Kent was delighted to welcome a delegation from Belarusian State University (BSU), Belarus to its Canterbury campus. The delegation was led by Professor Siarhei Khodzin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs at BSU, and included senior members of BSU from the faculties of Law, History and Biology.
The visit marks the launch of an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project following a successful bid for funding in autumn 2016. Kent was awarded funding by the European Commission via the British Council as the UK’s National Agency for Erasmus+, to support bilateral student and staff mobility between Belarusian State University and Kent.
This is the first large-scale mobility and cooperation programme between Higher Education Institutions in the UK and Belarus. To mark the occasion, Kent was honoured to welcome Mr. Oleg Ermolovich, Minister-Counsellor, and Mr Kirill Zemtsov ,Consul from the Belarusian Embassy in London .
During the week-long stay, the BSU delegation met with Heads of Schools, and Professional Services as well senior members of the University’s management team. Extending network opportunities, the visit culminated in participation in Kent’s first International Partners Week, organised by International Partnerships; allowing BSU colleagues to meet with Kent’s partners from around the world.
BSU is the oldest and largest university in Belarus with strong research capacity: as well as the development of academic collaboration strategies, it is envisaged that the project will stimulate international research cooperation and joint funding bids.
Professor Elena Korosteleva, Deputy Head of Politics and International Relations, and academic project coordinator said: ‘We are delighted to have this unique opportunity to establish cooperation with a top university in the eastern region, which offers unrivaled knowledge and research expertise across a wide range of disciplines and subjects. We look forward to developing staff and student exchange, and expanding our research collaboration with the eastern neighbourhood.’
Alongside the planned project activity, a group of undergraduate students from the School of Politics and International Relations will visit BSU in April, supported by Faculty Internationalisation Funding.
Erasmus+
Erasmus+ celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017. Kent has been an active participant since the very beginning.
The Erasmus programme has enabled over three million students to spend part of their studies at another partner higher education institution in another Erasmus programme country (EU; EEA; and Turkey). In 2014, Erasmus+ opened up these opportunities, allowing for mobility from and to other parts of the world. This action also supports staff mobility (teaching and training).
For information about Erasmus+ and/or Kent’s international partnerships, please visit https://www.kent.ac.uk/global/partnerships/
Email: internationalpartnerships@kent.ac.uk
