The PROFIC project will explore the topic of Intercultural competence curriculum development through professional development and pedagogical testing in higher education institutions in Latin America. Intercultural competence (a set of abilities for successfully dealing with different cultures and diversity) is one of top 10 graduate competences needed for the modern labour market. Universities are expected to provide their students with the competence to deal with different cultures and use the cultural diversity of their surrounding as an advantage for innovation. However, this task is put on academic and administrative staff, who might not have all the necessary skills to tackle rising diversity challenges or to support development of intercultural competence in their teaching. Studies and previous research experience show that, on the one hand, academic and administrative staff in universities might need to develop a higher level of intercultural competence themselves. In order to competently deal with such complex cultural challenges the PROFIC project will investigate, develop and test a holistic, customized, flexible and reflective professional and curriculum development programme that would provide LA HEI’s with increased knowledge, awareness, skills, attitudes and tools to be an intercultural competent professional (Region 8, priority 1). Moreover, through the use of work-integrated learning supported by technology enhanced learning and use of mobile technology and development of Open-Educational Resources (OER) Toolkit to support staff in integrating IC in their curriculum, the project will also address (Region 8, Priority 3) of New technologies in higher education. Therefore, the PROFIC project is committed to developing a learning programme and related OER tools a step change in how intercultural competence is perceived and tau at the individual, institutional, national and international level.

"The starting point of the project was the standard and widely accepted definition of internationalization as ""the process of integrating an international dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of the institution"". In our opinion, this definition does not capture the essence of a process whose ultimate goal should be to integrate the institution into the emerging global knowledge production and transfer network. In this respect DHIP conceived internationalization of HEIs as the process of integrating the institution and its stakeholders into a globalizing world. This process calls for a change in existing structures, operating modes and mind-set in order to allow the institution as a whole to join and contribute to the emerging global knowledge and learning network. The DHIP project has allowed the Latin American (LA) partners to increase their capacity of managing an internationalization process effectively and to generate a spill-over effect on the three target countries through the developed good practices and tools. This has been achieved thanks to a new tool, the Internationalization Enhancement Plan (IEP). IEP enables an integrated approach, based on a strategic vision of internationalization and on a multidimensional, integrated and recursive operating plan containing process improvement actions, services, communication tools and marketing skills. IEP also identifies milestones, deliverables, mid-term results, expected results and monitoring, and evaluation criteria.Despite the pandemic forced the Consortium to reschedule some tasks, all the activities planned in the proposal were realized:WP1: N. 7 Territorial Fora held; N. 9 video conference rooms implemented in LA;WP2: N. 9 IEPs implemented and officially approved with formal administrative act; N. 3 LA tutoring meetings;WP3: N. 9 organizational redesign of the IROs (and N. 9 IROs equipped); the development of training activities on internationalization (N. 9 Training Webinars and N. 3 study visits in Europe); N. 27 Multicultural and social events realized; N. 78 international agreements signed;WP4: quality plan definition and continuous quality monitoring; development of the Impact Evaluation System;WP5: DHIP Guidelines on internationalization in higher education; N. 18 Twinning Events; N.1 Dissemination Event and N. 1 Final Conference. WP6: effective project and financial management; constant monitoring of activities and results; continuous sharing of information. DHIP achieved the following specific objectives.1 - Developed and/or improved effective HEI internationalization strategies for each LA partner consistent with the ECHE principles and priorities through the design and implementation of IEPs.2 - Increased and/or consolidated a network of contacts and regional alliances with peers and with other institutions or associations for mobility, academic exchanges, including the use of Tuning tools, to effect the shift to student centred learning, and experience with the Latin American Reference Credit - CLAR.3 - Developed soft skills and transversal competencies and provided specialist training on strategic topics for the implementation of the IEP.4 - Developed participation, communication and networking tools able to connect HEI internationalization policies with the needs/vocations of the local production systems.5 - Promoted the dissemination of institutional strategies for internationalization based on good practices among the Latin American HEIs community and supported the development of strategic alliances with other LA and EU HEIs and the inclusion of communities of knowledge and of practice that boosted the viability of IEPs and generated new initiatives and activities."

Youth-ACT is a blended learning programme. It aims at raising awareness and the ability of young leaders to contribute to a broadening and deepening in the practice of democracy and democratic values through a quality non-formal, totally accessible training in civic participation. The programme offers them the capacity to become bridge builders and enablers of participation particularly in the case of marginal minorities in order to make these groups grow in a sense of belonging while they contribute to our societies with their ideas and perspectives making them richer, more diverse and more peaceful. The objectives are as follows:.To foster the development of a non-formal, learning programme, accessible to youth at transnational level and jointly developed by them in a topic of great relevance at present and also recognised as critical by the recently approved EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027..To foster blended learning mobility to facilitate cooperation and exchanges of youth perspectives from youth groups of 14 different cultures. This will contribute to the development of a multicultural, multilingual learning community, with the crystallisation of a transnational youth network and a think-tank on the issue of participation..To improve the quality of work of young workers offering them a system of interaction, a systematic non-formal approach to the topic with access at a repository of good practices both developed by the consortium or available in other sites such a SALTO..Advance in a system of recognition of youth work, based on previous experiences and particularly through the recognition of competences (Key in the programme design) systems developed by both Tuning and CALOHEE (Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Europe) projects where both the Coordinator and the University of Deusto are front runners in these systems also being adapted to non-formal learning..To offer 14 youth workers, a period of two weeks immersion in projects in other countries, in order to contrast and compare different styles of work and systems of management..To incorporate young people in democratic processes, to link them with policy makers and to seek their deeper understanding and foster their contribution and perspectives..To broaden the concept of participation to reach marginal and emerging social groups, very much active in the programme and making it accessible to all once the programme has incorporated all the contributions..To incorporate the development of new tools and techniques on video-making and online content promotion in order to motivate youth workers to develop activities involving media technologies, develop ideas and strategies to combating the digital divide and to motivate on line creations

A global discussion is taking place among Higher Education (HE) stakeholders to strive for HE that does better justice to the needs of the learner and of society. The relevance of study programs is probably the most pressing issue in HE today worldwide, including the countries in South America. In the public eye HE institutions should offer high quality programs that contribute significantly to the welfare of society by preparing graduates well for work and for civic and social engagement. To meet this need, a paradigm shift is required from traditional expert-oriented teaching to student-centred and active learning, based on competences and learning outcomes. Although there is full awareness that this shift is to be made, HE institutions and their academic staff in SA (and beyond) lack capacity, expertise and experience to make this happen. Building on work already done in Europe and in LA, ACE aims to develop effective mechanisms to give student-centred education a serious boost by acting as a catalyzer in 6 South-American countries, involving 13 key universities. ACE covers in each country 1-4 core academic fields, Nursing, Environmental Engineering, Education and History, representing as many HE sectors. At the heart of the project are 20 local working groups (WGs) consisting of 5 academics and of 5 student representatives each. The broad involvement of (local) staff and students is a unique feature. The WGs are all represented in transnational Subject Area Groups. Its members will be empowered to train their local WGs to reform their own programs. For this purpose, subject area qualifications frameworks will be made, based on (updated) meta-profiles developed in earlier LA projects. These will be complemented with in-depth training at 7 transnational meetings. As a result, ACE will result in 20 well informed learning communities that have reformed their programs and be equipped to assist other programs to make the reforms so urgently needed.