Formation | 1993 |
---|---|
Headquarters | Brussels, Belgium |
Membership | 16 full, 3 associate |
President | Ulrich Grothus |
Director | Irina Ferencz |
Website | aca-secretariat.be |
The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) is an international think tank in the area of international cooperation in higher education. Since 1993, ACA has worked to promote innovation and internationalisation of European higher education in collaboration with its pan-European network of member organisations, each responsible in their respective countries for supporting internationalisation in education and training. ACA also maintains a global perspective through its associate members in other parts of the world.
ACA’s activities include research and analysis, evaluations, consultancy for private and public bodies, advocacy and publications. The Academic Cooperation Association’s Secretariat is located in Brussels — a privileged position to create and maintain close working relations to the European institutions.
Name | Organisation | AC Role |
---|---|---|
Ulrich Grothus | ACA | President |
Alenka Flander | CMEPIUS | Vice-President |
Katarzyna Aleksy | NAWA | Treasurer |
Stephan Geifes | DAAD | Administrator |
Runa Vigdís Guðmarsdóttir | Rannís | Administrator |
Olivier Tschopp | Movetia | Administrator |
Gerhard Volz | OeAD | Administrator |
Vidar Pedersen | Hk-dir | Administrator |
ACA was founded in June 1993 by the British Council, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (NUFFIC). These organisations supported, and still support, on behalf of their governments, bilateral international cooperation of their countries' higher education institutions. They felt the need for a common European platform as the importance and number of European Union (EU) programmes in education and training was growing. [1]
ACA membership soon expanded. In tribute to the EU enlargement and with a view to promote the setting up of independent internationalisation agencies in Central and Eastern Europe, full membership was extended from the EU and EFTA countries to the whole of Europe in 1998.
Throughout its history, ACA has provided the European Commission and other international bodies with background research on issues of international cooperation in higher education. In 1999, the association started its own publication series, the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Higher Education. [2]
In 1999, ACA started its own monograph series, the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education which are published by Lemmens Medien in Bonn, Germany. [3] Most of the books emerged from ACA's projects in the field of analysis and research on internationalisation of higher education. Examples of the ACA Papers are:
ACA also publishes the ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, a monthly newsletter which provides policy-makers and practitioners world-wide with concise and up-to-date information on the developments in higher education policy at the national, European and global level. It also highlights important events, presents recent research on education and training matters and informs on the latest European Union funding opportunities. [5]
Apart from the ACA Papers series, ACA Think Pieces and the ACA Newsletter, ACA publishes also a collection of reference works about trends and data of internationalisation in Europe and around the world. Examples are the EUA/ACA Internationalisation Handbook (2010), Handbook of International Associations in Higher Education (2009), and EURODATA – Student Mobility in European Higher Education (2006). [6]
The Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg is a public research university founded in 1993 and is located in Magdeburg, the Capital city of Saxony-Anhalt. The university has about 13,000 students in nine faculties.
The Erasmus Programme is a European Union (EU) student exchange programme established in 1987. Erasmus+, or Erasmus Plus, is the new programme combining all the EU's current schemes for education, training, youth and sport, which was started in January 2014.
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shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States, through actions such as promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study programmes, establishing networks, exchanging information or teaching languages of the European Union. The Treaty also contains a commitment to promote life-long learning for all citizens of the Union.
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The European Association for International Education (EAIE) is a European centre for expertise, networking and resources in the internationalisation of higher education. It is a non-profit, member-led organisation serving individuals actively involved in the internationalisation of their institutions through training, conferences, research and knowledge acquisition and sharing. The EAIE is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and has approximately 3000 members from over 80 different countries,the majority of which are located in Europe.
ELIA represents some 300.000 students in all art disciplines.
University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) is a voluntary regional association of government, non-government and/or university representatives of the higher education sector established in 1993 to enhance cooperation and exchange of people and expertise through increased mobility of higher education students and staff. UMAP has been endorsed by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and member countries are implementing UMAP projects.
The Archimedes Foundation is an independent body established by the Estonian government in 1997 with the objective to coordinate and implement different international and national programmes and projects in the field of training, education, research, technological development and innovation.
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The International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel (INCHER-Kassel) is an interdisciplinary research establishment of the University of Kassel, Germany in the field of higher education research and scientific research on higher education institutions. Researchers at INCHER-Kassel are involved in the study of various aspects related to higher education, university studies, and science, and work on a broad range of themes and disciplines at the interface of higher education systems and other social contexts. INCHER-Kassel is one among the few higher education research institutions in Germany that is attached to a university and is the only research establishment of its kind that has operated successfully for more than three decades. It is widely considered as one of the most significant international institutions in higher education research.
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