After being awarded a Quality Token by the Center for Human Resource Development at the end of 2018, the Erasmus+ Team of  Varna University of Management starts the new 2019 launching a new project.

Varna University of Management is a leading partner in a new project funded by the largest European program for education, training, youth and sport – Erasmus+, Key Action 2 (KA2) “Cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices”. The project „Furthering International Relations Capacities and Intercultural Engagement to Nurture Campus Diversity and to Support Internationalisation at Home“ or FRIENDS combines the expertise of four universities from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Turkey to encourage the process of internationalization at Higher education institutions from Erasmus+ Partner countries.

VUM, along with its Eastern European partners, will lead the process of analyzing and implementing of proven good practices for the internationalization of 12 higher education institutions from the Kingdom of Bhutan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The main objective of the project is to develop the global competence of Partner countries universities’ students  through the integration of intercultural dimensions into universities’ formal and informal curriculum.

Among the expected results is the development of Institutional Action Plans to streamline the initiatives of the Asian universities to promote internationalization at home as well as to enhance the capacity of international cooperation units and faculty to apply the principles of internationalization. Other key results are the introduction of the so-called “intercultural passport” in the curriculum to explore the multinational environment and focusing attention to the specifics of the cultural diversity of students, as well as the creation of social spaces to function as student-friendly multicultural hubs that welcome diversity and support the welfare of students with diverse cultural backgrounds. The development of “Home away from Home” Programme is also planned, which will serve as a model for integrated international student care and services. In the long run, this Programme will contribute to the gradual increase of international and inbound students at the universities from Erasmus+ Partner countries.