Dagon University

ဒဂုံတက္ကသိုလ်

MEETING

CHINLONE Kick-off Meeting (Bologna, February 19-21, 2018)

CHINLONE lays the first stone! From February 19th to February 21st, the University of Bologna hosted a three days meeting to kick-start the CHINLONE project, gathering 27 representatives of its partner HEIs located in Europe and in Myanmar. The event was opened in the historical venue of Palazzo Poggi by the welcome address of Professor Francesco Ubertini, University of Bologna Rector, who joined Professor Alessandra Scagliarini (UNIBO Pro-Rector for International Relations) and Professor Fiori (CHINLONE Project Director and UNIBO Rector’s Delegate for Asia and Oceania) in expressing great auspices for the future of EU-Myanmar cooperation in the field of higher education.

At the end of the ceremony, the CHINLONE coordination team unveiled the project’s agenda and its timeline, describing the general work plan and presenting in detail the aims, activities, and expected outcomes of the various WPs. During the afternoon, the meeting was devoted to a preliminary assessment of key challenges and opportunities stemming from Myanmar’s ongoing reforms in the higher education sector, so to better introduce the ratio and purposes of the first Work Package. Accordingly, after an insightful presentation provided by the delegates of the Department of Higher Education of Myanmar’s Ministry of Education on the current outlook of the policies put in place by the country’s government in such field, the floor was handed over to the various Burmese universities, in order to provide a series of more detailed notions and data for each institution involved.

The second day was dedicated to a recap of the deadlines and workflow that characterize WP1, as well as to the examination of CHINLONE’s budgetary protocols, administrative organization, and financial management. Against this backdrop, the consortium established both the Operational Committee and the Quality Board, appointing their members and defining the tasks and competences of the two bodies. Subsequently, CHINLONE’s European partners – namely the University of Granada, Uppsala University, and the Coimbra Group – had the opportunity to share their relevant experiences and know-how in the field of university management, by lecturing the attendees on crucial topics such as the drafting of strategic plans, the setting-up of effective International Relations offices (IROs), and the active participation in regional and international cooperation projects. Lastly, the final day revolved around the creation of CHINLONE’s Local Teams in each institution involved, followed by the presentation of the dissemination and exploitation strategies.