annual NUFFIC conference

Yesterday I attended the annual Nuffic conference for the first time. The decision to go was easily made because it was to be held in Rotterdam and the theme appealed to me. The focus was on the relation between internationalisation and development cooperation, an issue that has been on my mind for a few months but which I haven't been able to explore up to now.

The main issues and messages that I took away from this day were: it is operating in (global) sustainable partnerships and educational networks, cooperating with local NGO's and utilizing their local expertise, finding global solutions to the global problems we are now facing, empowering people to prepare them for dealing with the issues at hand, but it is also instilling a sense of social responsibility into students (and educational institutions) in various ways, for example by introducing the concept of global citizenship to students and discussing what place they envisage for themselves in the global community, that was generally seen as the road ahead of us, to put it in a nutshell.

The two keynote speeches and the workshop on Capacity Strengthening in Developing Countries were definitely eye-openers for a novice like me in this field. These sessions provided me with a number of new insights, such as the 3 levels of engagement at which one can operate.
It was especially Doekle Terpstra, chairman of the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences, who made the most lasting impression on me, emphasizing the new and different tasks which should be tackled in the near future. He told the audience that especially the universities of applied sciences have a substantial contribution to make in development cooperation due to their vocational nature and their potential to play a leading role in practical, hands-on knowledge exchange, based on applied research. In this way they can also maintain their role as a transformative agent in pursuit of humanity’s highest ideals.
With all due respect he also gave the Nuffic organisers an indication of how particular (funding) programmes could be changed to everyone's advantage.
After watching the amusing new Study in Holland video it was time for informal networking chats. It was amazing to see how many Dutch speaking people from all over the world had gathered here in Rotterdam to attend the conference.