Garabal, Liselore Goossens, Pieter de Vos, Rafiya Scheltinga, Rosa Groen, Theo Bosma, Claudia Diers-Lienke, MariaMartina, Gijs Vermeulen, Paul Nixon, Gwen Klooster-Vois (from THUAS) with UFV representatives.

The Hague Network held a meeting on Friday 18 January. Richard Side (Derby University), Ivan Malý (Masaryk University), Kirsi Viskari (Tampere Universityof Applied Sciences), Alessandra Carucci (University of Cagliari), Rajash Rawal and Eveke de Louw (both The Hague University of Applied Sciences) had a virtual meeting to explore opportunities to strengthen our internationalization practices by learning from each other. Unfortunately, due some technical challenges insetting up a group call, we could not connect with Juan Pérez-Miranda and Belen Navajas (UFV Madrid) at the same time, so a separate Skype call was arranged with them.

The virtual meeting resulted in an inventory of challenges that we face in our institutions and the topics range from establishing ownership and engaging stakeholders to very practical issues of supporting academics in internationalizing curricula and recruiting international students. Our next step is to draft a common agenda of three challenges we all relate to and to arrange a working session in the spring/early summer. During this session we can present our current state of play, share good practices and create a roadmap for addressing the challenges together.

Paul Nixon (ably supported at distance by Rebecca Kleiweg de Zwaan) taught a re-worked version of their THUAS elective course “Sex in the Media” at Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) from 26th to 30th November. The re-worked version was entitled “Sex,The Body and Cyborgs” and attracted 48 students. The course, which took place in ‘Brno House of Arts’, involved 3 online lectures and three ‘live’ lectures as well as a workshop. (Picture courtesy of Hester Callis and Hyun Ju Park of International Law who also attended). The trip was financed by Masaryk University.

A delegation of 12 staff visited The Hague University of Applied Sciences on 15th – 16th November 2018 to expand current links and widen international activity. Following a successful trip from THUAS to the University of Derby in April this year Derby staff were keen to reciprocate the visit and continue collaborative working and sharing of best practices.
Academic and support staff from the University of Derby’s College of Business, Law and Social Sciences, College of Arts, Humanities and Education, College of Engineering & Technology and the International Recruitment and Collaborations department were included in the delegation. The group had a busy schedules meeting with their counterparts at The Hague, where meaningful meetings took place to continue building on relationships that started in April.