On Thursday, February 28, more than 40 employees from the University of Opole participated in the first of the three trainings organised as part of the NAWA Welcome to Poland programme, entitled “Foreign students within the UO structures”. Never before have so many people somehow connected to the process of internationalization at UO or in one way or another dealing with foreign students or engaged in international projects, been gathered in one venue to consider the opportunities, specify the challenges and talk over the existing or expected outcomes and rewards.

The participants were asked to speculate on the meaning of internationalization, the benefits it can bring to the University in general and to each of them personally, the goals and ways to achieve those goals. The discussion of drawbacks and hindrances in the actual systems and procedures was no less important.

Having collected all their thoughts together, the participants put them on paper in the form of the “strategy of internationalization of UO”, respecting the perspectives of all stakeholders – authorities, academic and administrative staff, and students.

Undoubtedly, the meeting was fruitful and revealed both the strengths and weaknesses. It was only the beginning of the deliberation and hopefully it will be continued during the trainings to follow.     

The event is a part of the Welcome to UO project, co-funded by the European Social Fund of the European Union.