Kite Consortium set up Task Force

By Hannah Arikpo

The Kite Consortium, the highest decision-making body of the Erasmus Mundus Project, instituted four different Task Forces at its recent meeting held at the Center for International Cooperation (CIC) in Brno.

Comprising Partners of the Erasmus Mundus project and Representatives of host institutions, the Task Forces, named Selection Committee, Quality Assurance, Promotion/Visibility and the Committee for Sustainable Development, are expected to select candidates to benefit from the next stage of the program, examine what has been accomplished and evolve strategies that will yield positive results for the future.

Messenger correspondent Hannah Arikpo reports that the Consortium is a yearly meeting of project partners from all over the world which usually takes place after the closing of applications to select candidates from the previous call. It is designed to evaluate developments within the project for concrete resolutions.

Some of the partners enumerated the advantages of the Erasmus Mundus Kite Exchange program.

“Erasmus Mundus provides opportunities for human development… I am happy that the standard raised by the project is benefiting my people,” said Prof. Hortense Atta Diallo, co-coordinator of Africa Partners.

“…being a young institution, the University of the Gambia is yet to mount Master’s and Doctorate degree programmes… but the Kite project has comfortably filled the gap by granting scholarships as far as the Exchange is concerned. It also offers partners opportunities for regionalization of cooperation, bilateral relations, engagements and collaborations amongst member universities,” remarked Prof. Omar Jah jnr.

“The benefits of the Kite project are enormous and cannot be quantified in view of the experiences and interactions which facilitate the policy of internalization in universities and learning outcomes… it is a good idea that we have been exposed to these experiences, as it will influence discussions in meetings, policy formulations back home as well as assist in raising the standard of education in African universities,” said Prof. Florence Obi, Kite contact person, University of Calabar.

In their presentations Erasmus Mundus students remarked on the friendly disposition of the Czechs and the wonderful teaching methodologies applied at Masaryk University.

Although Kite partners are not happy that the Kite project will be rounded up in September 2017, the project has created a forum for bilateral arrangements and agreements for collaboration to forge ahead after Kite Exchange.