New offer of professional development activities for academics and PhD students at the UHK

 The following institutions are also involved in the project:

• The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands,
• Spanish University of Jaen,
• Swedish Örebro University,
• University of Minnesota, USA
• University of Ostrava and
• Palacký University in Olomouc (the main coordinator of the project).

The project Supporting Academics to Become International Educators through Professional Learning Communities focuses on the development of universities' internationalization to increase the quality of international teaching. It primarily strives for the development of pedagogical competencies of academic staff. The project will support the new comprehensive role of academic staff as international educators ready to equip all (domestic and foreign) students with global competencies. Furthermore, it advocates that international students' educational needs, cultural diversity, and inclusive approaches are taken into account.

The project works with an innovative format of professional development activity, with the so-called Professional Learning Communities (PLC), which will be implemented and piloted at all involved institutions. The concept of PLC is based on the fact that it uses multidisciplinary and intercultural cooperation, meeting and sharing of diligent experts from different levels (e.g., academics, PhD students). A similar PLC with the University of Jaen will start at UHK from the next academic year, 2022/2023. We, therefore, invite all UHK academics and PhD students who want to improve their teaching skills and gain new impulses and inspiration for teaching, share an intercultural collegial environment with partners from Spain and support the international dimension of their professional careers. Those interested can register here  until May 26, 2022.

"Our goal in internationalization at the UHK is to shift its understanding from the current one, in which mobility is only a bonus for those who can go abroad, towards making the international experience an integral part of higher education. So all students could acquire global competencies," explains Leona Stašová, Vice-Rector for International Affairs.

The project further develops the so-called internationalization at home and supports academic staff in their pedagogical activities, which definitely belong to high-quality higher education.

Project description Supporting Academics to Become International Educators through Professional Learning Communities, number 2021-1-CZ01-KA220-HED-000032178 in English can be found here.