The most important challenges facing the Laotion universities is to set up appropriate structures (IROs) and harmonise internationalisation practices as proposed by the Ministry of Eucation and Sport of the People Democratic Republi of Laos. This harmonisation should include the sharing of basic and current practices, long established already in countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area, which could facilitate the exchange of students and academic staff, the development of joint projects or other international activities. Also the project general objective aims at increasing the academic quality and research activities of universities in the PDR of Laos through the development of internationalisation capacities. The specific objectives are: -To consolidate Internationalisation structure, & build human capacities of HEIs by means of targeted training programmes in 5 HEIs;- To accompany the governance reforms of MoEs and enhance international networking through strategic actions in key areas of the Laos higher education system.The OPEN project will achieve the above-mentioned general and specific objectives by achieving the concrete following outputs: 1. Increased cooperation and sharing of good practices via the needs analysis and Institutional Building. 2. Strengthening of Internationalisation of higher education system through the promotion of HEIs governance reforms. 3. Enhancement of managerial and administrative staff capacities in dealing with internationalisation issues.4. Establishment of a National Network. 5. Increase public awareness and understanding of Internationalisation.

The reason for the project is the multiple challenges faced by Vietnamese and Laotian university staff teaching vocational education. These include a lack of competencies and skills in modern pedagogical teaching practices, the need to acquire key principles in vocational language teaching as well as ICT methodologies, the need to be an “integrated teacher” capable of combining both theoretical education and practical training, understanding quality assurance processes and mechanisms in vocational education, to secure opportunities to develop and retain practical skills of existing university vocational teacher staff. The main result after a Start Off meeting with needs analysis, planning and QA training will be an initial EU training (after preparation) in English for Specific Purposes (terminology, soft skills, key writing) and general vocational pedagogical training with ICT inputs. Programme Countries then create a 9 module pedagogical/ICT based Core Curricula which will be developed, piloted and integrated into existing university pedagogical vocational teacher training in each university. There are two Supplementary Modules as support. National Awareness Days explaining the objectives and status of the project will take place twice in each PC and promote dissemination and sustainability. Action Group will develop a CATALYST Strategic Plan ensuring post-project dissemination and sustainability. All modules will be downloadable on an online platform designed as not only a hub for academic activity but additionally for administration. We envisage very strong impacts as the Programme Country universities were selected for their interest in this project and based on EU partner experience a project like this will initiate key change.