STUDY VISIT AND INFORMATION SEMINAR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA AND WORKSHOP-TRAINING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

The PRINTeL project involves a range of European and Eastern partnership universities. The European universities integrated in the Project are: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Universidade do Porto (U. Porto), Linkopings Universitet (LiU), and FH Joanneum Gesellschaft mbH (FHJ). The universities of Eastern partnership include: Yerevan State University (YSU), National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA), Vanadzor State University after H. Tumanyan (VSU) (Armenia); Ilia State University (ISU), Georgian Technical University (GTU) and Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (TeSaU) (Georgia); Belarusian State University (BSU), Brest State Technical University (BrSTU) and Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (YKSUG) (Belarus).

The aim of the Project is to meet one of basic challenges of present-day higher education – enhancing innovative teaching and learning practices, as well as introducing of modern technologies in teaching and learning.

To achieve the mentioned objectives a number of trainings in the European partner universities are envisaged in the activity plan of the PRINTeL project. The main goals of the trainings are enhancement of the Teaching Staff Development Centers (TSDC) of the above enlisted universities of Armenia, Georgia and Belarus, the professional development of teachers’ skills and abilities of using modern teaching and learning technological tools and the rearrangement of the operation of the TSDCs.

The first training of this range was the Study Visit and Information Seminar at the University of Barcelona, that took place on June 11-12, 2018. The main purpose of the event was the acquaintance of administrative staff of the Eastern PC universities with modern experience of TSDCs, their activity, structure and undergoing training programmes. The main organizers of the event were Joan-Thomàs Pujolà and Marina Sole Catala – professors at the University of Barcelona (BU). During the seminars the representatives of the Project’s European partner universities also made presentations and shared their experience.

On June 14-15, 2018 after the Study visit to the University of Barcelona a Workshop-Training was held in the University of Porto. The main objective of the Workshop-Training was the development of Eastern PC universities TSDC administrative staff’s competence in the area of operation of TSDCs, development and realization of innovative training programmes and working out of new operational plans.

On the first day some leading specialists invited from a number of universities of Portugal came up with the presentations highlighting their experiences. They described in detail how their TSDCs were structured, how they operate and what functions they perform. With pro-rector Fernando Remião and Professor Maria Pinto’s initiative the partners of the University of Porto conducted the workshop in the so-called World Café format, that enabled the participants’ maximal engagement.

The four-day working meetings, where thirty five representatives of Eastern PC universities participated, were concluded by PRINTeL project coordinator Armen Budaghyan, professor Marina Sole Catala from the University of Barcelona and Fernando Remião – pro-rector of Porto University. Accordingly, they mentioned that PC university representatives should disseminate their knowledge acquired from the Study visit and Workshop-Training in their home institutions and get to commence further activities envisaged in the working plan of the Project.

The head of PRINTeL project A. Budaghyan, YSU vice-rector for Academic Affairs A. Grigoryan, institutional coordinator of PRINTeL project M. Santurjyan, scientific secretary, associate professor in the Chair of Political Institutions and Processes M. Soghomonyan, head of Postgraduate Supplementary Education Department Zh. Aghasyan, director of the laboratory of new educational technologies of the IT Educational and Research Center A. Avagyan from Yerevan State University participated in the above mentioned events.

On June 16, 2018 the first coordination meeting of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) took place at the University of Porto, where European and Eastern PC institutional coordinators (19 participants) participated. During the coordination meeting the Work group leaders reported on the progress of ongoing activities, and the activities and corresponding timetables set by the end of 2018 were approved by the PSC.

The Coordination meeting was chaired by the head of PRINTeL project, director of YSU Quality Assurance Center Armen Budaghyan.