EU countries including Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland are paving the way for more intled opportunities as the bloc looks to benefit from international students, delegates at last week’s EAIE conference 2024 heard.

More than 40,000 of Poland’s nearly 150,000 international students are studying in English, said the country’s undersecretary of state in the ministry of science and education, Andrzej Szeptycki, during a panel discussion on September 17.

While delivering programs in English rather than Polish used to be seen as “difficult”, he acknowledged, most now see the language as “almost part of our lives” – bringing in a number of opportunities to the country.

“The internationalisation of science and education is an asset for the country because [it brings] the money but also it brings fantastic people,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic’s deputy minister of education, youth and sports, Jaroslav Miller, shared that the country has recently approved a strategy to improve internationalisation within the country’s higher education offering, opening up new horizons to partner with American and Chinese institutions.

We simply believe that partnerships and university alliances may help us collectively

_{^{Jaroslav Miller, Czech government}}

“We support university partnerships and we currently have some 25 public universities in the Czech Republic,” he told delegates. “We simply believe that partnerships and university alliances may help us collectively, so to speak, and may help all European universities to be more competitive.”

And Germany’s minister of finance and science Jakob von Weizsäcker, himself a former international student, pointed out that if public opinion turns against internationalisation then this could cause huge problems for European universities as well as the internationalisation movement as a whole.

The importance of the internationalisation was reflected in the conference’s theme – ‘en route’. Opening the event, outgoing president Piet Van Hove jokingly warned delegates that the connections they made at the conferences had a danger of turning into meaningful deals.

“If you do end up having unexpected conversations, there’s a high risk of being infected with inspiration and positive energy. If you’re not careful, you will learn a lot and plant the seeds for new partnerships,” he said.

See Van Hove’s exclusive message to The PIE in this video.

His words were echoed by keynote speaker, French Cape Verdean businesswoman and politician Élisabeth Moreno.

“International education is a unique way to cultivate our critical thinking, intercultural sensitivity, and our ability to cooperate beyond our differences. Hence, it is not just an option is simply a necessity,” she told delegates.

“Our education systems are struggling to keep pace with these rapidly shifting landscape. Traditional models no longer fully equip students and students for the complexity of today’s world. Now, more than ever, we need to rethink and reimagine education to ensure it fosters adaptability, critical thinking and global understanding of our planet… You play a pivotal role.”