Warm welcome for international partners

A training week for Northumbria’s international university partners has attracted its highest attendance since the event was launched three years ago.

More than 25 partners from Europe and America made the journey to Northumbria recently, underscoring the University’s global reputation for collaboration and student and staff exchange opportunities.

Colleagues from Austria, Finland, France Germany, Poland and Sweden among many other countries took part in a week of training activities designed to showcase the University, city and region to our partner network as well as promote their own universities to Northumbria students at the Study Abroad Fair.

The week-long programme included a welcome talk from Prof. Peter Francis, a city tour, tours of the University faculties, an interactive staff training session and a trip to Beamish Open-Air Museum where colleagues took part in a murder mystery activity and enjoyed the famous Fish and Chips from Davy’s.

The week finished with a celebration dinner at the Northern Counties Club in Newcastle where participants heard first-hand the experiences of Northumbria students who had studied abroad through our large portfolio of Erasmus + and Exchange partners.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding Brexit, the week was proof that Northumbria continues to have a strong relationship with universities in Europe and around the world.

Rob Carthy, Director of International Development, said: “We were absolutely delighted to welcome so many of our exchange and Erasmus + partners to Northumbria for the Training Week in November. It was an action-packed week for attendees who given an overview of the University and its place in the city and region. It seemed particularly poignant that as the UK prepares to leave the European Union, the largest number of people ever attended the week, the overwhelming majority of whom were from our EU partners through the Erasmus + scheme. Our international partners clearly value continued collaboration with the UK and Northumbria.

“The University will continue to prioritise a close relationship with Europe post-Brexit and strong engagement with our partner network through the Erasmus + programme is a crucial means of us being able to do this.”

Northumbria currently has more than 100 Erasmus+ partnerships across Europe spanning all four faculties and most subject areas. In 2017-18, 149 students and 35 staff from Northumbria were able to take advantage of the funding available through the scheme to undertake mobility at one of the partner organisations.