18–19 December 2018 representatives of Penza State University participated at International Conference “Internationalization Strategies in Higher Education” which was held at the premises of Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK). Voronezh State University took on the role of an organizer of the Conference. The event was organized with an active support and assistance of the National Office of Erasmus + in the Russian Federation.

The conference was the final for the HARMONY Project. Therefore, its goal was to present all achieved results in the field of creating and implementing strategies for internationalization of higher education, including the international dimension in curricula, implementing joint educational programs, and tools for harmonization of approaches to the internationalization of higher education (the experience of the European Union, Russia, Belarus, and Armenia).

The conference was attended by over 130 international specialists, experts in the field of internationalization of higher education, lecturers and scientists from 55 universities in all federal districts of Russia – from Yakutia and Tyumen to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. Foreign participants represented leading universities from Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Great Britain, Armenia, and the Republic of Belarus.

Assistant Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Alexander Sobolev and Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education and Science Boris Zhelezov, Head of Science and Technology Section of the EU Delegation in the Russian Federation Richard Burger, Director of the National Office of Erasmus + in Russia Olga Oleynikova and Rector of MIIGAiK Nadezhda R. Kamynina spoke with welcome address to participants.

The experts highly appreciated the significance of the HARMONY project results for the system of higher education, and for reforming the management of international activities at the level of individual universities. Olga Oleynikova noted that the HARMONY project was recommended for study as a successful practice of implementing European projects.

During the conference Toolkit for internationalization was presented by Nicole Burghardt from Kassel University (Germany) and Anastasia Zadorina from International Center for Innovations in Science, Technology and Education (Russia).

Within the session “Internationalization strategy development in Russia, Belarus and Armenia” Action Plans of internationalization for higher education institutions as well as Internationalization Strategies of project partners were presented to a wide audience and arose a great interest among participants.  Mrs. Anna Efstratiadou, from  Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki (Greece) presented the Project book and the e-book that will be available to a wide range of stakeholders.

Following the coordination meeting, the project partners decided to continue close cooperation both in the framework of academic mobility projects and the readiness to prepare a new project in subsequent Erasmus + call for proposals.