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21st Annual EAIE Conference


I attended the Annual Conference of the European Association for International Education (EAIE). This was held in Madrid, Spain, from September 16-19 2009. I spoke at a session chaired by Professor Yi-Ming Chen from the National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. Also speaking in this session was Dr Dietlind Wünsche from the University of Heidelberg Office of International Relations, Germany.

Our session was titled Creating networks for health care programmes and students. We shared experience about setting up international collaborations for academics and students. I also spoke about the work of the International Education Fund, which is a student group that brings educational opportunities to children in developing countries.

Following my session, I had an opportunity to visit the exhibition hall and speak to representatives from a number of universities, including Sweden, Norway, Poland, Germany and Taiwan. I was impressed by the high-quality of the courses offered by many of these universities. Overseas universities charge much lower fees than UK universities and we may find the current position of the UK in international education threatened by competition from overseas universities, particularly countries that offer high-quality education in English at a much lower costs to overseas students than we do in the UK.

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