Delegates from 15 partner institutions from Israel and Europe met in Cyprus to present the progress completed in the past six months and discuss future activities of the project. This 1 million-euro project aspires to establish a national framework for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language at universities and colleges of Higher Education in Israel. UNic, through Drs. Victoria Kalogerou and Anna-Maria Andreou, assumes the role of quality assurance by sharing good practices from adopting the Common European Framework for language learning (CERF). UNic monitors the development of the Israeli framework and oversees the collaboration for the creation of model learning packages and materials for implementation of the new Israeli EFL framework.
The coordinator of the project Dr. Linda Weinberg (Ort Braude, Israel) has presented the progress achieved in relation to the development of the national framework for English Medium Instruction (EMI) in Israel. Dr. Victoria Robinson (University of Leicester, UK), an expert in the development of EMI courses presented and discussed the challenges in relation to the development of EMI learning packages and delivery of EMI courses and proposed plans of action to the consortium.
For the ECOSTAR project the University of Nicosia leads the Work Package (WP) on Quality Assurance and actively participates in other WPs in order to share the knowledge gained through various research projects and through the gradual alignment with ECTS credit transfer system and the Bologna Process. Dr. Victoria Kalogerou presented the results of the evaluation and recommended solutions based on the feedback received from the participant institutions.
Dr. Solomou, Executive Vice President for Administration at UNic, shared his experience through his participation in EU projects and highlighted the benefits of participating in such collaborations for lecturers, teachers and the academia in general. In addition to the financial benefits for participating institutions, participation in EU projects enhances the intercultural skills of students and faculty; research collaboration can also lead to inter-organizational learning and in turn creates competitive advantage for the organization.
The delegates discussed the issues raised during the presentations of the WP leaders and identified plans of action for the next 6 months. The consortium comprises 9 Israeli partners -ORT Braude College of Engineering, the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Tel Aviv University, the Open University of Israel, Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, the Nazareth Academic Institute, the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation, the Inter-University Computing Center and the National Union of Israeli Students. The European partners include the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland, l’Università degli Studi, L’Aquila, Italy, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania and the University of Leicester in the UK.