About OBREAL Global’s Interregional Dialogue Series
One of the core components of OBREAL Global’s mission is to facilitate and promote interregional dialogue and collaboration between different regions of the world, particularly those that may not have structured and/or consistent higher education and research relationships.
The Interregional Dialogue series has been designed as a key element of OBREAL Global’s activities, as it allows us to bring together partners from different regions of the world and explore topics of common and emerging interest in higher education, always from an interregional perspective.
The first edition: India – South America
The first of the series of OBREAL Global Interregional Dialogues was organised by the Brazilian Association for Higher Education – FAUBAI -, Symbiosis International University, the South American and Indian chapters of OBREAL Global and was supported by the Higher Education Area of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry -FICCI-.
During three months, four different sessions discussed internationalisation and cooperation in higher education with partners from South America and India.
The first session was divided into two parts. In the first part, the South American and Indian university associations briefly presented the main objectives of the series of interregional dialogues and the importance of building permanent bridges between India and South America in higher education and research. The second part consisted of a high-level discussion on the importance of higher education and internationalisation in the relations of the two regions as a means to recapture past BRICS efforts and address current development needs.
The second session featured institutional voices from India and Brazil on the topic of internationalisation. During this session, opportunities for India and South America to enhance their academic cooperation (mobility, etc.) were explored, and concrete institutional experiences were shared on internationalisation strategies that prioritise themes and approaches relevant to both regions.
The pandemic has had considerable consequences for the organisation of teaching and learning. It has accelerated the debate on the importance of innovating curriculum design and designing more responsive and dynamic learning offers for students. Against this background, the third session of the India-South America Interregional Dialogues discussed how the flexibilisation and modularisation of curricula can be seen as an opportunity for higher education institutions, as a means to realise their internationalisation strategies.
The session also explored trends regarding flexibilisation of teaching and learning and modularisation of curricula in both India and South America.
The final session focused on discussing the role that joint research has played in the international strategies of Indian and South American universities and how it can be enhanced to increase cooperation between the two research systems. This session also explored the role of joint PhD supervisions and joint PhD programmes, and how they can boost cooperation between the two regions.
This event was divided into two parts: The first part presented existing policy initiatives and programmes and discussed the policy challenges for enhancing research cooperation between the two regions. The second part presented the experience of universities in implementing joint research programmes between South America and India.
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