Associate Professor Nazmi Al-Masri, FinPal local project coordinator, and Professor Sanaa Abu Dagga, member of the FinPal Advisory board visited Tampere University (TAU) from the 2nd to 6th of September 2019.
During the visit of the two IUG academics to Tampere, the FinPal project team held several meetings at the Faculty of Education and Culture to discuss the ongoing project cooperation. The meetings included discussion about the two pedagogical training programmes: Training of Trainers and pedagogical training organised by the IUG Academic Excellence Unit. Organising the next Advisory Board meeting and the final project conference were also discussed. The project team also evaluated the progress of the project implementation and discussed the joint publications.
Dr Al-Masri and Dr Abu Dagga met also with the HEI-ICI programme coordinators when they visited the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) in Helsinki. Juha Ketolainen, Director for International Affairs, introduced EDUFI’s main tasks and services, and Ville Pennanen, Programme coordinator of Education Finland briefly presented Finnish education export programme. Dr Al-Masri presented the Palestinian higher education system and described the impact of the FinPal project in Gazan universities.
During their 5-day visit to Tampere, IUG academics visited also a doctoral seminar of Higher Education in Transition research group in the Faculty of Education and Culture. Visits to TAU Hervanta and Kauppi campuses and Teacher training school in Tampere were also included in the programme. During their visit to Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), IUG academics met with the representatives of School of Professional Teacher Education and heard about their study programmes.
The visit also included a meeting with the project team of the second HEI-ICI project coordinated by Tampere University, LMEU project (Building Institutional Capacity in Leadership and Management of Ethiopian Universities). The FinPal team had an opportunity to discuss HEI-ICI projects and to share good management practices with the members of the LMEU project team. The meeting was held at the Higher Education Group, Faculty of Management and Business at TAU.
The visit of IUG academics to Tampere University, originally planned in 2017, was not realised previously due to difficulties of traveling from Gaza to Finland. The opportunity to meet in person after two years of successful online collaboration strengthened the Finnish-Palestinian cooperation and opened up a discussion about the future joint projects.
The project team is currently planning a second visit to Tampere University by five IUG academics in the second half of September 2019.
Two IUG academics visit Tampere University (2-6 September 2019)
