On 9 November 2023, participants of the VIS Live! Event were welcomed to the beautiful building of the University of Groningen. Virtual International Cooperation (VIS) was explored by there by 77 enthusiastic education professionals through interactive presentations, poster sessions and campfire sessions. The event was a great success! Institutions were able to share their experience or interest in VIS projects.   

The Kick-off: Information and Advisory Market  

The day started with an information and advice market, which featured stands from Dialogic, DUS-I, and NUFFIC. The VIS Consortium was also present with a stand to share information on training and support opportunities. Poster presentations from concerned institutions completed the information and advice market. It was great to see that so many participants attended this information and advice market early in Groningen and took full advantage of the opportunity to network and ask their questions there. 

Inspiring Insights: Keynote presentation by Mónica López López  

After a tasty lunch, participants were treated to an inspiring keynote presentation by Mónica López López, university associate professor and expert in child and family welfare. She shared her insights on the role of Virtual International Collaboration in promoting diversity, equality and inclusion in higher education. 

I brought back home to Italy a lot of fresh energy. I enjoyed the mixed audience and the fact that I could notice a lot of interdisciplinary VIS projects.

– participant VIS Live! 

Interaction and Information sharing at the content sessions  

The day continued with two rounds of parallel presentations and campfires. The quality of the presentations and campfires was very high. There was plenty of room for interaction, engaging in conversation and, of course, gathering information from each other on experiences of setting up and implementing VIS projects. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) was also present to facilitate two campfires. The central question was whether and how to continue the VIS scheme after the subsidy period ends. Again, valuable conversations and learning from each other’s experiences. 

We got really interesting feedback on our presentation, but also got lots of inspiration and ideas from other presentations.

– presenter VIS Live! 

Impact and Future of VIS  

At the closing session, Max Kemman, senior researcher/project leader at Dialogic, gave a presentation on the interim evaluation of VIS projects. This study is based on the experiences of 125 project leaders and over 500 students who have participated in VIS projects.   

A panel discussion took place where Els van der Werf and Reinout Klamer shared great insights on where VIS is now and what points of interest there are for a possible follow-up. David van Maaren of OCW closed with a review of the campfire sessions and what he is taking back to The Hague from these sessions.   

And, of course, drinks and informal catch-up