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The new turn of political situation in Uzbekistan led to a more opened partnership in cooperation with global society, therefore, the system of higher education is actively developing in compliance with the new goals. For the National University of Uzbekistan, a leading higher educational institution in Uzbekistan, the cooperation with foreign HEIs is one of the most urgent priorities. NUUZ has defined the following Strategic goals of internationalization:
- Training highly qualified graduates who are in demand in the Uzbek and foreign labor markets and who are able of addressing the issues of the modern globalized community, considering the world requirements.
- Recognition of the university research and development in the international scientific community.
- Achieving the status of the reliable partner that is well-known in the world university space, and the status of the partner for implementing joint international short-term and long-term educational, cultural and scientific projects. The COVID-19 pandemic period has a big effect on internationalization of HEIs in Uzbekistan in terms of international mobility of staff/student/teachers and onsite trainings. Nevertheless, during the last two years NUUz has obtained the following results:
- Increase of foreign students that entered in NUUz (40% of BD students, 25% of MD students, 100% of PhD students);
- Increase of publication activity (42%);
- Entering in the university world ranking (UI GREENMETRIC WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS-2019: 374; UI GREENMETRIC WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS-2020: 353);
- New double-degree programs opened in 2018-2020 (11) and 4 memorandums signed for 2021-2022 (Renmin university of China, Belorussia National Technological University, Russian Chemical-technological university, Ankara university);
- Intensification of staff exchange (116 professors lecturing in NUUz and 12 professors from NUUz lecturing in foreign universities). Moreover, within the UNICAC framework the following activities were accomplished with the use of online conferencing systems:
- Online meetings and seminars with participation of all project partners devoted to the presentation of online courses for teachers, students, and researchers in leading European HEIs;
- Online meetings with members of NUUz and TUIT project team discussing the ongoing problems and perspectives.
- Organization of online conference with the partners from Tajikistan.
- The posters about the project were translated into Uzbek and released at the official website.
- NUUz coordinator published the article devoted to the project.
- The strategic plan of Internationalization was signed.
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UNICAC project was presented in the 2020 Symposium on Graphics Research and Education
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On 21 November 2020, Prof. Shuxia Wang, a member of the project team from Northwestern Polytechnical University, took the opportunity of organizing the 2020 Symposium on Graphics Research and Education and successfully introduced the main contents and relevant topics of the Erasmus+ project UNICAC to more than 60 participants, coming from multiple Chinese higher education institutions. In addition, the conference also adopted the way of online broadcast, online more than 3800 people watched the seminar live.
On November 21, 2020, "2020 Symposium on Graphics Research and Education" was successfully held in Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi 'an, China. This seminar is one of the projects of the "Innovation Drived Development Program of the Association of Science and Technology of Shaanxi Province" applied by Shaanxi Institute of Graphics. The purpose of the project is to provide a platform for the frontline workers engaged in graphic research, education and application to exchange experience. Focusing on the new mode of graphic education in the "new engineering" situation and the new challenge of integrating with the international community under the background of global integration, this paper discusses how to seize the opportunity, deal with the challenge, and seek for the new development and breakthrough of graphic research and graphic education. Efforts should be made to construct a new mode of talent training under the condition of "Internet +" and explore new methods of graphical research in the information age.
The conference was attended by more than 60 experts and scholars in the field of graphics and graphics from different famous universities and research institutions in China. At the meeting, Professor Wang Shuxia clearly described the 9 modules and mobile projects sponsored by the Erasmus+ Unicac project. Attendees come from all over China, with academic background, industry background and even well-known enterprises background.
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UNICAC project in the 5th International Conference on Mechanical, Control and Computer Engineering (ICMCCE 2020)!
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On 26 December 2020, Dr. Fengxin Yan, a member of the project team from Northwest A&F University, took the opportunity of attending the international academic conference and successfully introduced the main contents and relevant topics of the Erasmus+ project UNICAC to more than 100 participants, coming from 32 Chinese higher education institutions.
Harbin, located in the northeast of China, is the provincial capital of Heilongjiang Province and also a mega city coming third in registered population among the provincial cities in China. It is a famous historical and cultural city and tourist city in China, also known as "the Ice City", “Oriental Moscow” and “Oriental Paris”. It has 45 ethnic minorities, bringing a variety of religious cultures together, making it the only city featuring the co-existence of Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism, Islam and Orthodox Christianity in China.
The 2020 5th International Conference on Mechanical, Control and Computer Engineering (ICMCCE 2020) was successfully held in Harbin, China from December 25 to 27, 2020. ICMCCE 2020 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of mechanical, control and computer engineering to a common forum. The primary goal of the conference is to promote research and developmental activities in mechanical, control and computer engineering and another goal is to promote scientific information interchange between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working all around the world. The conference will be held every year to make it an ideal platform for people to share views and experiences in mechanical, control and computer engineering and related areas.
In this conference, there were over 180 experts and scholars in the area of Mechanical, Control and Computer Engineering representing different famous universities and institutes around the globe to attend the conference. During the conference, Dr, Fengxin Yan divided his speech into two parts, and in the first part he talked about his latest agricultural engineering research and then in the second part he clearly described the 9 modules and mobility programs sponsored by the Erasmus+ UNICAC project. His insightful speeches about the project had triggered heated discussion. The participants of the conference were from most part of the world, with background of either academia or industry, even well-known enterprise.
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Continuing the implementation of the UNICAC project activities at IET TSUC
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The IET TSUC maintains the realization of the activities in the framework of the UNICAC project. Nowadays, we are working on the implementation of work packages on virtual mode despite the coronavirus pandemic and succeeding to spread the impact, contributing to the sustainability of the project, also strengthening the collaboration within the consortium.
1.Ph.D. coaching and supervision IET
TSUC is actively engaged in the realization of the UNICAC project. Particularly, under a WP3 - Development of Potentials for Internationalisation in Teaching/Learning/Research (T/L/R) a series of online seminars on Ph.D. coaching and supervision were held by professors of EU universities to the PhD students of the Partner Country universities from October to December 2020.
Ph.D. students of the IET TSUC have benefited a lot from the seminars. They have received good material and resources to work with, also got informed about opportunities for making their Ph.D. studies more international and get funding for research activities. Moreover, they got an insight and a new perspective of research practices, writing an article, the concept of open data, career paths in a non-academic context, and how the academy can bring science to the business.
2. Fostering the cross-regional network for cooperation
On January 29th all UNICAC partners have met in a general online meeting organized by TUIT. This meeting brought together UNICAC consortia to share ideas about WP5: The creation of a Cross-Regional Network for Internationalisation and Cooperation of HEIs. TUIT presented their initiative to create an International Scientific Advisory Board in the framework of the WP5. “The Board’s key mission is to give its scientific opinions, strategic feedback on the major outlines of HEI’s science and education policy, such as the strategic plan, the development and accreditation of educational programs as well the improvement of the education and research infrastructures including teaching lab and research centres.”
Development of a SPI in IET
TSUC According to the WP1 - Policy and Strategic Planning for Cross-Regional Cooperation and Internationalisation in HEI the workgroup of IET TSUC is engaged in the designing and drafting of the Strategic Plan of Internationalization (SPI) of the institute. Firstly, the workgroup conducted a survey of all departments and administrative staff of the institute regarding their wishes and aims towards internationalization. Thus, involving all the stakeholders gave a holistic picture and ensured that everyone's’ ideas and proposals would be taken into account. Further based on the survey the workgroup commenced to set definite goals of the internationalization and to develop an action plan. The draft version of the SPI was sent for review to professor Miguel Angel Adame from the University of Seville.
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KHOGU has improved its online systems thanks to erasmus+ projects
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Khorog State University is located in one of the most inaccessible places in Tajikistan (GBAO) with the center of the city Khorog. One of the important achievements of the university is that KOSU for many years has participated in many projects, including Erasmus +. Within the framework of international projects, KhSU cooperates with many universities from Europe and Asia. At the moment, there are three Erasmus + capacity building projects operating at KhSU. These projects are major donors for teacher retraining, student exchange and the creation and equipping of innovation centers.
For the third year now, the UNICAC project has been implemented at our university. During the two years of the project, almost all the staff of the international department of the university was retrained. Thanks to the project, seminars and trainings were organized online and onsite, in which, in addition to the staff of the international department, there were teachers and students of masters and PhD students. And also, the administration of the university was involved in the implementation of the project, which tried to implement and disseminate the results of the project in every possible way.
Despite the COVID 19 pandemic, the UNICAC project continued, although some changes were introduced. The UNICAC project has become one of the few at our university, which has proved that even in such difficult situations there is always a way out. The project did not stop for a minute, but on the contrary, all events from onsite went online. For the first time, in the frame of Erasmus + projects seminars and trainings were held online. Initially there were certain problems such as Internet connection and the inexperience of some teachers in using the online platform. Thanks to Erasmus + projects (UNICAC, HI EdTech) during the pandemic, more than 100 teachers were trained how to use the new innovative technologies, the use of online platforms for conducting classes and some new programs, which subsequently helped teachers overcome some existing problems.
During 2020, the IRO team and the administration of KhSU developed a strategic plan of internationalization (SPI) for the university under the sensitive leadership of Miguel Angel Adame from University of Seville and the SPI of Khorog state university is almost ready.
The UNICAC project continues its activities, although the pandemic is still ongoing.
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Implementation of the UNICAC project at the Tashkent University of Information Technologies
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In the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated October 8, 2019 PP-5847 “On Approving the Concept of Development of the Higher Education System of the Republic of Uzbekistan until 2030”, one of the main tasks is the development of international relations was to involve teachers and compatriots abroad in the higher education system of Uzbekistan. To achieve these goals and ensure international competitiveness, the concept provides for the following measures: development of academic mobility programs for teachers and doctoral students in cooperation with foreign higher education institutions, expanding training in joint educational programs with foreign universities, increasing the number of joint scientific conferences and seminars, implementing international scientific and educational projects, the creation of branches of local universities in foreign countries, the implementation of joint educational programs, etc.
To date, Tashkent University of Information Technologies has done a great job in solving the tasks identified in this concept. University scientists are currently working on more than 10 projects under the EU-funded ERASMUS + program.
Today, the university community is carrying out large-scale work under the UNICAC project. In particular, during a virtual meeting in October 2020, under the leadership of the TUIT team, it was agreed to establish a system of organization and management of international relations and international relations ("Network") between partners and universities in Central Asia and China. One of the main directions of this "Network" is to ensure the mobility of students and professors between universities, the organization of distance learning for master's students and the organization of scientific guidance for PhDs. On March 19, 2021, a roundtable discussion was held on the ZOOM platform between the participants of the UNICAC project, TUIT and professors and teachers of the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ugugbek. During the roundtable, the TUIT team informed about the work being done to create the UNICAC Network, while the team of the National University of Uzbekistan informed about the work being done with Chinese higher education institutions. The team of TUIT Urgench branch also took part in the virtual meeting as a guest and provided information on the strategic plan of Internationalization of the branch.
The International Project Development Center being established at TUIT on the basis of computer equipment purchased at the expense of the UNICAC project. The university administration has allocated a room for this center, and now the renovation of the room for begin. Currently, the project participants are considering ways to further improve cooperation, sign memorandums of understanding and exchange professors and students. These days, professors and teachers of TUIT, Seville, Turin and the University of Uzbekistan are considering the preparation and submission of a new project for the introduction of the European credit system in the universities of Uzbekistan for the ERASMUS + program in 2021.
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