On December 4-5, 2023, SPHERE organized the Annual Conference for Experts on Higher Education Reform 2023 to discuss “Higher Education Policy Reforms to Achieve Particular Results”
SPHERE is an initiative funded by the European Commission, which is aimed at supporting and promoting experts on higher education reform.
The main objectives of the conference were:
Discussion of new strategies and innovations in higher education,
Discussion of the preliminary results of the study on “Green universities”, planning the work of national expert teams for 2024.
The first day of the conference consisted of 4 sessions and 2 panel discussions.
First panel discussion No. 1: “Innovation and digitalization of learning and the impact on internationalization”
National experts from Moldova and Montenegro presented their best practices. An expert from Kyrgyzstan, Amangeldy Zhumadilov, also presented his ideas for introducing innovations into the educational process, in particular the use of Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies in the organization of educational processes in the field of IT disciplines.
Panel discussion No. 2: “Protracted impacts of the Covid-19 crisis: What has transformed and what has remained the same.”
Nicolas Patrici was a moderator of this discussion, and the speakers were Joan Guàrdia, President of the University of Barcelona, Mirlan Chynybayev, Head of the National Team of Experts of the Kyrgyz Republic and Rector of the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov and Khadija Hariri, the national expert of Morocco.
Mirlan Chynybayev, presented the results of the First National Seminar on Modern Educational Technologies and the Erasmus+ HiEdTec project, as an example of best practice.
The participants actively engaged in the discussion and noted that COVID-19, despite the circumstances stimulated for the implementation of new technologies and innovations in the spheres of teaching and learning
The next discussion was dedicated to “Flexibilisation of learning, micro-credentials and the role of universities” . The speakers in this panel were Mitchell Peters from the University of Catalonia and Svetlana Sirmbard, a member of the national team of experts on higher education reform and Rector of ADAM University.
The speakers shared their experience of using micro qualifications at the universities. As this topic is new for many countries the participants were actively involved in the discussion.
Preliminary findings of the SPHERE Study in Greening in HE were presented at the end of the first day.
Session groups started the second day by discussing Breakout sessions: Debating the findings of the SPHERE Study on Greening, especially the steps that are taking for “greening” universities, the problems and potential solutions.
The results of the discussion of each session group were presented at the panel session.
At the panel discussion on “Trends in HERE Annual Work Plans” the national teams of experts shared their plans for 2024 year. Especially, they focused on analysis of current priorities and strategies in the field of higher education, the choice of three important priority areas for concentrating efforts, a description of how these precedent areas will interact with events and processes occurring in the EU, specific actions to promote those priorities, monitoring, indicators, etc. General priority trends in higher education and examples of some countries were considered.
Next discussion was dedicated to: Enabling HERE Teams and their impact on policy making. The team of experts from Lebanon presented their annual action plan for experts. In addition to Lebanon, a team of national experts from Ukraine presented their work plan for the year.
The conference was attended by national experts on higher education reform from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and representatives of leading European universities.
Three national experts from Kyrgyzstan participated in the event, especially, Mirlan Chynybayev, Head of the national team, Svetlana Sirmbard, member of the national team of experts, Amangeldi Zhumadilov, member of the national team of experts.
The conference has become an important platform for discussing and shaping higher education reform policies, with an emphasis on innovation, digital transformation and sustainability in this area.