Erasmus+ CBHE project SSAPI

The Erasmus+ Capacity Building (CBHE) project Strategic Support for Accreditation of Programs and Internationalization at South Asian Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) - SSAPI has been funded by the European Union. It started in January 2021 with a duration of three years. Dr. Amir Qayyum, Capital University of Science and Technology (CUST), Pakistan, initiated and coordinates the project. The European partners are the University of Bremen (UniHB), particularly the IGS, and the University of Évora, Portugal. Eight further universitites are partner in SSAPI. They are from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives. The aim of the CBHE is to create learning and practicing opportunities for partner country HEIs’ staff including administrative staff, faculty, students and researchers. Trainings will focus on learning from EU partners, and developing procedures to modernize the local education systems. This project will contribute effectively in creating reforms in the overall higher education system of the partner universities. Due to the restrictions of the Covid pandemic, the consortium decided in the beginning some adjustments to the initial work plan and added a phase of online training units to the training concept. The following messures have been implemented by now:

  • As a first step to gain knowledge about the readiness for accreditation of programs of the partner HEIs, a questionnaire has been developed by the IGS by September 2021. Questions from various accreditation agencies were put together to develop a detailed set of questions and topics to gather any information needed for accreditation from and for the Asian partner HEIs.

  • In October 2021, the local project coordinator Dr.-Ing. Ingrid Rügge travelled to the second European partner, the University of Evora, Portugal, to analize the input from the Asian partner HEIs and to develop an Action and Training plan.

  • An extended questionnaire was implemented by the IGS, evaluated and shared with all partners in December 2021 as an online form. The IGS analysed the answers and provided feedback on the information to the partners. These digital assessments ended in February 2022.

  • Due to the Covid pandemic the IGS developed an online training format that simulates an accreditation visit. Three online trainings were conducted by UniHB. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans-Dietrich Haasis held the first training unit in March 2022 by giving an overview about different accreditation forms (program and institutional/system accreditations) and introducing agencies as well as by simulating in the second online training an accreditation discussion. He used the documents of a Bachelor’s program of Business Administration and Management of one SSAPI partner as example. Staff from all other SSAPI partner HEIs joint as listeners to learn and improve their own answers.

  • In June 2022, the IGS delivered another online training. Prof. Dr.‐Ing. habil. Klaus‐Dieter Thoben and Svenja Schell simulated a second accreditation discussion on the base of an example of another Asian partner. It was a Bachelor’s program of Industrial Engineering. All three units have been recorded. An excerpt of the recordings is internally available as training material for the SSAPI partners.

  • In July 2022, it was possible to provide the first on-site training in Bremen - with only a few restrictions due to the Covid pandemic. The IGS organized the event with 40 participants from all Asian SSAPI HEIs. Some further simulations of accreditation discussions took place as well as workshops, visits of the library of UniHB, visit of several laboratories, internships in lectures and teaching units as well as several guided tours to external destinations.

  • Several face-to-face project meetings took place in Bremen as well, because it was the first opportunity for some of the SSAPI partners to meet in person.

  • A few weeks after the training in Bremen, the first on-site training in Asia took place. The spokesman of the IGS, Prof. Dr. Aseem Kinra, joint a conference in Malé, Maldives, and provided training on teaching methods to both local partners. In January 2023 a second training in Malé by another lecturer of the University of Bremen followed. Dr. Matthias Burwinkel is Managing Director of the LogDynamics Lab and staff member at BIBA. The training material has been translated to English and was shared internally with all SSAPI partners.

  • On the 19th January 2023 a delegation from Sri Lanka has visited LogDynamics, the BIBA and UniHB to explore the possibilities of further cooperation. It followed an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility of two lecturers from SLTC in April/May/June.

  • In Malé the first SSAPI project meeting took place in February 2023 where Dr.-Ing. Ingrid Rügge joint in as local project coordinator for Bremen.

  • In May and June 2023 Prof. Dr. Teresa Goncalves from the University of Evora stayed for a few days in Bremen to prepare the oncoming training in Portugal.

  • The University of Bremen contributed to the on-site training in Evora in July 2023 by sending three experts on accreditation and internationalization to Portugal.

  • The next on-site trainings provided by the IGS will take place in September 2023 in Pakistan and in October 2023 in Bhutan.

The next project meeting will take place in the beginning of December in Sri Lanka. SSAPI will contribute to the next SKIMA conference, held in Malaysia in December 2023, to share the gained knowledge and experience with further Asian partners.

 

The first on-site meeting with all SSAPI partners, held in Bremen in July 2022

SSAPI (Strategic Support for Accreditation of Programs and Internationalization at South Asian Higher Education Institutes) is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Capacity Building Programme of the European Union: Project Ref No. 619438-EPP-1-2020-1-PK-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

 

Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.