“It’s breezy at the top”: EAIE 2024 – representing St Andrews at Europe’s biggest highest education conference
Joseph works as Strategic Partnerships and Networks Coordinator at the Global Office. He has just returned from EAIE 2024, Europe’s largest higher education conference, and has shared some of his insights.
The European Association for International Education (EAIE) conference is Europe’s biggest higher education conference, and it is always a privilege to be asked to represent the University of St Andrews Global Office at this event. The conference allows many people working at universities, representative bodies, higher education companies and international organisations to discuss ongoing partnerships, explore new opportunities and share best practice. Nearby universities also organise campus experience days, and then there are the evening receptions. In sum, EAIE is a whirlwind of higher education partnerships, training sessions, discussions, tours, parties and fun. Each day, the discussions begin when you squeeze yourself onto the tram heading to the conference and then go on well into the evening. Everyone works in higher education, and will have some interesting insight which they can share with you.
Joseph with partners from Charles University, Lausanne, Tübingen and more. Several meetings were held atop the event park ferris wheel!
The conference was bigger than ever before, with 7,300 participants in Toulouse. The sheer number of people makes navigating the event challenging – luckily, I run a bit in my spare time and always wear something distinctively ‘St Andrews’, so I can usually quickly find our partners. As EAIE was held in France this year, there were a higher number of participants from Francophone countries than normal. I used my French in discussion with people working in Africa, North America, Oceania and Europe. I was a bit nervous before EAIE, as I haven’t spoken that much French in the last 15 years or so. Fortunately, my pre-conference preparations did pay off, and I was able to enjoy the Swiss Universities’ reception and some great discussions with global colleagues. My Italian is stronger than my French, so it is always a pleasure to accept an invitation from our colleagues at the University of Padua.
I hope I managed to solve some problems and communicate something of St Andrews’ unique attribute to partners and potential partners. I held a number of multilateral meetings on both terra firma and the EAIE Ferris Wheel. The Scottish Universities stand was a good place to meet partners, including Jean-Armand (Australian National University) and Marie-Antonie (National University of Singapore). The Ferris Wheel was a wonderful addition to the conference. As I queued with colleagues from a partner university, we often spotted our mutual colleagues in the queue. So, we were able to enjoy multilateral multilingual meetings at great height, as the winds around the conference centre tried to rip away the loose pieces of paper which comprised my notes, schedule and talking points. If you work at St Andrews, you must be able to cope at the the top!
Returning to St Andrews, there are many ideas, links and bits of knowledge, which I hope to bring into our work, and new potential directions to explore. Human connections really matter in higher education, and it was great to meet new partners, established colleagues and people I have worked with for many years, but never met in person. Sharing a Ferris Wheel ride or offering someone a whisky at the Scottish reception may be small gestures, but I really enjoy building these human connections and value them immensely. It was wonderful to visit Sciences Po in Paris and the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, and see places where our students go on exchange and summer opportunities. Finally, everyone relies on the kindness of the great ‘higher education family’ that forms at every EAIE. My thanks go to Thomas from the University of St Andrews Admissions Office, Denis, Arianna, Alessandra, Heidi and Kenta. I hope that I managed to share as much kindness as they offered me!
Thank you to Joseph for sharing his insights and experiences from EAIE 2024. If you would like to know more, contact us at [email protected]