The British Council has announced a major partnership with the Greek Ministry of Education to support higher education institutions form transnational education initiatives.
The ‘UK-Greece Strategic Partnership in Education’ is the first TNE program between the UK and an EU country, the organisation highlighted.
It will aim to facilitate academic collaboration, including joint and dual degrees, distance learning, summer programs, academic and student exchanges, along with other opportunities with the state university sector in Greece.
“This program is, we hope, the first of many initiatives”
“Greece is a very important market for UK TNE,” said director of Higher Education and Science at the British Council Kate Joyce.
A 2019 report noted that almost four in ten UK HEIs (43%) have some TNE presence in Greece, with validation and franchise the most prevalent forms.
“The British Council is proud to support UK universities and our partners in Greece to develop new frameworks for collaboration as the systems governing our work in the European Union change,” Joyce continued.
“This program is, we hope, the first of many initiatives that will ensure that universities in the UK and in European countries can strengthen partnerships and meet the challenges and opportunities of an internationalised education together.”
Greek universities “have a lot to gain but also to offer to the global academic community, through exchange of good practice and joint study programs” the minister of Education and Religious Affairs in Greece, Niki Kerameos, added.
“A modern education system, extrovert and adapted to the needs of the 21stcentury will ensure that our country has the place it deserves on the international academic map,” she said.
Oxford Brookes announced an expansion of its partnership with Metropolitan College Greece in 2020.
While previous partnerships have been entirely with private colleges only, the new program is designed to explore opportunities with the state university sector.
With nearly 14,000 TNE students in 2018-19, Greece is the leading host country for UK TNE learners in the EU.
The British Council will run a host of webinars for Greek and UK universities from the second half of April to explain how institutions can engage with the initiative, followed by partner-matching work in May and possible delegation visits later in the year.
The Greek Universities’ Rectors’ Synod, the International Directorate of DfE and Universities UK International also support the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the British Embassy in Athens, who will deliver the partnership, as members of the program’s advisory board.
