Globalisation has accelerated the pace of internationalisation of higher education (IoHE) worldwide, including our 3 target countries in the South Asian (SA) region, Afghanistan (AF), India (IN) and Nepal (NP). The globalised market requires graduates to have international (int’l), foreign language and intercultural skills to communicate with int’l clients. Higher education institutions (HEIs) plays a critical role in preparing and facilitating a skilled, knowledge workforce, they are placing more importance on internationalisation. However, SA, home to a 25% of the world’s population & a youthful region with more than 600 million people under 18 (UNICEF 2015), has failed to respond to the demand on IoHE. The poor internationalisation practices in the region may jeopardise the socio-economic development by unfulfilling the preparation of students’ employability & limiting the int’l profile of the HEIs. MERGE has taken an endogenous approach to address the challenges. It commences with a benchmarking exercise to standardise internationalisation practice alongside 2 study visits to EU. After that, it equips 366 people (incl. non-consortium partners) via 6 trainings and 6 English courses to develop strategic goals for both IROs and institutions until 2025. Meanwhile, 5 national activities will be organised to promote IROs’ services, e.g. 6 mobility weeks and 6 video filmed. To enhance the student mobility services, 1 guideline will be developed which can be adapted by 6 PC HEIs and other HEIs. A 45-member regional network will be established to encourage regional cooperation and integration. To increase MERGE exposure on the international platform, 2 international conferences will be organised to stimulate cooperation and dialogue. The sustainability and long-term impact of MERGE is ensured by enhanced institutional capacity and engaging non-consortium partners.

The instrumental role of universities in socio-economic development is today widely recognised. Enhancing links and cross-fertilisation between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and their business environment in the interest of graduates' employability, improved competitiveness and growth is high on the agenda of policy makers and HEIs around the globe.The benefits of university-business cooperation are however as widely recognised as the difficulties that still exist in this field. Lack of integrated approaches and strategic management, inability to bring the different motivations closer, bureaucracy, and need to provide staff and students with the right skills are some of the obstacles generally identified.Challenges increase in countries with complex environments, like Indonesia. In addition to intricate institutional and regulatory frameworks and regional disparity in university capacity, evidence shows a generalised lack of understanding and trust, and little or no involvement of business stakeholders in HEIs’ strategies, what hampers productive university-business interaction. To bring the two sectors together, it is critical to create opportunities for structured vision and common work.SMART proposes a set of focused and complementary activities for enhanced university-business cooperation at Indonesian HEIs to help them identify opportunities for development, generate research-based knowledge, and contribute to the on-going education in the field. The project will facilitate the transfer of good practices from the EU to the PC HEIs; the set-up of professional units (Business Engagement Centres) at 7 PC HEIs and training to their staff to let them accompany students and researchers in making their business ventures a reality. The creation of a University-Business Network, as a platform for dialogue and exchange of experiences, and the Start-Up Nights and other stakeholders' events will also contribute to inspiring nation-wide change.

In the last twenty-thirty years, quality assurance (QA) has emerged as an essential factor for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to facilitate comparability and readability of academic achievements and degrees, enhanced cooperation and mobility. In Europe, QA is embedded in the Bologna Process, which is seen as a good practice to follow in many regions willing to improve performance in this domain.Indeed, as a crucial element to an internationally competitive HE, QA is of most importance for countries immersed in HE reform and wishing to adapt and conform to global/regional trends. This would be the case of Cambodia, which thanks to enormous efforts has turned in the last two decades from one of the world’s poorest countries to a lower middle-income country today. Cambodia has formulated an ambitious policy for HE reform, the HE Vision 2030, and QA is an integral part of the same. Main strategies of the Policy include ensuring that HEIs develop QA systems/specific units to meet national accreditation standards and allow full participation in the global system of quality-assured HE. Action lines to implement the abovementioned objective imply establishing internal QA mechanisms, fostering capacities & skills, as well as infrastructures, and conducting regular internal self-assessment of the management and programmes, amongst others.Within this framework, SICA proposes a sound scheme of activities and actions to contribute to Cambodian Higher Education Vision 2030 through the improvement of internal Quality Assurance in Cambodian HEIs. Capacity building for professional development; exchange of good practices EU-Cambodia; set-up of internal QA units; and embedding quality assurance processes are some of the priority lines of the project.

The irruption of Human Resource Management (HRM) as a strategic element for quality development of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is relatively recent. Few decades back and until our days, HR approaches just focused on staff recruitment, employment contracts and payment of salaries. This scenario is deeply changing with the international growth and increasing complexity of Higher Education. HRM aspects such as staff motivation, continuous development, evaluation, and strategic planning are gathering momentum under HEIs’ strategic plans worldwide.The evolution of HRM is, however, slow and certainly challenging in developing countries. In Southeast Asia, HEIs are facing significant difficulties derived from disparities in their countries’ political and social structures as well as the backgrounds of their Higher Education systems. Well-structured HRM strategies could very much contribute to HE development and HEIs’ autonomy, thus supporting the processes of reform towards regional growth. Against this background, HR4Asia aims at contributing to Higher Education organisational reform in Southeast Asia by improving HRM at the target HEIs from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand.This global objective will be pursued by means of three specific objectives, namely: • Building capacity in HRM at Southeast Asian HEIs to enhance organizational performance;• Improving HRM Strategic plans for more staffing autonomy; • Setting up of the ASEAN University HR Network as a regional forum for the exchange of knowledge and best practices.With these, HR4Asia will introduce in Southeast Asian HEIs a scheme to developing and implementing innovative HRM approaches, paying attention to transversal and additional skills, such as communication and self-learning, as well. Tailor-made dissemination activities addressing non-partner HEIs, Ministries of Higher Education and other stakeholders will promote the project objectives, paving the way for its sustainability .

The target of this project is to assess and describe the need for introducing vocational education at higher and tertiary levels, for establishing a Vocational Centers at Jordanian unis and transfer of the EU experience in vocational training system and teaching.This project focused on developing vocational training programs and establishing Vocational Training Centers at Jordanian unis by:•Developing the competences of the staff in the universities.•Training of Trainers in Vocational Centers.•Improving connections between higher education, society and enterprisesThe VTC Centers established during the project run time. The performance of the center guaranteed also after the project end. Therefore, the participating universities established the agreements between these universities and the VTC for subsequent support of the further work of the centers. Additionally, the VTC's are going to sign a contract with the participating enterprises for further cooperation after the project end in which the contracts recognize the important work of the VTC.Impacts of the Project1. Improving the quality and relevance of higher education by:•Adjustment of the study curricula to the demands of the labour market by promoting input from business enterprises into the curricula•Strengthening of the cooperation with enterprises and regional authorities by development of training courses.•Higher efficiency in the administration and teaching by use of ICT2. Strengthening quality through visits and cooperation with the EU partners by:•Providing the students, teachers and trainers with a different learning experience from the EU partners•Learning the best practices in EU higher education institutions3. Linking higher education, research and business for excellence and regional development by•Building up knowledge alliances with enterprises•Organization of educational activities within the companies•Provide qualified graduates with skills required by the labour market •Placements or internships of students in companies