Background. British Council Programmes

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British Council Ukraine: Internationalising Higher Education

Call for bids to develop and deliver capacity building for Ukrainian university international offices

As part of its Internationalising Higher Education programme, the British Council in Ukraine is pleased to announce a call for bids to develop and deliver capacity-building workshops for Ukraine university international offices.

Background

The Government of Ukraine places a high priority on education reform "to ensure that the education system corresponds to the needs of a modern economy and promotes Ukraine’s integration into international scientific activities. The goals of this reform are quality education and equal opportunity1."

The Law on Higher Education adopted in July 2014 was the first major legislative initiative in education by the new Government. Similar laws on Primary and Secondary Education, on Vocational Education, and an underpinning Basic Law on Education, are in preparation.

The Law on Higher Education (HE) seeks to transform the HE sector in Ukraine by addressing the main structural problems of the inefficient use of funds, corruption and international isolation. Key elements include the granting of financial and administrative autonomy to universities; a closer approximation of degree classifications to international standards; the removal of legal barriers for academic mobility; greater involvement of students in decision-making processes; and the combatting of plagiarism. Universities will become involved in research and development as opposed to just teaching, and the number of higher education institutions (HEIs) will be reduced from over 800 to around 100.

British Council Programmes

The British Council is supporting the implementation of the 2014 Law on Higher Education, as part of an enhanced suite of programmes in English, education, science and culture. These are aimed at supporting Ukraine's European choice and ambitions for international partnership, and at making the UK the partner of choice for Ukraine in reforming its education system and revitalising its cultural sector.

Our priorities for work in higher education are those areas where the Government of Ukraine considers the UK’s experience to be most relevant. These include quality assurance at national and institutional levels; improved English teaching and English-medium teaching within universities; the development of effective leadership within HEIs; training for researchers in international communication skills; support for student self-governance; and the development of effective, accountable and autonomous university management and governance.

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Our programmes will include long-term engagement for sustainable impact as well as more immediate "repair" activities (eg in the latter case to support the 16 HEIs forced into exile from the conflict-affected territories in the east). We wish to support the development of new national systems and capacities, as well as working with individual HEIs across all parts of Ukraine. We also wish to grow Ukraine’s ability to access - in partnership with UK institutions - the significant funding opportunities available under EU programmes such as Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 and Creative Europe.

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Grant opportunities were made available in December 2015 for a number of mobility and partnership projects between UK and Ukraine universities. We now want to fund a series of capacity-building workshops for Ukrainian university international offices.

International Offices in Ukraine universities

As Ukraine moves towards greater integration with the EU, its universities are increasingly keen to internationalise, eg to develop greater student mobility (inward and outward) and to increase staff exchanges. In 2015, Ukraine joined Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 as a Partner Country. This will open up significant opportunities for universities to engage in international activity. In turn, this will create a need to build the capacity of Ukrainian university international offices and to professionalise their operations and their staff. Currently there is no real national network of heads of international offices, which means that sharing knowledge, experience and expertise is often ad hoc, as is professional development for practitioners.

While most Ukrainian universities do have international offices, these are very much in the early stages of development compared with their equivalents in other

countries. The international mobility of students and staff has traditionally been through bilateral agreements (through programmes such as TEMPUS, Erasmus Mundus or through university networks like EUA), and the numbers of inward and outward mobile students is relatively small. Low levels of English language

competence and small numbers of English-medium courses (now increasing, however) has been a constraint on the growth of incoming student / staff / researcher mobility A further barrier to attracting international students into

Ukrainian universities is the lack of student services and facilities to support them. Many international offices are not experienced in proactively marketing their university.

The British Council wishes to fund a series of two-stage capacity-building / professional development workshops for heads and senior staff of Ukrainian

university international offices. Listed below are the needs, challenges and interests identified by some managers of international offices previously consulted:

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• Support services and facilities for international student (and faculty) within universities - and the 'division of labour' with international offices;

• International strategies – their scope (including how research, teaching and international fit together), development and implementation;

• Positioning the university - communications and marketing strategies and platforms; developing brands;

• Developing effective websites and the effective use of social media; • Admission services for international students;

• Student welcome events and support on campus;

• Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 - how to take advantage of and manage EU funding opportunities;

• Developing international partnerships (criteria, decision-making processes, budgeting, coordination and procedures);

• Exchange project management (for students and staff), including establishing an exchange;

• University international office / heads of international office networking organisations and mechanisms – their role, operation and benefits; • The national context – the role of government and other agencies in

internationalising higher education and how these work with universities and their international offices.

The above is not an exhaustive list. The British Council will provide opportunities (for example via Skype) for the successful bidder to identify more detailed needs. We also anticipate that lessons from the first iteration of workshops may also result in some refining of planned content for the second.

Terms of reference for provider:

• To develop and deliver a programme of two-stage capacity-building / professional development workshops to be delivered in 4 different locations in Ukraine. These should respond to the identified needs of Ukrainian participants;

• Through these workshops, to showcase best practice in UK universities, creating awareness of UK expertise and making links between Ukrainian and UK

universities to support further HE internationalisation in Ukraine. Proposed outline programme:

Title: Building and Managing an Effective International Office

Aims: To build the capacity of international offices in Ukrainian universities and provide professional development for the heads of international offices by: • Sharing UK expertise, learning and best practice;

• Contributing to the development of knowledge and skills needed by Ukrainian heads / senior managers of international offices;

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• Facilitating action planning by heads / senior managers of international offices for future development

Participants: Heads or senior managers of international offices in Ukrainian universities. We anticipate each workshop will have 25-30 participants.

Duration: each programme will consist of two 2-day workshops, held approximately 2 months apart.

Locations: Initially the British Council will fund the delivery of a programme in each of four locations - Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv in the 2016/17 UK financial year. These may be repeated and extended in future years.

Logistics: We anticipate that the workshops in Kyiv and Kharkiv will be held one after the other as part of the same visit and, similarly, those in Odessa and. The initial assignment will therefore involve four separate visits to Ukraine by the successful bidder.

Timing: Ideally we want the set of first workshops to be run in each of the four locations within the current academic year ie before the end of August. The second set of workshops should be completed before the end of January 2017. Exact timings will be agreed once the provider has been chosen.

In summary: First Workshop

To be run before August 2016: Kyiv + Kharkiv (1 visit of 4/5 days) Odessa + Lviv (1 visit of 4/5 days)

Second Workshop

To be run by the end of January 2017 Kyiv + Kharkiv (1 visit of 4/5 days) Odessa + Lviv (1 visit of 4/5 days)

NB. We anticipate that the same cohorts of participants will participate in the first and second workshops, providing an opportunity for them to undertake some development / action-based work between the two workshops.

Knowledge and experience required of bidders

It is essential that the successful bidder(s) can demonstrate:

• An excellent understanding of UK universities, specifically their international

agendas, activities and operations;

• Experience of working as a practitioner / professional in a university international

(or related) office;

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• A working knowledge of relevant EU programmes (e.g. Erasmus +, Horizon

2020);

• An understanding of the professional development needs of university

international officers;

• Experience of designing and delivering staff development programmes,

workshops or activities.

We welcome bids from consortia of UK university international offices, as well as from single institutions. In the event of the latter, we may wish to split the contract between more than one institution.

Submitting a proposal Your proposal should include: • Contact details;

• Relevant knowledge and experience;

• Brief CVs/relevant background of individuals who would be involved;

• A summary of your approach to designing and delivering the programme, e.g., an indication of outline content for each workshop, your approach to embedding learning from the workshops into practice, proposals for how the programme could strengthen links between international officers in Ukraine and UK;

• Price – please provide your daily fee rate(s). We anticipate that the programme will require 16 days of delivery + preparation time + travel time. All travel and accommodation costs will be met separately by British Council so should not be included in your pricing.

Timescales

Subject to any changes notified to potential bidders by the British Council, the following timescales will apply to this Bidding Process:

Activity Date / time

Issue of call for bids 31 March 2016

Deadline for clarification questions (Clarification Deadline)

20 April 2016

The British Council’s deadline to respond to clarification questions

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Deadline for submission of proposals by potential providers (Response Deadline)

10 May 2016

Notification of results to bidders 25 May 2016

Contract concluded with winning bidder 1 June 2016

Further information

To submit a proposal or for further information, please contact:

Higher Education Team, British Council Ukraine ([email protected]). Please include the following as your subject line to the e-mail:

Ukraine IHE: International Offices Workshops