Multiplier event: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania)

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, as a partner within the project  GLOBDIVES – ”Global Citizenship and Diversity Management Skills in Higher Education” financed through the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union (KA2 component, Strategic Partneships), organised on November 28th, 2023, a Multiplier Event that reunited teaching staff from various universities from Iasi and Romania and privat and non-guvernmental organisations both onsite and online.

The event aimed to disseminate the project’s results and the event agenda comprised the presentation of the project activities and its main intellectual outputs as well as a roundtable in which we discussed how to develop diversity management skills for students so that the labour market could capitalize on the benefits of a diverse work environment. The discussions strated from the premises that ”We are all in this together” (universities, companies, NGOs) and starting from the challenges that each of the actors have we shared possible best practices and future solutions.

The GLOBDIVES project was implemented between January 1st, 2022 – December 31st, 2023 by  a consortium made up of five universities: Kauno Kolegjia, Lithuania (coordinator), LAB University of Applied Sciencies, Finland, Hochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes (htw saar), Germany, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania and Universidad de Vigo, Spain. The goal of the project was to increase the awareness level of organisations’ representatives and teaching staff about the importance of addressing topics related to diversity management and global citizenship in the academia.

The results of the project are especially relevant for:

·      Academic teaching staff from any study field who wish to integrate these topics in their curricula;

·      Present and future teaching staff who wish to increase an inclusive learning environment;

·      Students from any study level, interested in the topics of global citizenship and diversity management;

·      Organisations involved in the training of diversity management skills for their trainees and employees.

The participants had the opportunity to see for themselves the importance of gaining diversity management skills and ways to put them into practice in their daily activities. They also contributed to parallel discussions run both onsite and online regarding the challenges and possible solutions in academia, business and the community they belong to. 

Those interested in getting more information about the project or how to apply the diversity management and global citizenship topics in their own work environment, are kindly asked to check the link https://globdives.blogspot.com/.

FERA CONFERENCE IN VAASA, (23-24-11-2023)

Fera conference on education is the biggest conference in Finland in the field of pedagogy This year the conference was held in Vaasa, on the western coast of Finland. Researchers’ topics in the conference are very versatile and they range e.g. from inclusion to primary education challenges, from digitalization of teaching to sustainable education and pedagogics for children with special needs. Global education had an own special-interest group in the conference as well and in it Jaana Häkli gave a presentation on GLOBDIVES results that awoke interesting comments, questions, and possible collaboration possibilities in the future. As a result of this presentation, a blog post on GLOBDIVES will be written also on the GERIF website, Global Education Research in Finland. It was wonderful to meet people with similar research interests and to get new ideas for future research projects from the conference.

LAHTI SCIENCE DAY (21-11-2023)

A theme group on multiculturalism was a part of Lahti Science Day which functions as a platform for educational institutions in Päijät-Häme region to share research and project results to a local audience and really to everyone interested. Popularization of research is seen as an important topic in RDI activities in Finland. Jaana Häkli shared GLOBDIVES project results in the event by focusing especially on results from student and teacher questionnaires.

DIVE TO DIVERSITY (7-11-2023)

LAB University of Applied Sciences hosted its multiplier event by the name Dive to Diversity on 7.11. The event was arranged with slightly different program in both campuses of LAB, in Lappeenranta and in Lahti and online.  

A keynote speech from DEI trainer Hodan Mohamed on how organizations can boost inclusivity was followed by Jaana Häkli’s presentation on research results gained in the project. 

After that post-doctorate researcher Riikka Suhonen from Helsinki University highlighted every individual’s and HEIs’ roles in the implementation of global education.

Keynote speeches from Lappeenranta were streamed to Lahti and online. The multiplier event reached about 100 people for the pre-afternoon, streamed part. 

The program in the afternoon included workshops in Lappeenranta and a networking fair in Lahti.